Friday 25 January 2013

Ostriches and stethoscopes and beaches and things

This week I have been working on a huge variety of things, including finishing (fingers crossed) two books, visiting a primary school, illustrating a story for valentines day and agreeing to take part in events from now until September.
Here we have (above) some drawings by Jake and Cameron. I really like drawings of animals, and these are particularly great I thought.


Next is a small detail from a card that Linda and I are working on for the Sick Kids hospital. Linda wrote a story last week and we are hoping to get it all printed as a card, in time to hand out on valentines day which is when we are next in the hospital.


And finally...a little bit of my favourite page of Lollipop and Grandpa's Dinosaur Hunt! As ever, silly Grandpa has taken Lollipop off on a crazy adventure. This time they are at the Jurassic Coast so it's not hard to imagine what happens when Grandpa sets off to prove to Lollipop that dinosaurs aren't actually extinct. I think this book (FOURTH in the series!) will be out around April, or maybe I made that up.

Today I am wearing a bobble hat in my studio. I like my bobble hat so I don't really mind that it's so flipping cold. I will now draw some more things...

Thursday 17 January 2013

Things I have drawn this week

I know it's only Thursday, but it's been quite a week. On Monday I was working at the Sick Kids, and had a one-on-one drawing session with a lovely boy who I will call L. We drew some stuff, I spilled water on his bed, we chatted about his pet cat. That kind of thing. This is a picture of IVAC, who we think might be a naughty character, if he was a character. He is an important part of L's treatment, and we discussed how we could make him look like he had a face. L's drawing was loads better than mine.

On Tuesday I hung an exhibition with 4 friends from eca, and we had a little opening party to celebrate.

Yesterday I didn't do much.

Today I drew this. It made me laugh. 
It turns out that I needed to laugh more than I knew. Sometimes you just need to laugh, and spend time with friends.
I hope L gets better really soon.

Friday 11 January 2013

Sick Kids Residency

This week I started as Illustrator in Residence at the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh. I will be posting images as they are created, and keeping my blog far more up to date than usual.

I am working with Linda Cracknell, who has been Writer in Residence for the past six months. So far I have been trying to get my bearings in the hospital, and forgetting many names. We have plenty of really exciting plans, and I am keen to get started on everything as soon as I get my mountain of work finished. 

Plans include a picture book, a small illustrated book of poems, and lots of wall mounted work. We are also running workshops every week that we are there, and hoping to include Sciennes Primary School in some of our projects. So loads to do, but all extremely exciting for me! I think the 18 months are going to fly by, but we will have so much at the end of the residencies, and I hope that it will all be of great benefit to current and future patients of the hospital, their families and the Sick Kids Friends Foundation.

Surrounded by Stories


Here is a poster for the exhibition we are having at north edinburgh arts as of next week! We are hanging it on Tuesday morning and there will be a small celebration with wine and things to eat from 6-7.30 that evening. I live in north Edinburgh so I am glad something is happening MY side of town for a change!

All of the exhibitors met at Edinburgh College of Art, and I am proud to say that I taught two of them to screen print. Two are still studying for their Masters, and the rest of us work either part or full time as illustrators, so we have many pictures to show you.

Exhibitors are: Kasia Matyjaszek, Helen Coburn, Holly Sterling,
Eilidh Muldoon and me. Take a look if you are passing.

Friday 4 January 2013

Discarded work

Hello there.
I hope you had a lovely festive time and are now back at work? Good. 
I have been working the whole time because my job isn't really like working.
Anyway...I have lots of exciting things going on. I am colouring in dinosaurs for Phoenix Yard, correcting a witch who was spinning incorrectly for Frances Lincoln, and getting ready to start my residency at the Sick Kids hospital here in Edinburgh. Just to give myself a bit of extra work, I have decided to do some brand new work for a forthcoming exhibition.
I have used the theme of 'Stuff lying on the studio floor' as my starting point, and have pulled out lots of old drawings that have either been discarded, or replaced by other drawings. This owl above was one of five that didn't get used on a wedding invitation because the others were better. Get the idea?
Other images include an old man bending down to strangle a hen (not really, I think he is going to pat him on the head) and a boy underwater, looking at some fish.
We will be blogging about the exhibition at some point, I'm sure. We are hanging it in a matter of days for goodness sake!
Better get back to my dinosaurs.
Bye!