Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Once Upon A Woodland

It is a little known fact that squirrels are avid readers. Luckily there's a local woodland library with plenty of titles to choose from. The birds, sweet as they are appear, are notorious for reading over one's shoulder...and not always to themselves.

Available in two colours, this orange and grey screen print is an edition of 20, and available to buy here

It's also available in a brighter red, and like the red squirrels themselves is much rarer.  Only 8 were made.  There are available to buy here

Advent

Those lovely people in twitter are at it again.  This time they're drawing daily advents and there are many to choose from.  Here's my December 2nd which I particularly like.  I may have peaked already.

Shuffle

Why shuffle when you can walk, man? That's Terry's favourite joke. Terry is the Patrick Bateman wannabe stuck in 1986 who renounces all technological updates. The only shuffling Terry does is with his feet. But he's happy. All the other penguins are happy too. Thanks to the Terry's headphones they don't have to listen to only cassette he's owned since 1991, it's Huey Lewis and the News' Sports if you're interested, also they're a pair of earmuffs short so it works out well for everybody.

This two colour screen print is now available in my print shop click here to enter shop

Christmas Print Shop - Now Open

Seasons greetings...well almost.  With Christmas just about upon us I've opened a small print shop selling handprinted cards.  You can find them all here: click to enter shop

Each card is printed by me and they're available nowhere else.  There's also gift wrap.  What more could you need?  So if you're looking for something a little different this Christmas then these could be just the thing.

This card highlights the joys of proud winter waiting staff.  

Eager to please and highly professional, these penguins deliver puddings with pride.  Approximately every third Christmas one of the waiting staff loses his or her temper, and puddings have been thrown.

Days without incident 1067...

Nature documentaries may have convinced you that penguins are naturally suited to warm weather but my lack of research tells me otherwise.  They are known to wear scarves year round, and extra long scarves towards December.  The penguins bearing banners run throughout the land spreading the news that winter is coming and that it is time to reach for the extra long scarves once more.

See above for the plight of the penguins.  Thankfully polar bears love to knit and due to their complete lack of a sense of scale their scarves veer towards the extra long.  Sadly since penguins and polar bears live so far apart the postal fees are extortionate. 

More prints, less seasonal, coming soon...

So long!

My tooth was pulled out today so I made this to cheer myself up later, when the anaesthetic wears off.

A Bear Called Paddington

Those lovely people at the Daily__Doodle have set the challenge to draw a Paddington Bear.  Now Paddington and I don't know each other too well, except that we used to live practically side by side.    In Stepps village, the one next to the one I grew up in, there was a Paddington Bear in a house window, come rain or shine.  In rain he would wear his wellies and coat, in sun he wore a sombrero.  He was there for 26 years.  People would send Paddington postcards.  I don't know if Paddington is still there, but it was very nice to know he was so nearby.  You can read of the thieves that stole him in 2006 here and of his triumphant return here  Despite our close proximity for years, I haven't seen him for a while.  Apart from a lunch together at Paddington Station (where my burrito was eyed as suspiciously as his marmalade sandwich.  In the end we agreed to disagree) and a vague memory of the many other Paddington's I'd seen over the years, the real challenge of this is to create a Paddington of your very own.  For me, he still looks like Paddington.  I read a worded description of this little bear from Peru, unable to resist the prospect of his duffel coat (which I believe he buys later) and this is what I came up with.

These are the original sketches.

I've really grown to be fond of my pencil outlines and so the challenge in colouring the artwork is deciding how much of that outline to keep.  If I was screen printing then it'd be none, which is perhaps why my finished image is a mixture.  Below were my alternatives.  I like to play around with images, print them out so I have a hardcopy, stick them on the wall and stare at them.  I can soon pick a favourite.

Full outline

Coloured outlines 

He doesn't look quite like the one who used to live next to us, but he's close enough.

These are my black and white Paddington's.  The outline hasn't been tidied too much, I think it suits him to be a little bit scruffy.

Happy Halloween!

A little Halloween treat, and another Daily__Doodle

I wish I'd had more time to spend on it but hopefully I'll get some time to return to it later.

Happy Halloween!

We won't work for peanuts...

A protesting elephant from today.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

To correspond with the grand opening of the House of Illustration's permanent home, and their first exhibit Quentin Blake: Inside Stories, the Daily__Doodle had a Quentin Blake themed week.  I still haven't got round to doing a 'Mathilda' but I managed to find time for a 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.'  It's a book I remember fondly, so fondly that I actually gave my copy away to impress its greatness upon someone else.

A close up of Mr. Fox

You can also see my 'James and the Giant Peach' here

James and the Giant Peach

Just a little update.  In the midst of drawing many a ridiculous thing, I did this as a Daily__Doodle the other other day.  I particularly enjoy the randomness of the subject matters they present.  I end up drawing things I'd never even consider.  This is one I might return to.  

Pigs in Blankets

Apologies for not posting anything for the longest time, I didn't realise I'd been gone so long.  I've spent a LOT of time drawing pandas and dinosaurs, and with my thinking cap firmly on but not much in the way of finished artwork.  So instead we have one of my daily doodles.   

Daily__Doodle are some fabulous twitter folks who post topics to be doodled, it's all very self-explanatory but it's a great way to discover things you never knew you liked to draw, and to generate ideas.  

This is my post for pigs in blankets.

You can find the good folks here https://twitter.com/Daily__Doodle

Elephants and Crocs

I've spent some time this week printing some more of these two.  

Harumph!

Yippee!

This one is a warning to us all.  Never trust anything a monkey tells you.

Elephant and Croc return

This is an image I've been playing with for a day or two with some old characters.
Although I was wisely asked 'what happens when the elephant stands on the anthill?'
I remain optimistic.

Elephant and Croc