big chickens and booze

He makes me laugh that little one.

He's always listening in on our conversation so we have to be careful what we say. One comment about booze and straightaway he picks up on it...oops.

"Sometimes big chickens swim in the sea." Apparently.

quacky collaboration

My partner turned some ducks I'd drawn awhile back into targets for water games :D They spin around and everything!! So much fun to find these duckys hiding here and there around the garden. 

Work in progress...

I'm currently working on a picture book for an American publisher. Progress feels slow when I only really have 2 full days a week to dedicate to it, but it feels great to work in this way again. I wish I had a whole room for a studio like I used to, but life is different now so I just have to work alongside potties and toys and all sorts of mess.

The book!

This popped through the post the other day - a specially signed copy of "I'm a Little Alien" by James Carter, yay! We love it!! It's out on 1st August 2014. You can find a preview here.

Oki's words

"What time did you wake up this morning?"

"Two eleventy half"

"What are you drawing?"

"Desert mountain with fish"

Some recent snippets of conversation with the boy.

I thought what he was drawing was quite impressive! We've been watching lots of David Attenborough DVDs lately so that could be where it came from :)

Barry the Duck

Beginnings of a story, made up one morning by my little duck.

"One day there was a school for ducks and Barry the Duck knocked on the door. His mum's called Fairy. Daddy's called Mr Nap."

I like the names :)

I wonder what happens to this family of ducks?

Paperchase cards

A lovely surprise package awaited me at the post office the other day - my complimentary pack of cards from Paperchase, hooray! I'd not seen the whole range yet, and felt like a bit of a weirdo just hanging around the various Paperchase stores trying to find my own cards so was very pleased to finally receive them all.

There's 2 versions of the yellow bear card, the other is a Father's Birthday card.

It's a whole mixture of my work; some old, some new, some personal, some created specifically for this range...

You may recognise the pair of walking legs and shadows, and heads looking up at the birds belong to me and my boy :)

My big big thanks to Sue and Jehane from Yellow House Art Licensing, and to Caroline, Tamlyn and Alison at Arena!