time and place

Sometimes it's good to see things through someone else's eyes...

I spent yesterday with friends, one of whom has just returned home to Scotland after years in Houston. While I was just enjoying a rare but glorious weekend of sunshine, she was genuinely overwhelmed by just how beautiful her new/old home town is. These are her Facebook pics from yesterday afternoon, and I have to admit I'm pretty lucky to live in such an amazing place!

small is beautiful

I've had a few requests for cards over the years, but up until now the minimum order required made them prohibitively expensive to print. However, after the last request I sourced a print house in Bristol (which is a lovely place!) that will run quantities starting from just one card if I want. A whole new world of print possibilities... As I already had an enquiry for 10 of the Blessings image, I had them print a few extra. I also have an outlet locally, so I'm planning to print a few more images this way too. I think it's a cool way to buy an image if you can't quite stretch to the price of a print (and they look great framed too). If you want more info you can contact me here

shelf aware

Gosh, I hate to sound so materialistic, but I have to say my blogging is being given a whole new lease of life now that I have my iPad (seriously, those last five words are words I never, ever, thought I'd be typing). Luckily I figure hypocrisy is one of the lesser sins (except in other people obviously) so I have no problem squaring my distaste for consumerism with the fact that I now own two Apple products. (I also lust after a third, but that's another post). Anyway, go me - I'm in sync and totally connected at my kitchen table with jazz and a cup of tea!

But... proof that I do sometimes get my finger out... here are the shelves in J's room that I coveted way back

They've been up a while (and may well be moving rooms soon) but I still think they're a fabulous way to display books. And not just for children - I've bought more for my kitchen. Hopefully you won't have to wait another two years for the pics!

And by way of illustration news, a sneaky peak at one of the upcoming Juno illustrations (more on this when the next issue has hit the stands.

we need a montage... (montage)

An abundance of time has indeed passed since I last alighted on this blog, so I was going to start with a Team America-style montage to bring us immediately up to date... However, as that would have resulted in a mega post of epic proportions, instead here's a wee ice breaker from the first item on my montage list (in easily digested bite sized chunks...)

At last! Photographs of my mythical book of children's plays! I did the illos way back in the mists of 2010, and the book was finally published last year. 

Incidentally, have I ever said I have thing for the smell of newly printed books n brochures? Seriously, open one up, stick your nose in and take a great big sniff! Lovely.

There. I think that has broken the ice.

megamouth

Ah... blowing my own trumpet (and simultaneously gobbledegooking through a megaphone... Talking nonsense loudly is sooooo not like me!). But anyway, my Blossoming illustration is currently appearing in the Picture This... exhibition at Riverside Gallery in Richmond. It runs in tandem with the Richmond Literature festival and you can see it there, alongside other far more fabulous illustrators' work, until 20 January 2013.

a wolf, a sheep and a wild thing

 The wolf and the sheep are part of a larger illustration for Juno, which I'll post when the new issue comes out... however... some nonsense chat with J as I was drawing it may have sparked the beginnings of a story... You may see these two again!

The wild thing is my gourd-based tribute to Maurice Sendak (or a psychotic bear, entirely depending on your viewing angle) and an incredibly rushed addition to our Halloween festivities this evening.

seriously?

Apologies that my first post in ages is a rant, but it is at least vaguely design related. If you want an insight into what the great and the good actually think of benefit claimants then you need look no further than the internal staff benefits document produced by advertising agency Iris. 

Cunningly titled 'Iris on Benefits' (see what they did there?), it features such lovely stereotypes as a pregnant woman smoking, childcare down the pub and what are presumably teenage shoplifters. While my first temptation was to laugh (it's supposed to be a parody of that awful 'Shameless' programme, which isn't funny either), that Iris has won several lucrative government contracts (including campaigns for benefit changes and, good grief, the Olympics) tells us all we really need to know about how the 'upper classholes' - to borrow from the new series of The Thick of It' - view the most vulnerable members of society. So on reflection it's not just nasty, it's downright shameful.