Joys of Spring

Today's quick sketch scribbled inbetween my commissioned projects. It was actually almost warm today in Edinburgh and the flowers in the Meadows are looking lovely. With Spring on my mind I drew this little pony full of the joys...

Butterflies flutterby

Part of a lovely illustration I'm currently working on for the nice people over at Scottish Natural Heritage. It's going to be a gorgeous orchard scene, full of hidden wildlife and luscious plants. I'll post the final piece here once it's finished and printed!

Elephant Algebra

I like drawing elephants. There's something very satisfying about them! This elephant was intended for something else but I got a little waylaid by a sudden idea, so here he is...

Sock It To Me Competition

I entered the 'Sock it To Me' competition to design a pair of socks. Sadly not a winner but my design (see above) got an honorable mention on the wonderful Print & Pattern blog.

Like buses...

...nothing for ages and then two come along at once! Here's another little doodle I coloured up this morning. I'm obviously trying to make sure I don't forget Mother's Day on Sunday (that's a head's up for anyone who hasn't remembered!).

Dinosaur Scene

Here is last week's doodle, a little late due to workload...

Coasting along...

Just thought I'd share some of the coaster designs I was working on over Christmas for Castle Melamine.

The Birth of a Rumor

A little doodle all coloured up and posted for everyone to see...

Wild Animal Alphabet

I've had a bit of time to play with a new project this week. This piece is actually on a larger scale than my normal work, it's around A3 size. I'm considering sending it out as a promotional poster, but then how many ADs have enough space for that on their wall? Not sure...

Jungle Fever

Or possibly cabin fever for me, it's been a busy few weeks but today I got out the studio for a nice long walk in the sunshine (always make the most of any sunshine you can get at this time of year!). I can almost feel Spring slinking around in the background...

A bit of light reading...

I've always found this phrase amusing and this little doodle found its way into my sketchbook today. A bit of research followed and I was interested to find that it relates to the Scopes Trial in the US, where a teacher was tried for violating the Butler Act (which made it illegal "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals" in any Tennessee state-funded school and university).

Okay so I'm slightly obsessed with drawing foxes...

...I think it's the colour. I just love that bold dash of red.

Paper Boat

I'm thinking of re-drawing this with just a load of animals in it. After all, there's always room for a giraffe...

Research Day

Today I've mainly been flicking through websites and images in search of inspiration. This little doodle kept me occupied and I thought I'd share it with you.

Hello Fox

Right, that's me done for the day and off to cook some dinner and walk the dog. See you all next week!

Crocodile Smiles

A little doodle I did today having finished up some big projects and finding myself with some time to mess around (for the first time in nearly a year!).

This week I have been mainly drawing sheep...

Happy New Year everyone...

Okay so I'm a little late with this one but I'm finally back in my sort-of dry studio and working hard. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines are all this year seems to have been about so far, but I'm almost there now with some epic projects and hope to display the fruits of my labours soon! I've got two new books due out this year so watch this space...

Some hand-lettering

I was breaking in a new nib today and thought I'd scribble down a few carols to make myself feel festive. We've had a recent studio disaster as an upstairs neighbour went out and left his taps on, causing a giant flood. Luckily we got the computers and books out but I lost some artwork. No studio for me until 2010 now- it's got to dry out!

The Rainbow Thief

Last night I was just drifting off to sleep when a story began to grow in my mind. I woke up remembering something about a magpie and colour. The general gist of it is- a magpie likes to steal objects of various colours and a little girl (or possibly boy) figures out why and brings it all to a happy conclusion. I like magpies, I like their latin name Pica Pica and I like the lovely flash of blue/ green colouring on their wings. As ever, this idea is under development whenever I get the time but I just had to do a quick sketch of my proposed main character. So here he is...

By the way, I hope everyone is enjoying the nicely freshened up website. I'll be doing a mail-out soon to alert people to the changes!