Illustrating Lucy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2012-01-01T17:57:00.002Z

Since Christmas is now officially past here's a last viewing of this years Christmas card. The version that made it to the post has glitter in all the snow flakes. All the cows are actual cows from my family's farm, including Maia who is my very own Hereford cow. I hope everyone had a lovely festive period and here's hoping 2012 is a great year.

Woodside Craft Fair

2011-12-02T11:37:00.005Z

This Saturday I will have a stall at Woodside Garden Centre near Ancrum. Their Traditional Woodside Christmas Celebration features carol singing, wreath making and a wishing tree as well as the craft fair and many other things. I have a selection of cards and prints for sale and with me are Robyn and Linda Kinsman-Blake with lots of lovely ceramics and jewelry as shown on their website here

I have returned!

2011-11-18T11:12:00.006Z

Hello again. It's been a while since I've posted anything new. I've been busy with my other career in the agricultural world of grain testing. By a rough calculation I've probably counted out 30,000 individual grains of malting barley this harvest. After that it's quite nice to get back to some illustration work.

If anyone is around the Borders region I have some prints for sale in the lovely Coldstream Gallery. There's a selection of cards, some of my fish prints and my latest editions are the snipe and partridge above. There is lots of other artists' work in the gallery, in a huge mix of styles and mediums so it's definately worth a visit.

Just to prove that I did manage to do some work over the harvest period, this rather fat pheasant was on a pretty elaborate I.O.U. poster for a prize of 1 tonne of wheat donated to an charity auction in Northumberland.

I did say I was going to paint a cow...

2011-07-24T11:35:00.002+01:00

Technically it's a calf not a cow. This is without a doubt the most unusual thing I've ever had to paint. The calf is for the Border Union Show this Saturday coming. He's going on tour around the Border towns with Radio Borders first. So if anyone is in the area this week, look out for him.
The two buildings on each side are Kelso Abbey and Kelso Old Bridge.

I haven't used acrylics for about 4 years. I had forgotten how much I dislike them. Back to watercolours from now on I think.

Summer Days

2011-07-14T14:19:00.003+01:00

It's approaching harvest time which means that I'll soon be disappearing into the oblivion that is my summer job testing grain. In the mean time I've got few things to get finished before then. This is poster that I made of everyone's favourite ice-cream flavours. I'm not sure whether it works or not. I might put it on my Etsy store - it depends on whether people like it.

In other news I'm going to be painting a cow in the next few weeks. No, I'm not making that up. Details to follow...

Something from a wee while ago.

2011-06-13T10:07:00.002+01:00

It's always a good idea when posting Birthday card designs to wait until after the recipient's Birthday is passed. So this is a card design I did last month. I was told that the man it was for liked growing tomatoes, played the cello and was always worrying about the fox getting his hens. Since I like writing rhymes I came up with this. I hoped he liked it.

One down, three to go.

2011-05-26T11:22:00.002+01:00

So, my introduction of new breeds of cow into our herd progresses. There are still too many boring plain black ones but I have managed to coerce my Dad into getting a few Herefords. Never one to miss an opportunity this is the Birthday card that I've made for him. While Shorthorns and Luings are a long shot I think it would have been more realistic to put "Status - Denied" for the Highland. Pity.

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T17:06:00.001+01:00

Did anyone else eat an excessive amount of chocolate yesterday? Having said that, any excuse to go overboard decorating Easter cakes is always worth it!

The swallows are back.

2011-04-20T10:53:00.003+01:00

The first swallows arrived back for the summer this week. About time too, there are so many small flies going about it's impossible to cycle anywhere without getting a mouthful of them. So my message to all swallows - happy hunting!

Right, enough with the procrastination. So far this morning I've managed to distract myself with plenty of tea making, three loads of clothes washing, re-potting a plant and photoshopping lots of flies. Must get back to work. Or I could go and bake some muffins.....

Today I saw...

2011-04-01T09:57:00.000+01:00

The other day I saw a crow fly down and land on a sheep, pluck some wool off it, and fly off again. Not an April Fool's, honest!

Something for the spring

2011-03-30T14:28:00.003+01:00

Spring has finally arrived. Still no leaves on the trees but all the daffodils are out now. This is a little image I drew for a card. In other news as an update to my earlier post about bunting, it took a while but I finally found technique for transferring images onto fabric that works. My nautical themed bunting is now available on my etsy shop. I'm currently working on some different styles, watch this space...

Website update

2011-03-25T10:46:00.003Z

After a week of banging my head against a wall (or so it feels like) I've finally managed to manipulate my website software into working and my shiny new website is up and running. There are probably a few kinks in it still - brownie points to anyone who finds one and lets me know. Now I'm going for a much needed cup of tea!

Flying the Flag

2011-03-18T11:49:00.003Z

I've wanted to make bunting for ages, so I'm making an
effort to finally get it done. Above is, hopefully, how it will
turn out. It remains to be seen if my image/fabric transfer will
actually work. Fingers crossed!

Egg & Feather

2011-03-08T09:33:00.003Z

I've just discovered these lovely new designs from Emma Bridgewater. Shame my birthday isn't for another 6 months.

Fabric-y Fun

2011-02-23T15:26:00.004Z

I've been having some fun drawing chairs for a logo design. It's a good excuse for perusing interiors magazines and coveting unaffordable Designer's Guild fabric!

Nearly finished

2011-02-10T15:48:00.002Z

This is the cover image for my National Trust Guide. It feels like I've been painting nothing but bricks and slates for a week but I'm quite happy with the final result. I'm nearly finished the whole project. Just some loose ends to finish. And, fingers crossed, the new A3 scanner seems to be working!

Happy New Year. Now it's back to work.

2011-01-01T15:55:00.002Z

Hello, hope everyone had a good Christmas, new year, etc. Now the holidays are over I thought I'd kick of the new year with my first finished image for the National Trust's Gladstone's Land Wee Guide that I'm currently illustrating. This is the Cloth Booth on the ground floor. The final, final copy will have speech bubbles, text and labels but for now this is what it looks like. More to come but I'm keeping them under wraps until I've finished it all.

Christmas Turkey

2010-12-21T16:42:00.003Z

It's not really a good time of year to be a turkey, although this one should be better off than most because it's a male turkey and apparently we mostly eat the females: interesting fact of the day.

Christmas Card Time.

2010-12-14T11:24:00.002Z

Word of advice to all artists. If your mother ever asks you to make her some home-made Christmas cards because "it will be more individual than the one's you get in shops" as politely as you can, refuse. Thus 8 years lately you will not find yourself trapped in a card making cycle that you can't get out of because all your neighbours now expect and look forward to their home-made cards. This year I have cheated a bit, with mass printed christmas puddings made slightly 3D with sticky fixers and printed legs on cards. And before you ask, I have no idea why I chose puddings running away on legs either, it's just what popped into mind!

Meet Halbert.

2010-11-17T11:56:00.006Z

This is my latest character for a book I'm doing with the National Trust for Scotland. I've never had to create someone else's character before, especially one from the 17 century, so it's been quite fun, although I really need to stop making up my own plotlines for him.

Something for the summer

2010-11-10T15:35:00.002Z

Here's a little flyer I've designed for a sweet pea competition being held next year, minus the text. Since the sleet, rain and gale force winds are due to start up again tomorrow it's quite nice to draw something summery.

I'm still here.

2010-10-07T21:39:00.004+01:00

I know it looks like I've been eaten by alsatians or something this last month (or two). Apologies for the lack of blogging. Summer job finishes in a few weeks so back to the illustration day job. In the mean time here's some lovely little puppets for hallowe'en from Natural Collection.

Cushion Fetish

2010-08-02T19:59:00.004+01:00

Since I'm currently on off the scale work hours I thought I'd indulge in admiring other people's work for a change. Today's fetish is nice cushions.

Buildings Cushion from John Lewis

Bird and Tree from Sukan on Etsy

Fishy Print Cushion from Clothkits

Rainy Day Cushion from No Fixed Abode

Pond Street turquoise cushion from Designers Guild

Back from the dead...until tomorrow

2010-07-20T17:00:00.005+01:00

Apologies for the long absence, first there was the highland show, then I was away up North, then I was away, again, but I'm back now. However, as of tomorrow it's the start of the harvest job (the one that actually pays the bills) so I'll be up every hour of the day weighing wheat, testing malting potential of barley, oil content of oil seed rape and screening oats, and looking out for the ever present threat of grain weevils (personally I quite like them, they've got cute long noses but they do make a bit of a mess). So all in all, I may not be much of a blogger for the next couple of months, but bear with me!

Oh, and on an agricultural note, here's a lovely Hereford bull from a birthday card for my Dad. How can you resist? - they're lovely cows. Unfortunatly my Dad still is resisting getting me one.

Etsy Update

2010-06-10T17:32:00.002+01:00

I can draw things other than chickens, if you were wondering, it's just that chickens are so much fun! And, if you wish a chicken print of your very own there are now a select few designs available on my etsy shop. More to come soon.

Confirmation of the exhibition dates mentioned on my last post: the opening is this Saturday and Sundat between 12 noon and 3pm. There's even free wine if you come along! Instructions on how to find the gallery are here.

Upcoming exhibition

2010-06-04T11:00:00.002+01:00

As of the 12th of June I will have work available to see, and of course purchase, in the Dancing Light Gallery in the form of Garden Bird illustrations. If anyone fancies coming along the private view is on the 12th and 13th of June. 1pm-3pm I think... I'll confirm that nearer the time.

...continued

2010-06-01T15:31:00.006+01:00

Following on from the Golden Wedding Invites I posted last month here are a few extras for the menus at the same event. Next on the schedule are 80th birthday invitations - I seem to have fallen into niche of drawing old people having fun. Well, there are worse things I suppose!

Tales from Africa

2010-05-19T16:32:00.002+01:00

Here's a drawing of my friend Rebecca on her, possibly slightly exaggerated, adventures in Kenya. I finished it a few months ago but it's been under wraps until after her Birthday.

seedy finds

2010-05-04T10:33:00.002+01:00

Today's thing is gardening. Seed packet designs are something I've always meant to do but I've never got around to. Here are some people who have...

The Lapwing Printworks

The Petite Press

Erin Vale Design

everyone needs a dancing hippo...

2010-04-24T09:46:00.002+01:00

A Hippo called Clive
Tried to learn how to Jive,
He practiced till his face went red.
But his kicks were too low,
and his flicks were too slow
So he decided to Foxtrot instead.

More Fishyness

2010-04-09T11:53:00.003+01:00

Perch

Salmon

I'm getting a bit carried away drawing fish at the moment, probably due to the fact that I really should be printing 50ish invitations instead and fish are much more diverting than hours of sitting beside a printer.
Procrastination ends here.

da da da da da - da!

2010-04-06T10:06:00.002+01:00

An invitation design for a golden wedding anniversary. I was told to do something lighthearted and silly, hopefully this fits the bill.

Easter Cards

2010-04-03T16:31:00.000+01:00

Landscape Commission

2010-03-28T12:01:00.003+01:00

Here's a bit of Border's landscape for you. The client wanted a picture of Big Cheviot (the snowy peak in the distance) as a present for her husband. Hopefully she won't notice that if those cottages were to scale they'd probably be about 50ft tall, but what's the use of drawing pictures if you can't use a bit of artistic licence!

something fishy

2010-03-22T15:44:00.001Z

No.1 Artist for Lady Detectives.

2010-03-16T15:14:00.003Z

I've been working on a commissioned piece at the moment which I probably shouldn't blog until it's been delivered. Since it's got some African inspired borders on it I've been looking at these beautiful book covers by Hannah Firmin (courtesy of Amazon) for the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Her work is all woodblock prints I recommend you all to have a look here.

Fun things....

2010-03-01T12:00:00.004Z

It's been a slow day, and it's much more fun looking at other people's work than doing some of my own! Here are a few ways of brightening up doors...

Refab Funky Chicken Doorstops

House Door Stop from Diana Forrester

Black Toast Chicken Door Stop from Emma Bridgewater

Natural Collection - Dotty Dog Draught Excluder

Here's a few nice drawings

2010-02-24T10:10:00.004Z

Sam Toft - Mr Mustard Series

Poly Bernatene

Work in progress

2010-02-16T09:56:00.002Z

Here's a sneak preview of my children's book that I'm working on just now. It's pretty much the same as the nursery rhymes that were in my degree show I'm just re-working the drawings and adding a few more rhymes into it to improve it... hopefully.

Since it's nearly Valentine's Day...

2010-02-10T15:36:00.005Z

And now for something completely different... a little more sentimental than most of my other work, but then, it's a commissioned piece so it's not for me to decide! Also using hand lettering which is not something that I'm used to, but I quite enjoyed it.

Wee Red Boat

2010-01-28T11:54:00.002Z

I've been meaning to set up an Etsy Shop for ages so I've started a collection of 'Wee Red Boat' drawings to reproduce as prints. This one doesn't really go with the others (the colours are a bit manic) but I'd thought I'd give it an airing on my blog before it got put in a drawer and forgotten about.

Favourite Children's Books

2010-01-26T11:19:00.003Z

I'm busy working on a children's book at the moment (will have some images to post soon) so in the meantime I thought I'd share some of my favourite children's book illustrators.

from 'The Cockerel and the Fox'

Helen Ward's illustrations are possibly my favourite ever. I have no idea how she manages to create drawings that are obviously hand-drawn and artistic, and yet look exactly like the animal she is depicting - right down to specific breed varieties. If you haven't ever seen this book I really recommend it, the page compositions are brilliant too.

"Evening: Discovered even more carrots..."

'Diary of a Wombat' by Jackie French

Possibly the most endearing character ever to appear in a book! This wombat illustrated by Bruce Whatley is so appealing because she isn't sickly sweet or brightly colourful or any of the other clichés that you see too often in children's books.

"Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings"

'Let Sleeping Dogs Lie and other Proverbs from Around the World'

One of Axel Scheffler's pre-Gruffalo books. I met him at a book signing once and he said that he didn't like the way he drew people - which is curious because his drawings of people are the biggest inspiration behind my drawings of people!

Jelly Jars

2010-01-15T13:57:00.002Z

Here's some Christmas leftovers. Some labels I designed for home made Crab Apple Jelly to give as Christmas presents (it took a while to cut out all of the apple shaped holes!)

A quick sketch of fishing huts

2010-01-13T09:57:00.002Z

Back to work!

2010-01-11T15:34:00.004Z

Sorry for the long absence in blogging - new years resolution: will try to update blog more regularly!

Here's a few things in the mean time. If you're interested in buying one of my bird/butterfly/leaves concertina books they are still available at the Dancing Light Gallery at West Linton along with a lots of other lovely work, everything from paintings to glass and ceramics.

This is a design for a birthday card I drew for my cousin - thank you Dozen Cupcakes for your beautiful creations!

And finally, in case you hadn't noticed, it's been snowing quite a bit recently. It wouldn't be a proper post without the standard snow photo. Here's my 10 month old pointer enjoying her first encounter with snow.

Assembly Line

2009-11-02T11:53:00.003Z

120 concertina books: assembly pending delivery of 15m of double sided tape.

Exhibition

2009-10-30T16:59:00.004Z

I went to see an exhibition in Melrose today which had some great work from John Bellany, George Birrell, Mathew Draper, Henry Fraser and others. The painting above if from a different exhibition of Henry Fraser's work in Edinburgh but I really love it. Where ever you look you can feel the figure staring at you which is slightly sinister but also quite endearing.

Apple Tasting

2009-10-22T12:01:00.003+01:00

Here's an illustration on the theme of apple tasting inspired by this drawing by Paul Galdone, below, from a lovely children's book I have from the 1950s called Anatole by Eve Titus. It's about a cheese tasting mouse.

Fairy Characters

2009-10-14T18:17:00.005+01:00

These are some little characters I might being doing for a children's book. The writer of the story wants me to change a couple of details but I thought I'd give them a quick screening to the outside world before they get sent to the recycling bin. They were going to have little horns like giraffes which then turned into ears... then I realised that the creators of Shrek must have followed the same thought process! Hopefully you'll see the revamped versions in the future.

Gruffalo Animation

2009-10-14T14:54:00.002+01:00

I've just read that the BBC are making an animation of the Gruffalo this Christmas. Can't wait! Axel Scheffler is one of my all time favourite illustrators so I really hope they make a good job of it.

If I won the lottery tomorrow...

2009-10-14T10:35:00.003+01:00

... I would buy anything by George Birrell.

Apples Apples Apples!

2009-10-13T16:43:00.003+01:00

I'm getting a bit carried away with apples at the moment, the kitchen cupboards are now full of about 30 jars of homemade crab apple jelly and there's enough apple crumble to feed a small army. I'm also attempting to bribe the cows into liking me by feeding them apples - although, come calving time, they'll probably still chase me. To add to this I've been doing some apple related drawings for the Caledonian Horticultural Society.

My First Post!

2009-10-13T11:58:00.000+01:00

These are three out of ten butterflies that I'm going to make into concertina books for a gallery outside Edinburgh in December. Which means I have a whole month of printing, cutting and taping ahead of me - fun times!