I've had a move around in here. A fresh lick of paint and a furniture shuffle is all you need to brighten up the place. Maybe I'll get a vase of daffodils to put on the table.

This week I've been working on backgrounds for my picture book style. Mark and I came up with a new idea for a story and he's furnished me with three layouts to work on in time for the Bologna Book Fair at the end of April. He's given me some great ideas of how to build on all the work I've been doing with watercolour and saltwash. If you look at all the work recent stuff, you'll see that none of the characters have a background. It wasn't intentional as such, I just wasn't sure how to approach it in a way that didn't make it all look too "samey" and one-dimensional.

Here are my first experiments. I've been trying out painting over collaged papers.

This one is watercolour over squared paper, the second an acrylic wash over the same.





This is acrylic over raffle tickets.



And gouache (apologies for the difficulty in seeing this one. It's very pale.)



The acrylic gives a nice base over the squared paper, but with the acrylic/raffle tickets version I put the paint on too thickly for the coloured pencil to adhere to without it looking patchy.

The gouache one seems to work the best - it can look like thicker acrylic, but has the added advantage of a nice chalky surface to draw over. The watercolour was just pants.

Right, more experiments to get one with!

Well, my trip to Penzance wasn't as fruitful as I had hoped. Lots of lovely yarns to buy, but they were all either a wool/acrylic mix - no good for felting - or way to expensive. Sigh. Fabric shopping turned up nothing, too. Didn't help that I had a thumping headache when we got in the car and spent the whole journey trying not to throw up. Penzance's lovely sea air soon made me feel much better once we'd finally stopped moving. I did get a fine array of different papers, though, to try out a new approach with my backgrounds.

And to add to the excitement, we noticed the car was "limping" when we slowed down. I got out to look at the tyres while Lovely Jon drove slowly round the car park of B&Q. The rear passenger side tyre had a lump. A big old egg on it. A quick trip to Kwik Fit revealed we needed three new tyres and the tracking adjusted. Just fifty minutes and 160 quid lighter we were on our way home. I must say, though, Kwik Fit were really good. I hate going into garages as it just reminds me of many a dull hour in my childhood, but they were really nice blokes who did the job straight away with no fuss. God knows what would've happened if I'd been by myself. I'd've probably ignored it until I got back home and then panicked about it.

Today hasn't been all that productive, either. I went into Truro on the train - much quicker and cheaper than driving - for a few bits and bobs. I found the amazing Truro Arts where I was undercharged by 35p - hoorah! -and quite a few nice little shops. My first trip to Truro was back in June and neither of us really liked it, but now on my third visit, it's definitely growing on me. Again lots of lovely yarns and fabrics, but either unsuitable or too expensive. Bum.

Instead I've ordered five mini assortment packs from Atelier Jade in Japan. Much more what I'm after for my crafty bits and pieces. I've had a bit of a brainwave about Primark knickers, too, but I'll keep you posted on that one.

I've recently discovered how great Amazon marketplace is. If the book you want is out of stock/print, someone somewhere will no doubt have it, and usually for a lot less than Amazon. For example, I've just ordered five Delphine Durand-illustrated books that would've cost me £27 in total from Amazon (using their special deals). One of them was out of stock, so using Super Saver delivery would mean I wouldn't get the books for another 3 weeks. But by using Amazon Marketplace sellers, they're all being delivered early next week. I've had to pay delivery on each one, but because the book prices themselves are so low it only comes to a pound more than buying it all from amazon at 28 quid. Genius! I could easily become addicted.

Today has been the most productive day for quite some time. Not only have I now finished updating my web portfolios - including my own site - but I'm sticking to my new rules and I made a one-off piece today.

This is Florence:



Florence likes knitting, legwarmers, choc-chip cookies and horror novels. She hates peanut butter, chick flicks and dogs.

As a quick one-off piece it took too long, really. What I'm aiming for is 30 minutes-ish, an hour at most. Florence took me two and a bit hours, but I suppose that did include running up and down two flights of stairs trying to get all my disparately scattered materials together in one room. BUT I can't find my Prismacolors (the replacements for Karismas.) I bought a huge tin off eBay for 60 quid, which, although bargainous for the pencils, is enough money for me not to want to have to buy another set. I've searched through all the boxes labelled "Emma's Studio" to no avail. I just know I'll end up tipping out every box, only for them to be hiding at the bottom of some totally random one. Bumholes.

However, I had a bit of a brainwave with how to suggest her wooliness - which was painted separately and laid over the top in PhotoShop - so I'll have another go trying to do something similar.

On a plus, all this box-upending meant I came across a few CDs I got for Christmas that I just packed straight away without listening to them. Unfortunately, I did this with all my Christmas presents, so it feels a bit like Christmas didn't happen for me! I suppose it means when I do get them all back together it'll be festive all over again. So, this afternoon I have been listening to "KT Tunstall's Accoustic Extravaganza" which is very good. Mainly new stuff, but also a couple of tracks off her last album "Eye To The Telescope".

Lovely Jon has a meeting in Penzance tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to go with him. I love Penzance. There's a lovely knitting shop, plus quite a few fabric shops, so hopefully I can find some crafty inspiration.

Good Lord, you mean to say that this is March? But where hath the chilly month of February gone? Aahhh, I remember now. I was but moving hundreds of miles away to a place I had but visited for no longer than a week before. I was plagued with no heating for five days in the coldest week of the year, and hath only in the last week recovered my beloved internet connection, alas.

But it is now fine. We are here at last, we're settling in nicely, and we have some heat. I also have a lovely studio - even it is does need a good sweep and tidy up - and I'm beginning to knuckle down to some work.

There were so many things I wanted to do before we left Brighton/Cranleigh that I was so eager to get on with, yet didn't have the space/equipment/knowledge to do them. But now, because it's taken so long to get sorted (we will have been here five weeks on Wednesday) I've either forgotten what those things were or I've lost the inclination. So today has been a Making A List and Researching On The Internet day. Amazing how time flies when you're reading other people's blogs.

This is my list - kind of like New House Resolutions rather than New Year's Resolutions - and I hope that by posting it here it will remind me of my tasks.

THINGS I WANT TO DO:

1. Get more crafty. Make and sell things through Etsy, local shops and this 'ere blog. Knit stuff - random stuff -, make jewelry, get out my badge machine and actually make badges with it from odd bits of fabric or paper or anything flat. Do this under the banner of The Yellow House in honour of the colour of our new place. (Strictly speaking the actual shade is ochre, but try explaining that to anyone other than an artist. Delivery men included.)

2. Create everyday. I want to do something creative everyday and post it up here, even if it's just a scribbly idea that won't come to anything. I grapple the idea that everything I do has to have a purpose. These exercises should hopefully get me over that.

3. Just do stand-alone pieces for my portfolio. I often fall into the trap that everything I do must have a story and be a fully-rounded project. One-off pieces could be great one-day projects and good for filling up the portfolio.

4. Update web portfolios more often. This should definitely be easier when I'm just creating for myself.

5. Keep up with blogs. Not just my own updating-wise, but the wider blogging community. There are a 6 or 7 blogs that I visit on a daily basis - although I'm still catching up with them at the moment after my enforced internet absence - that I love. I should leave more comments to encourage traffic back to my sites and hopefully get more publicity.

6. Take more photographs. Of anything. There are some very cool postboxes round here.

7. Do a new business card/postcard to send out with my new address and phone number - once BT have told me what it is, that is.

8. Get more more paid illustration work. As always. Of course, I need to provide Mark with suitable samples, so hopefully once 2,3 and 4 are in full swing, 8 should follow.

9. Join a club. I fancy taking up pilot gig rowing.


That's enough for the immediate future. All I need now is to get on with it!

Jon and I now have a joint blog at www.porcupineterrace.blogspot.com. There's nothing there at the moment, but we're going to log our progress down here in Cornwall, and show how the house and garden and our hopes for a greener life are progressing. Here are our first livestock acquisitions. Not sure if they'll be much use as agricultural animals, but they sure are cute.

Reeves and Mortimer:

Well, I'm still in Surrey at my mum's and not in Cornwall where I'd hoped to be by now. However, the last check has been done - at long blummin' last - and the results are OK, so it shouldn't be too much longer. I've been working on a few bits and bobs but I don't have my scanner here so I can't assemble it all as yet. I've been mainly been knitting and making notes for my new story idea.

Calorie-free cake, anyone?



I also need to list six odd things about myself, although I have been tagged by three people, so maybe I need 18 weird things!But here goes:

1. I can't eat yellow food. Or rather, I can't eat too much yellow food. For example, a couple of nights ago, my sisters had chicken casserole with mashed potato and peas for dinner. My sister Holly isn't keen on peas, so she had sweetcorn instead. Now the yellow of mash, with the yellow of the corn, and the orange of the carrots, and the creamy colour of the chicken made me feel odd. I actually couldn't look at it. Similarly, I can't eat off a yellow or orange plate.

2. I can't go downstairs. I HATE stairs. Especially if they are old or spiral or those backless ones. I actually have nightmares where I can't get down enormous old, ornate staircases and just cling to them sobbing until either someone rescues me, or I bump down on my backside like a three-year-old. I usually have to hold onto someone's shoulder in front of me as we go down. I think this stems from my grandmother's old staircase which was backless and made from highly polished wood. I always used to think I'd just slip through the back on my socks.

3. If I'm out with Lovely Jon, I never look before I cross the road. I let him be my eyes and ears. Dangerous, I realise, plus I run the risk of looking like a fool when he roughly grabs my elbow and runs with me across the road with my arm in the air.

4. I will straighten all CDs/DVDs in their cases even if they are not mine. Like in the library, or at other people's houses.

5. I have to eat in even numbers. For example, if I'm offered a Tic Tac or similar, I have to take two. My mother is like this, too. To the extent where she had my youngest sister Sophie to make the total number of her children up to a nice, even four.

6. I am a bit obsessed with eyelashes. I love the feel of them. If Lovely Jon is in a particularly nice mood, he'll let me stroke his. I have done this ever since I was two when my grandad used to let me "play with his eyes" while I sucked my thumb. Even now, it will send me to sleep. I often have an overwhelming urge to touch the eyelashes of people I'm talking to, even if they are virtual strangers.

Yes, I am odd.

These are the last pieces I will do for a while. Lovely Mark has several meetings next week about a picture book idea he and I came up with together, and these guys are a few of the characters. I wasn't able to do a spread in time - what with all the moving stuff and everything else - so I hope these little fellas will do the job of convincing people the idea's a goer.

 

I received a gorgeous new little friend in the post today.



Her name is Cecily and she comes compliments of Ladysnail. 

Good grief. The sun is shining here and has been for two days now!  It's almost like - dare I say it - spring. I'm sure, however, that I am getting ahead of myself. It usually snows around this way in February, and we haven't yet had any really good, frosty, but sunny, weather. (Unless you count five days at the beginning of November where your fingers might have fallen off if you ventured out without gloves.)

Taking advantage of the good weather, Lovely Jon and I got out of the house after a disgustingly long lie-in. As the washing machine has been returned from whence in came in preparation for moving out, we trundled up the hill to Seven Dials and Upper Hamilton Street to use the launderette and, obviously needing some way in which to pass the time, went to The Chimney House for lunch. You know you've slept too late when you're eating your Sunday roast for breakfast.

The CH is a lovely, smoke-free, dog-friendly "gastropub" - to use that annoying term - but that also means it's a kid-friendly pub too. Not that that is such a bad thing, but Brighton Mummies have a habit of thinking they're the most important people in the world, so therefore they can go/do/say whatever they like without feeling they need to ever disipline their child/children. Humph.

We also went there for Sunday lunch two weeks ago on New Year's Eve when it was much quieter. We ended up staying for nearly three hours eating and playing chess! I'm a beginner at chess really, but Lovely Jon was, like, Junior Chess Champion of The World 1989-1993 or something, so he's teaching me. I surprised both him and myself by not being as crap as either of us thought I was going to be in a game that lasted well over an hour. The deal is that he is going to teach me to play a good game of chess, and I'm going to teach him to knit, which should defintely come in handy come Christmas when I'm up to my eyeballs in Crimbo pressie knitting!

After lunch and after collecting out toasty-warm laundry, we walked over to Lewes Road and to Shabitat. We found a lovely big table and four amazing chunky chairs for the new gaff which we are picking up on Friday when we have the van. A bargain at 60 quid for the lot.

I love walking out in the cold air. I haven't been walking an awful lot lately, but that will all change Come The Move. Everything seems to be Come The Move. I just want to get there and get on with my new life and all the projects I have planned! Grrr. Frustration.

Sunday's weather might've been glorious, but Saturday's certainly wasn't. Now we have a car for the first time in two years, Lovely Jon and I have started Saturday Explorations where we basically jump in the car and just drive anywhere, and this week we ended up in Arundel. I've been to the castle there as a teenager, and the WWT centre as a child, but never to the town itself. 

We found a lovely, lovely second hand bookshop where I picked up this box:





With this book inside:







The bookshop owner told me it was published through a private press in America in the 1950s/60s. She bought it from a man called Alan Wyngate - whose name is on a bookplate inside the front cover - who was given it as a child. It is taken from Lewis Carroll's original manuscript for Alice, and, to top it all, with his own illustrations. I love it. Apologies for the slightly rubbishy photos, though.

We also came across a traditional sweet shop where I got this "Retro Bag" and 100g of Strawberry BonBons for £1.99. A bargain weekend all round!

My fellow Brighton illustrator Jo Moore send this out as her New Year's card. Lovely.

Right, I'm back again. This is almost getting to be a habit.

This 'ere new Blogger takes a bit of getting used to. It's much better with uploading pictures,

though. I used to have to keep re-formatting my posts so the text fell inbetween the pictures and not down the sides. No more hitting the return key a million times! Hurrah! Not sure about updating my template, though. Maybe that's a task for another day.

So where was I?

I'd been to the meeting with the publisher who liked my b&w work and looked through the Eeries. I met up with Lovely Mark in the week before Xmas to show him all my new stuff - which he really liked, thank Gawd- and we made a plan of action. We've agreed that I will work on the Eeries - or even a new text - and have it ready at the beginning of March. No pressure or anything! It should be a much easier task, though. I finished working at the library back in December, so that gives me an extra two days straight away.

The thing about having a PT job is that it doesn't just interfere on the days you are there. I worked Wednesdays and Fridays, so Mondays and Tuesdays used to be really productive, but as soon as Wednesday comes it breaks the momentum. Come Thursday, it takes you a whole morning to get back into it, only to have Friday get in the way again.

Well, at least - for now anyway -  I can say I'm a full time Illustrator.

Here are a couple of my new pieces, Blitzen and Pippi Longstocking.





I'm so IN LOVE with b&w. It's much more liberating than colour, where so many things have to come together correctly to make it look good. With b&w, all you have is the white of the paper, and how much water you add to your ink. My ideal job right now would be to illustrate a junior novel. Even better if it's my own!

There a so many things I want to do RIGHT NOW, but it's pointless to start something new when we're so close to moving. It seems that we've finally got to the end stages of the whole business. Only a few more bits of paperwork to go. We have to be out of our Brighton flat by the 22nd anyway, regardless of whether or not we actually have anywhere to move in to! We had planned to be there this week, but it's just dragged on and on and on. It's just annoying work- wise to find yourself with time you didn't think you were going to have, and to have find something suitable to fill that time with. Hence all the knitting I've been doing this week!

Here is my first attempt at Lace Knitting - basically making holes in your work on purpose, and not by accidently dropping stitches.







The yarn is Twilley's Freedom in Spring Green. It's 100% wool and lovely and soft. Even Lovely Jon was impressed, so much so I've been asked to knit him a scarf using the Olive Garden, which is a much nicer shade in real life than on the screen.

I've also been knitting one half of a late Crimbo pressie for Amy Spud using a thinner version of my scarf wool in the pinky/purple shade on the left.



Yum. Don't tell her, though.
 

Um....is there anybody there? My poor baby, I have abandoned you!

Well, I'm not going to make any excuses, but I am back here at last. You know what that end-of-the-year-oo-'eck-it's-Crimbo feeling is like, so I don't need to explain.

Where do I begin? Well, the samples including the pumpkin on my previous post from way back in mid-November were all sent off to the US of A, and they seemed to be well received. They paid quickly, anyway! However, I'm still waiting on a decision as to whether or not the whole project is going ahead. We should find out in January, apparently. Tsk.

Another American publisher approached me around the same time about a fairy/folk tale job that around 40 artists were taking part in, and after confirming the money involved, they said they'd send me the final brief and promptly disappeared off the face of the planet. PG was offered a part in the same project, and seems to have got only a bit further than me with it! It does make me wonder what some publishers/companies actually DO. Not to mention all those desperately frantic emails they send you saying "Oh, but we need the final artwork by last Tuesday!" only to not contact you when they recieve it - so you're worrying your socks off that the piece actually got to them OK - but then there magically happens to be enough time for them to faff about with everything. Tsk again.

A lot of people are liking the watercolour bears also in my last post, including Lovely Mark, who sent them off to all and sundry the literal second I'd emailed them to him. On the back of these, I was asked to produce some samples for another publisher who is creating a pop-up Santa book for next Christmas. (Or rather, THIS Christmas, as I suppose it is now.) So, four samples sent off, but although they like the style, they prefer my older method of working (minus the eyeliner, natch) so it was out with the dusty old gouache, and another sample duly dispatched. I'd forgotten how blummin' long it takes to paint with gouache. Not like zippy watercolour, where you just splosh it on and layer up the coour as you go. No, gouche requires mixing and everything.

Here is Santa from sample set no.1



(I must get rid of those spidery shadows)

I cheated a bit and used this second piece as a Crimbo postcard for my Illustrator Mates.



Of course, I'm still waiting on a decision about the go ahead for the project. Tsk thrice.

Around the same time, the postman rang the doorbell at 7.03am to give me an interesting box that contained this:



I waited as long as possible to open it, but gave in in the end. This was inside:




A rather terrible photo, but I think you can get the gist. It was my SOSF Christmas exchange present all the way from California. Many thanks to Pumpkin Cupcake my Secret Fairy (and many aplogies for taking so long to thank you.)

I had a lot of fun with my own card and ornament making. This is my card:



The card itself - although you can't tell from the photo - is pearlescent. I used a star-shaped cookie cutter as a template, cut out the star in the middle, and laid a sheet of sparkly gauze behind. Luvly jubly. Beautiful and much cheaper than buying a card. Without wanting to sound like one of those terrible middle-aged women I know who live for Paper Crafting With Dawn Bibby, I think I could like making my own cards.

Also in my previous post, I mentioned I was going to a meeting at a publishers to go through my b&w postfolio and talk about the Eeries. Well, I managed to create loads of artwork - I even surprised myself - and the meeting went rather well. They were very positive about the text, but agree with the whole world that is needs work. They gave me a few pointers about where to start, so re-jigging the text is on my list of things to do next. They also really liked my b&w work and said they'd love to use me on an upcoming title. Hurrah!

So there are a gazillion things going on, and updates needed on all of them, but I think that's enough to be getting on with for now. More to come, honest guv!

Dear me, where has the time gone? I suppose you're waiting for an update, eh? Well, it is about time I got off my backside and made a post or two.

Well, since the last time I was here I've finished the four spot samples I was doing for Lovely Mark - not without some hassles, the time difference being one - and they've been sent off to L.A to be passed around the "sales team" for their opinions and, hopefully, the much-coveted go-ahead for the whole project. We should find out this week, apparently, if they are going to continue with the full project. Here's just a little snippet:

























I've also been working like a demon on portfolio pieces without the hated black eyeliner. I really need to do more of these. I think quick one-off pieces are the way to go, although to start with I'm taking Goldilocks - which Lovely Mark very kindly provided ready-made layouts for - as a starting point.












































































































Not too heavy on the kohl, I hope. ;-)

It's much more like the Eeries in approach - ink outlines for a start - and much more "free". It's just a start, though. Much more to do. I'm not really liking his scarf at the moment - it looks too static. A casual over-the-shoulder throw might work better! And, of course, that's the in thing for young whipper-snapper bears right now.

I do find the B&W much easier, though. More fun. Good job too, as I have an appointment with an editor to go over the Eeries on the 28th, and they want to see my portfolio, too. Two weeks to produce some good B&W stuff.....? Let's go!

Today's Firsts

First: Job in from Mark
First: Ride in a TucTuc
First: Time I've been to the cinema this month
First: Knitting project for Christmas started
First: Offer made on
First: House

Been busy on the robin/Xmas card today. I think I have a basic robin I can work with and develope, and I've been having a play about with the trees as well.

























































































































































However, I did get a mini telling-off from Mark when I called him earlier. He REALLY needs some re-worked picture book pieces from me minus the black eyeliner. Helpfully he's sending me some layouts tomorrow that I can work from , which will definitely make the process quicker. It's all the "Oh-God-what-shall-I-do?" faff that takes up all the valuable drawing time. That's Thursday sorted, then!

Yesterday's house hunting went really well, even if it was incredibly exhausting. I don't want to say too much just in case I jinx it all, but there's definitely somewhere we like. Just got to get money issues sorted. I'm trying really hard not to be already living there in my head, but it's not going too well!

I've also set up a new blog today. Nothing on there as yet, so you can't get there, but in a nutshell it will be my one-woman campaign for real chips! Watch this space.

In a bid to develope my "inky" style - and TRY to come up with ideas for my Christmas cards - I've been playing about with robins and bare, wintery trees.









































































































The robin is painted in exactly the same way as the inky dogs and pigs were. I think I may give him two tail feathers instead of three, though. He's looking a little too chickeny at the moment. I've also been trying out using thumb prints for his red breast, or just a scribble of wax crayon. Both are looking pretty cool so far in PhotoShop, but they need a bit more of a play about. Perhaps I could pick up something else a bit more unusual - or natural - to scan in. Like a holly berry or similar. Will have to go out for a forage!

The trees were loads of fun. I used the old-skool ink-and-a-straw method, and just basically blew the watery ink about until I got my spidery bare branches, which made me think of doing a range of spiders for Hallow'een.















Can't wait to get on with these! But they will have to wait until Tuesday, as we're off down to Cornwall tomorrow and Monday to check out some potential houses TO BUY!!! Hurrah!

I've spent the last week updating and re-jigging my website, only to go and upload it today and find a lovely "page cannot be found" message. Apparently my DNS is pointing the wrong way. Oh, of course. How silly of me not to realise. I've switched over my DNS, but now have to wait 24-48 hours for it to come into effect before I can even see if the site is OK! The tone of the email from the web hosting support team was slightly patronising and annoyed me, as did the fact that the guy, "Jonny", I was talking to wasn't one to use five words when one will do. Not everyone is an internet genius, mate. But never mind, it's sorted. I hope.

Went out for a gorgeous walk yesterday afternoon. The weather was glorious. We took the train two stops to Falmer and had a lovely wander around Stanmer Park and a cup of tea and a scone in the village tea room. I picked up loads of beautiful autumn leaves that I'm going to put in a sketchbook of "red things". I really like the idea of making little documented collections. The leaves really are stunning. I think I'll get out the watercolours and have a go at trying to mimic the colours.

We came back and I made delicious - even if I do say so myself! - braised lamb shank with leeks and mashed potato. I got the receipe idea from Pie by Andrea Boggiano, one of the five books I've bought recently! (There's nothing quite so cheering as the postie delivering a nice big package of books.) A gorgeous book with beautiful photographs and design, plus it mentions Brighton's own Pokeno Pies. I didn't have a big enough pie dish to make the lamb into a pie, so just served them as is. Autumn food. Love it. Can't wait for it to get colder.