Illustration Friday - Spring!

Spring? Not here in Scotland! POURING with rain, cold and miserable. Still, I have 3 mental dogs to cheer me up today!
This illustration was originally done for The Guardian newspaper here in the UK - this is all acrylic ink, no Photoshop! It was to go with an article about fertility I think.

I am dying to get out into the garden and start getting sorted for Spring - i have loads to plant and all that. Gardening tips welcome, as I am a complete novice.

the clocks went forward...

boy. I am all out of kilter, cos of the clocks going forward 1 hour here in Britain... Was at a wedding celebration yesterday and so the bar stayed open longer than usual because of the time change - mmm it was a good idea at the time to order some extra drinks. The barman did keep bringing us hot buttered toast though. Delicious, though a bit odd with Amaretto on ice.

Also, SMOKING has been totally banned in all public enclosed spaces as of today here in Scotland. I am an ex smoker and notice now, more than ever, that smoke is so...smoky. It'll will be good to go to the pub without having your smoking friends flap their fag around ineffectually somewhere near their feet in an effort not to get smoke in your eyes. Always thought that would make a good silent videoart installation.Good luck to those people who are using this new law to try to stop smoking.
David Hockney (the painter, whose work I love) was on TV today saying that the people who made this law are "mean spirited". I am sorry David, but get a grip. You can still have a fag/pipe/cigar outside if you do so wish - but hopefully the killer weed will have less of a stranglehold on the nation now that is nearly impossible to light up.

The response to my Illustration Friday efforts has been great - THANKYOU for lots of lovely comments! Its brilliant looking at everyone else's work - so many people are busy illustrating around the world, its great.

bed zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz z z z z z z z z z

Testing with Mr Smashing saying hello

..another monster!

Now I've started, I cannot stop. Illustration Friday is addictive.

I like monsters to be something that could be nice and cuddly..or nice and human (hence the mean vampire cowboy man below...whose "monster" features you cannot see very well...sorry :-(

Here's a Russian blue bear monster, pretty pissed off with Goldilocknastova for drinking his 3 vodka shots... that blonde minx...
GRRRrrrr
(no, I've not been drinking)

Illustration Friday - MONSTER!

Its been a while, I know..been busy illustrating!
Anyway, I have joined up to the Illustration Friday gang and here is this week's topic of Monster.

I was teaching in Preston last week and did a demo of how I create my illustrations, and created this image in doing so - OK I added the teeth and the mean looking eyes for Illustration Friday purposes....but the eerie moon was always there!

Howlin' wolf

Back home.
No tears from students. One said thankyou - hurrah!

Anyway, I have been working on the wolf picture that I posted a couple of days ago. I was so absorbed in it that I forgot to keep saving as I went along (and me? a seasoned pro at this game?? tut tut) . So Photoshop went huffy on me and my smoothing/scattering brush option and froze...argh.
Start again with as little swearing as possible. It's done now-rather like it. Love to know what you think.

On to matters equally important - buying tea and something nice to go with it.
Great bakers up the road - they do a cake called Tipsy cake and it is so deliciously sticky and bad for your teeth, that I might have to go get one.

Here' the finished illo:

archeology dig in my hard drive

Back at college and it's still cold. However I was having a hunt in my desktop folder and found some random work that has somehow made its way there.
Anyway...here is a page of ink drawings on a theme of DIY. Random dogs are, of course, an essential part of DIY. Usually getting their tails in white gloss paint. the rascals.
Can't remember what illo it was for - I ususally scan in the drawings then arrange them in photoshoppe, add colour etc.

Off to speak to 2nd year student about their mid term assessments...hopefully no tears.