Been around....

Well folks, I've been busy gadding about recently, It's been so long since I've posted on here, sorry about that, I have somewhat neglected things on the blog. Here are some of the places I've been, you may have seen them before as they are favourite haunts!

suspension bridge near Hebden (Dales)

River twixt Hebden and Burnsall.

The little school at Burnsall, viewed through the churchyard, so cute!

Panoramic shot near Hebden

 Next few photos are around York, a place I love, so much still to discover :) The Minster is just spectacular, I had meant to try the camera on some close up shots of the gargoyles etc, but my camera battery ran out, next time I will get some.

Walking the wall that surrounds York, you get to see some very different scenes, into peoples gardens etc, quite fascinating!

York wall, can you see the schoolchildren to the left below? :)

Lovely gardens!!

Popping out of the wall, we found this by accident really, but it's quite amazing how these things still remain, just wonderful.

Now to my next location, near Harrogate, a walk around Swinsty reservoir. I don't have photos of the start of this walk, the bit where I moaned a lot, as the path was a stream or bog, I can be a pain when things are tricky! I like nice easy walks, yes we can go uphill, that's OK, but not boggy, thats yuk.

Swinsty reservoir walk.

Sun on the water.

 Best bit of the walk coming next, Tea Room at Bettys, Harlow Carr, Hooray. Nice Fat rascal for late lunch, totally yummy :)

Gorgeous Easter display window.

Yummy menu.

Burst of bright floral sunshine, had to take some home.

Latest piece of work, done in various ways, stamping, pastel, drawing, painting and finally photoshop! Yea.

Hope you like my little rambles? In between I have been busy working. The major book project keeps coming back, but I don't think I can do it? It's been difficult to say no.
See you all again before too long :) I do keep following you peeps out there.

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 :)))

Advance copies, etc etc etc

first copy of one of my new books

Hi there folks :)  I received advance copies of the two little books I worked on earlier this year, they are out in the new year sometime. I must apologise for the quality of my photographs, it suddenly dawned on me the other day. why I've not been posting so much here. The camera is playing up terribly, and has been all year really, I've struggled to get these and I think it's given up altogether now, so I'm hoping Santa may bring me a new one please? Or in the sales I may look for one :)

Anyway, these little books have grown on me, looking at them now, in situ as it were, they do fit the bill, of explaining little prayers and psalms to young girls age 2-4 years.

sorry about the photo, I will explain.

When I look at the images, I can remember how I wracked my brain to come up with some of the scenarios, and some of them are a bit too literal, but hey ho, if I were a little girl, it would look OK to me :)

I hope you like them too? And more importantly I hope that little girls like them.

The covers are a little too 'pink' and glittery??

But inside we did OK?

 So this was quite exciting getting the above copies, I think there are more being shipped over now, and hope to get some more copies soon.
 I also set myself the task of creating a Christmas card. I ordered some sweet little buttons and then thought up an idea to suit them. I drew a sort of 'Rob Ryan' type tree, intending to pop the button on top. I thought right, get that screen out that I bought last year, cut out a paper stencil as you do, then quick as you like, screen print me lots of cards.......... well I had good intentions of doing that??

Cutting out the paper stencil.

Too many teeny fiddly bits?

Here it is carefully positioned on the screen!

Paint painstakingly mixed to match my little button!

Eh, Viola.....DISASTER!!!!

 I was quite excited to do this screen printing malarky, I do love the process, but it just didn't work, I think it was wrong paper, too intricate a design, ink not quite right mix, etc, etc. So I reverted back to the trusty stamping technique, I'm sorry I don't have photos of the whole process, but the camera was giving up at this point.

So here are my finished stamped designs. They have been delivered too, and pleased to report they were well received, Phew!

Before I leave you.....

Just one little sad note.... I found this little chap in the garden. I know birds must die, they don't live that long I don't think?? But it was quite sad to see this beautifully coloured bird lying by the water pot? such lovely bright colours. Maybe someone could explain?