The end.

my new site

So, it’s a new beginning…

Um, or possibly the end, if you’re reading this on blogger… In which case you should really head over to the shiny new site right away! :)

It has been a long while since I’ve written a post, for reasons I can’t really pin down if I’m honest!

What have I been doing all this time? It seems like a lot, but also, I guess not very much. I’ve visited Italy and Barcelona while, counter-intuitively, becoming slowly obsessed with all things Nordic. Fallen for Eames design, sheepskin throws, fairy lights. Cultivated friendships, moved furniture, walked a marathon, lost and gained cats, been a mum, watched a LOT of zombies… and finally finished the Morse book!

Anyway, as of now, that will be the new blog. Hope to tempt some of you over there!

green thumbs

I have downsized. Thumbnails help me get back to basics and review how the book works as a whole. The tiny size is also useful because it makes me focus on the flow of the pages and how the spreads relate to one another rather than get bogged down in the details. This one is made up of the roughs and visuals I've done so far, but I have several blank versions ready for scribbling on too and already I can see where I want to make some fairly radical changes.

seedling changeling

Ok, please bear with me here. I know this blog has been a mass of stop/starts, changing roughs and long periods of total silence. It's basically the book blog equivalent of being hopelessly lost on a country road without a map. Probably in the dark. Near a sinister tree. With an owl.

The trouble is that's a truthfully accurate reflection of how this book's progress has been in my head. If it's frustrating to read about it, believe me it's 100 times worse living it!

Anyway, here's how it goes. I see the finished images in my mind, I sketch what I think is a fairly faithful representation of that in thumbnail form, then I sit in front of a pristine, super scary sheet of white stretched paper, start working, and *poof* it disappears!

This image is a good example. Here's the rough:

And here's the finished illustration:

See? Somewhere between visualising it, sketching it and painting it, it got fussy and somehow completely lost... What? I don't know. The essence of it, I guess. As an image on its own I still like it, but... it's just not what I meant. Not what I meant at all. I wish I could be more specific.

Now granted, what follows might seem like a blatant promotion for my shop, but it's really not (honestly!). There was something strangely uncomfortable for me about seeing all my work together in one place. It prompted me to stop and take stock in a massive "that's not what I meant at all" type way. I'd even go as far as to say I've been experiencing something of a mild creative crisis of sorts. (You can read more about my angsty midnight mini cheddar munching over here if you're that way inclined).

So while I've been gone from this blog for some time, over on Scribbles in Ink I've been experimenting with a much simplified, stronger and graphic way of working (like the cow print above) and think I'm finally ready to start The Growing Boy take three.

As a result, I've revisited the first rough I did (first time round and subsequently replaced by the book carrying boy above - I told you to bear with me, right?):

Which has now become, in very rough form, this:

growing ideas

The Growing Boy has been in the back of my mind for some time now, but unfortunately everyday life has a habit of interrupting my train of thought.

I see things that remind me of the story and file them away, ready to use when I finally get back to it. Today I gathered my doodles and scribbles, my notes and collected images, and later will try to make some sense of it all.

[lino]cuttings

Oh dear, the neglect of the poor growing boy is now bordering on abuse... I'm like an evil, wicked character from a Brothers Grimm tale, and he's been shut up in a silent, dark cupboard for months! However..... maybe it's the fact that spring is round the corner, maybe I just needed to mull on it for a bit, but I am starting to work on the book again, albeit in a slightly different direction (yet again!). Thanks for sticking with him in the empty dark days, hopefully the growing boy will be growing again soon... (if you want to know what dastardly deeds I've been up to meantime, see above and here).

distracted by a giant turnip

You might think I've been neglecting the growing boy a bit of late... and you'd be right. I do have some new roughs which take the story in a slightly different direction, but for now I'm busy beavering away on illustrations for a book of children's dramas. You can see what I've been up to here.

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).