Monday 8 February 2010

plant a pumpkin

Things are growing slowly, slowly, slowly... The design job stretches on and on, the original deadline of tomorrow has moved and looks set to keep moving through no fault of my own. Very frustrating when I have other projects I'd like to work on. Meantime I am trying to squeeze the Growing Boy into the small spaces between other work. This is a tiny detail from the illustration I'm working on (with the tomato juggling) - a pumpkin plant and tomatoes and a snail (almost).

Wednesday 3 February 2010

new gardening tools

Since they arrived last week my new watercolours have lain, unopened, until today. It has taken huge restraint on my part, but I have had to ignore them while I got on with some urgent design work (it has been hell - I could see them out of the corner of my eye the whole time and I would much rather have been messing around with paints, brushes and water than formatting text!).

I finally got my chance tonight and it's amazing how having new tools can make you work in a more exciting way. My trusty old watercolour box has been with me since my college days (a long time!) and I guess I am just in a rut with them. They're like a comfortable old pair of slippers and I use them without thinking really. I've been opening all the new little foil wrappers and laying out the colours like jewels, testing them out and playing around - each one is more fabulous than the last! It has made me think more about the feel of the book and the mood of the illustrations, rather than just reaching mechanically for my old favourites. More importantly, I'm having fun with them!

The new illustration is still in the early stages, so nothing to show quite yet, but I'm pleased with the way it's turning out...