garden view

The joys of illustrating and the mystery of the stairs that go nowhere... Who knew a degree in architecture would have come in handy for this book? Unfortunately for me I do not possess such a qualification.

I've 'flipped' the rough for this next version. I want to head out to the garden in the next spread so this way round makes more sense. However, I still need the boy on the stairs and a door out to the garden and at the moment, despite my best efforts (including constructing a wall outside!) I cannot see where these stairs can possibly lead! Time to get out and about with my camera for reference, methinks!

Aha, or maybe the addition of a landing midway up the stairs...

sprouting again

I haven't forgotten about my little growing boy, he's just been a bit neglected of late. I found time to sketch some tiny, tiny thumbnails, trying to work out the stairs spread. It's proving trickier than I thought, as you need to also be able to see out to the garden somehow...

freebie!

Forgot to mention it on here too - I'm giving away a print over on Scribbles in Ink. The detail above (currently my profile pic) comes from the bigger illustration. If you'd like a chance to own it, hop on over!

garden waste

Well they say 'write what you know'... I know exactly where this particular idea for the book comes from. Kenzie the husky does more poop per day than any other dog I know and, with a four year old sharing the garden with her, I do spend an inordinate amount of time clearing up after her. Like the Growing Boy, I too am forever engaged in a gardening battle I cannot win - I'm hoping he will triumph where I do not! That's artistic licence for you, if only real life was as simple.

Here I'm demonstrating the convenience and lucky happinstance (is that a word?!) of illustrating while making a cup of tea - in a moment of inspirado, that teabag came in handy for added 'mess'!

In an exciting garden update: I have one red tomato!!! I'm so excited, I may even post a picture! (I'm trying to ignore Andy's comments about the one very expensive salad we are going to be able to eat out of my greenhouse at the end of the summer - I figure each tomato will have cost around £1.20 to produce...).

a new furrow

After much procrastinating, the first new illustration visual is finished! The one on the left is the old one, on the right the new illustration for the same bit of text. I'm being inundated with design work when all I really want to do is paint. Unfortunately, the design work pays the bills, but I'm managing to squeeze the book in at the end of each evening (then I have to try and make myself go to bed instead of getting carried away with the illustrating!). Next up, the pooing dog...

can you dig it?

The thumbnails are coming thick and fast, I'm finally working out the exact details of how the beginning gets to the middle and the middle to the end...! It seems obvious I know but, while the bare bones of the story have been quite clear to me for some time it hasn't always been so clear how to say everything I want to in each spread. Although the text is quite minimal, the pictures have to convey much more than the words themselves.

Plus, I have a tendency to go to the dark side, I blame all those fairy stories from my childhood when Grandmama actually did get eaten by the wolf... It's probably why I love Maurice Sendak's work so much too. I like being a little bit scary with my work and I think kids like being a little bit scared, but in this case portraying the situation too realistically (as in the old visual above) was beginning to resemble a story of child neglect. I think adding a more surreal reason for his family being disinterested (with the line up of daredevil portraits on the stairs) works better.

slow growth

It's been a crazy week, finding time to finish the first illustration is proving difficult. Hopefully it will not be long now and I think it is working better now than before. My head is buzzing with ideas - I have to rush to the sketchbook these days to record everything before I forget it!