Studio Finds

It's ALL happening this week...

Not only do I have the most epic job on with NMS, but the builders are about to move in to the house to do a mighty bit of renovation work. So, we are moving OUT!
I am currently meant to be boxing things up in my studio ready for the big move, but of course I get distracted when I find wee sketchbooks that have fallen down the back of my desk, or have just been wedged between something bigger.
Here are a couple of pages - one random wee doodle in a lovely Muji notebook and the other a bit of visual notetaking from the Night Safari at Singapore Zoo.
Right, back to boxing, tidying, chucking and dust.

It's not Illustration...but so what?

My husband and I are dog people. We love dogs.
Our lovely old black lab, Charlie was put to sleep a couple of weeks ago (or as we say in dog parlance, "he went to the bridge") and we miss him sorely. However, he was nearly sixteen, so he kived to a very ripe old age and was pretty active right up to his last day. There are so many pictures of this dog of mine, but here is a drawing I did of him last year, which I suppose does tie in with my blog.
We still have a wonderfully loony choc lab called Dougal, who is at my side right now, snoring.
But it's good to have 2 dogs...SO, we have decided to get another pup.

We met her on Sunday, deep in the wilds of south west Scotland, and she is a wee cracker - a proper little thug. Bizarrely she is related to Dougal and is in fact his grand niece.
Dougal is not going to know what has hit him when puppy arrives - but I can't wait!

Here is a video the puppies with their mum, Tia, at 3.5 weeks old. We think our one is the confident little black pup, busy clambering over all the others. *heart melt*

Holy Moly

The internet is a wonderful thing.
I joined Flickr about 4 weeks ago (maybe less) and quickly added favourites after browsing around other people's flickr sites.
I came across a Moleskin Sketchbook appreciation flickr and clicked a few pages as faves, and joined the group.
Then Marty Harris from Minnesota asked me to join the Moleskin Exchange he and some others have started.
There are 198 (and rising) artits and scribblers in this group, and exchanges start all the time. Some with themes, some just random - I believe the latest one is wanting someone from each continent to be part of the exchange group, but are having trouble finding a bod from Antarctica (though I know there is an artist and a poet down there at this minute, as part of the British Antarctic Survey)

So - I got my lovely Japanese fold moleskin books today, I need to fill 5-7 pages and then send on to Marty. In turn I will receive one from Aggole in Hong Kong. This exchange is called Moly_X_1 and there are other artists from South Africa, and Brazil in our group too.
The pic above is NOT part of this exchange. but just some drawings I did at the V&A Museum in London (Victoria and Albert) - I loved the little figurine with a clay pipe from the 17th Century!

Check out the blog created for our little exchange and follow the work:

http://moleskinex1.blogspot.com/