Go to sleep Herbert!

I am working on a new picture book idea about friendship, responsibilities, and not getting enough sleep... we have all been there right?

Here are the initial scribbles and scrawls.

This young lady has a lovely sense of colour and design, and she is my favourite illustrator of the week.


Ekaterina Trukhan Illustration.  More of her gorgeous stuff can be seen here.

http://www.ekaterinatrukhan.com

This weeks doodles have seen me sketching some new work for a picture book or two.  I have also started outlining my story for older readers (10+), which is very exciting and saw me up at the crack of dawn a few mornings, pondering the plot as it were.  Good to be writing.

Here are a few of the pieces I made this week.

First & Foremost...

Today I have been contemplating everything I do in order to make 'it' work.  Reading between the lines from various persons 'in the know', I get the feeling life would be simpler if I made everything a bit, well, simpler, including my 'style'.  So, I am going back to the people that inspired me in the first place, in the quest to simplify, less being more and all that.

Now Oliver Jeffers ticks a lot of boxes for me, and with his new The Hueys in The New Jumper, I find the master of making something difficult, look desperately simple.  These egg like Hueys are appealing and funny, and the spot colour is great.

On the other hand, Mick Inkpen does a fantastic job here with Kipper et al, and again the colour and white space and working brilliantly.

Ellie Sandall's Copycat Bear is beautiful, with it's patterned leaves, two great characters, and lovely composition. 

And of course, the lady who started it all off for me when I was a child, (I was 5 when this was published) Judith Kerr, and The Tiger Who Came to Tea.  Beautiful spot illustrations, and a stripy cat.  Says it all really.

Here are some of my pieces, simple.