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.

Shop Keeper!

I've just opened a shop on etsy selling prints, cards and ceramics. In the New Year I plan to also sell paintings and things made from fabric with my artwork on it. It was such fun photographing etc and no dusting to do like in a real shop.

I have a fifties green kitchen cabinet in our hall that I kept planning to get rid off (I bought it for £3 at an auction in 1991) which I've turned in to my shop/packing area. Dennis suggested I get a bell I could ring if I sell something :-)

Thanksgiving - Rhode Island Monthly

I did this a couple of months ago for Rhode Island Monthly

It was for an amazingly poignant piece of writing by Ann Hood – about her teenage years spent wishing to escape her home and after years of travel her return…and how Thanksgiving with her family is now so special. It’s actually the type of writing that is so vivid and visual it almost doesn’t need illustrating…but I don’t want to do myself out of a job :-)

I just remembered to post these as it's Thanksgiving in the US at the moment and also because I'm just about to watch tv show Pan Am on catch up tv! Being an air hostess in the 60s/70s looks so glamorous.

Illustrations as Diagrams

Nobody told me when I was a student that illustration could involve drawing simple diagram type information - I knew botanical, technical and medical illustrators did this....but on my course it was all about illustrating Iris Murdoch, Angela Carter or stories we wrote our selves.

I think out of the twelve on our course (only twelve!) I would have been far down the list of those likely to end up drawing "information illustrations" - actually we probably all would have been - we were all encouraged to tap into our imaginations and be explorative with different media. Which I think is fantastic and two of the main purposes of an illustration degree.

But as a working illustrator a lot of my work involves doing step by step type illustrations - often for craft books or exercises/yoga positions for magazines  - and I love doing this. There is a real satisfaction in getting it right but also aiming to make it look attractive. I think my nineteen year old self would not have believed I'd ever end up doing and more so enjoying such work!

The above illustration was for the US Family Circle Magazine - a simple foot relaxing exercise - it feels amazing!