Our Daily Bread......

Part finished 'Our Daily Bread' illustration

Finished piece with linework added

The words of the 'Lord's Prayer' have been running through my head this past 3 months. I find it quite difficult coming up with scenarios for each broken down section of the text, it has been the same with 'The Lord is my Shepherd', but I eventually get there, and I'm pleased to say the people I've designed these for are grateful for my innovative thoughtful illustrations. It is so lovely when someone says this to you at the end of the project, just a few kind words that show someone has appreciated what you have done, is most satisfying, as most of the time I think I've lost the plot or something?

The artwork for the 2 books is shown above, I've tried to make them small images as I worry about people stealing images or ideas, so hopefully you can see them sort of, but they're not so big?? If they turn out big when I preview this, I will delete the images. Anyway, back to the subject, 'Our Daily Bread' seeing as I've finished this major project of the 2 books, I thought I would allow myself some time out :))) I was hoping for nice walks in the hills, but it has done nothing but rain lately, and the days have been quite grey and dreary, so I have done some baking instead! This always cheers everyone up :) I was inspired by Lucy on the 'Attic 24' blog to bake some bread, whoooweee, never really done this before (except at school) and this was no knead bread, so very easy to do! These are the stages in progress....

Mix the 4 ingredients together in a bowl, cover in cling film and place somewhere warm for  12-20hrs

after that, mix the gooey bubbly ingredients together on a floured board and form into a ball, back into the bowl for 30mins

Into a hot oven for 30mins, with a lid covering.

Then 15mins without the lid to crisp up and viola! My bread is done!

Along with some fruit scones

Which all went down very nicely for lunch today :))

I have also had something of a tidy up in my workroom, things had got quite messy in there this past few months, and I just had to ignore it while I worked away at the books, trying to finish one artwork per day.

In the process of tidying

My neat and tidy desk, and a clean drawing board!

My desk is now organised, I still need to tidy all my books etc, but they are back up on the bookshelf and not on the floor as they were. I am ready to go now on some new ideas I have buzzing around in my head. I've made me a list of new project ideas to work on, in the hope that someone likes them....and then I will go on earning my 'Daily Bread' which is most important... as some folks around here are always hungry.....

Always enjoys his 'Daily Bread' :)  X

Where's tha bin?

A's bin up on't Ilkley moor,  I did have a hat on though, as it was rather chilly, but not so bad really for winter weather. My new camera is quite wonderful and has an amazing number of little tricks it can perform, most of which I have to yet get to grips with?? But these 2 photos are done in panoramic mode, the camera makes this little whirring movie camera noise as you pan across the view.

 I also managed this last weekend to get to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, to see the Angie Lewin exhibition there. I love her work, it was fascinating seeing her watercolours, along with the screen prints and woodcuts and all the different tools she uses.

 There were many items for sale, both in the shop and on the walls. Some prints were quite expensive really (for me anyway) and I was quite amazed to see that just about everything was sold out!!! Wow.

 Beautiful colours on these screen prints, gorgeous interpretations of her sketches and little watercolour doodles shown in the exhibition cases below.

 I loved these paintings, they were mega expensive,(£1,000 plus) but as one off originals they are stunning and I think have quite a graphic quality to them, even in this painterly stage.

 Tiny little woodcuts, that were like little gems.

 And a lovely case of Angie's Nature finds and little sketches and tiny watercolours and the beautiful woodblocks, which I find so fascinating.

So nice to see all these extra bits and pieces connected to her work. 

Now, the photo below is blurred I know, sorry about that. But the first thing I saw when we arrived at the Sculpture Park, was this fabulous male Bullfinch on one of the many feeders scattered around the building. He was quite a distance away and I zoomed in, with my 20x zoom and snapped my shot, whoops a bit blurred, but you can see the colour?? Stunning he was, we have so many little brown birds, this was a treat!! This weekend is the 'Big Garden Bird Watch' in the UK, where you watch the birds for an hour in your chosen place (my garden) and record the birds spotted, to help the RSPB discover new things about our birds. I will be there, why not join in, it's the world's biggest survey :)

 and below is my walking partner, looking quite grey whiskered now. He plods along behind me and I have to encourage him to speed up by throwing a biscuit up in front, he can progress to a stiff trot then :)  Love him.

I hope to be back soon, I will show some of my new book illustrations, which I have just about completed. I've had 20 illustrations to do since Christmas, trying to do one a day, I'm nearly there. See you soon :) Thank-you for all your comments on my last post, you are lovely bloggy friends :)))