This is a self initiated piece, you probably need to click on it to view it larger as it doesn't really work too well scaled down.

Mackworth

Another snippet from my on going comic project, I was lucky enough to have some time before Christmas to work on it. This section is about my ancestors who lived in Mackworth a small village just outside Derby.

Gocco Christmas Card

This was my second attempt with my Gocco printer, and I found it much more problematic than my first try. I had trouble with one of the bulb's not going off and only half the screen exposing, then the battery's ran out, then my initial design was a little large which meant that the left hand side of the card didn't print very well. So I took a deep breath, tweaked the design and started again. I also discovered that the Gocco doesn't really like large areas of flat colour, especially when mixed with area's of small detail. I guess all these idiosyncrasies, and the restrictions they place on your design should add to the charm of the finished image? I was very tempted though just to turn on my computer and print it out from Photoshop, but I persevered!

Bakewell

I believe I posted the top half of this image way back when I started this blog. I have been so busy with commissions over the last year that haven't done much more to this project, but this last week I went back and looked at it. I had doubts about how I could make it interesting, it always felt a little self indulgent. I enjoyed imagining the faces and clothes of my ancestors, I had dates of birth, marriages, deaths and the occasional will, so drawing them was a way to make them more real to me - I just wasn't sure if any of this would be interesting to any one else. I think these uncertainty's took the wind of out my sails. I'd like to go back to it, but I think in order to have the confidence to take it forward it needs a completely new approach.

Times Educational Supplement.

Three images for the Times Educational Supplement. The illustrations were for a winning short story, about a young autistic boy who gets his own back on some school bullies.

Bare Bums

I've been working on some kids projects most of which are still to see the light of day, hence the reason why its all been very quiet both on here and my website. Above are two books for Random House, I did both the covers and inside black and white illustrations for these, there are two more in the series still to come. I've also been working on a big web project for the BBC which I believe doesnt go 'live' until October. I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to do any print making, so I have no new prints to show unfortuately.

Viking Linocut

The quality isn't great as it was too big to fit under my scanner, so I took a photo of it. This lino cut was inspired by the beautiful music of Nils Okland who plays an instrument called a hardanger fiddle.

How To Draw A Dinosaur

From the comic section of last Fridays Guardian.

Print Gocco

This is my first proper attempt at using the Gocco printer I bought last year. I had to use three different screens to get the colour separations I required. As I bought the cheaper PG5 machine I struggled a little with registration, as it doesn't have a proper system to line up the paper like the more expensive PG11. However I found this didn't bother me, and like the fact that the prints aren't perfect (the one above probably lined up the best out of all of them). I want to do a series of prints - most likely in hand made book form - inspired by old photos found in charity shops and flee markets - anonymous people. The first one I have done though is from an old Daugerotype that belongs to my Aunt, we can't be sure exactly who she is, most likely Sarah Collumbell my great great great Grandmother. The first Daugerotype studio opened in Derby in July 1843.

Boats

Happy New year! An update at last. I've been working on some kids books and therefore haven't had a lot I could post recently. I thought I'd group these three images together as they are all based around the same boat shape. The first one was an editorial job for Credit Magazine and the other two are lino cuts from an Owl and Pussy Cat illustration I did a couple of years ago. I'm going to be doing some more print making this year, and I've had time over Christmas to work on a new image which I hope to print in at least four colours.

The Guardian

A rather poor scan of an illustration I did for The Guardian a couple of weeks back.

Printing

I started a printing evening course with aim of getting to grips with screen printing. However when I started the course I found they only had a very basic set up, and the printing available would be more along the lines of lino, wood cut, dry point etc. I've really enjoyed getting back to basics, feeling that I can just experiment and not worry about the out come. The print above was done with different coloured blocks of lino. I've also bought myself a Gocco
printer but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

Accidental Heroes

An illustration for Credit magazine. It had to be done super quick and they wanted a crowd scene.. so I tried to capture the atmosphere of a crowd rather than draw one.

Picture Book Idea

This is for a picture book idea I am working on, I won't say too much because I'm still trying to straighten it all out in my head and get it down on paper. It is do with the past being ever- present, but seen through the eyes of a young boy. Imagining the day to day things that have happened in the familiar places he inhabits.

The Guardian

From last Saturdays Guardian

Morris

Above is the latest cover for my mailout book, I try and do a different cover for each batch I send out. (So art directors can collect them all! ) This was inspired by Morris Dancing often the subject of much ridicule, but I think in the right context there is a strange other worldliness to the ancient dances and costumes. I wanted to try and get that feeling across in this illustration. The hobbie horse/unicorn in the picture was inspired by Westminster Morris' dancer. The picture below was taken of him the weekend before last at the Day Of Dance in Trafalgar Square. CLICK HERE to see the horse on some film I took of morris men at the same event this year and in 2005.

Frankenstein for The Independent

After a few months of being very busy things have got a little quieter, so I have some time to do things like update my blog. The above image is one I did for Susie Feay's column in The Independent a couple of weeks ago, it was printed in black and white so I thought I'd post it in colour here. I've been doing a lot of kids work and I'm hoping I'll have some time to do some personal stuff now, experiment a bit.

Childrens Graves

A small panel from an on going personal project/comic about the search for my roots. Caroline Sherwin was my Grandfathers cousin. On news year eve 1929 she wrote down the family history on one sheet of paper, this was my starting point, so she crops up a lot (or will). Some of what she wrote down was correct and some of it wasn't. This particular bit is about the grave of the little children, which I found at Christmas when visiting my boyfriends sister in Derby. I want it to be as much about the present as the past. It is taking a long time to do, I think I need to be a little bit less precious about every image and concentrate more on the story as a whole.

A Space To Talk

This was for an article in Computer Active magazine about keeping children and teenagers safe on social networking sites like Myspace.

The Wurstminster Dog Show

This was my entry to the Wurstminster Dog Show run by the Wurst Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Artists were invited to reserve a dog breed on a first come, first served basis. I was a bit slow on the uptake and ended up with the Welsh Terrier. I don't know a lot about dogs, and even less about the Welsh Terrier, so I had to do a bit of research to find out about his characteristics.