Lion and a Giraffe

Apparently this is what I've been doing instead of sleeping or (on some occasions) editing the book I'm working on. Ho hum. So, first the Lion:

And then, the Giraffe (which I'm more pleased with, apart from the background):

Yakkety Yak

Things have been slow on this blog since the birth of my son in December 2008. I haven't had much time for drawing, although I have managed to fit in some evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art which I've found very useful in terms of process and technique.

Recently, I've started thinking about a series of pictures for my son, featuring him with some of his favourite animals. His nibs is very fond of dragons, an obsession linked to Julia Donaldson's (author of The Gruffalo) Room on the Broom which features a dragon who threatens to eat the witch with chips for his tea.

On a trip to my parents' house recently, my dad unearthed a couple of pop up books by Robert Crowther. I had forgotten all about them, but they are fantastic objects and my son loved them. His Most Amazing Hide-and-Seek Alphabet book is the obscure origin of this yak:

I'd love to work these images up. At present they're scans from a moleskine notebook and I'm experimenting with water soluble crayons, but my experiences at the GSA has created a desire to get into further layers of thicker media (mmm ... gouache).