i'm going to clear out my head, i'm going to get myself straight

I've been cleaning up my house recently. And cleaning up my act. I've always kept stuff 'for drawing'. For that day when I finally sit down and draw my stamp, matchbox, buttons, receipts, doll's heads (really), cork collections. Amongst many others.

But, this isn't fitting in with my quest for minimalist living. So there's going to be a cull. Things are getting serious. But how can I get rid of these corks? They are thing of beauty. I've drawn them before (above and below) and I may want to draw them again. They all have their own characters and personalities. They're all slightly different. You can make rubber stamps out of them. They have sentimental.....

walk on

If you are familiar with my blog then you'll know that, a while back, I was illustrating a book. Although, I was not really able to talk too much about it (and I'm probably still not supposed to) it's hard to resist. Especially when I do not have any other drawings to post, here. Yet I have over twenty waiting in the wings. Well, one less now.

This is one of my favourite drawings from the book. For those who have asked, it is a Jane Austen book. It's not one of the biggies, i.e. Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice. It's one of her earlier, shorter stories from the Juvenilia collection. I didn't know these stories existed until I was approached to illustrate one. I'm glad I know now. I found this one, in particular, very amusing. Not least because it's about a girl who drinks too much Claret. I feel it was made for me. But, I'm worried that I am being typecast so early on in my illustrating career.

For the most of the book I have tried to tell the story through objects that are part of the story. I'm not sure whether that makes much sense, but here I've illustrated a scene on a wine cork. A Claret cork, of course.