I'm in WH Smiths.......

 Hi blog friends, I'm here again still waiting on THE BOOK, I have been told by the editor no less, that as soon as they get copies from the warehouse I will be sent 3, so fingers crossed it won't be long? My book is about 'Sleepy Bears' going to sleep, it's a very gentle story, not many words, lots of actions!

In the meantime, I visited,WH Smith store in town, and there are my designs on the shelves, 6 in total, all very traditional cute bears, as requested.
 I did these earlier this year and they have quickly found their way into the stores. I bought 2 as a) I doubt I will get any samples, and b) they were expensive!!! They are quite big, with a nice red envelope though. Check them out if you go near a store, in the UK that is?? Christmas is still quite a way off I know, but I work on this sort of thing all year and actually I never seem to tire of it, I do love what I do! :)

Artwork for the card designs.

 This is another love of mine below, modelling (not the latest) style of t-shirt!! My poor little puppy, cos' that's what he is to me,  (he's 12 and a half) has had a nasty reaction to a bite. It's under his arm,( whoops, front leg), and so the vet said....instead of him having to wear one of those awful collars, where they bash into everything and everyone, put him an old t-shirt on, to stop him trying to scratch or lick it?? Well, he hasn't taken to this really! He looks a bit fed up :( don't you think? We put it on him last night at bedtime, but it was off by the morning, must have been a struggle in the night!!

My Handsome old boggy looking fed up.

What are you doing to me? This looks like a dress!! :)

This last photo of him makes me think of the talking dog on You Tube, you know the one, with the bacon  etc? Hope this link works, but you've probably seen this many times!? He's much better already my pooch, on his Very Expensive antibiotics. (worth every penny for him, my lovely Jet).
See you all again soon.:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw

Sketchcrawl Sunshine

First tree I sketched, the colours are just changing.

Lynne sketching the stunning red Acer, as seen in the next image, I also drew this tree.

Sketch of above.

Sophie ryders dogs were popular amongst the sketchers and all interpreted differently

We were surrounded by Canada geese at one point, lovely sketches here, and of the branches as seen in my top photo dangling down.

This is me as sketched by my lovely friend D

Amazing work achieved in such a short time, the hours pass so quickly when you're absorbed in the sketching!

My sketches here as mentioned above, I concentrated on the trees as they were  so lovely in their changing state.

 I used some colour this time, just experimenting with different techniques.

Sorry I can't name each persons sketches, but they were all good!

Hi blog friends! I'm still here awaiting THAT book!!!! Sigh..... in the meantime, I had a lovely day last Sunday, out on the Sketchcrawl at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.I had a lovely friend accompanying me this time and we certainly had good weather. Quite unbelievable really, it was so nice to sit in the sunshine and draw. The wind was a bit nippy, but in sheltered spots it was a delight. I should have taken lots of photos at the park, as there were new sculptures on display, but I mainly took shots of the final showdown, where we all display our work for to share. Quite a nerve wracking experience this can be, but there are all levels and abilities and all deserve praise. So many different styles and techniques, we can all learn from each other.Hope you enjoy my little exhibition, it was fun.

Beatrice Alemagna talks about Bugs in the Garden

I have taken this video from the lovely Lisa on her blog' Lil Sonny Sky'. I tried to do the link thing but ??? it baffled me, so hopefully you can find Lisa and her blog, as it's sooooo good!! I just love Beatrice's accent, and how she shows the way she works, what a delight! Hope you enjoy it too! :)

Up Hill and Down Dale, a short interlude.....

Going Up, Up

and Up

Above the beautiful Wharfedale

Out onto the moors above

then a steep Down,Down

To the bottom of the Dale and a walk back by the river.

Just a short interlude blog friends. We had a lovely walk in the Autumn sunshine. Out of lovely Kettlewell, up a very steep track ( which may be of 'Calendar Girls' fame)? To get these glorious views down the valley, it was well worth the uphill struggle! Out onto the moors, then back down the steep track, and a walk from Starbotton along the dale back. What a lovely day, cup of tea and cream scone to finish, Yum.
I am hoping to have my first copy of the Children's book I illustrated earlier this year, I have seen it and am quite beside myself excited.......just need to get my hands on a copy, then I can show you all some pics, and of the process it took to get there!! Hope to be back soooooon!
 Oooh forgot to say, going on a sketchcrawl on Sunday to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, with Lynne Chapman and the gang, and also managed to get myself a screen and a squeegee, for some screenprinting action??? Soon!! Very exciting! (to me anyway) :))))

A Butterfly theme

Peacock Butterfly WOW

Red Admiral, who wouldn't open those beautiful wings for me!

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

Hi there blog friends, the post today has a theme of butterflies running through it. They seem to have been in my garden, in my thoughts and in my artwork, so here goes......Above, those in the garden recently, attracted by the Buddleia flowers. My Buddleia flowers later in the season than most, and the last of the summer sun has brought these beautiful butterflies in, what a delight!  I've been a relaxed sort of busy recently, trying to do some paid work...,going on days out walking,.... doing some spec work and on a teeny tiny screen print course for half a day.  

Screen for hand screen printing

 The screenprint course was at the 'Art House' in my home town. It involved printing using simple stencils that were cut out of newsprint. I had to quickly come up with an idea the night before the course, and Butterflies popped into my head. I have to admit I had not envisaged these colours, I would have gone for something less garish and more toned, but we were working in pairs, so colours had to suit both people. It was all a bit manic again, I think 4 colours was a little ambitious in the short time we had, as we printed 8 pieces each. The time just flew by, and we had to work like crazy. It was just a great experience discovering what can be done, with such simple equipment. My image turned out OK. But I played safe and didn't overlap colours, so registration was fairly easy. There were some excellent prints produced once again, unfortunately I didn't get any photos, as time was so tight.One girl did a Rob Ryan style design, and as you have to cut the paper stencils out, it made total sense and turned out so well, it was of some birdies in a tree. (should have got a photo).

Paper stencil for each colour, it's those butterflies again!

3 colours printed here

Final colour added.

 I would definitely like to do some more of this kind of screen printing at home. I will have to get myself a screen! The possibilities are endless for this technique. Excellent course all for £7 !!!

My indulgent project at home has been a large watercolour of Cottage Garden flowers. I try and think of subjects that might work well on Greeting Cards, but that I like too. Below is my process of working, starting with sketch ideas, using my own photos if I can, the one below was from Sark, some Hollyhocks that were beautiful. The idea was to have a white picket fence with flowers typical of a cottage garden.

First stage of artwork, the Hollyhocks.

 I decided to paint all the flowers first, then masked out the white picket fence in order to paint in some of the greenery below.

Masking fluid going on.

Greenery washed in over the masked out fence.

At this point, when I'd washed in the green, I decided that I didn't like the regimented line up of the flowers. So I (very bravely for me) started to paint in some feint loose flowers in between those already painted. I was really quite pleased with how they turned out! Just off the cuff, making it up as I went along!!

Finished piece, complete with 'Painted Lady' butterfly!

This artwork is about A3 in size. I needed to work a bit bigger than normal to get some of the loose watercolour effects in, it's not easy to do if they are so small.
I hope you've enjoyed my butterfly ramblings, we've had some colder weather today, it's feeling much more like Autumn, which I believe officially starts tomorrow? I've been planting out 100 tiny pansies, something I don't normally do at this time of year. I have bulbs ready to put in also, all with the promise of some delightful flowers in the spring and hopefully through the winter too! See you all again soon.

Art for the love of Sark book

 Hello Blog friends. As promised I am back with some of the images from this beautiful book I had bought for my birthday. All of the artwork is stunning, showing different aspects of life on the island of Sark. The wildlife ones are just gorgeous. You can see below an illustration showing the butterfly that I took a photo of whilst we were visiting. There are such a variety of styles of work, all of them are so accomplished. I shall just post some of my favourite images, they really speak for themselves!

Spot the butterflies as seen in my photo below!

Speckled wood, now I know what it is from the book!

Love these paper cuts and the wooden sculptures

Darren Woodheads works are particular favourites

Beautiful bird captured here so simply, Darren is from West Yorkshire, which is my home territory!

Love this work in progress artwork.

Long tailed tits, so strikingly portrayed, I love these little pink birds, they are more common now in the garden.

We stood in this very spot looking out to sea, over the thatched roof house.

I hope you can see all these images from the book. They are all beautiful. I have still so much to look at within the book, and some of the writing is very moving. There is also a DVD of the artists, which I have yet to see! I'm sure it will a fascinating insight into their work.
The weather here in the UK has been quite lovely of late, that's why I've been missing from the blog. In between finishing off some work at a steady pace, because my eye is still not 100% , we have managed some wonderful days out in the sunshine. I think it's all change next week at some point, it's going to have an Autumnal feel to the temperature? Eeek. I've so enjoyed these balmy late summer days.
I will be back soon with some more creative pieces, but I hope you've enjoyed seeing these!

Inspiring Illustration from Lynne Chapman.

Just wanted to post something very inspirational and arty from the lovely Lynne Chapman. In this short film she very genorously shows how she works on her new Children's picture book 'Swap' in pastels. This gives a great insight into producing artwork for picture books. Lynne is very talented and her blog shows so much of illustration techniques etc. I always love to watch an artist work, and as Lynne does this same sort of thing whilst working with children in schools etc, I am sure she must be an inspiration to them. Hope this inspires you too, check out her blog,'An Illustrators life for me'. Bye for now folks, I will be back with some snippets from my delightful new book 'Art for the love of Sark' .