Merry Christmas Everyone!

And safe travels to those of you who have further to go for your Christmas feasting! See you next year!

An Elephant (not in a room)

I dedicate this drawing to Nellie, the little toy elephant who kept my brother company throughout his early years. Sadly lost on the pavements of Dover many years ago...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Although thankfully no snow here just yet!

Rainbow Sheep

This is one of my repeat patterns, I find them therapeutic to draw. It's also available to license if it tickles your fancy...

More Stripes...

A quick doodle!

Stripes!

Today's doodle. It's cold here and I'm heading outside this afternoon. I can't fit any more pairs of socks in my boots!

Today's Doodle

Winter Blues

I sometimes get them, today I'm feeling quite cheery though. I've got a whole day to myself with no commission work planned, time to doodle and sketch. I sometimes forget how important it is to leave time to just mess around, that's when the best ideas are generated...

Pride in Progress

I started work on this tonight, but I'm about ready to quit so I thought I'd post it as it is and then work on it another day. I just need a background and some cute cubs, oh and to move the lions around (this isn't the actual layout yet). Come back and see how it looks next week!

I hope everyone is enjoying my new website...

Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water...

Beautiful foxy brooches!

Look what I made! I'm considering selling a few, although I'm quite attached to them and they're pretty fiddly to make.

Dalai Lama

Another impulse draw. I was reading an article about the current Dalai Lama considering retirement from the political scene.

Hello Monday...

It's grey and wet outside, but nice and cosy in my studio. I've just drawn this goose and baked some banana cake. A great start to the week!

Foxy Friday

Friday again? How did that happen?!

For my Dad

I was looking for a quote to play with my lettering and I saw this one. Just reminds me of my Dad, and it happens to be his birthday today too. So Happy Birthday Dad! Wish I'd drawn this before I sent your card as it would have been perfect!

Bonjour!

A quick doodle drawn when I should have been drawing something else.

Fa-Fa and Mama

Two pages from the book I'm currently working on for a client.

Some hand-lettering

The Festivity Begins...

I'm feeling fairly festive today, partly to do with the frost outside my studio window and partly to do with the Christmas tree we bought on the weekend. Oh, and I saw the Coca Cola lorry in town- complete with twinkly lights and a band! I was just popping to the bank and there it was. I have to admit, I do feel a fuzzy feeling whenever I see the advert- despite my actual feelings about the company involved and the knowledge that I'm being deliberately manipulated. But hey, sometimes you just have to go with it!

Elvis

Why you might ask? Well why not? Another impulse draw.

Friday doodle

Who doesn't love a dragon? Especially a pinky coloured one.

Creating characters

Here's a test sheet for a character, a cute cat, (who bears more than a passing resemblance to my own feline friend!) in various poses. He's not got a name yet, but is definitely a boy. I love cats, they move in such a spectacular way and they have a wonderful inquisitive nature.

Yoga

I'm enjoying playing with my people-shapes and suddenly felt inspired to do this little doodle. As I'm in the early stages of playing with a new technique, I like to be easy on myself and just draw what I feel like drawing. It's the best way to test myself and experiment.

Oooo shopping...

Doodle of the day

Further experiments without lines...

Multi-tasking

Why is it that whatever I'm doing I'm always thinking about other things as I'm doing it?! Is it possible to ever just focus on one thing only? (no rude suggestions/ comments please!). I guess the only time I'm ever 100% focussed is when I'm either drawing or reading. Both activities require total attention and generally render me unresponsive to any communication from outside...

A quick doodle...

Working on something fairly laborious this morning, so this little doodle refreshed my slightly wilting brain. I've had an inspired moment with my people drawings and suddenly they seem to be coming together. Very satisfying progress for a gloomy Monday morning!

Phew, it's Friday...

Here's today's doodle. It's a bit chilly here today so I've got wintery stuff on the brain!

Just Because...

Drawing children...

A children's publisher once told me that they very rarely get illustrators who are confident drawing children. I'm starting to think it's like the whole drawing animals thing, if you have one or have daily access to one perhaps it gets easier?! I'm certainly finding them more fun to draw using my new process, but there's still plenty of practising to do...

Frank the Fox attempt two

At Holly's request, here is my fox. I've been playing around with Frank's story for a while now, although the background here is from another book I'm working on for a client. I finally have a character I like! I'm getting this image printed for some promotional postcards, so watch out for one of these lovelies in your mailbox...

Cuteness...

Okay, so I'm really starting to enjoy the colouring-on-screen thing. Lines? Who needs lines?! This is today's little sketch, I hope you like it.

Apparently Winter has happened while I was away...

I've returned from lovely, sunny, Mallorca to find that Winter is well underway in Edinburgh. The tree outside my studio window seems to have managed to lose all of its leaves in the space of a week, and today I dug out my scarf and contemplated a new pair of giant fluffy slippers...

This week I have been mainly drawing rabbits...

...and here is a selection. The book is for an academic experiment (I'll tell you more at some point) and the artwork has been drawn entirely on my Mac. This is my first big departure from pen and ink and I'm a little nervous about it!

Going Digital

The piece above was drawn entirely on my shiny new iMac. I have mixed feelings about doing purely digital work, I don't know why. I always make a big deal out of the fact that I normally draw everything in good old dipping pen and ink. So what if I colour digitally? Quite often my clients say they couldn't tell either way. Should it even be an issue though or is this a relic from art college where I felt like a sham for not knowing how to wield a paintbrush?!

Yeehah!

I'm off to London tomorrow for the British Book Design & Production Awards as Pocket Mountains have been nominated in the Brand/ Series Identity category for their walking guides (which I do the cover illos for). There are quite a few big names also up for awards so it should be an interesting evening! I'm not sure how this relates to the cowboy, but he's one of my doodles that I've just coloured up and I thought I'd share him with you.

And here's a giraffe...

Just because it's Friday.

Unseasonal festivity...

It's always odd drawing Christmas scenes in the sunshine, or even in my case in the rain. Earlier in the week I lost the plot completely and started baking gingerbread and humming carols. Anyway, here's a lovely Edinburgh Christmas scene. One of my favourite things about the tenement buildings is seeing all of the windows filled with trees, if you have a bay window it's a must-have! Less than three months to go people, it's sneaking up quick...

Sleigh Ride

I've been drawing a lot of Christmas scenes recently, many featuring the cute robin hitching a ride on the sleigh above. This illo is mapping out a vague idea I'm working on for a possible book. I'm really enjoying my bird characters at the mo and I think I could expand them into something interesting...[watch this space!]

Puffins...

My obsession for last week was the puffin. I sometimes get caught up with creating a character and then playing around with him/her for a couple of hours. I might come back to this one later as it has a certain cuteness.

Finally something worth celebrating!

Doggies

Today's offering. Coloured on my lovely new iMac...

The Musicians of Bremen

This is one of my initial drawings for a commission from Korean publishers Applebee. It's going to be a sticker book and I've just sent off the final artwork in time for the weekend...phew!

Oh look, a puffin!

If you haven't seen these guys in real life, you really should. They're adorable, look permanently worried and when they fly they look like they have to use maximum effort just to stay in the air (tiny wings flapping manically).

Paper Tiger Postcards

If you're up for the Edinburgh Festival then I'd certainly recommend popping along to Paper Tiger to pick up some lovely souvenirs. They've just printed a set of my detailed Edinburgh scenes on a range of postcards, oh and you can also pick up one of the very popular Edinburgh walking guides (with my illustrated cover) while you're there...