31/10/2013

30/10/2013

The Secret Life of Cats

Look at this hilarious envelope from the lovely Grace Sandford! She'd sent me a zine before but it got lost in the post! That's why bunny looks extra worried! Heh! :D

28/10/2013

Bear and Duck sketchy doodle on a moped




Meanwhile, on the allotment...

IGNORE THE WEEDS! I am fighting a losing battle! But the corn lettuce is coming along nicely and the broad beans are sprouting. I managed to get Autumn potatoes and onions in the plot as well as some daffs in the border.


 Next door on Gav's plot it's properly harvest time! Look at all the goodies I got off him :) Casserole this week for tea.



Winchester mooching

Popped down to see my lovely chum Amy in Southampton at the end of last week for some Lindy Hop jive dancing and a mooch about Winchester. Picked up a Peter Arno book and a gawp at the last residence of Jane Austen and an unexpected talk about her in the Cathedral! All finished off with a tipple in The Black Boy, an ace pub in Winchester :)




Amykins :)

The book is a collection of Peter Arno's work called Man in the Shower. His shading is ace, very inspirational and love his line.

21/10/2013

A Rule of Tum Sunday lunch!

Popped back to Hereford this weekend to experience the deliciousness of A Rule of Tum's Sunday lunch!




I chose off the menu, the potted brown shrimps to start, field mushroom stout and pearl barley pie which came with yorkshires and vegetables to share, duck fat roasted potatoes, cider braised cabbage, carrot and swede mash, greens, thyme roasted beets and onions and roast squash. Then finished off with a gooey chocolate brownie and vanilla icecream. 
I can't find words to describe how amazing all the food was! You just have to make sure you get a chance to go to one of their supper clubs!

The day before we popped into a new pub in Hereford called Beer in Hand  the couple running it couldn't be nicer hosts. Such a brilliant and simple idea. They sell local ales and ciders from casks piled up along the back wall, which reminded me of the buildings laundrettes past! :D 
And post about a trip back to Hereford wouldn't be complete without a pic of Horatio!


16/10/2013

Spot illustration for Rose Red and Snow White and some thumbs!

It's where the prince bear leaves as Springs come :)

And some thumbed layouts for a double spread from my sketchbook


10/10/2013

Firefly Press cover!!


Spot of life drawing from yesterday!

I met up with my illustrator faves Grace Sandford, James Davies and Amberin Huq yesterday for a bite to eat and a wee drink as Grace was in London town for an exciting meeting, and I managed a quick spot of sketching whilst having a quick coffee before hand. I must do more, it's good practice getting shapes of figures down quickly!

Rose red and Snow White rough colour....

So I've been working on some pieces for my portfolio and was finding this quite tricky to get to this point just couldn't make it look cosy.
 Working on your own with only cats to ask for feedback isn't great, so I posted an earlier stage of this on twitter to get some criticisms on it and it's helped it tremendously. So the rough I think is looking much more there. Twitter can be a really useful tool if you work on your own. So thanks those that helped! :D

03/10/2013

National Poetry Day

My fave poem when I was a child was The Jumblies- Edward Lear. Helped by the gorgeous illustrations in my 'Hilda Boswells Nursery Rhymes and Verse' book I have. It's utter nonsense and brilliant!




I also love The Lion and the Unicorn too from the same book!

01/10/2013

Homemade green tomato chutney!



I needed to make use of the cherry tomatoes off the two plants I had and had a crack at chutney. I've never made it before and it's fine if a little SPICY as I used the chillies off next door's plant and I proooooobably should have tried them first even though they are tiny they pack a punch it would seem!
I used Jamie Olivers recipe, but had to substitute red wine vinegar with a bit of balsamic and white whine vinegar as that's all I had! :D Still, looks like chutney!

Amsterdam!

I've just had a little holiday in Amsterdam where we stayed with our lovely friends Julian and Anna who live there :) We were so lucky with the weather, it was glorious all the time!
It's so beautiful, and I love how wonky all the buildings are and people are really kind. My fave bits were the canal boat ride, the Rijksmuseum seeing the Vermeer's, cycling the markets and eating waffles.

                                         









This is a King Louie (google it GORGEOUS dresses) market stall where they sell last seasons stuff. I got two wooly hats and and dress for 30euro. The dress alone was worth 89euro in season!! :D
I also found a childrens' book shop and picked these two beautiful books up. Valentijn en zyn viool by Philip Hopman is possibly the funniest I've read in a long time. Valentines playing is so bad he makes people jump with it as he wanders along after being banished from his town. One spread he scares a constipated wolf!! Ha! :D All the spreads are double which I found really interesting and they're all so lovely.
The second book is De Gale Ballon by Charlotte Dematons who is a war photographer, and this book is brilliantly drawn and the perspective seeing it from above is wonderful. You have to find the man on the flying carpet, the robber, the blue car and the yellow balloon on each page.