the night Max wore his wolf suit...

and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once

I can't let it pass without comment, Maurice Sendak is dead. Just in this last week we've been re-reading Where The Wild Things Are, only this time J is reading the words himself instead of having me read them to him. We picked our favourite wild things (again) - mine is the one who looks like a cow and has human feet (!), J's is above.

Our favourite, favourite though, is tiny Nutshell Library book, Pierre, captioned below with the lines that make J laugh out loud every time.

They pulled the lion by the hair.
They hit him with the folding chair.

 I could try and eulogise but I'm sure others will do it better, instead I'll give you this fabulous quote from The Art of Maurice Sendak:

"Young children don't amble or saunter, they goose-step. Only Sendak noticed that. They seem to have no knees, the Sendak kids, or more probably they refuse to bend them - it's hard enough work just staying upright, maintaining your centre of gravity. And their creator was a child in the age of the European dictators; he's endowed his creations with a lesson learned, namely the use-value of clomping, making an outsized noise..."

weaving

Finally... some work. A work in progress right enough, but still.

It's the beginnings of one of the illustrations for the next issue of Juno. A sneaky preview only, as I won't be posting the finished artwork until after the magazine has been published.

through a lens

I have something to post for once, so I’m going to ignore the fact I’ve not visited here for a while and blunder on regardless...

You’ve probably seen the small, square, grungy-looking retro camera images that are everywhere just now, and if you’ve been a previous follower of my blog you’ll know I’ve definitely not been immune to the trend. Ahem. Much as I love it, I’m not deluded enough to think my, err, Hipstamatic iPhone app makes me a photographer. But....... (you knew there was a but coming right?) these grimy washed out images have their uses (apart from making everything nostalgic of course) and in this case they were prefect for capturing the faded elegance of beautiful Budapest. Photographs can never convey the full sensory reality of a location, but the skewed colour and ever-so-slightly-disconcerting light leaks, combined with their timeless quality, tell the story of Budapest far more powerfully than an ordinary photograph could (I took two ‘normal’ photographs while I was there, but neither came close to conveying my experience. I deleted, so I guess you’ll have to trust me on this one).

If I had time I could witter on for ages about the city, but I don’t, so suffice to say its turbulent past got me reading... and, while I was obviously on the lookout for my preconceived notions of eastern European illustration, there was a flourishing (and v modern) design culture there that also got me inspired... Actually, it all feels so goddamn energetic that it can’t help but rub off a bit. Expect more posts (and yes, perhaps even some actual work!) from here on...

off the shelf

The latest addition to my bookshelf: Eric, from Shaun Tan's Tales from Outer Surburbia. Just gorgeous.

rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit...

My procrastination knows no bounds and my knitted rabbits are breeding like, er, rabbits. Three done, another fancy merino one on the way (mine, obviously) AND a flump in production. Having just gone mental on ebay for kapok, wooden buttons and loads more wool, I don't see it fizzling out anytime soon either. Fortuitiously, this somewhat pointless activity has just been validated with the news that J's school is taking part in a 'knitathon'*. Now that I've youtubed my way to casting on, off and purling, I'm perfectly placed to take part... (Oh and if you're up for knitting your own bunny, this all started with a Christmas pressie I bought from here).

Completely unrelated, this could well be the funniest thing I've read for ages.

*If you're a knitter with time on your hands feel free to get in touch, it's for a very good cause.

spring sing

A sneaky peak for you - sections from the latest illustrations for Juno's spring issue. I didn't really notice until  I saw them side by side here that they are actually both quite spring-like. Jeez, I must be feeling subconsciously optimistic!

I've also had an update on the book of children's plays I illustrated way back in 2010. After some scheduling issues at the publisher, it's back on track and I should have some finished copies in my grubby little mitts sometime in late spring. Especially exciting as I'd almost completely forgotten about it!

procrastinating (again)

I say 'again', because I'm sure I've done a post about this before (probably when I should have been doing something else).

The creative process chart I stumbled on pretty much sums up how I work. Sure you can substitute binge eating (smoking. Definitely the choice of the true procrastinator.) and discouraged napping (absolutely not feasible with a boisterous six year old in the house) but the pie slice ratio will remain the same. The killer combo of a blank sheet of paper and a looming deadline invariably results in me immediately getting the urge to do something else. Anything else. Having two illustrations to produce this week resulted in the knitted rabbit you see below - who'd have thought I could be so industrious while not being industrious?

(Oh and the illustrations did make the deadline, accompanied by my usual mad panic, last minute drama).