I wish me a merry christmas

Yesterday I received two Christmas cards with my own illustrations on the front - very strange! This one is from the lovely people at Juno magazine, who are also going to feature the Painted Forest in their next issue.

With a whole bunch of new bottles just arrived in the drinks emporium, I have found the perfect way to add some (alcoholic) warmth to the cold, dark evenings - more fabulous wine by some young punks. I get to obsess over the fabulous label illustrations, Lee obsesses about the deliciously unusual grape combos, then we both drink it. Like I said, perfect (and very more-ish). I feel a collection coming on...


Meanwhile the big freeze continues, making it a huge effort to do much that involves going outside (as that would involve me, a spade and mucho shovelling. Brrr), but on the other hand it does give me plenty of time to sit in my cosy kitchen with some lovely coffee writing this post! And I am kicking myself for not finding out until after the event that there was a spectacular lunar eclipse this morning. It was amazing by all accounts and apparently only happens around once every 400 years... darn!

seasonal sprouts

Finally, after much faffing, procrastination and snowy havoc, my Christmas card has made it to the printer and only a week late! Now all I have to do is remember to write them and post them when they return...

'owl

I would be feeling more festive today, what with the snow and a roaring fire and all, if only I didn't have to come up with an idea for my Christmas card - like smartish. After spending an age lovingly painting a robin last year only to swap it in favour of something scrawled on the back of an envelope in 10 minutes, I've decided not to spend too much time on it this year. Well, that's one reason, the other being it needs to go to print on Wednesday! So far I only know sprouts may feature... post to follow I guess. Until it's done though, for the purpose of this blog I'm rehashing the above (how lazy!); the owl is a detail from an old illustration for 'At Night' (I can't believe I didn't even notice I had a thing for drawing birds until recently. Duh).

I've also got a minor alteration to do to the whistling santa illustration for my publisher (as they're using it for their Christmas card this year) and I need to write some not-too-cringy text about myself for a feature in the next issue of Juno (they're also using an illustration of mine on a card notifying all their contacts of the magazine's change of ownership - so lots of free publicity coming my way, which is very cool). But oh my gosh it is sooooo cold (I am typing this wearing fingerless mitts like an extra from A Christmas Carol).

Oh, and don't forget to leave a comment on the Monochromatic post if you want the chance to win a mounted bat print.

in your face

Done in 10 minutes last night on the back of an envelope with my new black pen and some pastels which were lying around from my current pet portrait, I think this might be my Christmas card instead of my lovingly painted robin! Sometimes life's just like that...

feeling festive yet?

polka dot robin [or berry christmas!]

I'm working out a Christmas card design based on my cupboard folk art birds. I've produced homemade cards before, but this year I'd like to do something a little more elaborate in design and get them printed up. As usual though, I've left it a bit last minute! This is the rough, which going to try and produce completed artwork for this week (between pet portraits and the puppet festival design work...).