So This is 2025...So Far

Life update.

I finally made it to Berwick-Upon-Tweed. As I sit and type this, I have been here two months today.

I said goodbye to Hampshire in the middle of October, suddenly a little sooner than I had planned, which included scrambling to find a different removal company that could do an earlier date at short notice, and then trying to find storage insurance, which turns out is slightly trickier if your stuff is going into wooden storage in a warehouse instead of metal shipping containers, and then trying to work out how me and some of my stuff were getting to Norfolk - as I don’t drive.

After around six weeks at my mum and dads in Norfolk, taking walks and eating far too much cake, things moved, or rather I did, although I didn’t know it was definitely going to happen until the day it happened – that wasn’t stressful at all!

On December 3rd my dad dropped my mum and me off at Peterborough station and we took a train to Berwick, still not having exchanged or completed on the house after having to wait for last minute confirmation that the boiler and electrics had been checked, it all finally happened while we were on the train.

Moving to a new place at the beginning of December is strange, there is a busy energy in the air with the run up to Christmas, normal life feels obscured somehow, like it is all a bit of a novelty. Everyone kept asking me if I had settled in, and I just kept replying, no, I just feel wonky – not like anything was wrong – just wonky, plus I think it can take quite a long time for a new place to feel like home, especially when you have only previously spent a total of 10 days there. Why do we always assume that we can settle somewhere immediately, why do we never allow ourselves to pause and take the time and space we deserve, to adjust?

I threw myself in emptying boxes, and trying to catch up on Christmas shopping (which I still haven’t completed). Days flew by, but in the first month and a half, the Christmas tree went up and went down again, I visited Alnmouth beach, and I’ve started to explore the area I now live. I walked down to and along Spittal beach, walked the Berwick walls several times, walked down to Berwick pier to see the lighthouse, and taken a walk along the river to find the remaining parts of Berwick castle. I’m finding Berwick wonderful, it has all of these small pockets of beauty and interest scattered around a busy, built up, little town that has so much character. I have to remind myself that this is still all new, that really I have barely been here any time at all. I am slowly starting to note the normal, the mundane, the everyday, like the noises my boiler makes, that there is a spot where I step on the floor in my bedroom and it makes one of the other upstairs doors open, that there is a man who walks his four tiny dogs twice a day, that around 3 pm someone with a red backpack drives by on a moped. All these things slowly contribute to things starting to feel less wonky and more settled, more like home. 

Starting to draw and paint again has taken some time, Christmas and new year were distracting enough, but then when it comes to my workspace, whilst I’m not the tidiest person, I can struggle to work in complete clutter, and my new room is proving to be a challenge. I have finally managed to clear my table so I have started painting, I have even entered a competition, not to win, but to back myself as 2025 begins. I still have to find homes for so many things throughout the whole house, but it is slowly getting there, it feels like everything is, very slowly, getting there.

New Beginnings... Well, Almost!

I didn’t realise how long it had been since I had written a post on here. It has been two years, bear with me, my writing is going to be super rusty. My last post was about my Arts Council Funding, I was feeling so motivated and creative on the back of my year long project, and as the project ended, I was already halfway through my EFT training, which was also really exciting and inspiring, but looking back, I realise I was also a bit knackered from throwing myself into new things, I also caught Covid for the first time, around the same time. I then still needed to work through my 30 hours of EFT practice throughout the following year. 30 hours doesn’t sound like much, but it is one heck of a learning curve. I did quite a lot of practice hours as swaps with other training practitioners, which meant an hour as a practitioner and an hour as a client, so as well as learning a lot, I was simultaneously processing all my own baggage at the same time, which could be quite intense… it was quite the ride, not regrets though, I now have a tool and a skill that can really help to support others as well as myself, and I’ve met some wonderful people.

It has now been a year since I became accredited as an EFT practitioner, and that year has also flown by, I started 2024 by taking another EFT course – PTT (Picture Tapping Technique), which as you can imagine, really appealed to me, it was a lot of fun, but my focus also shifted to selling the house. It was already on the market but at the end of 2023 we decided to change estate agents (if you ever think that isn’t worth doing because they are ‘all the same’, maybe reconsider, it made a huge difference for us).

2024 has seen me: trying to fit in a few trips to the theatre or to see bands with my friend before I moved away, find a buyer for the house, travelling up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed to look at houses, having an offer accepted on a house in Berwick, losing a buyer, finding a new buyer, spending far too much time rifling through boxes of nostalgia, selling the house, saying goodbye and leaving Conford for the last time after 9 years, and now waiting for my purchase to go through, while I stay with family in Norfolk.

There has been a lot of excitement, a lot of stress, a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls, a lot of waiting, and a lot of living with boxes. I have continued trying to create in between the viewings and the packing, and the planning and organising, but it has been tricky, and now all my art supplies are in a storage unit somewhere. I am choosing to believe that everything happens when it is supposed to, but boy, has that been challenging at times. I’m trying to relax and enjoy the time I have right now, because before I know it, it will be moving vans and boxes all over again, but in reverse, emptying everything, and a new chapter will begin. Part of me doesn’t dare think about Berwick, not until I am actually there and moved in, it has been a long, long, road to get to this point, I often thought it wasn’t going to happen, it was like everyone else was living at a normal speed, and I was frozen in the space I was in. Even now it feels so near, yet so far.

I have a list of things I want to work on once I have paper, paint and desk space again. The website needs a serious overhaul, it is so out of date now. not quite abandoned but close enough. The last two years has seen me play and try various things out, I’ve found myself drawn to bright colours and patterns, but there is definitely more work to do before I can get the site up to scratch. I believe everything is happening as and when it should, and that is okay, it is not up to me to question it, it is just my job to start creating at full speed again, and hopefully I’m on my way to doing just that, soon-ish.

August 2022 - Gish 2022

It is a good job that I finally posted that Gish 2021 round-up in February, because I haven’t posted a blog since, and last week marked Gish 2022 (The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt). It was all a bit different this year, I knew I was having house guests, and that I’d be busy, so rather than approaching the week in the manner of an over-excited, rabid, tasmanian devil, and turning the house upside down, I approached it… well, like an adult. I didn’t get dehydrated, I didn’t put too much pressure on myself, and I didn’t make a mess, (not much mess anyway).

I chose three items from the hunt list on the Saturday, all of which I completed by the time my guests arrived on the Tuesday.

The first task involved taking two short poems, from two different genres, and using all the words (you were allowed to add and take away conjunctions and articles) to make a new poem. I chose “Now We Are Six” by A. A. Milne, and Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep – originally Immortality by Clare Harner. It was tricky because both poems have a repetition of words, so, there was quite a lot of “I”s and ‘now”s. The result is a little abstract, and I’m sure some people would read it and say something like, “Shouldn’t that say ‘were’ instead of ‘was’?” – well, no, because the word ‘were’ wasn’t available. So, try to leave everything you have ever learned about grammar to one side, and just go with it. I called it “Death is Born”, which sounds a little glum, but I like to think that it is about a spirit who is transitioning between passing on from a human life and becoming a reaper. Everything is new, but also old, they are a bit confused, and trying to make sense of the remains of human memories they have mixed up with their new role.

The second item I chose from the hunt list was also related to poetry. It was to create a piece of animation to accompany a poem by Misha Collins, chosen from his book, “Some Things I Still Can’t Tell You”. I chose a poem called “Old Bones”, because I like its warmth, it feels simple but authentic. It was also pretty short, and as I knew I was going to do some kind of stop-motion animation, I wanted to make sure I didn’t bite off more than I could chew, because I didn’t have much time to complete it.

Finally, I chose to create a cover for a graphic novel edition of the podcast audio drama, Bridgewater. I know some of the covers by other teams are absolutely brilliant and feature some of the characters, but again, I decided to keep it simple and concentrate on shapes and the environmental elements. It is an eerie, supernatural story, based on lots of real folklore, and a lot of the action take place at night, so I stuck to black, greys and white. There are some tall swamp trees in the background that can vaguely be seen, then there is a big rock with a ledge, then we have a fire, lit by a cult at one of their meetings, and a cult member with a knife (for carving symbols into the rock). There are also three mysterious balls of light, and general leafy foliage. Intrigued? Bridgewater is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim & Mild, and you can read all about it here, and listen to it pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts.

It does feel a little strange to have only completed three items, to have remained completely calm the whole week, and not be faced with the aftermath… I didn’t even get post-Gish blues this year. I can’t promise the same will happen next year, old habits die hard. Should I end up feeling like I missed out I can always catch up on the Zoom webinars that I missed on YouTube when they become available. The webinars have guests invited to give a talk and share their expertise, and it can be be on any kind of subject, from adventuring to storytelling, to rejection (a few examples from last year). This year I only managed to catch Sam Maggs and Patrick Weekes talking all things writing and fanfic, but it was marvellous, and I look forward to seeing the others.

So after three items, I pulled back from Gish and instead, I tidied the house, went on walks, outside, and saw the sunshine – these things rarely happen in a normal non-Gish week. We even popped to Cowdray to raid the farm shop, look at the ruin and eat a spot of lunch.

I even got to have a little walk alongside the sea, and got a bit high on all the pastel, jewel colours in the evening light, how can anyone not love those colours!

That was my first week of August? How was yours? The second week is looking nowhere near as promising as my neighbour is on the roof repointing the chimney – it is noisy!

Until next time… Now where are my headphones…

A Late Round-Up: Gish – Saturday 31st July - 8th August 2021

I just can’t seem to get back into the habit of blogging, I have photos and videos on my phone that remain unshared, and various rough drafts sitting on devices, and I’m determined not to let them go to waste. The last year has been a bit difficult for me, and I have been very distracted, but I will keep trying to catch up the best I can. This catch-up is all about Gish 2021, I thought I had better get this one posted before Gish 2022 rolls around, it’s only 5 months away…

Oh Gish, how I love thee. For those who haven’t heard me babble on about Gish before, it is a yearly, week-long, global scavenger hunt. You pay to enter, and some of the proceeds of the fee go to charity. You find yourself a team, (it could be people you know, or anyone across the world), or you are automatically placed in a team, and then on the last Saturday of July/first Saturday of August, a list of tasks appear on the website or app. Tasks aim to be fun and weird, they might be artistic, such as creating portraits from spices, or infuriating, such as polishing a coconut. There are tasks that help those in need, or those in your community, such as taking supplies to food banks or dog shelters, or maybe sharing a local dog, that is up for adoption, on social media to help find them a home. There are tasks that raise awareness for groups of people, or world issues, such as LGBTQI+ or the climate emergency, and each year there is also a four day “Change a Life” fundraiser to help specific people or communities. In 2021 money was raised for the children’s ward at “EMERGENCY”, an NGO and charity hospital in Kabul. To be “Gishy”, is to be kind, be supportive, willing, and a bit weird, and it is the loveliest community. This was my fourth Gish, and I’ll be honest, I came very close to not signing up. Life was very much getting in the way, and I just didn’t feel like I had much left in the tank to contribute to my team. Thankfully, my wonderful team captain, Sonya, assured me, they’d rather have me ‘there’ doing nothing, than not be there at all. I am so glad that she convinced me, because it turns out that I had never needed Gish in my life, quite so much.

I didn’t complete as many tasks this year, and the ones I did complete were mostly not fulfilled to the greatest standard, but I did also try to complete a few that were not in my comfort zone. To be clear, my comfort zone is something creative that doesn’t need me in a video – this year I put myself in three videos. It still isn’t something I’m comfortable with, I’m the biggest introvert, so I’m only brave enough to share one of them here, (the other two will be left forgotten, in a folder somewhere on my computer, hopefully to never see the light of day again, unless one day, I really need to remind myself how brave I can be). I guess the point is, I wasn’t in a great place, but Gish still makes me feel safe enough to give things a shot.

So, the first item on the list that I completed was : Tokitae the orca was captured from the Puget Sound 50 years ago and has been imprisoned in a small tank at the Miami Sea Aquarium for years. Her mother and the rest of her pod are alive and living near Washington/Canada. The Lummi Nation has a sea pen ready for her and want to bring her home, where the Lummi people and her pod can care for her and prove that orcas will recognise and accept family even after 50 years, but the owner of the Miami Seaquarium won’t let her go. Write a haiku with a watercolour image of Tokitae about family belonging together.

This is very much within my comfort zone, as I created a haiku for an aye-aye in a previous year. I’m beginning to think that I could start a collection if there is another wildlife based illustration and haiku task in 2022.

The next item I completed was: Salt and pepper go so well together. They are a match made in heaven. Let’s use the magical symbiotic powers of salt and pepper to unite two feuding personalities in art. Take two legendary nemesis and unite them on a cutting board or plate, one depicted in salt and one in pepper.

So, I may have interpreted this one a little clumsily. I read it as “feuding personalities in art”, as in ‘the world of art’, so I chose Pollock and De Kooning (who didn’t feud so much, but were pitted against each other by art critics), but that is okay, Gish likes to be a little offbeat. I figure that at least it was an unorthodox choice compared to more obvious nemeses like Batman and the Joker :D.

Next up: Waffle House. No, no we mean a REAL Waffle House. Let’s see your best flapjack house. Your best Eggo edifice (thank goodness for Stranger Things or anyone outside of the U.S. would be flummoxed). Your best hotcake homestead. Your best crepe condominium. You get the idea.

I made so many waffles, and bought so many waffles and pancakes, but it was definitely worth it. I didn’t have a solid plan for this, and I woke up on the Monday morning feeling really low and sad, but do you know what? By the time I finished that waffle house at 2pm I was in the best mood, talk about therapy (or possibly the consumption of sugar). I highly recommend getting lost in a task that ultimately has no meaning, and can also be eaten – that vegetable patch was delicious. (I’ll also add that my sweet little waffle house made it into the Gish 2021 coffee table book, which can be quite the challenge, so I was very pleased, and I’m also proud of my team mate who made it in there too, it’s the first year we had two images in the book).

The fourth task was (and this is where I start getting a bit shy): Bees communicate through dance, and so do you. Make a beeline to TikTok and show us what the Beeline dance looks like  – and you must be dressed as our cat/bee mascot when you do it. (Every year Gish has a different animal hybrid mascot).

So, this one I don’t mind sharing because it made me laugh so much (which was a real tonic), and I was just so proud (I’m not sure that is necessarily the most accurate word) to do it, because I never put myself on the internet, I really just had to say “screw it, this terrifies me and I’m doing it anyway”. I also realise that it isn’t the most successful costume in the world, but I wanted to create it without spending money and with as little waste as possible (the tail which was made of a pair of tights stuffed with socks, is all back in a drawer ready to use as tights and socks again, and the painted, yellow, paper stripes are in a folder ready to use for collage).

The next two video tasks are just too painful to share, the first one was: Resting B**** Face The Musical! Write a song with happy uplifting lyrics, and perform the whole thing in a monotone, one chord/one-note fashion, with resting b**** face the whole time.

I can confirm that monotone resting b**** face is not an attractive look, it encourages you to create your very best double chin :D, I’ve never looked so bad, but I am bloody good at it – who knew? A skill I never realised I had! I haven’t got a great singing voice, but it is really hard to try not to sing at all and remain monotone, and also not smile or animate your face. I thought my song was quite cheery, it had a little hearty tune, even if I couldn’t use it!  

The third video was me attempting to shout/sing/butcher Pearl Jam, and I won’t inflict that on your ears, it is quite the punishment. The item was: It is International lost in karaoke night & you’re up next! Choose an English language song and translate it into at least 3 different language via google translate, then back to English. Then sing the resulting lyrics.

I chose Evenflow by Pearl Jam, and I think I used Hawaiian and maybe Welsh, I can’t remember, I tried a lot of languages.

Both ‘singing’ tasks were particularly terrifying, and as a result the videos were a bit boring and could have been funnier if I had put more thought into them, but for where I was and how I was feeling at that time, the important thing for me was to just try, and not try to be the best, or do something quirky and outstanding, I literally just wanted to be brave enough to do it, brave enough to submit it, and then forget it ever happened. Who knows, maybe I’ll do a better job next time.

The final item that I completed alone was: Gotta catch ‘em all: rejections that is! You want be the very best (like no one ever was) and to do that you have to collect as many rejections as you can between now and the end of the Hunt! Create a Pokemon-style trading card set of 3 of the lovable “no” monsters you collected, detailing what you asked for, how powerful a “No” it was, and how the experience strengthened you in some way.

As I was very much completing tasks from home, most of the ‘nos’ I experienced came from me restricting myself, and I had to use my imagination a little bit, I didn’t have much negativity to play with, so it was a bit of a stretch, but I do love to draw any kind of character, so I just went with it.

The final task was part of the Gish closing ceremony the following Saturday night. It was a group record breaking attempt: In celebration of 10 years of Gish, we’re attempting to set our first GISH World Record: the most handwritten notes of kindness posted on Instagram in an hour! Encourage all your teammates as well as everyone you know to join this effort.

This was fun and emotional, in all the right ways! Lots of people were on Zoom, and everyone was posting their notes all at the same time, and I spent most of the hour looking at the #GISHnotes hashtag (which you can still look at if you need to read some good and kind words right now), and reading all the beautiful things people had written. Mine was directed at the whole of the GISH community because I was just so grateful (and emotional) to have taken part, it really made me appreciate all the wonderful things that this weird (not so) little game does.

So that was it for another year, or was it? There was a fun, free, participate if you feel like it, “Halloweird” in October (a task a day for 13 days), and I couldn’t resist completing one of the items, to illustrate the poem Black Cat by Misha Collins. I just got it into my head that I wanted to cut out some paper and layer it somehow, just like the waffle house, there was no particular plan, I just sat down and worked it out as I went along, and I think it turned out alright considering I winged it.

I’m pretty sure that is GISH done until summer ‘22 – for me at least – but you can never quite tell. I can’t wait to see what happens next. 

October 2021 - Hello Again & New Folksy & Society6 Products

It is hard to believe that is has almost been a year since my last blog post. My last post was full of Inktober 2020 illustrations, and, as I type this I’m around half way through my Inktober 2021 illustrations. In some ways it is like the last year didn’t happen, it has just simply vanished, and in other ways it has been a long, hard, slog. I think, as I reached the end of 2020, and we started the New Year under lots of COVID restrictions and going into another lockdown, I felt like everything was put on pause while we waited to get vaccinated. It felt long, and I simply didn’t feel like writing blog posts – I’m sure a lot of people felt the same way. Then, as we progressed further through the year I had to face some personal difficulties, and as I’m not someone who can act all cheery on the internet if I’m not actually feeling it, I didn’t say anything at all. Things still aren’t sorted for me personally, that’ll take some time, but regardless of how I’ve been feeling, one thing that hasn’t changed, is that I haven’t stopped drawing.

I’m one cover design away from my second ‘rough’ picture book dummy being finished (‘finished’ doesn’t mean full-colour spreads here – it is rough). It is a wordless story about a robot, aiming to encourage slightly older reluctant readers. I like the idea of a book being accessible to any (sighted in this case) person, even if they struggle to read. The structure of the narrative is slightly more complex than a traditional picture book, so it still feels like you are having to read and interpret the story - just without words. I wonder if I would be told it is too complex for younger readers? But, what I always find fascinating about little kids, is how often, when ‘they’ tell a story, there is very little structure, their stories jump around like dreams, and while I think structure in books is important, I’m wondering if kids would be as baffled by a more complex structure, with multiple characters, as adults would think, or would they just take it in their stride? I think it would be interesting in find out.

I’ve also recently reopened my Folksy shop and my Society 6 shop. My Folksy shop is currently only accessible to those in the UK (postage and tax to other countries has become pretty expensive for the time being) and it is selling some of my handmade polymer clay jewellery, (I’ve also made all the polymer clay beads used in the jewellery).

I am now also selling a small selection of greetings cards featuring 5 of my woodland animal illustrations. I can’t decide on my favourite – I love the squirrel’s tail, but the badger is so much fun and the mole looks so sweet! I’m really pleased with them all, so I’m planning on creating more illustrations using the same characters.

For anyone outside of the UK interested in my illustrations, there is a wider range of animal friends (10 characters) available in my Society 6 store on a variety of different products (if you click on a product, others products with the same design will show up at the bottom of that particular product page). People in the UK can purchase from Society 6 too, but watch out for postage and tax, I have no control over these things.

I hopefully won’t leave it another year before I post again, I plan to fill you in on a few things that happened in the year that wasn’t, and I’ll give you a rundown on Inktober 2021 once it is complete. 

Take care and I’ll be back soon. x

June - July 2020 – Intro to Children's Publishing Course and Buying all the Books!

So much for a monthly blog post! Here is a round-up of the last two months!

Lockdown may have eased a lot in the UK now but I’m still sticking pretty close to home, I find myself thinking that I’ll put something off for one or two weeks more just to see how things go. Maybe I’m being too cautious but I don’t feel trapped or like I’m missing out on anything yet, even though I’ve been staying in a lot. I think this is mostly down to taking part in an eight-week course during June and July, called “Intro to Children’s Publishing” hosted by editor Katy Flint. The course involved a weekly Zoom meeting and homework to continue with during the rest of the week. It was limited to ten participants, which made it feel friendly and intimate, rather than intimidating, and I felt that it was a really useful, informative and encouraging course, which helped to build my confidence.

I made many notes and sketches during the eight weeks!

The course is for both authors and illustrators and its main aim is to give you the knowledge and tools that you will need to approach agents or publishers with your children’s book pitch. In the first three weeks we looked at how a publishing house works, we were given guidance on what a pitch might look like, we looked at how words and pictures work together, and how we could spot trends and gaps in the market.

Playing with some character expressions.

The following fours weeks saw everybody start to develop their own ideas for books (fiction or non-fiction) so they could start working towards their pitch. In week five, six and seven the group then split in two, the authors in one group and the illustrators in the other, so we could discuss the progress of our book ideas in a smaller, more manageable group.

In the final week we discussed how pitching works and who you might pitch to, as well as what to do when facing rejection.

Throughout the course Katy gave a number of talks, but there were also three guest lectures with Q and As. The first was from an art director, the second was from an author and editor, and the final Q and A was with a campaigns manager. It was fantastic to hear from a range of people working in the publishing world, learning what their job role entails and being able to pick their brains.

This course included an abundance of useful information, but I think the reason why it felt so special was down to Katy herself. You can tell how passionate she is about children’s publishing, and how hard she works so she can share her knowledge and experience with those who are new to the industry. She is friendly, approachable and encouraging, allowing everyone space to grow and gain confidence, and has even offered individuals some of her time following on from the course for a month. I’ve never come across such personal dedication from someone running an online course before, she goes above and beyond, making this course a priceless opportunity for anyone interested in creating their own children’s book and pitching it to a publisher.

If you are interested you can find more information on Katy’s website here. I participated in the very first outing of this course, so it is likely to alter and develop slightly over time, but I have definitely found it to be great value for money.

Getting back into narrative drawing during the course has also motivated me to get a bit experimental with my images, so I’ve bought some Sennelier Soft Pastels. I haven’t used any kind of pastels since college because I’ve always hated the mess they make, but for some reason I’m now being drawn to them, so I’m hoping to overcome my creative nemesis!

One problem I’ve had with taking part in a course about children’s publishing has been the need to buy more books! Of course, when I say “need”, it was in no way mandatory to buy any books for the course, but I used it as a good excuse to go wild! A couple of the books in the image were mentioned during the course, but most were already on my wish list, I just decided that my wish list was a great opportunity for learning! :)

Moving on to other books, I’m finally reading “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, (it really is taking me a while to work through my TBR pile), and I am absolutely loving it, there are so many different strong female characters and stories to explore. I admit it took me a couple of pages to get used to the lack of capital letters and full stops, and the odd line breaks, but I found I soon fell into a steady reading rhythm where none of those things seemed important anymore.

I’ve also added two more books to the TBR pile, the first is “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge. After the death of George Floyd and the wave of energy through the Black Lives Matter movement, it seemed irresponsible and callous to not sit up and listen or try to do more. I have been taking in so much information, and learning so much from people generously sharing their knowledge on instagram, but I need to do more, I need to learn and understand more and unlearn even more, as I now realise how flawed the society I have grown up in, is.

The second book I bought was The Diet Myth by Professor Tim Spector. Tim is the leader of a microbiome project which has used genetic sequencing in twins to study gut bacteria, (fun fact, my mum and aunt - twins - took part in some of Tim’s twin studies years ago, and still sometimes fill out questionnaires, apparently, according to my mother, Professor Tim was quite the dish!), and as someone that definitely has a peculiar gut I’m interested in what he has to say. This book is a few years old now (published 2016), but Tim has a new book “Spoon-Fed” being published at the end of August so I thought I’d try and get this one in first before reading the next one.

My final book purchase was a birthday present to myself, A special edition of “Pens Ink and Places” by Quentin Blake. I’ve seen this edition online before but it is pretty expensive, but The Tate Shop were selling it in their summer sale with £45 off, so I took it as a sign from the universe that I should get it, and I’m so glad I did, it is beautiful.

My parcel from Mini Gallery Box finally arrived in June, I pre-ordered it months ago, but the lockdown in France (where it was being sent from) meant that even their post offices were shut down, so nothing could go out at all. This was my second Mini Gallery Box purchase, the first featured artist Leigh Ellexson. Each box features some prints, a mini magazine about the artist and a few other items such as pins, notebooks and pencils cases. The artist featured in this box was the Ellie Vs Bear, and it was well worth the wait as it is adorable! I just love those blues, pinks and purples.

Finally we move on to my Instagram impulse purchases! Firstly we have the sensible rather than impulsive purchase of face masks. I bought a couple of plain linen masks from Helen Round for when I feel like blending in, and then two gloriously patterned numbers from Esther Blessed on Etsy. The impulse purchase was the wonderful Esther Blessed wraparound skirt, just look at those colours and the pattern. Now, I don’t wear skirts, I gave up wearing them years ago when they were either too long, or would work their way up my chest as I walked and I had to keep pulling them down. However, a wraparound skirt seems to be the answer, it stays where I put it and will keep me that bit cooler this summer.

My next impulse purchase is this beautiful shades of Indigo rainbow by Natasha Newton. I’ve loved her paintings for years, and I’ve always wanted an original. I would, one day, still like to purchase a canvas of hers, but boy do you have to be quick if you want to buy any of her work from her online shop. I felt very lucky to be able to purchase one of her three rainbows this time around.

Only two more impulse purchases to go! I’m a big believer in supporting picture book illustrators and authors, so as soon as Dapo Adeola mentioned on instagram that his personal online shop was open again for a limited time, I jumped at the opportunity to buy this bundle, a signed copy of Look Up!, a print of Rocket and a pin of Rocket – they are awesome!

And, my final impulse purchase, which was actually prompted by a stock alert email (rather than Instagram), is my new mustard Glosters mug. Glosters mugs have also been flying off their website as soon as they put new stock up, and recently I’ve either not had the money to spare at the right moment, or I’ve been too slow, so I’m so pleased to have nabbed this beauty!

Finally I’ll leave you of a few images from my early morning walk the other day. We went to Black Down for the first time since lockdown, and it was glorious! It was also my first time in the car in ages… which weirdly didn’t feel like it had been that long! I am actually really bad at getting up early, it knocks me sideways for the following four days, but nothing beats early morning air!

All thoughts are my own, I’m not affiliated with anyone mentioned, all purchases were made with my own money and links take you to the sites I personally made purchases from. You may prefer purchasing books from independent retailers.

All images are my own ©Dawn Bevins-Johnson 2020

May 2020 – Keep On Keeping On

A lockdown sure makes writing a monthly blog post daunting, I am quite focused on living in the present and taking each day as it comes, but when I come to actually sit down and write a post, I’m very aware that another month has slipped by and not a lot has happened. Still, so far people I know seem to be safe and healthy, I hope anyone reading this is safe and healthy too. With all this in mind I have tried to cobble together anything that has happened during May.

Inktober 52 prompt - Elephant

Inktober 52 prompt - Bubble

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, I’m still drawing Little Mouse for Inktober 52, however I’m getting really bad at remembering to share on Instagram. I was in a nice routine where I posted every Sunday, but my routine has changed and Sunday has now turned into a lie-in day (after getting up super early on Saturday), where I make time to either read, or as has happened over the last three weeks, watch the current play being streamed by The National Theatre on YouTube, then I spend and hour or two having a video chat with my family.

The National Theatre plays have felt like a real treat. I missed the start of their showings, but I’ve managed to see Frankenstein, Barber Shop Chronicles and A Streetcar Named Desire. They have all been fantastic, I particularly loved Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature in Frankenstein, his physical acting before the creature begins to communicate with words, the use of light and sound, it was utterly mesmerising, I would highly recommend any future showings if you can catch them.

As a little distraction from mice, I also took part in a “Draw This In Your Style” contest, to celebrate The Bright Agency UK reaching 50,000 followers on Instagram. The challenge was to draw your own version of the grumpy crocodile from “Open Very Carefully” by Nicola O’Byrne. I didn’t win, I didn’t even make the shortlist, but as I’ve never had any inclination to draw a crocodile before it was something new to try (and something new is always nice when your days are blending into one), and it was good to draw something that wasn’t a mouse – for a bit – but I’ve been happy to return to the mouse…

…That was until last week, actually it had very little to do with the mouse, I just found that I was struggling to draw. I’m going to blame it on some kind of lockdown drudgery and fatigue, but whatever I touched turned out to be abysmal and it was incredibly frustrating. It was four days until I picked up a pencil to draw again, but in that time I did pick up a pen instead, and I actually jotted some stories down on paper, so maybe one creative block released another. I think it is nearly always best to just keep-on-keeping-on, create something, even if it isn’t what you were expecting.

This month we tried “mochi” for the first time. Curiosity insisted that I buy some after spotting it online, and I’m not sure what I was expecting, it was definitely more gelatinous than I thought it would be, although to be fair the description described it as “…a cross between marshmallow and bubblegum” and that is pretty accurate. I enjoyed the sesame with red bean paste filling, and the green tea with green tea paste filling was pleasant, but the shredded coconut with sesame paste filling had to be given to my husband to finish, I didn’t enjoy it at all, (although my husband preferred that one to the green tea). It was new, it was interesting, but I don’t think I’ll order more.

We also had our first two lockdown Zoom quizzes with our friends. It is so good to have a little catch up with everyone and a bit of fun. We have come last in the quiz both times so far, but maybe we will have more luck in June.

(Excuse the wrinkles, I’m not a big fan of ironing at the best of times, even more so when I’m not actually seeing anyone).

I’ve been trying not to make too many spontaneous purchases in May, I’ve successfully refrained from buying books, but I did buy two t-shirts which I have coveted for a while. They are from Rosie Johnson’s Teemill store, because I think we can all agree, we all love naps and Jessica Fletcher – what an icon! They are also made from organic cotton, and once they are old and worn out and you don’t want them anymore, they can be sent back to Teemill for recycling, amazing!

So there isn’t much else to report. Lockdown in the U.K. is currently starting to ease, although no one I know is in any great hurry to go back to how things were just yet, I think a lot of us are preparing to move forward with caution. Having said that, I think my June will be a little busier so hopefully I’ll be back in around four weeks to share anything of interest.

April 2020 – Another month gone ... but where?!?

You would think that lockdown would result in the days dragging, but April seems to have gone by in a blur of sameness, so it was a bit of a surprise when I realised that it was the last day of the month and it hadn’t occurred to me to start a blog post.

The Guardian

So what has happened in April? Well I finished the week-long instagram illustration challenge “Dream Week”, you can find all of the illustrations posted on my instagram grid. It was good fun, I’d been desperate to include one of my Caran D’ache fluorescent dry highlighters in a palette, and the colours I chose for these drawings were such fun and a bit of a change for me. I do tend to choose bright colours, but there is still usually something quite traditional about the colours I select as a whole. Dream Week saw me using lots of pinks, reds and purples, with some neon yellow thrown in. The highlighter pencil obviously wasn’t ideal for illustration, its a little too waxy, but I’m a big believer in using any medium you have at hand to make art.

‘Little Mouse’ work-in-progress

I’m also continuing to create ‘Little Mouse’ illustrations for the Inktober52 art prompt challenge. I lost a little inspiration this month, and actually considered missing a week, as all the prompts were colours. Colour prompts are great if you are a traditional Inktober participant using black ink, as a pop of colour can be really effective, but if you are already using colour the prompt feels a bit vague. However, I’ve managed to create three illustrations prompted by a colour (well, almost - I should be finishing one now), and I think there will be a final colour prompt later today, so I’m feeling pretty pleased that I didn’t let myself get too despondent or give up.

A hand washing haiku

The other thing that happened in April was mini-Gish. I’ve mentioned Gish in this blog before, it is a week long, global scavenger hunt that takes place every summer. However, since lots of people are stuck at home, the organisers thought it would be fun to create a 24 hour version, to help raise money for charity and to give people something fun to look forward to. It was a lot of fun and it also taught me that the things I create really don’t have to be perfect. I tell myself this every time I play Gish, but I always find myself trying my very best, and sometimes restarting projects, and giving myself several attempts to ‘get it right’. If you have the luxury of a week, you can do that, but I found in 24 hours the first thing I created stuck, it didn’t matter if it was wonky, imperfect or laughable, because ultimately it didn’t matter, it was just a bit of fun, (I always tell myself this, but this was the first time I truly practised it)

Tim MInchin (supposedly) in pencil shavings

I completed 5 tasks – in the last week-long hunt I achieved 9 tasks – so it just goes to show how my approach to tasks has altered, it has left me wondering just how many I can finish in the summer hunt.

Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes in toothpaste, on a bathroom mirror.

For those wondering I created:
• A haiku about hand washing to be put above the sink.

• A portrait of a favourite famous person created using some kind of household waste (I chose Tim Minchin in pencil shavings, he is pretty wonky but it was 3 am).

• A miniature portrait of someone famous who makes you smile, on a mirror, in toothpaste. I chose Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster.

• A representation of your dream couch carved from a potato.

• A sun hat made from weeds.

I’ve also been trying not to spend too much money this month, I have mostly been putting it towards food parcels. I had two sent to my parents and was fortunate to be on a video chat when one of them arrived. It was really nice to see them get excited about the things they were pulling out of the box. I’m also quite weak-willed when it comes to making spontaneous Instagram purchases, I’ve really tried to resist, but my willpower failed me twice (almost three times, as I almost made another purchase yesterday but you had to pay by card and I couldn’t be bothered to go and fish it out).

I bought a Sofie Hagen ‘Self-Isolation Care Package’ bundle, which included her signed book, access to two of her shows online and a handwritten card. I love Sofie, she is smart, warm and funny, but also doesn’t take any crap! Obviously I haven’t read her book just yet, it has been added to my massive to-be-read pile.

I also bought a beautiful John Bloor print entitled ‘Thrift and Rocks’. John was having a sale on instagram so it seemed rude not to make a purchase. I’ve bought a print from him previously but it was for a gift, so it was really nice to buy a print I could keep for myself this time. You can find this print here.

That was all the excitement I experienced during April 2020, which considering how restricted we are, hasn’t been so bad. I definitely still feel very lucky. I’ll hopefully be back at the end of May for another update!

Hello 2020 – Recent Work and Christmas Book Haul – January and February Update

I’ve just had a quick read over my last blog post, and December 2019 Dawn was so looking forward to getting her teeth into the New Year! Little did she know that she would see 2020 in with some crappy throat lurgy that forced her to swallow liquid Nurofen because she couldn’t face swallowing tablets. Thankfully, after staying in bed for most of New Year’s Eve and taking children’s medicine, I managed to make it to our friend’s house in the evening, and then stayed up until 2 am. I’m not saying it was the best idea as far as my health was concerned, but I didn’t lose at Jenga, and I won at Cards Against Humanity (I’m not entirely sure what that says about me), and had a lovely time - I just slept for most of the next two days.

After that bumpy start, I spent the rest of January trying to catch up. I finally updated the work section of this site. I added a few new illustrations that I had been working on, removed a few older pieces and changed some of the sections around. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but I have a clearer idea of where I’m headed and what sort of work I’d like to add to it next.

Illustration-wise, I finally got around to drawing my final (for now) Millie illustration. You may remember from previous blogs, that Millie is a red-headed character that I started drawing at the beginning of 2019. Some of the illustrations can be seen in the ‘work’ section. I’ve quite a collection of scenes that show different things going on, but now I want to pause and consider writing a coherent story that the illustrations seem to be hinting at.

I’ve also been working on some more Ollie the Acorn illustrations. Unlike Millie, who started as a character illustration without a story, Ollie started as a story first, and I started drawing him and getting to know him afterwards. The only problem I’ve found with working like this, is that in my head I think I’ve already created more illustrations than I actually have. It was a bit of a disappointed to realise that I only had four and a half (one I’m not happy with which I’m ditching), I thought I had about twelve! Still that means I have a healthy looking “to do” list to work through.

As you may have seen in previous blog posts, I’ve been participating (successfully) in Jake Parkers Inktober for two years now, (Inktober is a drawing challenge where you are given a different prompt for every day of October), last year I created circular illustrations of a variety of child characters, and the year before the illustrations were based on a witch character called Hattie. Jake Parker has now decided to make Inktober more of an all year affair, by introducing Inktober 52. Inktober in October will still continue, but Inktober 52 will offer a weekly prompt all year. I love a drawing challenge, so I haven’t been able to resist joining in so far (even if I am a little behind on posting them on instagram). I’m working with a character again (I think it is actually easier to work with a recurring character during challenges because then you always have a starting point and aren’t having to pluck ideas from thin air – It is also great practice for character consistency), so far I’m just referring to him as Little Mouse. I think as the year progresses I’ll get to know him a little better, work out what his name is and what his story will be.

I’ve also been trying to edit some of my illustrations so they are ready for print. The idea is that I’ll open up my Folksy shop again (to begin with so I don’t have to start a new store from scratch) and offer a few wildlife cards, postcards and prints, but I’m procrastinating because that means spending money, which will seem like a waste if no one wants to buy them… I know, I know, you don’t know until you try.

In the December blog I also mentioned a Christmas book haul, so here we go, I’ll also have a January/February book haul but I think I’ll need to save that for another post, otherwise this blog will be far too long! .

When Paul Met Artie by G Neri, Illustrated by David Litchfield.
This is the illustrated story of Simon and Garfunkel, and while I know next to nothing about Simon and Garfunkel, I love everything illustrated by David Litchfield. I was so chuffed to receive this from one of my friends, and it is such a sweet story - I had no idea how young they were when they experienced initial success (even if it was followed by some ups and downs).

What Katy Did/What Katy Did At School/What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge
These books were such a lovely gift from my mum, they were some of her favourite stories when she was a little girl, but I’ve never read them. I really need to sit down one evening with a hot chocolate and some biscuits and get lost in them.

Family Don’t End With Blood by the cast and fans of Supernatural, edited by Lynn S. Zubernis
I only started watching Supernatural a couple of years ago, but it is a show with a huge, close fanbase, and once you start to fall into it you are lost - but in a good way. The Supernatural fanbase is affectionately referred to as the SPN family, because it feels like a warm, supportive, welcoming family, (and that includes the cast and crew as well as fans), and Lynn S. Zubernis has captured this by bringing together a collection of essays from both fans and actors talking about how Supernatural is more than just a TV show, and how, it can, in a fascinating way, bring people together and change lives.

Lights On Cotton Rock by David Litchfield
Did I mention how much I love David Litchfield???! All of his work is beautiful but the colours he uses in this book are more than stunning. It is the story about a young girl who meets an alien. It’s about friendship and family, and longing and home, and not realising how much you already have in life right in front of your nose.. It’s such a heartwarming story with such amazing illustrations.

Jill and Lion, Jill and Dragon by Lesley Barnes
These two books have been on my wish list for a long time, so I was thrilled to receive them from my husband for Christmas. I adore the illustrations, the use of colour, shape, pattern and texture, they are so dynamic, I love just sitting and turning through each page, absorbing the magic.

Ghost by Illustratus
Originally a successful Kickstarter campaign, Ghost: Thirteen Haunting Tales To Tell, is a selection of poems and stories written for a new generation of young readers, that has all that eerie timeless feel of traditional ghost stories with little twists at the end. This is such a lovely book, the illustrations are both beautiful and creepy, and even as an adult I found the stories a little sinister.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K.Rowling Illustrated by Jim Kay
My Husband buys me an illustrated, hardback copy of a Harry Potter book for Christmas, each year one is published. I then save it until October, so I can sit in bed at night over the autumn and winters months, taking my time to read it as we head towards Christmas (we also start watching the films again every October, sometimes we get through them by Christmas, sometimes we don’t). Needless to say I haven’t had a proper look at this yet, I’m saving it, but it is definitely a book I’m looking forward to reading (I’ve read it as a non-illustrated book, just not this version).

My Favourite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris
I can’t remember where I heard about this graphic novel, I think it was on a podcast, but thank goodness someone was talking about it, otherwise I wouldn’t have known it existed – both the graphic novel and Emil Ferris had sounded so fascinating to me that I had, had this book on my wish list ever since. Ferris contracted West Nile Fever and became paralysed from the waist down and lost the use of her right hand, so her daughter taped a pen to her hand to help her draw again while she was recovering. My Favourite Thing Is Monsters is what Ferris worked on while she was recovering. The whole novel, which is written in the form of a young girls diary, is drawn in ballpoint pen, so visually, it feels so fresh and interesting compared the usual graphic novel format, and I cant wait to read it.

That’s all my news for now, there are plenty more books (and hopefully illustrations :D ) to follow soon. I hope you have all had a great start to 2020.

(I have added links in the titles of the books mentioned to either Amazon or Wordery, I’m not affiliated with them, they are just places I personally buy books from online. At the time of writing this, the link I chose was the cheapest option – obviously price and stock are subject to change, so it always worth comparing different sites).

December 2019 -The Short, End-of-Year Round-Up

Well it is very nearly the end of 2019, very nearly the end of another decade, and I feel like I should be reflective… but I’m just not feeling it. I don’t believe in making resolutions, they always seem like promises waiting to be broken, I’m just itching to get started on 2020, no plans, lists of goals etc. I just want to start working.

Christmas has been wonderful and relaxing, we were away a whole week visiting family, but the first part of December was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and snotty tissues, as our house came down with the dreaded cold that has been doing the rounds. So as you can imagine, I didn’t get much in the way of drawing done and I’m at the point now where I’m really missing it, I need to get the house back to normal and get back into a normal routine – it sounds like I’m grumpy, I’m not, I absolutely love Christmas, I just feel like I’m in limbo right now.

We usually like to visit some Christmas craft markets as we head into December, but this year I had so many presents organised early that there didn’t seem much point, (we did go to one very briefly and it wasn’t very good), however we did go with out friends to Christmas at Kew, to walk around the light trail.

It was a lovely, magical way to spend an evening, and thankfully (as it has to be booked in advance) it was a dry night. I loved the tunnel of lights, the tunnel of hanging lights, the shards hanging from the tree-top walkway, the fire garden and the laser projections over the water.

I did start several illustrations throughout December, but these were the only two I managed to finish, using Pro-create, in front of the T.V. while watching Christmas films… I’ll complete the others in the New Year.

The first is a nod to the T.V. show Supernatural – Dean does like his pie! The second came from the urge to use specific colours, the neon orange, pink, green and purple. I had a vague idea the figures were fairies.

I also thought I’d share a couple of things I’d bought for myself once I had finished all of my Christmas shopping.

I bought this wonderfully kitsch tree decoration and awesome Jessica Fletcher pin (both made from recycled acrylic) from Rosie Johnson illustrates. I’m also hoping to buy this Jessica Fletcher illustration on a t-shirt in the future too!

I then bought these delightful zines/books from Joe Latham, they have such wonderful and gentle illustrations (and they arrived the very next day after ordering!). Do check out the links in their names if you fancy purchasing any of their work for yourself.

I admit this post isn’t much of a round-up, like I said, I’m not feeling particularly reflective, 2019 hasn’t been a bad year for me in the slightest, but I’m eager not to linger at the tail end of it either, there seems to be a slight sense of urgency in the air – I’m also very aware that the last two weeks of doing very little has left my brain a bit numb and I feel like I’ve lost the ability to structure sentences properly, I’m really struggling to type, and into Yoda, I fear, turning I am.

I’ll be back in the New Year with legible sentences (hopefully) and maybe a Christmas book haul (I have been a very lucky girl this year and have so many beautiful new books to share with you).

See you in 2020 friends.

September & October 2019

I am currently right in the middle of my happy place - Autumn. It may be raining all the time, but I don’t care, blankets and jumpers are coming out of the cupboards and candles are being lit, it is almost time to start talking about Christm… but first, a catch up.

My book gifts and chocolates from Karen!

In September I saw two of my book cover designs on actual physical books for the first time. Originally the designs were created for digital books, but author Karen Pomerantz decided to make both Trapping Honey and Bring The Thunder available for print, and she very kindly sent me a copy of each. I’ve seen lots of my design work in print before but never on a book, and I love books, so being able to hold them in my hands is both surreal and special.

Inktober sketchbook ideas

The official Jake Parker Inktober prompt list was released on September 1st, and as I was going to be away in September and October, I knew that planning would be essential if I was going to make it through the whole month, so I started making scribbles in my sketchbook, noting down ideas for each prompt.

Festival of Light sculpture at Longleat Safari Park.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do for my birthday this year, but remembering how much I enjoyed meeting lemurs in the Lakes last year, we decided it was time to return to Longleat Safari Park, and my husband booked us both a red panda experience.

It was a pretty grey and rainy day, but not torrential. At the time they were beginning to set up the Festival of Light which starts in November, so there were a couple of sculptures already out, and we could see others being built in fenced-off areas, (we considered booking another visit for this, but as we usually head to Frome the night before visiting and stay for two nights, it seemed a bit much to go twice in three months, so maybe next year!).

Our experience wasn’t until the afternoon, so as is tradition we booked tickets on the first bus safari of the day (my husband is never going to agree to going through the monkeys in the car) and we were lucky enough to get front window seats on the top deck. We don’t usually do much on the stop at the African village, but this time I paid for a couple of twigs to feed the giraffes, which was totally worth it.

For the VIP experience, out keeper took us into the red panda enclosure to meet brothers, Kody and Lionel (named after the band Kodaline). Although the brothers were bred in captivity, our keeper told us all about where the red pandas come from, what their diet is like, what dangers they face in the wild (being hunted for their fur) and what work is being done to try and protect them, as well as how breeding programmes work throughout Europe. Fun fact, only red pandas are actual pandas, panda bears are bears.

We fed Kody and Lionel some vegetables and some panda cake – they have bamboo in their enclosure to eat too, but it is really hard for the keepers to monitor how well they are eating, or if they are getting enough to eat (especially as bamboo is so nutritionally poor) if they are just left to eat this way. The panda cake looks like dung balls, but they are made from a special bamboo substance, that is bought in, and then mixed with water so it forms a ball.

Kody and Lionel loved the panda cake! They came down to a table in front of us, we held out the food one piece at a time and they took it from us. Lionel in particular was incredibly gentle when he took food from me. They are the most beautiful animals and it was the perfect birthday gift.

After the experience we went on the Jungle Cruise. I love the Jungle Cruise! Last time we were there it was during the summer holidays so the queue was too long, but this time it was much easier to get on. It is only a short boat ride, and you have to pay for the little pot of fish, but I get so much joy from feeding the sea lions!

Inktober Day 4: Freeze (Musical Statues)

Once back from Frome I gave myself a little head start on Inktober. I’d already chosen the colours I wanted to use and decided that all illustrations were going to be circular, (carrying on a similar theme from my most recent wildlife illustrations). I had prepped by drawing around a plate thirty-one times, so I was ready to start on the actual illustrations straight after my birthday. I had decided not to use ink this year as I wanted to continue working with coloured pencils. I also decided to carry on my character work by drawing children for each prompt either playing, pretending, or taking part in some kind of activity.

Inktober Day 23: Ancient

The plan was to try and get half complete before I went away to the Lake District for a week on October 4th. I had considered taking them with me, but I prefer working in natural light if I can, and I knew by the time we’d been out adventuring every day, It would either be too dark or I would be too tired, then I wouldn’t be able to relax properly because I would have wanted to keep up with the challenge… sometimes you just need to be realistic and make a plan! I was really pleased to get sixteen completed before we left, it also gave me an extra five days breathing room when I got back before Inktober caught up with me.

Our week in the Lakes was the wettest we’d had in a while, but it didn’t matter, it never does. As is tradition, we spent Saturday pottering around Cockermouth visiting Percy House Gallery and The New Bookshop before having lunch at Shills. Sunday, was another kind of tradition, as we always end up at Grasmere. We took the walk around the lake, had lunch at Greens Cafe and Bistro (some good options if you are vegan, or trying to avoid dairy or gluten – I had a jacket potato with hummus and salad) and stopped by the Heaton Cooper Studio as I love picking up a few art supplies from there because it has a lovely atmosphere.

Blea Tarn

We then drove on to take a look at Blea Tarn, which was quite nice, but not as nice as the view of the valley (Great Langdale?) you found if you carried on walking along the pathway that went by the tarn – even on a grey day it was a lovely surprise.

On Monday we decided to visit Carlisle as we hadn’t been before. We went to the castle – I love a bit of history – then after lunch we went in search of bits of Hadrian’s Wall.

Considering everyone has heard of Hadrian’s wall, it seemed a little odd that there are only odd pieces of it left, I mean I’m not surprised so much by how much is left, considering how old it is, but surprised by the combination of how little there is and its fame.

View from Whinlatter, looking out over Keswick and Derwentwater.

A stay in Cockermouth just wouldn’t be the same without a visit to Whinlatter, which is what we decided to do on the Tuesday. It was lovely, it was blinkin’ windy but the sun came out for us and it was beautiful. So far, each time we have walked up Whinlatter, that same view has been completely different.

Derwentwater

After a spot of lunch and meeting various new dog friends, we drove down to the Theatre By The Lake in Keswick, where we picked up a hot drink and then went and sat on the shores of Derwentwater.

The boating hut was closed due to a bad weather forecast, so the whole shoreline seemed strangely quiet compared to other times we have been there, but it was nice. It felt like we were tempting fate as we watched giant clouds roll in, but it is the Lake District, and you can never quite guarantee what the weather is going to do and we were able to sit for ages watching the changing light without being caught in a downpour.

On Wednesday we visited Aira Force Waterfall for the first time. It was quite good, there are plenty of paths to explore, and it gave me an opportunity to try my new walking poles, to help me (and my dodgy knee) get up (but mostly get down) the rocky pathway at the side of the waterfall. There were quite a few people there even though it was a damp day, so I don’t think it is somewhere I would like to visit during the school holidays, it must get swamped with people.

Buttermere

Our final day was another grey one, but we headed to Buttermere. We arrived fairly early to make sure we could get parking and because as the day goes on, the walk around the lake gets quite busy. We took my walking poles with us, as last time we were there, one part of the walk had quite a lot of rocks and boulders to clamber over… it turns out they have done a fair bit of work since our last visit, and that section of the walk is far more accessible now. I also made friends with two dogs, which always makes me happy.

Inktober Day 27: Coat (of paint).

Since we have been back, I’ve mostly been working on my Inktober illustrations. It was a bit of a struggle as we have had some really dark days, so I was trying to do all the sketching/outline work with the col-erase on dark days, and then working on the colour on brighter days, so rather than completing each illustration one by one, it turned into a bit of a production line.

Inktober Day 18: Misfit

Inktober Day 25: Tasty.

My back also started to complain, I don’t think it appreciated how long I was sitting in my chair every day. It is a very good ergonomic chair, but that doesn’t stop me from gradually leaning forward and twisting to one side while I’m working, without realising. I finished my inktober illustrations with five days to go, which is what I had been striving for. It meant I could reward myself, and my back, by taking a few days off from sitting at the desk. The rest of this week is going to see me sitting sensibly (not lounging) on the sofa with my sketchbook muddling through some new ideas.

July – New Books

Front cover image © thingsbydan

I mostly buy children’s picture books, but this month has been a bit different, I have bought a comic, a graphic novel and a vegan cookbook.

First up is a comic called “I’m on a Boat” by Dan Berry. I’m a big fan of Dan’s podcast Make It Then Tell Everybody (even though I’m really behind), and while I’ve become used to listening to him talk about comics, I only ever see his work on instagram, so when he started self-producing a comic telling the story of his time spent teaching on a boat, I jumped at the chance to purchase it. I think one of the joys of Dan’s work is how he captures small, but humorous, human moments, such as the reaction of people when they see him drawing in public. His line work looks so natural and relaxed, it seems effortless, he can create expression and movement, and tell a story with the simplest of lines, it is brilliant craftmanship .

Illustration © thingsbydan

Above, is one of my favourite images (I hope Dan doesn’t mind me sharing it), where Dan is signed-off from work. Even though it must have been a worrying and serious time for him, he portrays it in such a warm and funny way, it really makes me smile, (I’m sure many of us can relate to nervously waiting for the blood pressure monitor to produce a reading) – it was a great way for a single image to communicate his health troubles.

At the time of writing this post, Dan was producing these comics in-house priced at £10, if you are interested you can buy one here.

Front cover @ First Second Books

Next we have “This Was Our Pact” by Ryan Andrews. I follow Ryan on Instagram, so I was able to follow the illustrations he produced for this graphic novel as he was working on them. His images are so detailed and beautiful (I love the textures in his pencil work), and seeing them shared over a period of time really made me feel connected to the characters and the story, it also really made you appreciate how much work goes into graphic novels. This is a A5 paperback graphic novel (when I looked there were a few hardbacks available too), but it is pretty chunky, I was pleasantly surprised by the size of it when it arrived, unfortunately I haven’t read it yet so I can’t give it a proper review, but I can’t wait to start it, it looks absolutely beautiful. If you are interested in buying a copy, it is published by First Second Books, and you can find it on Amazon UK here.

Cover image © Mitchell Beazley

Finally, I purchased a copy of “Cook Share Eat Vegan: Delicious plant-based recipes for Everyone” by Áine Carlin, published by Mitchell Beazley. The book has been out for a while in hardback and the paperback is due out in October 2019 – and I’m really looking forward to making something from it (I really enjoyed Áine’s previous two books) , I’m particularly interested in the “Crispy Cinnamon Potato Tacos” (although I need to wait until I have a working oven to try that one) and the “Chip-Shop Vegetable Curry”. Technically I’m not vegan, but I prefer to eat vegan if I can. I find the assumption that most people make, is that vegan food is boring, because vegetables are usually an afterthought plonked on the side of a plate, but if anything, I’ve found cooking far more exciting since I’ve dropped the meat and the dairy. One thing that stands out in this book is the variety of ingredients and flavours, and I don’t mean that it is full of exotic things you have never heard of, I mean that humble vegetables and grains that you find in any supermarket have been given a bit of love and consideration, and have been elevated to the tastiest sounding dishes. If anyone is interested in who Áine is and the food she makes, you might want to check out her old YouTube channel, the video linked is from three years ago, but I’ve made this quesadilla several times, and it is a really quick and tasty lunch. If you are interested in purchasing “Cook Share Eat Vegan” you can find it here.

All books were purchased with my own money, all opinions are my own.

Drawing Dogs – June 2019 Update

Sad Millie at the swimming baths.

I’m currently working on three projects. My plan is to update my portfolio with more in-depth character work, rather than one-off illustrations, but obviously it is going to take a little bit of time! My current work will also show my new love for coloured pencils. I still love my watercolour inks, and I plan on doing more work with them, but since the beginning of the year I’ve started using coloured pencils. It has been a bit of a learning curve, as I haven’t used them since college, and I’ve always hated them, so I’m not exactly sure what has changed, but I feel really comfortable with them at the moment.

Initial scribbles

So back to the projects. I’m still working with the little girl that I mentioned in my February blog post, but now she has a name - Millie. Ive also been experimenting with an acorn as I want to develop my skills in creating characters from objects – I have an idea for a story for that character too. The third project is mostly about dogs, so I’ve been trying to draw lots of dogs from reference photos.

First French Bulldog scribbles

So far I’ve attempted a French Bulldog, a Boston Terrier, a Corgi and a Cairn Terrier. They may not strictly stick to their breed by the time I have finished with them, but it is a good place to start when trying to see their differences and working out how those details can represent different personalities.

I don’t have a story planned for the dogs yet, just a vague idea for where they live and what their names might be, I find these things become more concrete as the drawings develop.

In between project work, I’m also trying to do the odd one-off illustrations. They may not be my best work, but I find it is nice just to finish something when everything else I’m working on is developing. Some Ideas I pluck from thin air, (such as the lady in the dress), others are part of a Draw It In Your Style Challenge (this one is Matcha Girl set by Iraville).

I had planned to take part in the By Bun April Art Challenge, but in the end only did the first two days, here is day two – Knotted (the brown paper was intentional, I wanted to worked on a textured surface).

I’ve also used ArtPrompts.org (The girl with the toys came from the prompt “An adorable little girl with two adorable little heads” – I took that to mean that she had two heads, but I decided to take it in a slightly different direction) .

So that is where I am at right now. I think I may add a couple of posts on two things I’m passionate about soon - picture books and purchases from independent designer/makers. I get a lot of happiness and inspiration from books and independents so it feels right to give them a shout–out, so keep an eye out for that.

Until next time – bye!

A Kids Comic – May 2019 Update

Front Page of Eight Legs Elliott

I thought the start of this year was a slow one, but once February was over, time seemed to speed up – how is it nearly June? I really need to blog more, the lack of consistency is embarrassing!

So the challenge I mentioned in my last post was a comic that I wanted to create for the son of my friend, for his birthday, (if you look back through the tiny amount of posts, you will see that last year, I ‘kind of’ produced a picture book for his birthday – which was late!). I’ve not really attempted to create a comic before – I did a two page comic strip based on fears last year (mentioned two posts ago), but that was based on a very loose concept, where I created the story at the same time as the drawings. This time I wrote a basic story outline first (telling myself it would probably be no more than four A4 pages at the most), then I wrote it out in more detail, creating the narration and speech, and making a few quick scribbles of images that I might include.

(The story is an origin story, inspired by several other superhero stories, about a bunch of kids who love superheroes).

Page 3 of Eight Legs Elliott

I’ve heard some comic creators/graphic novelists mention in interviews how they plan pages as they go, rather than planning all of the content and flow in advance, and this always sounded crazy to me. I am a big fan of planning and working out a structure to make sure everything … works! So it was strange to suddenly find myself winging it, planning each page as I got to it. I’m still not sure it was the best way to go about it, but as usual with birthday gifts, I knew if I took the time to plan it all out in advance, it would take me longer and I would miss the birthday. It turned out okay, I would have liked to have filled all the pages neatly into a multiple of four, but I ended up with one blank back page – I figured it couldn’t hurt, (of course it does hurt, every time I think about it, it irks me).

Page 5 of Eight Legs Elliott

The four–page comic that I had envisioned turned out to have 23 pages. It took me much longer than I anticipated, partly because I took the opportunity to familiarise myself with Procreate at the same time (I also took the opportunity to get myself through Gilmore Girls while I coloured things). It was definitely a challenge (the comic, not Gilmore Girls… although), it is really hard to fit everything together, and I feel like I’m only at the beginning of a lesson in comic book fundamentals (as well as Procreate).

Page 9 of Eight Legs Elliott

I am pleased with the end result, but I am also aware of how flawed it is – I have no idea how graphic/comic illustrators keep their details so consistent, I went through looking for mistakes multiple times and I still missed a whole bunch – but I think I have the bug now, I would like to do another, I want to learn more and I know I can do better! It’s just one more thing for the ‘to-do’ list.

Getting Back Into It And February Distractions (Iceland) – (Jan/Feb 2019)

I always think that when a new year rolls around again I’ll be prepared, ready to go, it happens at the same time each year, it shouldn’t take me by surprise, yet I’m rarely ready or motivated – I blame it on Christmas over-indulgence, it makes me sluggish – anyone else? So 2019 got off to a slowish start, I gave my office/studio space a bit of a clear-out and a move around, I had planned on doing it between Christmas and the New Year but I was too busy indulging my inner sloth. In the back of my head I was also distracted, I was aware that Rob was turning 40 mid-February and the plan had been to go away, but as we hit January we still had nothing booked - eek!

A sad little character!

That isn’t to say I haven’t been doing any illustration. My plan is to create a range of five characters for my next portfolio/site update, and one of them came to life in January, you may have seen her pop up on instagram a few times already. She doesn’t have a name yet but the more I draw her the more she seems to come to life. Weirdly I’ve also dropped my watercolour inks (for now at least) in favour of coloured pencils. I’ve never enjoyed using coloured pencils, but one morning, in an effort to throw my brain a curve ball, mix it up, I tried to ‘scribble’ with a coloured pencil instead of sketching super carefully over and over again with a mechanical pencil, and something seemed to work – I think – so for now I’m rolling with it. I still need to pull together a few more images, but I got distracted…

Flying into Iceland along the western coastline

… we finally did book a holiday – to Iceland! It was fantastic. Being a bit last minute, and not having done any research on what to do or where to go, we decided to go with the pricier option, and let Scott Dunn organise it all for us. This did make it expensive, but it was lovely not to have to worry about the logistics of booking planes, hotels, activities, transfers etc, it was all there in an itinerary. Not that we had to follow the itinerary once we had caught our plane as we had our own private guide to drive us around, take us where we needed to be, when we needed to be there (this next bit is going to be quite long, so if you have no interest in Iceland you should probably stop reading here – illustration based content will resume in the near future – Also, I apologise if any of the locations I’ve mentioned are wrong as I didn’t take note at the time, or if any names are misspelled or missing diacritical marks/accents, my keyboard seemed to refuse to put them over certain letters) .

Our room at Hilton Canopy Hotel

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and were driven to Hilton Canopy Hotel in Reykjavik, which was our home for two nights. We had a couple of hours to ourselves in which we were supposed to explore Reykjavik as we were being picked up at 9pm to go searching for Northern Lights. We didn’t actually get far, we decided to catch the last ten minutes of happy hour in the hotel bar, then went to see if they had any space in the adjoining restaurant to save us the problem of aimlessly wandering in a new place, not being able to decide where to go. After a relaxed (and delicious dinner) we layered up for the evening. Sadly we only saw a hint of the lights, but it was still quite the adventure, driving around various snowy ‘summer’ roads, trying to find nice dark spots in the countryside in case the lights appeared again, and hoping not to get stuck in snow drifts that make the roads impassable.

Ice pushed up on to the shoreline of the lake

On day two we were driven to a variety of spots on the bottom western peninsula of the island. We visited Kleifarvatn Lake, Krysuvík (geothermal fields and hot springs), and Selatanger beach (completely tourist free), before grabbing lunch from a supermarket in Grindavík and heading to the cliffs on the southern edge of the Reykjanes Peninsula – stunning views.

We spent the afternoon at The Retreat at The Blue Lagoon. I know the Blue Lagoon is a tourist trap, I know it is a silly amount of money, and you know what I really don’t like pools and spas and stuff like that… yet I loved it! We didn’t actually go in to the more public Blue Lagoon, we stayed in The Retreat. We had intended to go and have a look, but four hours flew by and we just didn’t get around to it. We had our own room, which is yours to shower and change in and then leave your stuff in for the whole four hours. We floated around in the little pools, we took part in The Ritual, which is a three stage face and body mask experience. We were given iced tea during this, while we were waiting for our silica masks to dry, I was pretty dehydrated so took it gladly, but it definitely had a liquorice/aniseed flavour so Rob gave it a miss. After we had finished The Ritual we still wanted a drink so got directions to the bar. On our way we saw people in a pool outside with drinks and decided we wanted to make our way out there. Luckily the door outside was next to the bar, so we were given our complimentary drinks in plastic glasses so we could take them out with us. There is nothing like drinking a mimosa outdoors in a hot pool. We had to pay for our second drink (but you wear a wristband that is scanned if you make any purchases and then you pay as you leave), but there is a little wooden door in the corner of the pool with a menu next to it, and someone inside comes and opens it to take your order – so we had to do that.

Feeling a little fuzzy after the second drink we decided to leave the hot water and head inside. First we visited the fire room, there is a lit fire in the middle and it is surrounded by seats and day beds for lounging, but that was a little too warm, so we headed to the swinging nest seats made for two. We thought we would go for another dip before getting changed but we were so relaxed we stayed in the nests until we had to leave. Four hours flew by, we even missed a couple of the rooms. It is without a doubt an expensive afternoon, and had we booked all our own activities and seen the price, we never would have gone, but I’m so glad we did, and if we visit Iceland again, I would save my pennies and make a return visit. It wasn’t too busy, just a handful of other couples were milling around (maybe we just timed it right), the staff were all really friendly, the atmosphere was so calming, lots of big glass windows so you could see the warm blue pools outside, but also lots of dark earthy tones and subdued lighting mirroring the volcanic landscape in the surrounding area, it was just a lovely way to spend an afternoon and a lovely way for Rob to spend his 40th.

Day three saw us jumping back in the car and heading a bit further east. We stopped at Lögberg to see the site of the first Icelandic Parliament, there were quite a few tourists, but it still looked really pretty in the snow and we had a nice little walk over the bridges and along the river.

Our next couple of stops were very much on the tourist route, but you couldn’t not join them. We stopped at the geothermal geyser at Selfoss, where like an idiot, I thought I’d pressed record on my phone as it erupted, only to find out later that it hadn’t worked.

Our next tourist hotspot was Gullfoss – a big ol’ waterfall. It was pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the wind that we – and what appeared to be all the tourists in Iceland – had to battle with in order to reach the viewing platform, I’ve never been so grateful for my short sturdy legs, it was pretty hilarious.

A new furry friend

For lunch we were booked in at Friðheimer Tomato farm in Reykholt. We were given a short talk on how they farm tomatoes in Iceland, as well as a trying a couple of varieties of tomatoes and a delicious drink made from green tomatoes, lime, honey, ginger and sparkling water (it sounds a bit odd but it was cooling and refreshing, which isn’t a bad thing when you are having lunch in a greenhouse while dressed in your winter layers!). Our package included the tomato soup with bread, we were welcome to add something else from the main menu if we wanted but the soup was more than enough, it was the best tomato soup I’ve ever eaten. We also had a pudding – apple pie, (although I’m not sure you can call it a pie as it didn’t have a top, it was more of a pot of pie filling, it was a mix of chopped apples and green tomatoes with sugar and cinnamon). If you had asked me beforehand, I would have screwed my nose up at green tomatoes, but it turns out they are quite versatile. The farm also breeds horses, so we stopped to say hi to them as we left.

We ended the day by stopping off at one more waterfall, Urriðafoss. Smaller than the first waterfall, but no less beautiful, especially covered in snow and ice (the colours in my photos really don’t do it justice). The other added bonus is that it is far less popular with tourists, so it gave Rob the opportunity to take his time taking photos. The sun was starting to go down so there was also some beautiful light.

The view outside of Hotel Ranga

We then continued on to our second hotel, Hotel Rangá. More rustic than our first hotel, but just as lovely and friendly. We were really impressed by the owner, Thor, who takes the time every evening to introduce himself to his guests by visiting each table in the restaurant, it was a nice personal touch – he was also around during breakfast service making sure that everyone was happy and things were running smoothly. The idea with Hotel Rangá is that you are staying in a more rural area, so should the Aurora Borealis appear the staff can call your room to wake you up and let you know. Sadly they it didn’t appear during our stay but that is just the way it is, these things can’t be predicted.

We started our final full day by visiting Seljalandsfoss - another busy waterfall, although as we were there fairly early, it wasn’t too bad. Usually, during the summer at least, this waterfall is popular because you can walk behind it, but during our trip not only was it very icy, but there was also a risk of thawing, so no one was allowed too close in case they either slipped and fell, or had giant clumps of thawing ice fall on them.

Our second stop was a lighthouse at Dyrhólaey, and boy was that a windy pit stop, our guide had to hold the car doors for us when we returned to the car – I’m not even sure how he got his door open without any help and then climb inside without trapping a limb. Again it was pretty busy, there were great views (if you could open your eyes for long enough), I didn’t dare take my phone out to take a photo, I just knew that it would blow over the side of the cliff if I did. We then made another stop just down the hill from the lighthouse where we could enjoy the views without getting blown away.

From Dyrhólaey we took a short drive round to Reynisfjara Beach, it has a wonderful big cave in the side of mountain Reynisfjall at one end, which has a fantastic basalt columned wall, unfortunately it is also super popular with tourists, so it was impossible to get a photo due to people sitting on it etc. People seemed less interested in the basalt sea stacks (Reynisdrangar) – which were awesome – and the rest of the near empty beach. While we were there we also had some fantastic changing light and cloud, we actually waited on one spot for quite a long time so Rob could take a picture of a rainbow… then we gave up, and as soon as he picked up his camera and turned away it appeared! It was okay – he caught it before it disappeared again!

For lunch, we drove around the corner from the beach to Iceland’s southernmost village, Vík. We stopped at the big restaurant/shop/cafe building, purpose built for the influx of tourists. Commercial but incredibly convenient, we had a wonderful soup which, if we had wanted more, was bottomless. I also bought a hand knitted Icelandic jumper, I checked the price with our guide (I wanted to make sure it wasn’t over-priced seems as we were in a tourist shop) he said price was middle of the range, so I knew I wasn’t being ripped off. He then helped me choose one, making sure it was a good fit. It was an expensive purchase – it probably worked out at around £120/ £130 – but it is knitted entirely by hand and the label attached even told me the name of the knitter (which I thought was nice), I absolutely adore it (I pop it on whenever I’m feeling chilly), and for all those reasons I think it was well worth the price.

Post lunch and shop we were taken a little further along the road from Vík to another black sand beach, I’m not sure of the name, but I think it was somewhere near Kálfafell. This one was completely empty, it was amazing, we couldn’t actually see the sea but parked up by a huge cliff face filled with birds. We could see a main road in the distance but it was almost like being on another planet. We then did a bit of off-road driving to get us back to the main road.

As we started heading back in the direction of our hotel we stopped at another busy waterfall, Skógafoss. This one has steps up the side so you can walk up to the top, but after a few days stomping around in my Sorel Caribous, my dodgy knee wasn’t up to it. So after a quick stop and few photos our guide drove us to a track just off the main road, almost directly opposite Skógafoss which leads down to another vast, completely empty beach (it was quite a fun, fast drive down to the water), I don’t think it is signposted and the only other people that tend to go down there are the super jeeps that give tourists a thrilling ride along the sand (we just saw the one jeep, just leaving as we turned on to the track). It was such a beautiful empty space.

Our very last stop of the day was to a little waterfall back by Seljalandsfoss (just a short walk along a path). Our guide thought it would be nice to break the two waterfalls up, and also leave this one until the end of the day so there were less people around, as to see it, you have to walk a little way along the river bed through a cave entrance. When I say walking along the riverbed, what I mean is stepping on to large stones and boulders, they aren’t actual stepping stones, they are a bit uneven and some of them are loose, so for a short person with short arms and legs it was a bit challenging as I couldn’t reach the wall to balance myself as I stepped. In the end I gave up and just walked the last metre or so through the shallow water – it turns out one boot is slightly leaky! It was really fun though, and cool to see water falling into a cave-like space instead of being out in the open. On the way back out, Rob gave me his camera tripod to use as a walking pole – that made things much easier!

I’m already itching to go back to Iceland, I found it magical. We didn’t see much of Reykjavik because we were only there at night, but it felt quite small and quaint yet bustling, so we would love to explore it some more. We completely fell in love with how once out of the city, so much of the land feels raw and untouched, and the ever changing winter light was stunning. Sure there are a lot of tourists (including us) going to all the same spots, but it feels like the bits we have ticked off were just the tip of the iceberg. We would like to return at a slightly different time of year – not the height of summer, as we have heard that it gets horrendously busy – but it would be great to see the land during a different season, without as much ice and snow.

We will have to start saving now, as the only other thing to keep in mind when visiting Iceland is that it is expensive. If you budget by thinking how much you would expect to pay for something in the UK and then roughly double it, you’ll probably get some idea of how much you can expect to spend, it is however worth every single penny.

The rest of February has seen me hit pause on the character development while I spend some time trying to get used to using my ipad Pro and Procreate. I’ve tried a couple of times before but it has never felt quite right, so I’ve set myself a bit of a challenging project which will hopefully push me through the awkward stage. I’m not planning on giving up my traditional mediums – I think I will always love them first – but I think it is important to keep digital skills fresh, it is another great tool/medium. I’ve also finally updated to the latest Photoshop (from CS5) so I think I need to work on a few tutorials, just to make myself familiar with the updates and changes… give it a couple of weeks, I’ll be craving the feel of paper, pencil and paintbrush again! :)

End of Year Update - 2018

I guess technically we aren’t quite at the end of the year, but lets face it, it is unlikely I’ll post again before we hit 2019!

What have I been up to since August? Well, as well as continuing with a few watercolour ink portraits, I visited the Lake District at the end of September for my birthday.

As usual we had a great time visiting Grasmere, Whinlatter and Coniston Water, and this time we finally made it to Buttermere too, (it was a gloriously sunny day!).

For my actual birthday we visited The Lake District Wildlife Park; that wasn’t gloriously sunny, it was grey, damp and drizzly, but it didn’t matter because we booked a Lemur Encounter - I highly recommend everyone stroking a lemur on their birthday!

Once we were back home I hit the ground running with Inktober. I failed miserably on my first attempt last year, but this time I was organised. I used Jake Parker’s Inktober prompts and sneakily completed my sketches before we went to the Lakes, so all I needed to do was trace and paint them… The only snag was that I would be starting a five week MATS course mid-October and I didn’t want to be trying to juggle both, so I traced and painted all 31 in the first eleven days of the month.

I tried to keep everything simple, so I stuck with the same little character, a witch called Hattie who is always getting things wrong. I hadn’t intended to stick with one character throughout the whole month initially but she appeared in the first sketch and it just seemed the most obvious thing to do after that - less time spent coming up with ideas, less time thinking about palette, less time wondering how to draw a panda juggling on broken bike etc. (although maybe I’ll do that next year). I think maybe there were memories of Mildred Hubble seeping out from my subconscious, I used to love the Worst Witch books!

During those eleven days I also decided to throw in another Gish challenge about fears, so I decided to create a two page comic strip on the subject. I haven’t actually done any kind of comic strip before, but after listening to Dan Berry’s ‘Make It Then Tell Everybody’ podcast I’ve been inspired and have become really curious about using it as a way of telling stories. It is definitely something I would like to look into and experiment with.

My last main task of the year was the five week ‘Make Art That Sells’, ‘Illustrating Children’s Books’ course. I’ve written a separate post about it which goes into more detail, but basically the course helps you develop a series of images that can be used in your portfolio to help pitch your illustration work. I guess the course is as intense as you make it, it is up to you how much work you do, but I tried really hard, getting up early, working all day and also a majority of evenings, other stuff like cleaning, some cooking and life in general got put on hold. There has been a lot of information to absorb, I need to go back through it all, but mostly I was surprised by how much I could produce in what was a fairly short space of time.

I’ve now caught up on all my Christmas stuff, I’ve tried my best to buy from as many local businesses and independent makers as possible - I love seeking out individual gifts that people may not have come across before. If I remember, I want to take pictures of the things I’ve bought so I can share a bunch of creators in a post in the new year, (I can’t do it now because it will spoil all the surprises). So until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Making Art That Sells - Illustrating Children's Books 5

During October and November 2018 I took the five week ‘Illustrating Children’s Books’ MATS (Make Art That Sells) online course hosted by Lilla Rogers and Zoë Tucker. I thought it might be nice to share my experience here in case anyone else is considering this course, or just looking for a children’s illustration course in general.

The aim of the course is to assist you to produce several pieces of work for your portfolio to help pitch your illustrations professionally. Just before the course begins you are given three texts (children’s stories written by Lilla and Zoë) to read through, so you can decide which you would like to work with. You are also given access to a Facebook Group specifically for members of the class. This means that throughout the course you can chat with your classmates, share with others what you are working on, and find and give support. I found this group to be warm and friendly, but it is quite large so sometimes posts can get swallowed up quickly. I personally also found it a bit addictive so by the end of week three I had to cut back on posting and replying because I was getting distracted - with the class being global there was always someone on there to talk to! However it was nice to know that there was a bunch of people in exactly the same creative boat as me.

Each day (apart from Sunday) you are given a daily prompt to work on for ten minutes or so, to help you get started and loosen up, these correspond with the subject that you are working on that week, so it is something that you can refer back to as you work on the main assignments. I found these prompts really useful as they were a great exercise to get you moving each day without all the worry and procrastination, they also reminded me of the importance of drawing from reference, it was good to get back into that practice. The only problem with the prompts that I had was my own lack of self discipline, if I happened to be enjoying a prompt, ten minutes could easily turn in an hour or more.

On Monday you would be given a mini assignment, the aim of these is to introduce you to the main assignment gently, you have two days for the mini and then on Wednesday you are given the main assignment that you have until Sunday to complete. Once completed you upload your main assignment to the gallery on the website (mini assignments can be shared in the Facebook Group), then on the following Wednesday the gallery goes live and you can look through all the work produced by the class.

On the Wednesday after submitting your assignment, Lilla and Zoë do a review of some of the work from the gallery. They choose around twenty pieces and talk through what is great about them and also suggest ways in which they can be improved. You are warned before purchase that not everybody will get personal feedback on their work, so it is up to each illustrator to take the advice from the video and apply it to their own work. Looking at the gallery, I would estimate that there are at least 250 people taking the course, so it just isn’t possible for every piece of work to be commented on, those twenty chosen pieces create a review video over an hour long - you would be there all day if everyone was featured!

Each week you are also given at least one article/interview/video/info sheet a day (apart from Sunday), but most days it is more than one. These cover a range of things such as interviews with illustrators and publishers, articles on how to approach art directors and what they are looking out for, what is actually involved when you get a job (how projects work), as well as guidance on the main assignment. I think this might have been my favourite part of the course, you are basically being told a whole heap of stuff you wouldn’t usually know unless you have been there and done it already. It has given me more confidence on what to expect once I’m happy with my portfolio and I try and find work.

Week one was all about the main character. We began by reading through our chosen text searching for clues about their personality, inventing the accessories we thought they would wear and carry, before we moved on to drawing the actual character. I hadn’t thought of doing this before and it helped me to understand my character more thoroughly, and flesh him out a bit.

In week two we concentrated on emotions and expressions, drawing nothing but the head and playing with how we could convey meaning through the face. This was built on in week three by adding the body and developing poses to go with some of those expressions, trying to ensure that meaning was being communicated consistently throughout the whole character.

During week four we worked on environment with the main assignment being a double page spread. This was the assignment that I was most nervous about. I mostly work traditionally using watercolour ink and sometimes find it difficult to bring the characters and their surroundings together neatly and naturally. The course permits any medium, traditional or digital so I decided to paint each element separately then brought all the pieces together in Photoshop. I am as slow at Photoshop as I am painting, so it still took me ages but it did take the pressure off - if I made a mistake while painting, I wouldn’t have to do the whole thing all over again (whether I’ll continue to work like that I’m not sure yet).

All text in this piece is copyright of Zoë Tucker.

In the final week we worked on the front cover (see top of post). By the final Tuesday, working from first thing in the morning to late most days had aggravated my crummy back and I was having difficulty sitting for any length of time. I felt I had to rush to get the cover done and dusted, which is a shame, but I was still pleased that I finished every assignment - I uploaded the cover on the Friday and I can’t lie, I was happy to have a free weekend back after four weeks without one!

So was it worth it and did I enjoy it? Yes it was and yes I did (I even had a tiny cry at it after I uploaded the final assignment… or maybe I was just overworked! :) ). It is, if you want it to be, a lot of work, the amount of information given to you and the amount you are asked to do is intense, but I also found it great fun and exhilarating to be part of something, and to have set deadlines and goals. I was also surprised by how much work I actually produced in five weeks. Although I wasn’t entirely happy with my character and aspects of my other assignments, I now feel like I have a better idea of what things I need to change and work on in order to improve, and I’m looking forward to working through all the downloads and absorbing all the information and advice properly. I now also feel more confident about what my next steps will be once I am happy with my portfolio, I feel like I’m in a position to make a plan.

Were there any negatives? Not especially, but it is worth taking note of a few things that might make you feel a little negative personally, what with us creative types inclined to be a little more emotional or sensitive than others. Firstly, the course is quite a lot of money, that’s not to say it isn’t great value, but if you are going to spend your money on it, get the most out of it that you can by committing as much time to it as possible. Also it seems really obvious to me in hindsight, but when you purchase the course, as far as I can remember, the product page doesn't mention ‘may be subject to VAT’, so when I had (just under) an extra £80 added to my basket, it wasn’t the most pleasant surprise!

Secondly, you know you shouldn’t be comparing yourself to others, we all know that, but when you are surrounded by so many different styles and mediums, it can be really hard not to. You will need to have little mantras along the lines of “I’m me, I’m being me, they are doing them, and I am doing me” for the days when you aren’t feeling so confident. My experience, (and from what I can tell the experience of a lot of people in the Facebook group), is that the course is a bit of an emotional roller coaster, one minute you are motivated and enthusiastic and the next you feel like a sack of crap (we all have some kind of pesky doubts right?), it is a great practice for pushing through and continuing to work while you are feeling like that sack of crap. Of course the other side to there being so much other work to compare yourself to is that it is really inspiring - there is so much eye-candy.

I think the final thing I want to mention goes back to the review. My work wasn’t chosen for review, and while you know that statistically it is unlikely, each week you still hope that you are chosen. You don’t even realise that you were hoping until you aren’t in there and then you feel disappointment. It is pretty weird to feel disappointment for something you didn’t know you were hoping for… it isn’t the best feeling, but it isn’t the end of the world either, you soon get over it, you don’t have time to dwell on it, you have another assignment to start! I just figured I wasn’t standing out enough, I wasn’t hitting the mark, and if I’m honest with myself that is perfectly fair, I need to improve - and I will.

Mid-Year Update 2018

So much for regular blog posts! I have no idea where the first half of the year went, but I certainly didn't spend it updating this blog! I don't want to send anyone to sleep with almost seven months worth of details so I'll just hit you up with a couple of highlights! Firstly, the site has had a bit of a work update, there are now new sketchbook collages to see, as well as a new section featuring an ongoing project where I illustrate heads. 

Secondly, one of the projects I've worked on this year is writing and illustrating my own story, "Miriam Makes A Difference".

This was actually a birthday gift for Lewis, my friend's son. It was inspired by a day out we had together at Longleat, where we saw a variety of Mantis. Miriam is a Praying Mantis and the story revolves around her saving herself and fellow buggy creatures from a horde of hungry bats (to keep it simple we politely ignore Miriam's eating habits). 

I gave myself four weeks to complete the project, from coming up with the story, right through to tying all the painted pages together with ribbon...but it took me eight, (sorry Lewis!), even though I rushed a fair bit and kind of cheated. I say 'cheated' as I took full advantage of the qualities of a Praying Mantis when illustrating. Usually if I wanted to illustrate something sequential I would be thinking about flow, points of view, scale... but the thing about the Praying Mantis is that they spend lots of time being very, very still, so I kept her in exactly the same spot, at exactly the same size on many of the pages - even when she does move it is only one arm! So while I played on the static nature of my main character, I tried to make up for the lack of movement by changing small details, so sometimes Miriam might have an umbrella, or sunglasses, or a hat, and on each page, each little buggy friend has moved to a different spot and is doing something different. I think it is a project that could definitely be developed and improved upon, but the most important thing is that Lewis liked it and didn't mind that it was late! 

Finally, I recently spent a week Gishing! (Gishing - not fishing). Gish is the Great International Scavenger Hunt that takes place for one week each year. It is hosted by actor Misha Collins (who some people might know from Supernatural) and has been running since 2011. I've only recently started watching Supernatural, so needless to say I've only just started snooping on the instagram accounts of actors, and I've only just discovered Gish. I was a bit apprehensive at first (so much so that instead of signing up, I first bought a t-shirt and then donated a Gisholarship, so someone else who couldn't afford it, could take part), seeing pictures of past items, such as "VIDEO. Find someone you love and butter them up; literally, cover them in butter and then give them a big hug." made me nervous. However, I had a week before registration closed to decide and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I liked the idea of doing good, raising money for charity (via registration fee and t-shirt sales), having fun and breaking away from my usual routine. So I registered and set about, via the Gish app, finding a team to play with. I ended up joining team Smelly Friends (A F.R.I.E.N.D.S reference - we don't actually stink), thanks to a lovely friendly invite from our Captain Natasha. There were 15 of us spread throughout the UK, Ireland, the U.S and Australia. It has been such great fun being able to chat with complete strangers, of varying ages, from around the world, all working towards the same goal! The hunt involves a list of over 200 items that teams can attempt, some teams know each other physically so can take part in challenges that need several team members to complete, but we each chose items that could be done either alone or with the help of family members. Each item is worth points, the team with the most points wins ( it was a trip to New Zealand this year), although we were a 'just for fun' team, so aren't holding out any hopes of winning - some teams really appear to be, 'life-on-hold-in-it-to-win-it!' Naturally I veered away from the challenges that involved causing myself too much embarrassment (maybe next year) and opted for the creative challenges, so I thought I'd share some here. 

Item 31: You are never too old to...
So this is the most 'outgoing' I get, plastering myself in make-up in a childlike manner, but only because it also gave me a good excuse to build a fort. Unexpectedly, this may have been my favourite item to complete - I was really fond of my simple little fort. 

Item 155: Using only the contents of your spice cabinet, create a portrait of one (or all) of the Spice Girls
I knew I wanted this item as soon as I saw it, then once I had assigned myself to it I wondered what the hell I had let myself in for! I enjoyed this because, although it wasn't easy, using the spices turned out to be less challenging than I had thought - as long as you resist the urge to blow tiny particles out of the way and sneezing. My magic tools turned out to be a mini skewer with a paddle on one end, and a teaspoon, but you only ever put the tiniest amount of spice on the spoon at one time, no matter how impatient you are getting, if a tiny bit falls in the wrong place you can nudge it, or cover it with a different spice, if loads of spice falls in the wrong place you may as well grab the hoover and start again! I'm not the most patient person in the world so I was pretty impressed with the focus I had doing this, I also really liked how her hair turned out. 

Item 118: You know Winnie the Pooh. But have you met his cousin Vinnie da Pooh? Show us a page from the book about Pooh Bear’s mob-boss cousin.
This was another item that I knew I wanted to complete. In hindsight, having seen submissions from other teams I realise I could have saved myself a lot of time by doing one large image and a single line of text... but when have I ever made things easy for myself? (The answer is never - if there is a longer and harder way of doing something I'll inadvertently do it). Naturally, I decided to not only create two illustrations but to also start writing a whole story - I guess it is just what I do! I really enjoyed trying to capture the style of the original, non-Disney, Winnie the Pooh. I suppose it isn't too far away from what I do with outlines and watercolour, but I really had to concentrate on the detail in the line work, and keeping the colour delicate and not too heavy.  

Item 162: A painting of Castiel alive in the time of dinosaurs. (You may do this with traditional media or digitally).
I didn't have a full week of Gish as I was off on my holibobs, so decided to take this item on, on my last full day at home. It went okay. I was annoyed that I couldn't get a good likeness of Cas, but I didn't have time to sit and worry about it, or try and keep redrawing it if I wanted to get it completed by the end of the day - I just had to get it done. For anyone familiar with Supernatural, Cas is telling the dinosaurs what he learned from the pizza man... and they seem to be pretty interested! It was the first time I had approached drawing characters by firelight, again I'm not sure why I decided to make it harder for myself, but by the time I came to paint it and actually started considering colour use, the sketch was all done and ready to go, so I just rolled with it. I'm quite pleased, I think I've managed to get a fairly good contrast between the light and the shadow, and although there is room for improvement, it isn't bad considering I knocked an A3 illustration - concept to finish - out in a day.

Item 201: It's recently been discovered that there's a lake on Mars. Show us a summer alien "Beach Day" at the lake, complete with picnicking, fishing, and swimming aliens. (You may create this as a photo, a drawing, or a digital painting).
So in my infinite wisdom I decided that I could maybe squeeze in one more final item the night before my holiday... although the fact that I chose to do it digitally suggests that I wasn't that confident in completing it before leaving and would maybe have to take it with me. It was nowhere near completed by the end of the night so I ended up continuing with it in the car while driving up to the Peak District (obviously I wasn't the one doing driving, I mean I can multitask okay but I can't actually drive, so I certainly wasn't multitasking on this occasion). I then finished it off that evening while sitting with my family and drinking wine. Again, it was a bit of a rush, I did have another day to do it before the Gish deadline, but I wanted to spend that time with my family, so I only gave myself that night to complete it. Originally I wanted to create my own aliens, but knowing that I was on quite a tight deadline I decided that not having to think up entirely new characters would probably be easier (maybe I did learn something from the previous items about not doing the hardest-most-time-consuming-thing after all). 

So that's pretty much everything for now. Hopefully I'll be quicker at posting next time, and with a bit of luck it will also be a bit shorter! 

January 2018 - Round-Up

I entered 2018 with a slight case of inertia, but having things leftover from 2017 to finish has really motivated me. I think that sometimes the prospect of starting a bright, shiny New Year with a spring in your step and a brand new list of goals can be a bit intimidating. Having old tasks to complete already sitting on the to-do list, took the pressure off and I gained momentum by simply carrying on where I left off.  So, the second half of January has flown by and it's because I've been spending a significant amount of time glued to my desk - but I'm not complaining. 

I finished my final Christmas Elf collage. I'm not entirely sure it fits with the previous collages in the series but I like it, it amuses me.

The book cover that I mentioned in the last post has also moved along, but I can't share any of that yet. 

I can, however, share two woodland related collages that join the fox collage I created last year - an owl and a hare. Again I'd like to create a series of at least five of these as I think they look really effective, so keep an eye out in future for a deer and a badger.  

I've also been pondering how creative folks on social media manage to stay active and continue to look creative when they are working on projects that they can't share? I often find tumbleweeds passing through my instagram account!