... Here we have, top: weird sun-god creating constellations from the sea, and above, a hiker. Below are the original snaps I took in the park.

I nearly forgot to mention, I got a new stylus this week: I bought an Adonit Dash3. I use an old iPad (2014, 2ndGen) as well as a Samsung Galaxy mini phone, and an iPhone. This stylus works brilliantly on all. Previously I had two Heiyo styli; the first one was about 18 months old when the on/off switch cover fell off, following the plug charger cap which fell off  almost immediately after purchase. I replaced the stylus with a new one, and that suddenly stopped working after just two months; I literally put it down to go to fetch a cup of tea and when I came back it had just stopped working. Nothing had changed on iPad. I switched back to the old one, which for all its faults worked fine for a couple of months until it, too, suddenly stopped working in mid-project. Tech support was infuriating so after some research I got the Adonit Dash3 and it is excellent! Smooth, instantly works etc etc. Nice nib for drawing and writing. Should have done that when the first Heiyo failed. Note and NB!!: it doesn't work on iPadPro.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

This is one of my digital sketchbooks. I am full-on with the children's book illustrations at the moment so there isn't much time for anything else, but occasionally I like a little light relief. Throwing together a simple pattern is great fun, and sketchbooks like these make it easy. Each image is drawn in Procreate on its own layer, so I can easily copy, paste, and rearrange different elements to play with different patterns. The sludge-green background is so I can spot any unwanted marks and tidy edges nicely.

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Sometimes it's hard to keep going when the news around the world keeps on getting worse. I have to say my work was plain old ornery this week and I achieved very little. However, some good things did happen to bring cheer; B's son (my godson) came to stay for the weekend with his friend in their fancy drift cars, which turned some heads. The energy of the young people was positive and the company most welcome. My very good friend had her birthday, too, and I made her the cute card above right which I liked.

I have wanted to draw the little plant mister above left for the longest time, so in the face of nothing else working I decided to give myself a treat and do it. I enjoyed it very much, I love its form and delicate little details and I decided not to clean it up too much, but to leave shivery lines here and there which seemed appropriate and expressive. Sometimes I feel when work feels stale and forced it's a good thing to have a break and do something just for oneself; it often injects something into the stuff that isn't working, bringing it back to life. I have a wonderfully wonky old candle stick which I might draw next.

Christmas cards all finished, posted and delivered! The design is a rubbing of the lid of an old Indian box, made by passing an inked roller over Japanese tissue laid on top of the box. Once the ink was dry a shmoosh of glitter glue (obligatory) added a sparkly sheen, which looks speckled in this scanned image.

Somewhat bizzarely, I also got into Peppa Pig this week ...
I often listen to YouTube videos while I work, and one day I suddenly noticed an autoplay anomaly had taken me into the middle of Peppa Pig - Official Channel - I had never seen a Peppa Pig episode before, and I really liked it! I have seen them all now, several times, loving the drawings, fully developed characters, stunning compositional sense and clear, soft colours. The sound track is as good as the animations, rich with fun little touches of giggles, gasps, and 'uh-oh' sounds which carry the stories along smoothly. I find the whole series beautifully put together, and think I can learn a lot from it.

At last, Christmas card-making underway!

I'm running a bit behind time this year and cutting it fine for International post, but catching up. I should really begin collecting ideas and materials in September to begin the process of Christmas card-making in October, because November and early December get busy with Heather Eliza work for winter exhibitions; I just didn't get around to Christmas things before Hallowe'en, after which time runs away.

Complicated by a head-cold virus which wiped my brain's creative files, I had a couple of false starts, but luckily one feverish night I remembered a carved Indian box I have been itching to make prints from for ages. It bears a central motif which could be interpreted as the Christmas star, so in no time I was back to my excited self, up and running with the printing ink and roller and delighted with the results of a day's work.

My illustration for day 4 of Instagram's Folktale Week: the prompt was Smoke and I chose to use a drawing I made a little while ago collaged with outlines of trees on different layers of semi-opaque paper. It provided a good smoky backdrop to work on. I brought it into Procreate and added the smoke-dragon monster which made me think of the song Puff The Magic Dragon (1963) by Peter, Paul and Mary. I loved that song so much when I was little, and my Dad used to sing it to me all the time, but only the chorus and a few lines. He never got to the last verses, and I realise now it is really a sad song and I feel so sorry for Puff. It is still one of my favourite songs ever, and I found myself singing as I worked:

"Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee ..."

Don't assume the song is about puffing drugs, as many did at the time (well, t'was the '60s). The band insist it contains no reference to drugs, being about loss of childhood innocence. The song was based on a poem written by Leonard Lipton in 1959 (the year I was born). I love the images the song conjures all the way through.
There is a charming video with lyrics on You Tube, although be advised the sealing wax clip is a bit of a jump-scare - a bit visceral at first glance!

I'll write a little bit about the last two days of Folktale Week in my next Weekly, then after that it's going to be Christmas card making and picking up where I left off on the 100 days project - another 47 cats to go, I think. I should have it done some time in 2020!

​Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

PS
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