A cowboy and a pirate

Thought you might enjoy seeing these two 10 x 12 portraits commissioned for my best friends nephews... I'd like you to meet cowboy jojo and his rather adventurous bro, pirate thomas... :)

Merry Christm"aargh"s!

Happy holidays everyone! No, I've not been kidnapped, I didn't trip over the fairy lights, or fall through a hole in the snow... I'm still here! Hurrah! Hope you have a super Christmas break. Thanks so much for sticking with me. I'm looking forward to sharing lots of new work here in the new year.... :)

Music

My other half only does the hoovering if he can listen to music too....

Boys and cars

Who knew that drawing a Scalextric track would be so time consuming...!

Unbalanced

TV goes 3D

TV goes 3D next week on Channel 4. Sainsbury's is handing out those free card glasses - so I picked up a pair for Beaver and mouse, and they seem to be enjoying themselves...

Blur

Bear and beaver got some really blurry pictures from their new camera....

R is for a raccoon caught in the rain...

Happy Halloween!

A really quick one from me - just to say Happy Halloween!! I've been way too distracted baking pumpkin pies, creepy cupcakes and ghost biscuits to get any other illustrations done today, whoops! :-/ Have a lovely weekend all. Hope you're having lots of fun!

No Henry, Stop!

...Not so fast! Henry really just doesn't know when to hit the brakes...

It's raining again...

...and Stella didn't realise how much she enjoyed it! Happy weekend!
[click on the image to enlarge]

Pencil Pocket @ Cargo

I've got a little selection of recent work up at Cargo. Check it out: here.

Winter

The rabbits were completely frozen, so bear said,
"Let's make a fire."

Happy Birthday Jonathan

I totally forgot to say, it was my other half's birthday recently. I made him this card... It's not an exact likeness... just very close. ;)

Flying

I actually missed last week's topic [whoops!] so I was bounding with enthusiasm for whatever subject came up this week. So here's my effort... I've sneakily blended two ideas into one here... hope you like it! :)

Birthday wrapping paper

Sorry for all these birthday posts! My goodness. I'll get some new work up here soon, you have my word! Just couldn't resist this for pattern... and, okay you got me, I needed some wrapping paper! ;) [click for full view]

Keira's Baby Naming Day

Birthdays, weddings, baby naming ceremonies'... you name it - it's all happening over here! So here's a little card I did for my friends' little one, Keira. We're looking forward to her special day on Saturday :)

Infinite-ly... making screengrabs?

Some behind the scenes from this weeks effort! [click to enlarge]

Infinite-ly going nowhere

One happy hamster on an endless journey to the unknown!
View the sketch and some work in progress shots here

It's Birthday Season...!

And so, on the advice of one of my good friends, I started making my own greeting cards... (now you can see where the monkeys fit in!) Here are a couple of recent ones. I've got plenty to keep me busy... we've got 8 birthdays in the next 2 weeks - the Libran's are taking over! Hope you like them. I'll post some more at a later date. Best , k :)

Friday night monkeys

monkey time...

Welcome home Papa...

Daddy's home... hurrah!

and for a closer look... :)

Waiting, watching...

A quick sketch which formed part of the prep for Illustration Friday's 'welcome' topic...

Strong Man

Meet the frighteningly hairy Ian Strong. I had to give up on my first, rather more elaborate 'strong' idea. I don't know how you guys do it! There simply aren't enough hours in the day..., have a great weekend all! Thanks in advance for any comments - they make me smile !

Congratulations Rebecca & Mark!

Two of our closest friends in the world got married this weekend... Congratulations guys!! The wedding was gorgeous, and they're so clever they managed to do pretty much everything themselves; flowers, invites, cake, fascinators, bridesmaids outfits. It was beautiful. I was so proud to be a part of it. Here's our little handmade wedding card and a few snaps from my camera. Bear with me, there might be just another post or two to come on this. I'm so chuffed for them - it's all I can think about today. Ahhh ;)

Magnify

Quick one this week - wish I had some free time to go looking for ladybugs! :)

Haunted

Uncle Frederick told her to take caution in the old house at night...

View some related sketches and prep here... 1. girl 2. witch

Bears and Books

One from the archives - linked to this series.

Purple-faced witchy witch

Well, Halloween is coming up...! This is part of a larger piece, but I got too excited and thought I'd share a bit of it now just in time for the weekend... :) Have a great weekend all!

Wrapped for winter: behind the scenes

Hi all! Firstly, I just want to say a great big thank you to everyone that's following. It's so encouraging, and I'm really grateful for all your comments.

This is for Jason who asked to see some work in progress shots from the previous post. You can see how much changed along the way; the skirt colour, jacket buttons, eyes open/closed, even the overall composition. Weirdly, the red bench in the background was the last thing I added. I work pretty organically - there's no science involved, not even by way of the colours ...but you're right, I naturally lean towards the warmer shades. I'm a great fan of warm browns and greys - you should see my wardrobe!

[click image to enlarge, and see the final version here]

Wrapped for winter...

2-for-1 this week... hurrah :)

Wrapped: work in progress

Wrapped

Giant inflatable swan

How fun! But I need a swan... then a pool... and then some Louboutins to make this a reality.
[via oh joy. photo styled by emily mcgregor]

Impatience

My dad is very impatient after years of being late at my mum's expense. They've never got to an event on time! My Dad once went to great lengths to turn all the clocks in the house forward in an attempt to speed things up, but it didn't work. I think my mum was born to be fashionably late to everything!

Measuring Meerkats

Genetically modified...?

Take.2... [click image to enlarge]...

It's quite different to the version I lost, but still nice in its own way, I think...?
Maybe I need to add in a cat or something... I'm definitely going to do a banksy-style version where the vegetables have faces :). That'll be a good thing to do on Friday, to pave the way for the weekend :)

Genetically modified?

Well there's definitely something going on...
[click to enlarge]

Aw, I lost 7 hours work on this one :( Somehow I managed to corrupt 3 files, versions 2 through 5... and lost a whole manner of extra details... oversized veg, a bewildered judge on the left, another participant with significantly less impressive produce, soil in the foreground, a little worm wriggling around in the front and some big rolling hills in the background...
Remember when I was singing the praises of digital...? Well, I'm going to have to take it back...
[you can now see the re-worked final version here...] :)

Yorkie Walking

Based on an old sketch, see here.

Josie sleeps

See the original sketch here.