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...