you can still hear sweet mysteries calling you

You know, I do this every single year; I think 'hmmm, I'm sure it's my blog's birthday soon' and then find out it was last week some time. Yep, six years of blogging. It's been an amazing six years for me. I've got nothing but love my blog but I often wonder whether blogging is still relevant. Do you know what I mean? With the rise and rise of social networking, and so many places to post ones work, I sometimes wonder whether blogging is a thing of the past. Anyway, while people still continue to visit, I'll keep on going.

I also always intend to do some birthday related drawing but that never happens either. Here is a new drawing, though. Like the last post, this one is also from my graphic novel idea. I'm really getting into (obsessing over) this idea, and story, again. It's hard to give time to these projects, with everything else going on, so I long for the day that a publisher agrees that this book needs to go to print and I get to give it the time it really deserves.

If you'd like to read the letter to Edward then click on the drawing.

And, if you'd like to see the rest of the book (so far) click HERE.

Finally, Happy belated sixth Birthday to my blog. I loves ya.

looking from a window above

Damn, it's good to be working in a Moleskine again. Most of my Moleys are in the display cabinets at my exhibition, but I kept a couple aside. I knew that I couldn't go three months without feeling that gorgeous cream paper, smelling those covers and (oh yeah) drawing in them.

This is another spread from the graphic novel idea that I'm working on. I have the story and now I'm just trying to bring those ideas to life through drawings. I'm most excited about this idea (I can't think of another word for 'idea'), hopefully, one day a publisher will be too. There's a couple more drawings from this story HERE.

etched forever as a moment

Another one of those things that I would really like to do is to write and illustrate (mainly illustrate!) a graphic novel. I have had this idea for a storyline, which I've been playing around with , in my head, for some time now. Just another thing to add to the list.

in the twist of seperation

Hello folks, and a Happy New Year to you all. No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth I just got distracted by the holidays. The festive season didn't start too well for me and all I really wanted to do was lock myself away at home alone but my friends and family had other ideas. Which I am very pleased about. It was just 'what the doctor ordered'. Hope you all had a great time too.

Here's a couple more drawings from my travel Moleskine. I've almost finished this sketchbook. Just a few pages to go. I am then going to treat myself to another Moleskine for the second volume. I've enjoyed this theme so much I can't stop at one.

You might recognize the drawing above. I made THIS POST about it a couple of months back. I really liked the simplicity of the composition, but I don't do simplicity (as you might have noticed) and I wasn't at all confident that I could leave the page as it was. I was right to not be confident because this is what happened, below. Now that I see them on screen I'm not sure which I prefer. What do you think?

So, I know things have been slow around here but I have so much happening in the next couple of weeks. There'll be creative new year resolutions, news about how business is going and how trying to become an illustrator is working out, updates on all of your orders, new posts on my children's book blog and, of course, LOTS of new drawings. I hope you'll be joining me in this next phase of my journey in 2011 (2011? surely that can't be right).

Happy New Year my friends.

into something more

Here's a couple more from the travel Moleskine. The first, above, is one of the many postcards I brought back from a trip to Port Meirion, North Wales. I just cannot tell you how much I love this crazy beautiful village. It is one of the most surreal places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. It was designed by Clough Williams Ellis and the drawing on the postcard is one of his architectural designs. If you ever should find yourself in North Wales you absolutely must visit Port Meirion. I insist on it. Insist.

This pencil, which is quite obviously from the Louvre, was originally going to be surrounded by other objects in the drawing. But, once I'd drawn it on the page I liked the simplicity of the composition. The challenge for me, now, is to leave it as it is. To not add anything else. I'm not at all confident about the chances of that.