Sept/Oct is that time of year when spiders appear in every corner of the house. With a heavy heart I find myself hoovering up whole families – mother and babies (100+). I love spiders but we can’t just have them multiplying exponentially no matter how many flies they catch. I imagine their demise is one of terror followed by a great sickness as they spin around and around in the Dyson cylinder. RIP spiders.
For those of you that know me, I’m not much of a hiker nor do I like to be far from my bed beyond 10pm. I’m quite happy to do a 6 or 7 miles stroll in the Peak District before I’m ready to put my feet up, have a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Anything more and I tend to grumble.
Well, despite my love of sleep and fear of long walks, I signed up for a sponsored nigh walk for St Luke’s Hospice (13 miles) – which, being in Sheffield, involved numerous hills. 1000 people signed up, many whom had lost loved ones and benefited from the support and care of the charity. It was a great night and I’m glad to have helped raise money. Today however, I’m nursing an aching body and have ventured no further than the sofa except to make tea and watch some fantastic Rugby (Australia Vs Scotland).
I don’t like asking for money, but if you would like to donate to St. Luke’s, you still can by visiting my Just Giving page.
Squirrels have been a regular sight this holiday! Our campsite was besieged by them and our holiday cottage is frequented by a family of fat, quarrelsome squizzels searching for a tid bit or two! We even spotted one making off with an entire baguette (not ours I might add), he could hardly run straight under the weight!
I wasn’t aware baguettes were part of a squirrel’s diet…perhaps he was French?
I’m not sure what these two lads are up to but I’m sure it’s nothing good! 
I’ve been in Northumberland for the last few days and I can’t be here without making the obligatory trip to the Farne Islands to photograph the seabirds. Of course the star of the show is always the puffin, you can get so close you can almost hug them – if only I’d been allowed to. When you get this close there’s no point having a great big zoomy lens.
This afternoon, while we dodged rain showers at Alnwick Gardens, I decided to do a quick sketch…if you’d like to see my photos from the trip, then just hop over to www.asnapaday2015.wordpress.com.
My father in law has an age old tradition that started many years ago when his brother forgot his birthday. As the story goes, the brother was reminded of his lapse in memory whilst they were out shopping and not wanting to lose face, grabbed the nearest card he could find and handed it over. The card happened to feature an ugly, googly-eyed horse and from there on, the horse card was sent (unopened and still in its plastic wrapping) back and forth between the brothers for 20+ years. Until, one sad day, it was lost. But not to worry, I was asked to quickly sketch a horse as a temporary stand in!
I’ve been off work today with a head that feels as though it’s stuck in a vice, streaming eyes, a deep, painful chesty cough and the energy of rechargeable battery that has had been reused one too many times. I spent a good 18+ hours in bed feeling sorry for myself before dragging my aching body to the sofa and back to bed when being upright became too much. Thank goodness for the internet, my iPad, paracetamol and the pile of satsumas left at the side of the bed by the good doctor. Here’s hoping another 10 hours sleep and a bucket load of drugs will rid me of this hideous lurgy. Good night all.
Photo 26 of my 365 project used my cartoons as the subject. I have been dedicating quite some time to my photography challenge and haven’t missed a day yet – it is much less time consuming than drawing but it gives me the same creative gratification.
Michelle at The Green Study pointed out that I haven’t really shared my ‘process’ before, and someone else commented that they thought I drew everything directly into the computer. In a previous post I briefly mentioned how I do things while I waxed lyrical about creating smooth lines in Illustrator but I’m happy to share a bit more.
My process is simple. I sketch in pencil, biro or whatever writing implement I can get my hands on. It’s usually a really rough sketch to get the positions/expressions right. I then trace over the originals on a fresh sheet of paper using black Indian ink and a fountain pen, or a simple black liner if I’m feeling lazy. I have a lightbox to make tracing easier. I continue to redraw, tweak and redraw until I am mostly happy with the final image. Sometimes if I’m feeling particularly self critical, this part can take an age.
Finally, I scan the line drawings into Photoshop and do a bit of touching up. For example I might remove blemishes, erroneous lines or fill in some detail I think would add to it. Then I colour and add texture. Ta Da! Of course there are all sorts of variations depending on my mood, but this is my preferred approach.
Just a little sketch I did recently after I found myself in the middle of a leaf tornado. It happened so suddenly that I was unable to get my camera out to capture it. Instead I drew it – one of those unadulterated joyous moments that make you want to laugh out loud and spin around like Julie Andrews in the Alps.
On a windy day, I love to watch piles of colourful leaves come alive and race each other down the road. Tumbling, twisting, turning, clacking and tapping on the tarmac then taking off and dancing high into the air. Since my tornado moment, few leaves remain – they are either a soggy, slippy mulch or they’ve been hoovered up by the city council’s cleaning trucks. I shall miss them.
Big Hair Metamorphosis 