monkey and bear

A 20 minute illustration, literally. There is a reason - all will become clear when I edit this post shortly - but, if I'm honest, this illustration has been in my head for some time and I just needed a reason to do it. It's inspired by Monkey and Bear on Joanna Newsom's Ys album. I love this song, but have to admit the lyrics have troubled me for some time - something awful happens to that bear... Listen and see if you agree...

Edit: And as promised, here's why I did it. Mikka's is one of the saddest stories I've come across. Read it and I promise you, you will have to draw a bear (and I hope you do).... My spread for Mishkina Knizhka (the little bear's book and Misha's book) is above. Mikka's photographs are fabulous, what a pointless waste. Sometimes I really do wonder...

return of the pet portraits and Lee/Che

Well, just this once... I've been consciously doing less and less of the portraits, simply because I wanted to concentrate on my other work and the portrait site was becoming a little too successful. I love animals, but spending week in, week out drawing dogs was losing its lustre a little. This one is a special case however, its Lee's girlfriend's dog, Ben, who died last year and he wanted to give her a portrait as a birthday gift. How could I refuse!

It's Lee's 21st birthday this weekend... so scary how time flies. As he's obsessed with Che Guevara and his user name on everything is Our Glorious Leader, I'm making a spoof of the poster above for his birthday and getting a friend to print it out at A1 - will post my effort when I'm finished. I did think about using the iconic image, but it's just too obvious. There's even a site where you can Che Guevarize yourself! How sad.

the jumis tree

The Jumis Tree is heading to Italy as I type, now let's see if it is selected for inclusion (I hope so, I like it far better than the Fires of Beltane illustration in the current exhibition).

The colours in the hires scan are so much brighter than the digital pics I took with my camera in the previous posts! There will be a limited edition run of 30 giclee prints of the Jumis Tree on the painted forest.

nooks and crannies

prints

I am almost there! I began adding the children last night - that's the part of the illustration I've been itching to get to from the start, so hoping to be almost complete tonight. It has to be in Italy by June 30th so tomorrow will be spent packing it up and posting it off, then the wait to see if it is selected for exhibition. The accompanying book from the 2007 exhibition looked fabulous - fingers crossed I guess! I also need to get the final illustration scanned at high res as I plan to have a limited edition run of giclee prints done for the Painted Forest site. If selected, the original will tour Italy until 2011, so I have to do it before it goes...

Took a break from painting yesterday to enjoy the sunshine at the Highland Games. Jack brought his little guitar along to play in the stramash in our music marquee, but ended up on the merry-go-round instead.

amid the chaos

There do not seem to have been enough hours in the day this week. Finally I found a small, quiet space this morning to work on the Latvian illustration. I'm hoping to get it finished this weekend (not least because my deadline for posting is Monday!). I like the questions it throws up, like why is she alone? I spoke to people in Latvia about the years of deportations under the Soviets. Perhaps her husband is one of the missing...

The new issue of Juno will arrive soon. I was flattered to be asked to contribute a photo and short biography as one of the Juno team. I hope it doesn't appear too cringeworthy embarrassing when I see it in print. I hate writing things about myself!

into the woods

I should have been painting, instead I went to see an exhibition of illustrations from Amnesty International’s book We Are All Born Free. Some very beautiful work - I have ordered the book and am waiting patiently for it to arrive.

Walked in the woods with Jackson and we found a teepee made of branches, probably put together by some enterprising local teenagers as a drinking den, but very creative all the same!

Lee has been up from Edinburgh since Sunday, so evenings have been filled with wine and chat.