Poor Celia

I don't know why I think of her as 'poor'...maybe because it's taken me almost exactly a year to get round to painting her up from the original scribble. And as I painted, I wondered (not for the first time) about why I drew her, what it all means, and all that kind of good old naval gazing stuff. Then I stopped, because there's some places I don't want to go. It's a toy bird. With a patchwork egg and hand knitted socks. End of story.

She wears her heart on her sleeve - literally. And like a lot of us, she's a bit saggy in places she didn't used to be.

This is a bit disturbing...it's the same driver from 'The Lost Balloon'. I never did like him. He drove a taxi previously, and is making a habit of turning up in my work, lurking in the background. What is he waiting for? Why did I put him in? What sinister secrets is he hiding? Stop. It's a toy bird. With a patchwork egg and hand knitted socks. End of story.

And here are some potential passengers...oh look, there's a tiny yolk on the sign...I spent a large amount of my childhood waiting for buses with my mum; I wonder if that's me as a little chick. So who are the other two characters? How long have they been waiting? Has dreamy Celia missed the bus? No. It's a toy bird. With a patchwork egg and hand knitted socks. End of story...

Hello - goodbye...

Hello...




...I'm in the middle of a job...it was a short deadline to begin with and somewhere along the way it got made even shorter...must rush...goodbye!

'Cheers'

I found this lurking in a paper pile and realised I'd meant to send it off weeks ago, when 'Society Wine' was launched. I painted it up last night, just after e-mailing the first colour sample for 'woodland Creatures' to my US art director. I was using dribs and drabs of that palette, but in pale washes, not the vivid, rich shades I'd just submitted; I hadn't been altogether happy with it. Painting this, it dawned on me that this was the effect I'd actually been looking for, so spent today redoing the entire thing and hoping the AD would agree...thankfully she did. We seem to think pretty much alike on things, and she is very gentle with me if I stray. Now we are both hoping the Big Decision Maker will like it too.

Get well!

Still heading towards the Disney deadline...not had time to do any other work apart from this little picture for a friend who is in need of a 'Get Well' card. I don't usually work this spontaneously - just sketching and painting directly onto the watercolour paper.

'Balloon Parade'

Most of last week has been spent getting on to the next stage of 'The Various Jobs'. Still waiting for more work on 'Girly Giftbook'. There's an ominous silence which always worries me. Am nearly ready to start final part of Disney work - it should be done and dusted by the end of the month. I am still struggling with one of the main characters from 'Woodland Creatures'. I've always had problems with this one for some reason - I can't seem to nail the little crittur! It's the face that's causing the problems - I've been liasing back and forth with the art director, but I need to sit down and give it my 100% attention when the other two jobs are finished. Completed the Bird commission and have to crack on with 'the Onward Journey' as the christening is happening in - ohh, only ten days time!
In between all this I managed to get some more small works finished. I am very pleased with this one, and would like to take it on a stage as a giftwrap proposal, but there are Difficult Things like designing it to a 'step and repeat' pattern and my simple brain has problems with that kind of technicality...

'Balloon Parade'

'Glad rags'

A little painting done as a 'thank you' present for a friend who sent me the most beautiful jacket...

Mr Apricot

Good things that have happened. My first Disney 'final roughs' have been very much approved of. This is a huge relief. As with anything Disney, it is vital that I adhere to the original design; that it is instantly recognisable. Some artists would probably hate this - a curtailment of their freedom of expression or some such nonsense. I like it. It's a challenge and I've been cribbing from Disney sketches for years anyway! I am being allowed a few of my own tiny touches, while being watched over and guided by one of their official artists, who is a far far greater draughtsman than I could ever hope to be. But something to aspire to.

Another good thing - I have sold 'Moon on a Stick' and 'The Numptys' to a nice person in America. These little creatures are going to get to New York before I do. I think the silly Numptys may get a bit scared in the commotion of the plane - but I shall leave a small gap in the bubble wrap so that the girl and her cat can crawl in with them and keep them company. Perhaps use the moon to light up the parcel.


Yesterday I took delivery of 'Illustration' magazine, a wonderful new publication now in its second year. This is the first UK publication totally dedicated to this much neglected art - anyone with any interest in this field should get hold of a copy. Or better still, subscribe.


Today I've been working on bits and bobs - I've produced 3 sheets of accessories for the 'Girly Giftbook' - even Barbie would be satisfied. The large private commission is stretched and ready for it's first proper colour. And I've finished another small picture. I had real problems mixing up the right kind of dingy orange to go with the dull green background - as can be seen here with the different bowls of colour. The clothes catalogue is Boden - they use such gorgeous colour ranges that I often 'borrow' their schemes. Some more paintings sold and I may be able to buy the jumper I've been hankering after...

'Mr Apricot'

Anyone who thinks that artists should be 100% self sufficient in their work should read Vasari (I think it was), who advised all would be artists to go and copy the great masters. A bit more of that and maybe more of our young art graduates would be able to produce decent artwork. At the moment a lot of it seems to be a triumph of style over technique. That's my grumpy old git rant for the week.

Some kind of horse

A bit of a different colour scheme here - not sure if it's 'me'. It's quite bright and jolly, but I prefer my usual tertiary pallette. I like these colours - but not really in my paintings. Hopefully someone will take to it; horses for courses...

The Moon on a stick

At the moment I seem to spend more time on the PC than actually in the studio - whether it be e-mailing people - scanning in pictures - printing off the Disney brief to working sizes - making an unnecessarily complicated budget form - updating the website - one wonders how we managed before the computer age. But the first final artworks for 'girly giftbook' are sent out, half of the first roughs for Disney are done and I'm waiting for the first layouts of 'woodland creatures' to arrive from the US - which is very exciting. Inbetween all this, I did finish another little picture, based on the old saying of 'wanting the Moon on a stick'.

'The Lost Balloon'

Tomorrow we depart for the little island of Skopelos, Greece. It's a good way to end an unusally busy and productive summer. I have finally got to the stage where I can 'give up the day job' and will be handing in my notice at the shop when we return. It is the first time in ten years that I have been able to support myself on my illustration earnings alone and is a big moment for me. As this will be the last blog for a while, I thought I'd post the final stages of ' The Lost Balloon', which was collected by it's purchaser yesterday.

Here are the first washes, with the art masking fluid in place. It's fiddly stuff. I use a combination of a dip pen, scalpel and pointy stick to place it accurately. But it's worth doing, to get the free flow of paint over small details.


Detail of the mother hen. For some reason I found myself using colour combinations I rarely use, such as ultramarine and purple madder. The atmosphere of the picture, the brooding storm clouds, the air of urgency - 'we must be there by nightfall!' all suggested a Victorian Bronte-esque melodrama to me, and so 'mother' is clothed in rich, heavy colours. Later I found that purple is the favourite colour of the buyer, indeed, she was wearing a tee-shirt of almost identical colour to 'mother's' skirt. which was nice. Like cats, some paintings are just meant for certain people.

Detail of the shell taxi. Actual size is about 1-2 cm. I don't think I like the driver. I'm not sure why.

Here is the finished painting, without the mount. I invariably design my pictures in an oval or a circle, and withough the framing, it can look a bit loose and lost...



...until the mount is placed over it and it all makes sense! I added an extra leaf to the foreground, where a certain Mr Pumpkin-cat dug his little claws into a dry wash. (I thought I'd taught him to read 'NO CATS IN STUDIO'). The path on the right has been altered to come off the edge entirely, adding interest to the composition. And I think there's a warm bed and a cup of tea waiting for them at Journey's End. Who knows where the balloon will end up? The painting itself is by now hanging on a little girls' bedroom wall. She will no doubt have her own 'take' on what's happening in it. I hope it gives her much pleasure and maybe one day she will hand it down to her children and tell them the tale of 'the Lost Balloon'...whatever it is.

While we are away, my friend and fellow artist Rima will be looking after the hovel and its furry crew. I am getting somewhat nervous of Shelob, as I cleared two thirds of her nest while dusting and she has been hunched in a glowering sulk since. She killed another husband recently, and two daddy-long-leg suitors. She'd better behave herself, or she'll be outside for the winter.

When painting goes bad.

I'm trying to juggle two publishing briefs with my 'Summerlands' work. The briefs take priority, but I'm managing to sneak in an hour or so for myself. Yesterday I almost wrecked a painting by not testing out my colours beforehand, which is the danger of rushing things. I thought I'd give the 'Tin Mice' a fairground/rock candy feel, by using pink, yellow and green. Here I've added a gamboge yellow band to Mother Mouse. It looks too garish and I instantly swashed it down with clean water and soaked up as much of it as possible.

I tried a deeper pink next - this was better, though in this instance it is too dense and again, I mopped it until it faded to a respectable pale rose.

Next mistake was to paint the rivets with indigo. It looked - wrong. By now I realised that the colour scheme was going to be extremely limited...

So I made them - pink. Again.

Once it was painted up, I had my usual panic...will it be any good? I don't like it! But I got stuck in with the pencil work, which always brings the colours up, and managed to rescue what was almost a bit of a horlicks.

Tin Mice

Tin fish

Another day, another painting. I treasure my whole days off, as I can immerse myself in my studio, emerging only for air and the occasional sandwich. Today I actually started and finished a whole painting, continuing a series I started in my first exhibition, Small Wonders. I am very fond of tin toys, but I revel in the idea of abandoned old toys which have simply been lost or forgotten. My first tin toy work was 'rusty bird', and as I like to do things in pairs, I followed it with 'rusty fish'. I'm afraid my titles are never very imaginative...here's the 'tin fish' this morning, when all the washes and paintwork were finished and I was about to get stuck into the pencil work.

I really hate this stage of a painting - even after all these years, I get scared - every time - that it won't come right. Then I start the pencil detail. This is always reassuring and I find I haven't 'lost it' after all. But it can be tedious. That's when a long audio cassette of a spoken book is essential. In contrast to the whimsical images I am creating, I have a penchant for crime fiction. So today, while I was working on a nice little toy fish, I was listening to Joe Dunlop reading 'The Distant Echo' by Val McDermid - a rather harrowing Scottish thriller. It was so gripping I was able to work through the afternoon and night, and finished the piece in one session.

'Tin fish'

I'm rather pleased with this - I've ventured out of my normal comfort zone, by using a hot pink next to burnt orange, and the texture is a step forward too. I'm veering away from the smooth, graduated pencil finishes I used to enjoy, to a rougher, more varied textural effect.

Algy

Four mornings a week I work at the village supermarket. While on the one hand this keeps me firmly in touch with reality - probably a good thing - it also can leave me pretty wiped out in the afternoons. That's when I pootle about my website, updating it. Today I finally finished uploading a picture story I wrote over a decade ago. It's been re-written dozens of times, and was rejected about as many by UK publishers. In a Don Quixote moment I decided to publish it myself...and the Tiddler Press was born. It kept me out of mischief for a while and I somehow published and sold four titles and 800 books. Books is a pretty loose description - they were really little pamphlets, as my budget was as much as I could spare from my part time earnings. And printed in black and white, hence the scraperboard. It was a pretty good effort, but I only earned enough to print the next book. Eventually I went back to painting and here we are today.

'Algy and the Balloon Lady'