And so it begins....

In my blog last week I mentioned a book that I was starting to doodle the pictures for, the words are written, I just need to make it come alive with images! So, this is my first attempt for page one - the beginning...

I realise this could be a very slow, painful process. I'm going to have to progress from just drawing ginger-nut trees, and get on with the characters that are to come - there's some elves in this story (there's always elves in stories with ginger-nut biscuit trees!!) Then there's a giant in the next book, and some more elves, so many elves, it's beginning to look a lot like The Hobbit!!

Anyway, hopefully I'll have some elves to show for next week.... no pressure then!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR....

Well, it's been a while since I last wittered on - the end of 2012 was quite manic, to be perfectly honest I think there was a time thief, as I'm not entirely sure where October, November and December went!!

October was full of birthdays, we moved house in November and spent the rest of November and December trying to find places for all the things we've acquired over the past several years!!

The decs on the tree have now come down, even though it only seems like 5 minutes ago since I was digging them out of the cupboard to put up!!

However, I have found time to doodle for a new set of books I'm working on...

The books are about a tree that grows ginger-nut biscuits - but only kids can get the biscuits. The tree also tells stories (as all trees in kids books do!!) but all the stories are made of rhyming couplets.

So that's this years mission - The Tales of the Ginger-Nut Tree!!

What's your mission this year?

:)

Colouring in Shells...

All this horrible weather is making me pine for the seaside again, only a few weeks ago I was sat (in the UK) outside this beautiful surf hut...

With a view like this....

Well, you need a cheeky cider in Cornwall, in weather like this!!!



So I started doodling some of my favourite seaside finds.... Shells!!
I love finding shells, and collecting shells, so I thought I'd doodle some shells.

I decided to create a colouring-in pattern (like the colouring-in-cakes I did for the Ideal Home Show), and this is the creation I came up with...

And, this is what it would look like in the kitchen (pass me the colouring crayons)...

Aaahhh - the seaside - possibly my favourite-ist place in the whole wide world!!

October Wallpaper...

Welcome to October (not quite sure where the year has gone!!)

I was asked a couple of weeks ago if I would be interested in doing the Design Juices October Wallpaper download.

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance!

To me October is all about Halloween (and my mums birthday - she's witch you know!!) Everything starts turning orange, and all the pumpkins and vast quantities of chocolate start to appear on the shelves. With that in mind I went VERY Halloween with my October Wallpaper...

If you want to download the wallpaper for yourself just click here it comes in various sizes to fit all types of screens, so take your pick :)

Happy October :)

Fairytales...

Ok, so enough of Christmas stuff.

I found a drawing that I did for someone else, that never got used - I quite like the quirky faces of the fairies, so I thought I'd depart from the Christmas theme - just for now - while we're still in September!!!

I'm thinking I might like this as a pillow or bedspread - well, I probably would have when I was about 7 or 8 :)

And yes, I know she's got a wonky face, but so have I :)

Xmas Berry...

September has been a bit of a manic month, so doodling has had to take a back seat, however, I have managed a bit of doodle nod towards Christmas (which I hate to say it, is coming around sooooooooo quickly!!)

This is the Xmas Berry doodle....

Just Circles...

In a previous blog I mentioned that I was going to be doing a "collection" called Just... I think I also mentioned that I like drawing circles, so I was rather pleased when another design challenge came up to design using circles only, and only 4 colours!!

Needless to say the Wacom pen was out and I was endlessly scribbling away!!

The challenge was to design 3 different patterns, that could all be used as the same collection, and this is my concoction....

I'm thinking tea towels might be quite nice...