Sketching Pelicans

I’ve signed up for the Sketchbook Project – an American based idea which creates an annual library of artist’s sketchbooks from around the world and takes them on  both a real and virtual tour. My sketchbook will be digitised and available for you to see. I have until early January to complete it, so if I plan on an entry every other day I should get all 30 pages full in time for posting on to Brooklyn after Christmas. I shall start tomorrow – not sure whether to follow a theme or do a series of cartoons like my other visual diaries. I’ve finished the book cover I was working on, but you will have to sign up for my newsletter to see the end product before the children’s book is published ! Here’s a line from the story and a few preparatory sketches.

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  “Right Daisy, climb aboard, onto my back, hold tight, put on your jersey and anorak” You can now see all the entries for the MS Trust Secret Art Show – the online auction starts on 5 October. Can you spot mine?

Winter's arrived

Summer’s over then! It was so dark this morning we over slept, the fire is lit and porridge season has begun. It seems only a few days ago that we were enjoying a brief Indian summer, but now the wildlife is getting more enjoyment out of our weed-free garden than we are. The resident squirrel has been digging up the lawn burying our nuts for the winter, the kingfisher has been visiting the pond in search of a gold-fish supper and the blackbirds, having devoured the soft fruit, have moved onto the apples – just one peck of each, enough to make an unsightly hole and knock it on to the floor to bruise! Talking of birds, I've now got a Twitter account it's amazing how many computer literate dogs have too!  The awful weather means that whilst Pru supervises purposeful tweeting, Gerty Gardener gets a well deserved break, Flo can paint all day and Dolly can start to think about the Christmas cakes and what to do with a freezer full of last year’s damsons.

     

Floatie Flo

You have met Dolly Domestic and Gerty Gardener, but perhaps not so familiar with Flo – seen floating about in the background, slightly overshadowed by Dolly & Gerty. Flo has realised this herself and recruited the forgotten skills Prunella Project to redress the balance! Prunella is so annoyingly efficient and productive that she hasn’t allocated time in her busy schedule for doing many new cartoons of herself, focusing on commissions only.
                      
Floatie Flo is very tired after a week of Prunella’s new regime, but she must admit that productivity has increased, with 4 different commissions on the go, in different mediums and at various stages. Prunella is also working on Dolly & Gerty to ensure that next year we are not eating Christmas pudding at Easter and breaking our back weeding the garden on an erratic schedule. Her objective is to turn Flo into “Floatie (but focused) Flo” with the right skills to get the most out of complex staff like Dolly & Gerty. For the time being, Flo is quaking in her DMs at the thought of Pru’s deadlines and a little nervous about what she has on her action plan. When Pru allows, Flo will do self portraits of the 4 faces of Flo. In the meantime -  here’s Penny
 the Staffy , work in progress. You can click on images to enlarge them

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Elastic Cats

“Do you do cats?” I was asked recently, “ yes I do” I replied enthusiastically, but thinking about it, not so often as dogs. I have recently been commissioned to illustrate a children’s book about a cat – how exciting! We have two cats who, I’ve realised, feature very infrequently in my diary and sketch books. Probably because they are usually found curled up asleep, somewhere warm and away from the day’s activity, and partly because their presence was overshadowed by that of our more exuberant dog ! They have appeared on our Christmas cards, looking very elastic and lacking in skeletal form (see my first blog post). So, perhaps a few cat studies required before I make a start. Strangely enough, a copy of our regional magazine, Yatter Yatter, arrived yesterday and they have chosen a cat from my website to feature against a little story and advert I have in the September issue.                  

Gerty Gardener

The weeds are back, the ironing pile has grown again and someone has sprinkled dust inside my house. How did that happen? However, after a few days away I can take it all in my stride! I’ve had lots of sea air, watched sea eagles and seals, managed to avoid the midges, snoozed on the cliff tops in the sun, my clothes smell of warm peat fires and my sketch book is full.

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