A photo I took inside the walled garden at Fulham Palace, (London SW6) has just been published on the cover of a glossy local lifestyle magazine. In the past I've been at work in daylight hours when it's snowed, so photography hasn't been a possibility. But this was a proper 'snow day' off work. In a lecture at Camberwell, illustrator Russell Cobb advised on being selective when teaching oneself to observe, i.e. take photos of cafe's in Paloma, rather than just taking photos of Paloma. So this is my local Bishop's Park. I concentrated my efforts there rather than roaming further afield. There are more here in my London Flickr set.

Thank you to SW6 Editor, Lorraine Crighton-Smith. I really like the green and gold.

 

 

(a major UK daily) is running friend Sarah McIntyre'sVern & Lettuce comic strip, so I've already sneaked a peek to see how it looks and it's... fantastic! Of course, humble newsprint doesn't quite do the same justice as the classy matt DFC magazine, home to Vern & Lettuce, however the colour is looking really good. Sarah tells me her comic is running for 12 weeks, so take a look at the Family section of The Guardian (Saturday editions) before recycling!

So much more humble than newsprint is the potato. This morning I sketched some Maris Pipers. Everyday Matters challenge #26: Vegetable. (graphite pencil, marker, coloured pencil)

 

I enjoyed this article in Design Week on 3D illustration, particularly as it featured the work of Frank Kunert, and in particular his calendar design -Hansel & Gretel are full. It's not the first untraditional take I've seen, (greedy little H&G eating the poor witch out of her house) but it's the most fun.

Yesterday I went all 60s recipe book with a gaudy cake. Today it's back to nature for EDM challenge #207 - seashell. I picked up this sea urchin shell in Brighton. It's brown, however I changed the colour palette to be more like kina, an NZ sea urchin with a shell shaped like a pin cushion. Not that this has much to do with Hansel and Gretel which is what I'm meant to be working on right now - only not in 3D.

 

Last night I caught up with some friends from SCBWI at Sue Eves' launch of her brilliant book, 'The Quiet Woman and the Noisy Dog'. Yummy dog biscuits, (for humans) got the thumbs up from everyone, including a real dog who faced off with Sue's 'noisy dog' puppet. Not to be upstaged, 'the noisy dog' fed the real dog a treat, captured here by Sarah McIntyre. As always, The Illustration Cupboard, off Piccadilly, was the perfect venue, and it was a great chance to see original artwork from Angela Barrett's latest book on the wall.

 

Before the snow really set in I headed to the London Alternative Press Fair yesterday; essentially a basement stuffed with comics, zines, hand-crafted books, goodies, and a heaving crowd. 

I snaffled a DFC with a gorgeous purple-y cover designed by fab Comic and book writer/illustrator Sarah McIntyre, who had given a talk on book illustration to our MA group on Tuesday. DFC is subscription only - it's apparent illustrators have freedom with cover design that one perhaps wouldn't expect on a shelf publication.

It's a good week for reading as my Hi-Fructose arrived too. Mainly lowbrow art, very West Coast, and so entirely non-London. This issue features the remarkable Yosuke Ueno.

 

Check out this sweet offer from Varoom illustration magazine - for a limited time you can download free articles from sold out No 1 issue.