A boy and his monkey.

Firstly, thanks so much to everyone who dropped by and said such nice things about Bathroom Lion, I really appreciate it folks! For those who asked it will, hopefully, be published October time. There's a chance it will be available on Amazon, and the publishers will have it on their site. When I know more I'll be sure and post about it.

I've been working on a commission for a little boy's first birthday present. His parents wanted a painting of the little guy riding a monkey, maybe holding it's ears, and wearing a green T-shirt with a 1 on it... the rest was however I wanted to take it. I showed them 2 versions of initial sketches, which I also splashed some quick colour on. They loved the colour palette of the left hand version with the character design of the right so last nights task was a marriage of the two. The parents are happy with version 3 (save for keeping the original sun design , showing the boy's teeth and having him bear foot) so the next step is to get out the paints! It's going to be a useful exercise in pushing me into doing more natural media pieces. I'd love to get my eye in with gouache as well so I've tried to design things with an eye to the final painting process. I guess I'll know how easy I've made my life when I get cracking over the easter break. I'm away for a few days so it will make a nice holiday project as it will like as not be raining! I'll post the final piece when I have it. Enjoy your secular chocolate eggs folks!

Bathroom Lion Cover, woohoo!

I'm really happy to finally be able to post something further on the bathroom lion book. No doubt a few tweaks to come here and there but this is the cover. Just 2 more illustrations for the inside of the book and I'm done! I've also posted an in progress lion doodle and my exploration of lion's paw bath legs... Although the showering lion was always going to be in silhouette I felt the need to know who I was dealing with behind the curtain. I think I read somewhere that Arthur Rackham always used to draw the rough details on his silhouette illustrations before inking in... I'd say it's essential in order to get a silhouette that really looks like it's owner. The multicoloured version of the hand lettered title is just a bit of whimsy to see what it would look like using the palette of the cover. More soon!

Cards, cards...Happy Mothers Day /Birthday!

Finally I get round to another post. I've a few things coming up which I can finally post on so my sadly neglected blog can feel wanted again. Today's efforts are a pair of cards I actually produced without going any where near a computer... wow who knew you can be creative without photoshop ;) The abstract watercolour collage is for my lovely mum's mother's day card. Islands, hills, rocks... please take your pick. Now I look at how I placed the 3 forms I think they are a bit too bunched up... but my card base was only A5 and I was loathed to trim the pieces down (and lose some of those interesting happenstance textures) to give me more room. My thanks to the inspirational, texture packed watercolourist krisztina maros for her tip on using salt with watercolour. I'm having a lot of fun with the effects... ta for sharing your trade secret!
The second collage is for my good friend Phil's birthday. He's had a wild thing vibe in his work for a while now so I thought it only appropriate! A bit of a rush job but I did enjoy reusing the character treatment I had for Carol (I guess IT/he now has a name) in my terrible yellow eyes submission. Sendak really knew what he was doing when he designed those wild things! More posts in the week.