More planning

Well, I am in mega-planning mode at the moment - which means tons of ideas for next steps, and not much actual painting or drawing is getting done! Quick sketches, though, which I may scan and post. I did go to a very wonderful exhibition of illustrations and cartoons at the Chris Beetles gallery in Ryder St, London, S W 1 - ranges from Arthur Rackham to Nick Butterworth.

More drawing on Tube

Today I discovered that a couple of months of colouring my dummy Pinkty book on the tube, has given me a steady enough hand to actually be able to draw reasonably well in transit! So, this morning some fairly serious figuring out of cd cover design. Then quick sketch at lunchtime. Then more work on new Pinkty book on tube on way home. Cue happy person.

ideas in progress

I have been drawing over the past couple of days, although I defy anyone else to make sense of my visual notes! When I am working out ideas, especially for black and white drawings, I make the skimpiest of marks to try things out. so I am not posting any of them here, just saying that I have been working on: "three french hens' Christmas card design; a cover for compilation cd, and the next visual story for the next Pinkty book.

some sketchbook drawings

Here are some recent sketches from the sketchbook I carry around with me: I've been using the same size drawing pens without thinking much about it for a few years, so I thought it would be fun to experiment with using different ones again! I like the lively effect on the pages.

Feelings of digital achievement

I've been reflecting on how much I have learnt to do with digital imaging in the past year (I always do a kind of annual review around my birthday!), and this point has been very much brought home by the ease with which I have been able to 'virtually' sign the plaster cast of a broken foot belonging to a friend from an illustrator's forum. This time last year I would not have known where to begin, let alone done the whole thing in about 10 minutes using my mac and Painter! appreciative of all the help I have received from friends in learning these skills, too.

autumn leaves

The colours in the autumn leaves are looking wonderful now in the very urban parts of London I'm in most days. I snapped these on my mobile phone today, partly to see how successful this is. Later I saw some even better ones while I was on the bus: sycamore shape, golden edges, and peachy-orange middles.

"Three french hens"?

Today I have been trying to find out exactly what "french hens" are. This is something I have been pondering since I decided 2006 would be the year for the "three french hens" Christmas card in the "Twelve days of Christmas" series. (In previous years I have done "two turtle doves"; "six geese a laying", "seven swans a swimming" and "five gold rings".) It seems there is not actually a particular variety of the domestic chicken called a "french hen"! This means I can draw whatever type of chicken I fancy doing. It will, however, definitely be black and white. Here is "six geese" to show the way I am approaching the design.

Time I took my own advice

This is "cold remedy", which is a quick sketch I made in Painter when I began to learn it last year! My cold is lurkering around, and everyone who talks to me tells me how ill I sound - I keep hoping I'm better, as I do feel more well than I did yesterday. In the meantime, I have been perfecting my 'link making' skills, and also watching lynda.com tutorials.

Making links

Well, in the past week I've been to the dentist and had a bad cold. Today, I am feeling much better, and planning to have another attempt at making links to this blog. First step is to buy new ink cartridge for printer, so that I can print out a coloured example showing the text bits I'd missed from the code that Fes made for me.

aoi portfolio set up

Today's news is that my aoi portfolio is up and running! http://www.theaoi.com/artist/claretovey

These are the 'trial tomatoes' I bought at the farmer's market today: I love the colours, and they reminded me of the mediteranean coloured ink rough I posted here. The boiler has been replaced, so central heating is working again, and I am having a grand tidy up of my drawing desks.