Wild Place...

Picked this up today at the zoo so am having fun colouring...

...you will notice a slght Smurfette motif, but actually I had more of a 'Boy from Mars' (mildly disturbing series included on kids educational program 'Words and Pictures' in early 80s) theme in mind.

It also really reminded me I should tell you about the stuff I did for Wild Place Project, which is Bristol Zoo's new (only opened in July) conservation park..it's not every day you get asked to design mascots for a major tourist attraction!  You can see my handywork all over their website and leaflet (and colouring sheets), but more importantly...

...as you enter...
 ...walk around...

and leave the park...

All continues the theme of working a bit bigger...more on that soon!

Brillustration take Marksbury Road!

On Saturday morning a crack squad of Brillustrators turned up at Marksbury Road Library to set up our 'Brillustration Saturday Scribble'..but conditions was icy, so it was anyones guess as to whether anyone would come.  

So did they?  Blimey..yes they did!

The next 3 hours were a frenzy of drawing, cutting out, story telling, badge making, clandestine biscuit eating and even snowman making.  The library reckons we had about 70 'paying punters' (50p each with squash and a biccy chucked in can't be bad!), and it felt like all of them got stuck in.

There was the normal riot of colour, cool pictures and requests to draw dinosaurs (you know who you are!)...

....and we also managed to jazz up the (already pretty snazzy) kids area, with a rabble of cut-out characters parading all round the tops of the bookshelves.

Sean Julian explains how he always likes to get into character before drawing a bear.

Some kids deciding to 'go 3D'

A MASSIVE THANKS to the Friends of Marksbury Road Library and library staff for inviting us, making us feel so welcome and putting in a considerable amount of legwork themselves.  

HATS OFF also to Brillustrators Sean Julian, Lauren Tobia, Paula Bowles, Rob Starling, Sam Church and Louise Cunningham, and all the kids and parents who turned up and drew like fiends- YOU ARE ACE!

AND REMEMBER KIDS - USE YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!

This week oi av been drawing mostly....

...little monochrome pictures for dedication pages for library books at my kids' school.  I'll post more through next week..

Zooage and Sewage!

Variety is the spice of life.  This week I have done a fun but slightly odd poster for a Bristol Zoo sponsored walk...

... and been informed that I will shortly be receiving copies of a book about (hem hem) plop that I did the cover for some time back for the nice folks at A&C Black....

To round it off I have just completed a surreal Department Store scene (aren't all Dept Store scenes surreal..just slightly?) for an American kids' magazine - more when it's published, but rest assured there will be bears...

And finally apologies to all those waiting for their latest slice of pen nerdery.  I have all the ingredients in place for my ink making jaunt, except perhaps all the oak galls.  They are in my local oak tree in abundance, but I was having pangs of guilt about boiling them up before the tenants had left..wasps that is, I don't have lodgers... There will be an update soon!

A Little Bit Bunny

A while back now I joined an ace blog called "A Little Bit Bunny": it's pretty simple ... each month a different animal is picked and the illustrators involved submit a picture to do with that animal. I have been meaning to add something to the site forever.... I think I got round to it before the road to hell was fully paved!  Here's one of 'em - for the other you'll need to Bunny it up!

Sam's first writing effort gets mixed response from its characters..

Yep, after much hinting that it was coming out soon, the story wot I wrote (and illustrated)  for Driver Dan's Story Train did indeed air today (it's about 6 mins in).  Haven't got the kids' verdict yet as they were in bed by the time it I-playered, but I think I got away with it.  It's a daft story about a lion that rocks up uninvited for lunch and then won't eat anything he's given.

There is of course also some dancing...

And cos it's StoryTrain, more dancing at the end of story party!

Yay for the Driver, and thanks to all at StoryTrain for giving my story a whirl!  

I've Almost Forgotten What You Did Last Summer

Most phone conversations I have will have at some point the phrase 'not much to report really' in them, but actually looking back I reckon I've done quite a lot this year dammit!  And then I've realised that being as it's been a bit of a whirl (and when it hasn't I've enjoyed the break from my computer..), I haven't really told you guys about any of it.

So in small bursts I'm going to tell you where I've been.  There will be MONKS!

TINY DOGS! (larger when I've found the right file!!).....

 MEERKATS (in case you're not sick of them already!!)....

AND A PR PHOTO MASTERCLASS...

I'll bet you can't wait...

Sam's latest offering gets luke warm response from forest animals...

Woo! Woo!  That's right, I've been back to Story Corner again - the latest episode of Driver Dan's Story Train to include scribbles by me aired last night on CBeebies.  I never tire of having my name read out in Dan's chocolatey tones...Dan's a lion by the way.  You can see more shots from it by clicking on my portfolio on the right (dammit I'm organised).  Looking forward to early next year, as the Driver'll be reading a story wot I have wrote too! 
PS for pedants I know that cats and goats aren't technically forest animals...they are however in a forest in this picture, so I'm having it.

More gorillys

Hello again folks.  Slightly slim pickins today; partly as I really had to do these sketches in a stolen moment before going to pick up my kids from school, but also as Salome was doing the sensible thing and  keeping out of the limelight a bit...looked out for all the time I think by her other son Komale (apologies if I'm getting any details wrong here!).  I did quite literally hide in a bush to draw these; they are pictures of them resting under a little shelter.  I appreciate that the first sketch is just shapes that may mean nothing to anyone but me, but I quite like it.

Also struggling a little to get the feel of these pictures right with just a pen. Their expressions tend to be really subtle, and quite hard to pick out of a face which is so black , so I think I might get adventurous and get some watercolours on the go for the next ones.  

Meerkats

Eyop!  Sorry I've been a while away - I've been feverishly drawing (can't tell you)s for my a story I wrote about (shouldn't say) for another episode of Driver Dan's Story Train.  I am dead excited as this the first story I've written to have been published, aired or more or read by a cartoon lion.  Watch this space!
I meant to post some groovy location sketches from my travels around Bristol (erm, walk to work) today, but I realised I've left my sketchbook in my car which the lovely Mel has now driven to work.  So to fill the time here're a couple of pics that I did recently to illustrate whimsical facts for the new meerkat enclosure at Bristol Zoo  (if you want to see the rest you'll either have to visit or wait till I leave my sketchbook in the car again).

Dogs and a sprog..

The last of my farm pics, mostly of Bob the sheepdog - a little wonky I'll admit, but being as they were drawn in stolen moments when he was waiting for me to throw the ball again I think I'm justified in still being pleased with them! The other one is of my daughter mixing animal feed. She's harder to get to stand still than the dog.

And now for the chooks...

Some more scribbles from the farm, although I have to admit I spent more time just enjoying being there (as opposed to sat at a desk) than I did drawing. Click here for some lovely pics of Cwmchwefru Farm and you'll get an idea why -a very nice place to spend a few sunny days..

GOAT FRENZY!!

Whilst we're keeping true to our word, I promised one of my faithful readers some pictures of goats a while back. Finally made it to Mel's folks' farm in Powys on the weekend, and got a few sketches down in the barn (more species to follow!!).

If you're ever In Fuengirola, go to....

It's a dead good multilingual bookshop, and it's run by my kin! Here's a bookmark design I did as a linoprint (God bless photoshop though -in my enthusiasm I forgot that linoprints come out reversed). I like this technique, but I fear there's only room for one linoprinter in my house...look out for Mel's blog soon...

Can you work out which tentacle Ozzy has his morning snack in?

A sample piece I did a while back....

A bit computery...

Eyop-

If any of you have returned to my blog after ANOTHER recent and fairly long period of absence then thankyou!! I have been pretty busy since Christmas with illustration projects, which I'll share as soon as I'm able. Though it's a bit slack, in busy periods I'm going to haul a bit of stuff from the archive (need to do it before my Mac dies too!) -so here's one; it's an ident for Rabbit Stew, an alas shortlived illustration collective..

Sam's back on the telly!

The lastest episode of Driver Dan's Story Train to feature my illustrations aired this week. Of the three I worked on this was my fave! My scribbles pop up about 7 mins in...

More zooey gubbins

Probably shouldn't be putting these out just yet but I'm quite pleased with them...

Book news......

It's been a while since I did them now, but I can finally go on about them as they have both come out this month.
The first one is called Turbo Tortoise (by Steve Cole, for Picture Corgi), and it kind of does what it says on the tin! It's good fun, although the slugs I've talked to didn't like it much...
The next one is called Knights And Castles (By Rachel Firth for Usborne Children's Books First Reading series). The slugs had no problem with this one!
copyright Usborne Children's Books
copyright Usborne Children's Books

'Er indoors has been busy again...

My lovely other half Mel has disgraced herself again by dashing off another load of brilliant linoprint images seemingly without thinking about it ( I mean where is the lightbox, the mound of roughs.. it's not right!). Also I can't eat my breakfast at the table this morning.
Go check out her website www.melaniewickham.co.uk
for it is ace....