Lizard Box!

A few months ago Clifford Richards kindly asked me, with Alice Lickens and Barnaby Richards among others, to be part of a project to design some tin boxes for children, for The Original Metal Box Company. They will be debuting at Pulse London in May and then be for sale!

I've enjoyed the project so much, and was thrilled to get my sample box yesterday. But what o what shall I put in it???

I had to photograph the box looking fetching in various locales around my flat this morning...

Posing precariously on the ledge. Lizards are good at this though, don't worry!

Casual hanging outside by the stairway.

Opening coyly to reveal two excellent shelves inside.

Next to my sundry junk, bowl of lucky beans and tokens, and cool mouse. The postcard on the bottom right shows one of Clifford's beautiful metal boxes.

Thank you so much Clifford Richards for involving me in this great project! Can't wait to see everyone's boxes together at Pulse!

April pieces

What ho! St Paul's, not a scantily dressed sexy animal! 

Texture Thursday

Real Toucan brothers!

Marta sent me a photo this morning of a real toucans business that she passed by! I have emailed them in toucan solidarity, and expect us shortly to become firm friends. Isn't it great that they're tradesmen suppliers? What is it about toucans that suggests this?

Texas Hold'em!

Characters

I'm working on this lady - she's a Calamity Jane type, and I'm trying to make her clearly female without too many frilly touches. Yeeehaw!

Cowcat

Blinking re-post!

I remembered this gif the other day and wanted to re-post... just because!

Round-up

For the first time this year I went to the Bologna Children's Book Fair, which was an inspiration and an eye-opener. I'm not a great traveller - I forgot a suitcase, my passport had the temerity to go out of date without consulting me, and when I arrived I found I'd booked myself into a conference hotel about 20 miles outside the city. BUT, all that aside, I had a great time - and am inspired to return next year and do it better! 

I had a day to explore the city too - what a medieval good time! 

Looking down through the middle of the Asinelli Tower... urgh.

From the top of the Asinelli Tower you can see Bologna stretching out like a spider's web from the centre.

Come on feet, we can do it!

After the fair, Emily and I went to Rome for three days, which was wonderful.

My favourite of the many cherub babies we saw in Rome.

(Rome church-going new-to-me fact: so there are cherubim and putti (singular putto) - the latter are little male children who appear  more often in secular pictures, but are often confused with cherubim... to be honest I still don't think I could tell them apart, but nice to know about them anyway!)

Emily and me (neither putti nor cherubim) in front of the Trevi Fountain - classic stuff.

Since coming back and mostly shaking off a (potentially overeating-induced) bug I'm feeling very inspired to work and draw and think... hurrah for renewed energy and excitement!

Cacahouètte saying goodnight in Tralalire. 

Cats n pigs

Character sketching!