French trees!

I have just returned from a week's holiday in France. It was very relaxing.......

I went with the intention of doing lots of drawing but only managed two trees that were in the garden where we were staying!

Cambridge Folk Festival 2011

I spent most of the weekend at the Cambridge Folk Festival. I didn't do very much drawing but here's a selection of pictures from my sketchbook. The scale on the top one is a bit dodgy but shows Nathaniel Rateliff doing his stuff in the club tent - one of the highlights of the festival for me. There are some better drawings from last year's festival here!

St Ives: The Island

Cambridge Zoology Museum

A while ago I was designing a bird character for one of my books. To inspire myself I went to the Zoology museum in Cambridge to draw some of the birds they have on display there. So here's a couple of my sketches!

Collage elephant...my remedy for illustrator's block!

I have been struggling to focus on my illustration work lately so on Friday I decided to have a play around with a technique I used to use a lot more - painting textures on to paper and then collaging them. It was great fun and really helped me to get back into my work - my remedy for illustrators block!

Out with the old, in with the new!

This is the last picture of my old studio...we had to take the door off its hinges to get our plan chest out!

And this is the first picture of my new studio... I've emptied a few more boxes since this was taken and am starting to settle in gradually....

Goodbye studio!

I can't quite believe it but this is my 100th post! It's a slightly sad one.....I am in the process of packing up my studio. The building we are based in is going to be knocked down and replaced with a travelodge. We've been really lucky with this building - when we moved in 2 years ago it looked like it would only last 6 months. Last year we got to move into a perfect room with lots more light and space than the room/cupboard we started in! As you can see I haven't managed to take everything down from the wall yet....... and in my usual style I've wasted time that should have been spent packing adding yet more decoration! Me and my studio buddies (see the post below) are due to move into a different building in a couple of weeks if everything goes to plan. Fingers crossed!

Latest news.....I've just said goodbye to my trusty calculator which I've had since the 1980s. It saw me through 'A' level Maths, my (brief ) spell of accountancy and beyond! Well over twenty years. Sadly, it's not working properly anymore but I wanted a picture for posterity!