Christmas Pete

I'm working on a range of these at the moment. If anyone is interested please get in touch...

Here's Frank!

Characters for 'Who Wants Frank?'

Say Hello to the Johnson twins, owners of the local garage, and their new dog Roxie. They are all part of my new children's book 'Who Wants Frank?', all about a little sausage dog looking for a new home.

I'm off to London

Hello everyone, I'm off to London tomorrow for two days to meet lovely publishing people. So if you need me in that time just give me a ring on my mobile (if you don't have it it's on my website) as I'll be away from my desk. I leave you in the capable hands, or paws, of my latest character Frank (Furter).

Master of Design

I forgot to mention my graduation last week. I'm now a Master of Design! Congratulations to all my fellow graduates and thanks to my family for attending and drinking all the free champagne!

Getting into the Spirit Early

Starting to think about the Christmas season already...

Cover for Ettie and the Birds

An idea for the cover of a book I've starting writing. Early days on this one, it's about an elephant called Ettie who lives alone in a zoo but one day two little birds come to visit and soon she is surrounded by little friends. I'm going to try and finish the images for Pete first before I get caught up with something new.

An Idea for the book Goodbye Jimmy Choo

Messing around with type today and that I'd have a crack at a cover. It's quite different from the original, although still featuring wellies!

New handlettered type!

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2008

If you're in town pop in and take a look. Of the illustration students graduating this year the one that most caught my eye was Emily Sutton but there are other talented individuals lurking on the premises too.

Drawing Children

Animals and children are my favourite subjects. I felt I'd neglected humans recently and it was about time I drew a few.

Creativematch

I've entered my cover for Pete Polar Bear on Creativematch's Flair this month. Check it out here.

Today's offering

I've got some horrible cold bug but I'm at my desk anyway so I thought I'd have a play with my fox characters.

Pete and Karl Koala

Polar Bear Pete first re-done page

Here is the first re-jiggled Pete page with my handlettered text. Hope you like it.

New Pete cover

I'm back working on Pete tweaking images and discarding a few old ones. He's developed a bit since I first started so some of the original sketches no longer fit well with the new bits.

Introducing Stanley...

Now this little fella has been hanging around my sketchbook pages for a long time now, so I thought it was time to commit to him in full colour and give him a name. So here he is.

Foxy Indiana!

I'm off to sunny, sunny (hopefully) France!

Just drawn this to use as my autoresponder- so you'll be seeing this if you email tomorrow as I'm up and away! Back at my desk on June 2nd, have a lovely half term everyone!

In the holiday spirit

Despite the Scottish weather I'm starting to feel summery as I pack for my holiday. I'm not actually going to Spain this time but it's close enough.

Fox on a bicycle

Playing with a fox character I created a while ago that I've rediscovered!

I've been reading the BBC News website again

And this one caught my eye. Apparently the lady is question had the knitting patterns for various Dr Who characters online.

Using the texture as a background

British Beach Scene

To celebrate the flood of Brits who headed for the coast on the weekend. Edinburgh was sat under its own personal cloud bank so we saw the sunshine for about five minutes.

Playing with texture

I wanted to make this look like an old postcard and I think I acheived the effect I was after. I then got a bit excited and tried it out on a piece I did last week.

I think it looks quite interesting and might mess around with this a bit more. In other news- my shiny new PC has arrived and is sitting in its box waiting for me to find the time to tranfer everything over and install various bits of software.

Encounters with bees

Whenever I got scared of buzzing bees in my Grandad's garden he'd say "don't worry, they are only sniffing". This has stayed with me to this day and when a bee comes up close I just stand still and wait for them to sniff me and leave!

Missing People

I was looking at the new missing people website and found it incredibly sad that so many people could be unaccounted for and so many are waiting for any word on their loved ones. All of those names and all of those pictures.

A Cat for Friday

I have a kitty already, but he's a blue and I'd love a little chocolate point friend for him. I think we're going to need a bigger flat!

Another book jacket idea

I saw this book on Amazon and fancied having a quick go at it myself using their main idea for the cover (the L plate) and putting my own spin on it.

A Police Horse

New Pete image

Playground battles!

I'm still working on my children's book but inbetween I'm doing something completely different to keep myself fresh.

The Dog Version

Guinea Pig Greeting Card

Our New Addition

I have a new companion in my studio, a little Phalene (a type of Papillon). I've always wanted a dog and I'm over the moon to finally have one of my own.

How great is this?

Pete visits Karl Koala

Dog with sweater

Pete meets Ping Panda

Grecian Art

After doing the quick illo from The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency I've been looking at various types of folk art. I'm enjoying creating patterns and trying to use these more in my work.

An idea for a bookjacket

A Tribute

Big Ears and Little Ears

Spot the Difference

Yes I know, another book idea and I haven't finished the others yet. This is basically an excuse for me to draw some funny animals and use polka dots. The idea is that is teaches children that the same creature can come in all different shapes and sizes (a good message overall I feel and one some adults could do with noting too). The Animal Kingdom is a wonderful place full of variety and colour.

Another page for Things we Thought were True when we were Kids

If you want to see the rest check them out here.

Another one for Pocket Mountains

Polar Bear Pete and the Scientist have tea

Pete takes a dip