5.10.05

Sketches, bracelets and autumn fire

Trying to sort my new routine out I decided to work on private and personal work at weekends/evening, and use the weekdays for professional jobs. I've sold 'Tin Mice' and have been offered another commission for the baby who had 'Primavera' as a birth gift. Now they need a christening present. I'm thankful my own work is still selling, as it's not certain where the next job is coming from.

I've had the main brief from Disney and am quietly having stage fright...I have to forget who I'm working for and just get on with it. I had a nice working lunch at the offices a few weeks ago and was kindly given permission to mention the project here, without specifics. It is being launched at the
NEC Spring Fair in February and I'll be able to swank then. This week I've been mainly working on a few final artworks for the 'girly handbook' - the art director wants to put together a 'real' spread to take to the Frankfurt Book Fair. I managed to get another commission drawn up - it's going to be a large one - this is one and a half sheets of A3...

...and am finding a new style of toy to draw, including this strange little flower cat, shown here with masking fluid.


Now I'm not doing rough manual work, I can wear jewellery again - I treated myself to a set of lovely bracelets made by the 10 year old son of an illustrator friend of mine. He has an excellent colour sense - these are my favourite colours and I'm really enjoying wearing them.



We have no central heating - but we do have a woodburner, as do most houses in the village. It is truly damp, chilly autumn and tonight I lit our first fire. Now the hovel is toasty warm and smells of aromatic woodsmoke. I can hear the logs chattering and singing as they burn, recalling memories of their past lives as trees. There is a sausage casserole warming on top and Andy's garlic hung nearby.


3 comments:

Lorna said...

Great beads!

lorna said...

You sound excitingly busy PG. Was your departure from retail purely coincidence or did you know all this work was on its way?
How are you enjoying working full time from home? (Sounds a great idea to work on paying stuff in the day and private and personal stuff in the evening/weekend- I might adopt that strategy too.

Bye for now,

Lorna

Gretel said...

No, I've been plotting my escape from retail for several months (like digging out of jail with a blunt teaspoon). I knew I had three jobs in the pipeline all summer, but had to wait until they all got confirmation - and do the prep work for them while working, too. These things take sooo looong! Working full time from home - my dear, just you wait! It's wonderful! Takes a few days to get used to (all that cusotmer poison to get out of your system). After that - ahhh!