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? 

Marimekko Fabric Printing

My first surface pattern attempts above

 Hello again my blog friends. I should have been back sooner, but I've been quite busy and really not taken the camera out on many jaunts a lately.

 I have been attempting to walk another path in the design world, that of 'surface pattern' in the hope that it would help in my quest to get a bit better on the iMac and in digital art. I haven't got too far, as I keep getting requests to do things in pastel or watercolour (which is fine by me) as 'live' work, and so I don't dare attempt this on the mac, as it could go wrong and I would waste time......so I'm still trying to work things out?  The above is one of my attempts at pattern, inspired by a top I bought recently, which I loved the pattern on (see below).
I will hopefully get back to the pattern work soon, as I have always had a love of pattern, I studied Graphic Design..... and it's absolutely everywhere around us, when you take the time to look.

Otley river walk

The weir in Otley, those seagulls drifted close to the drop and then took off ....:)

I've also managed a few walks, one on the riverbank into Otley (Yorkshire) with the leaves changing colour nicely, brightening everything up, glowing gold :)

We also did a walk that found us passing field upon field of Christmas trees, I suppose these may go in the not too distant future now.

Autumn leaves gathered on a morning dog walk nearby. Just couldn't resist them!

I shall leave you with this little clip of some screen printing which always fascinates me. I can't get over how simple the process is (with plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong) and yet material etc is still produced this way. It's just a joy to watch. I bought myself a screen and a squeegee last year, and still have not got round to using them. My screen is about A3  size, not quite as large as these shown here.

Hello there!

Hello folks,

I have been absent for a while now, things have been busy, with family and work. Happily so!

 I always get concerned on the blog about images being stolen,(safe to say my lovely friends on the blogs, have experienced some awful copyright problems) so it's sometimes very difficult to write about what I am working on. I don't have a shop, so I'm not selling work, and I found myself  thinking why am I writing this blog??
 I have loved meeting people through writing a blog, but I became rather despondent not getting many comments, feeling a bit 'Billy no mates' :(  Quite pathetic I know.

I think perhaps I ran out of interesting things to say? That is impossible in this wonderful creative world? Or maybe it's just the way I write?? It's sometimes hard to write in an interesting way, but some people do it sooooo well. I follow lots of lovely blogs, and I know they don't always get huggings of comments!
Anyways, I needed a bit of a rest, and then found it difficult to come back here, hence my absence. I've been following all you lovely people out there in blogland though, enjoying all as usual. 

I will be back before too long, and leave you with some images of cards I did that will appear in Waitrose this Christmas. I know it's a bit early to mention Christmas, eeek, so apologies for this.They are teeny tiny cards, but I'm thrilled that they selected my work to be in this store, as it's a bit posh! Oooh get me, going all posh!!

See you again, before too long :)