a very rough rough

In amongst the chaos I have managed to snatch a tiny bit of time to start on the poetry book - rough indeed, but now that the first ideas are out and down on paper the whole process becomes so much easier. I hope.

rats...

My rough sketch for the next illustration, the Pied Piper plus mucho rats. I found it incredibly difficult to find my own slant on something that countless other fabulous illustrators have depicted already... so I decided to take my own work as a starting point (the piper bears a passing resemblance to the evil pipe playing monkey in 'Monkey and Bear'

[Edit] Finished illustration above.

rain, rain, go away....

Thought you might like to see how my home town looked at midnight last night... We had a month's rain in a few hours, causing both rivers to burst their banks and invade the town centre (that is actually one of the main roads, not a river!). This has never happened before in living memory, perhaps we should be worried and maybe now it's time for our great leaders to take climate change a bit more seriously? I wish I could say I had faith in them to act! Luckily, for me at least, I live up the hill...

New roughs over on the Growing Boy.

poop...

Here's the progress on the rough below - a painstaking process of layer upon layer of watercolour, trying to gauge when it's 'just right' (before I overwork it and end up hating it!). It's my favourite bit though; it's worth taking the time over the roughs and initial drawing out. I love the feeling of having a freshly stretched piece of paper, just waiting for an image to appear on it... making it come to life is immensely gratifying.

My tip for freelancers who work in the evening; keep your painting water and red wine glass in separate spots - not good if you dip your brush in the wrong one... although slightly preferable to the alternative. I will live and learn...