Teeny Tiny Crochet - Props and Backgrounds

I absolutely loved working on this project - planning, making the sets and styling them working with the photographer - it was like everything I loved doing as a child coming together as an adult. Making little environments for animals - dreaming up their worlds. The crochet creatures made by Catherine Hirst were amazing - so, so tiny (for example the mouse was about the size of a thumb nail!) I was excited about little Mr. Mouse having a Liberty print lampshade :-) Geoff Dann was the photographer - it's amazing how he can always manage to position these little lifeless creatures (with pins and blue tak and wire) to make them look so full of personality!

New Illustrations for Speech and Literacy Therapy Magazine

These are some illustrations done in recent months for Bulletin Magazine which is produced for members of the Speech and Literacy Therapy Society.
Often the "Opinion" article I illustrate is written by speech therapists and sometimes by the service users. One of the great things about illustrating text for specialist or trade magazines is you get a glimpse into a world that is so known by the readers and yet distant from my knowledge.

Freya North Book Covers

These were for USA versions of the British writer Freya North's books.

"Secrets" is set in Saltburn on Sea on the north east coast of England. The publishers wanted a very general, beachy, summery feel to the cover with a bikini and beach towel. I drew what I imagine a beach in Georgia or South Carolina to look like.  When I kept thinking about the actual setting of the book I would think of how my partner is from the North East and even in the summer I don't think I've ever been to the coast with him and taken my coat off!

Yoga Journal - different yoga styles

These were done back in the autumn for Yoga Journal in the US for an article outlining different yoga styles. I'm always fascinated by the extremes there are between different forms of yoga and how different ones attract different people. I love Iyengar and also Yin Yoga.  I like the precision and the peacefulness of them. My nightmare yoga class would be bikram (too hot) or ashtanga (too fast) - where it always seemed I'd just got to the floor and I'd have to jump up again:-)

The hand written words were part of the roughs I sent but sadly the idea of including them had to be dropped as there wasn't space.