Birds in the City

I've not posted anything recently as I'm visiting my parents and their computer struggles to run Photoshop. I'm also a little confused by their scanner's determination to use 'lpi' as a measurement of resolution rather than 'dpi'!?

The image above is for the 100Shirts Competition and was hurriedly drawn and laboriously scanned by me today. To make matters worse I also have the plague and am permanently doped up on a mixture of hot toddies and Lemsip. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

I've just been sorting through my CD collection...

And I found a Beatles album that I think belongs to my Dad. I don't really listen to half of my CD's because I have Radio 2 on during the day, I prefer shouting at the callers on the Jeremy Vine show! Anyway, I did a quick sketch of the famous four and dropped in some colour in Photoshop.

Mum if you're looking at this don't panic!

I was sitting at my desk pondering this week's Illustration Friday topic of 'Surprise' and trying to find an approach that wouldn't involve a present or someone wearing a party hat. I started thinking about nice surprises and not-so-nice surprises until I came to this image. I guess pregnancy could potentially be the biggest surprise somebody might ever face...

Illustration Friday- 'Blue'

My submission for this week's Illustration Friday topic (www.illustrationfriday.com). The Blue Whale is the largest creature known to have ever existed in the history of the earth. An adult Blue Whale can be bigger than the largest dinosaur! Apparently a small child could crawl down the aorta of a Blue Whale's heart- not that anybody would want to...

One of life's little questions...

This image actually created a bit of a headache for me because I wanted the zebra to be slightly more cartoon-like. I was one of those little girls who drew horses everywhere, my notebooks from school have unicorns and beasties all over the back covers and my homework diary looks more like a sketchbook. Looking back it has always been obvious what I would become! Anyway, due to my horse obsession I have a strong sense of the proportion of all horse-like animals and find it difficult to draw them inaccurately.

By the way, I happen to know the answer to this question. New scientific research has confirmed that zebras are in fact white with black stripes. So there you go.

I wish I could...

We got up at 5am this morning to take our friends to Glasgow Prestwick and hit every traffic jam going! I'm exhausted but I thought I'd do a bit of drawing whilst I'm sat at my desk clutching my heater. It's nasty weather today and my poor car got covered in mud on the motorway. I wish I lived in Australia today...

The Escalator

I've just realised that this piece is perfect for this week's Illustration Friday topic- Small. When you're small everything else is big and your imagination is even bigger! I liked the idea of a little boy watching an escalator and not being able to see the top so it would seem like the people just disappear...

I'm exhibiting my work in the Image Nation Exhibition at the Collins Gallery in January. It's an exhibition specifically for Illustrators working in Scotland (check out http://www.collinsgallery.strath.ac.uk/ for more details).

Cats...

I love cats. Dogs may be 'Man's Best Friend' but a cat would probably consider itself our equal- if not our superior. I'd like to do some more work in the comic strip format and I'm going to think up some better stories. This was just a doodle I coloured in but I liked the empty spaces and the way that the frames pace the story...

Childhood memories....

It's strange the things that we find entertaining when we're young. My brother and I were very close as there is only two and a half years between us. Nowadays he is the size of a doorframe and I've become the small one. I don't see him as much as I'd like to but I'm looking forward to bugging him over the Christmas period.

Prehistoric Art

Last year my parents took Adam and I to the South of France and we saw the cave paintings at Pech Merle. I have never felt so moved by a piece of artwork. There were drawings of animals in vivid reds, browns and black with the most incredible energy. The most incredible piece was where someone had painted around their own hand leaving an imprint on the wall. I held up my hand to the print and felt a bizarre connection to someone who lived 25,000 years ago. The most amazing thing was that the artists crawled through a tiny passage and drew these images in the dark with only a small flame to guide their way.

Parking is a nightmare...

Partly because of the school but mostly because of commuters ditching their cars on our street (its free parking) and taking the bus into the city. I wish they wouldn't do this because a lot of families live round here and I feel sorry for all the parents struggling with buggies and small kids who have to park miles away from their house. I have a car but I rarely use it because I worry about getting a space when I return. I also don't need to because Edinburgh is a fairly small city and most distances are walkable. We use it once a week to do the shopping (and take friends too) and this Christmas we are driving it home. Think of me on December 10th because I will be on a 7.5 hour drive with two chinchillas and a guy who hates Christmas tunes (I love them and its my car....).

Sitting at my desk...

Today I was watching people out of the window as I live on the third floor and my desk is in a huge bay window. The view is quite distracting sometimes as I can see Arthur's Seat off to the right and it always looks so impressive. Today it was hungover by fog and it seemed bigger than it usually does- dominating the skyline. The schoolkids really annoy me. The school is at the end of my road and they are really loud, but not in a children-innocently-playing kind of way. More like screaming out swearwords just to irritate people and throwing litter all over the street even though there are loads of bins. The last time I ever dropped litter was when I was eight years old. I remember eating a sweet and dropping the paper, but then I started to think "who will pick it up?". My responsibility suddenly hit me and I scooped it up and put it in my pocket. Since then I have never EVER left litter anywhere.

This week's Illustration Friday topic...Free

It was the first thing that came into my head and it made me smile so I went with it!

Memories of french lessons at school...

For some reason this stuck in my head yesterday. Could be because I had a headache! I seem to have a fascination with striped jumpers as many of my characters end up wearing one.

Thoughts on Men.....

Is this sexist? I don't know, can the truth be held as a sexist comment?!....

I just went shopping...

And I bought loads of paper samples to draw all over as the college shop has run out of my favourite paper! Seriously- it's a tragedy. It takes me years to find paper I like and they just stop stocking it and nobody (including me) knows what it was. I used my last sheet of it to do the drawing of the horse.

It's good to talk...

Amazing when you think about it. Can you imagine not having a landline- never mind a mobile!

Illustration Friday- Strength

When I was little, and to some extent still today, I was fascinated by horses. The relationship between man and horse is a long-standing one and most of the benefits seem to be on our part. The sheer size and weight of some the larger breeds is incredible, I can remember coming face to knee with a shire at a show when I was little. Its legs just seemed to go on and on and all I could see of its face was a drooping bottom lip.

I drew this image to submit to http://www.illustrationfriday.com.

A Narwhal

Only the male narwhal has the horn, made from one of the teeth from its upper jaw. The narwhal is believed to have some connection with the mythical unicorn and very little is known about them.

I've always thought that they are pretty strange looking animals, with no dorsal fin and that bizarre 'horn'.

And here's Shakespeare....

Okay, some new work...

I've been drawing this evening seeing as its too cold to go outside (and too dark). This is an image I drew for my Dad's birthday card. Hopefully he will get the card before he sees this!

It's his birthday on Friday so Happy Birthday Papa!

First piece created using Illustrator CS2!

Well, everyone kept talking about it and I figured it was about time I added another string to my bow. It was actually quite user friendly and the finished image looks alot neater than my Photoshopped work. Question is, does it lose something on the way?

Tree Frogs

I found this fact online but the initial quote was 2,000 people. That seemed a little high so I did some of my own research (hooray for google) and found that the actual figure is 10. Quite a difference! It's raining today and the cold has finally arrived so I've been sat at my desk with a little heater going full blast on my frozen hands.

Squirrel starts fire....

I was reading about a squirrel that started a grass fire when it was electrocuted on a power line and plummetted to earth, landing on parched ground. Sympathy to the squirrel and his family but I have to admit I laughed.

The Late Pope's powder blue Ford Escort. Apparently it had "no hubcaps, no air conditioning, no radio, but several nicks and dents".

But I have nowhere to keep it.

I'm not sure about the text on this one, the wording seems clumsy and difficult to read. I may have to redo it if I want to use it.

Another potentially fascinating fact. There is also a suggested fact that a duck's quack doesn't echo, which is not true. Why would that be? Some people will believe anything...

Really?

And it shows more on some people! I heard this on the radio and I can't vouch 100% for its accuracy but it sounds like something that could be true.

Okay, now this is a character I am developing with hopes of making a book *I pause here to make the point that all images on this site belong to me and I have sole copyright on all ideas and drawings*. So far I have had some interest but nothing definite...

And now there were two

Having shown one it would now be unkind not to display the other. This is Charlie, A.K.A. Mousie, peeping out of her sandbox. I never intended to keep chinchillas and I have somehow ended up with two. They are fantastic pets but take a lot of care and need knowledgable owners. Never buy a pet without knowing what you are in for- these two create havoc in our home and have a lifespan of upto fifteen years!

I made a promise

to myself, no photos on this blog. But I can't resist a quick pic of one of my little ladies. This is Holly wondering what on earth I am doing in her cage first thing in the morning.

More from me

Most of my work is motivated by things that I hear that inspire me, often odd bits of conversation or bizarre "that can't be true" facts. In the light of current events I find the thought of there being more chickens than people fairly worrying. I'm also attracted to timescales, the average human lifespan is said to be 720,000 hours. When put into perspective it makes you wonder just how important is what you are doing right now? But then life is about the boring bits in between the periods of excitement is it not?

My Work

I thought I would put a few of my more recent pieces up for people to see. I've just recieved notice that some of my images will be used for a bookcover- my first piece in print! I'm a relatively new illustrator in some senses but I've been drawing since I was first able to hold a crayon....

My Desk

Hello......

Okay, I'm new to this and not too sure what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm sitting at my desk in Edinburgh, U.K. watching my chinchillas sleeping peacefully and listening to BBC Radio 2. In a minute I'm going to stir myself to cook some soup and learn Flash so I can animate my drawings.