"Forever Young"

A picture book based on the lyrics of Bob Dylan and illustrated by Paul Rogers. I wouldn't call myself a Dylan fan by any stretch, but the illos are just FAB.















There's a bit of an animation for it, too:

Thanks!

Thanks for all your positive comments about RV and Cupcake over the past couple of days. I've been suffering from a bit of a lack of Illo Mojo, so it's been nice to rediscover that and a new direction/style/approach/set of skills in the process. I shall do a mail out with her in the next couple of weeks. I've just sent out my Pirates postcards, so hopefully some new black & white work will come in due to that. I don't want to over-bombard Art Directors with my stuff!

I've been trying to have a bit of a DIY day today. I wanted to paint the radiator in the hallway as most of the paint has flaked off due to a) some idiot in the past undercoating it with emulsion and b) the paint being a gazillion years old. However, it's turned out to be more complicated than I had hoped to get ALL the paint off, so I had to take an unscheduled trip to Focus for supplies and I'm now waiting for various chemicals to do their thang before I can paint.

So, to fill my time, I made these instead from blackberries growing across the road (properly washed, of course), and oats and orange juice:







I may or may not have had three already while they were still warm, so grab one while you can!

Just a Tweak

On the cloak, adding a bit of interest to the bottom left corner.

Oh, and a Film Noir Version, Just For Fun.

Stage Eight: Finished!

With added deep shadows and moonlight haze.

Stage Seven: Adding Dramatic Shadows

Stage Six: Adding Shadow and Highlight

And freckles

Stage Five: Adding Texture

Stage Four: Adding the Sky

Stage Three: Blocking in Flat Colour

Stage Two: Black Ink Line

Red Velvet and Her Sidekick, Cupcake

Stage One: Sketch

The Awesomest Ribbon in the World!

Thank you, Jenny Leggings!

Shoreham by Sea

Which is a lovely little town halfway between Brighton and Worthing. Boyfriend and I went for a wander there this Sunday to look at the houseboats, stroll along the river, smell the sea and visit the Art Deco airport for a cup of tea.

Art for Hearts

A couple of months ago, I received an email from a guy called Ian Stacey, who was after donations of artwork for a charity auction he was setting up in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital. His baby son had to go through a heart transplant at five weeks old, so he wanted to do something to say thanks to all those fantastic people at GOSH.

I sent him a set of LRRH prints to auction off, and yesterday he sent me a link to his blog, Art for Hearts, detailing all the other artwork and telling you all about the up-coming auction. Hopefully the auction will take place soon and he will raise lots of money for a very good cause. You can read all about Ian, his wife, Kristine, and his son, Tom, in a Times Online article here.

Go raise money for good causes!

Blackberry Clafoutis

Before and after. Hom nom nom

Poladroid Rocks

Info/download here

Apples

Same apple, ten days between photos.

Bit of a Slow Week

I've not been really in the mood for much this week. After starting the week with a day off it's been hard getting going. However, on the plus side, I got my new postcards through, which were a total bargain to get printed thanks to good old Vistaprint's special offers. I'm sending out a set of three taken from illustrations from the two Pirates books that were published in June in the hope of getting some more junior fiction/black and white work in.

This is the back, the same design on all three. I've blurred out my phone number:



I've also had the inklings of a new story idea, the bare beginnings of which I've scribbled down, and have also planned a new direction for my mermaid experiments, thanks to a spark of genius from the lovely Deb.

I've spent today (I now have the whole of Mondays and Thursdays off from the library) clearing out all the crap the previous tenant(s) left in my understairs cupboard and taking it to the recycling centre in Hove. I can actually get in the cupboard now! And find things! I've just joined the City Car Club and hired a rather swish new Fiesta for a couple of hours to do it. Having not driven a car for ages, and having only ever owned second or third or seventh hand cars, a new car with air conditioning and power steering and an engine so quiet it's a job to tell if it's actually on is rather novel!

I'm having an eye test tomorrow morning as for the past three/four weeks I've been having migraine-type feelings on the right side of my head and my right eye. Whenever I get a migraine, which isn't very often, my right eye always goes blurry, and I seem to be getting those sort of twinges most days. Maybe I'm just a bit photosensitive at the moment, but I hope they can tell me if it's my eyes causing it.

Anyhoo, I must at least attempt to do a bit of work over the next few days. I feel guilty for not doing some kind of work, even if I don't have a specific job on, so more mermaids it is!

Congrats Sam and Dan!

A beautiful simple, wedding on a beautiful day. Best of luck, guys; you're fab.

Warning: Stream of Consciousness Post Alert!!

So now I have a whole bunch of Water Dames, but no specific use to put them to. Where to go next is the question. A new postcard? A new book idea? A poster I could also put up on Etsy as a digital print? I'm thinking about fictional shop signs, maybe maps or information leaflets. Maybe a poster advertising a club night or a show....Hmmm.

Not sure if that's the "right" thing to do. If I were to put, say, a shop sign on a new postcard and send it out, is that going to get me any new work? Are ADs really as narrow-minded as people say they are, and won't be able to see my style applied in a different way in a book? Maybe I should seek out new people to send these postcards to, like magazines. And, does it really matter if it's "right" or not, as long as I am confident in what I have produced??!!! Too many questions for a Sunday evening!

Anyway, at the moment I'm still very much in the experimenting stage. I had the idea last night of creating two seperate worlds that have different colours to them. For example, under water is all green, but above the water is all yellow and red. No idea where I'm going to apply that, but that's all the fun of just putting down ideas: you never know where they're going to lead you!

Back to the experimenting...

Colour Samples...

...for brand new texture library to replace the lost one on the old hard drive.

Colour Mermaids