Bramble and Burdock

It's been a long time with no updates on this blog but I've come out of hiding briefly to write a catch-up post and make a little announcement.

This Christmas I received a wonderful book of illustrations by the famous British artist Henry Moore. He's more well-known for his very large and distinctive sculptures, but he was a very good draughtsman as well. As a gift for his young daughter, who loved sheep, he filled a special sketchbook full of wonderful pen and ink drawings of them. The best thing about the book is that all the backs of the pages have been reproduced faithfully as well, where the ink bled through the paper or rubbed off onto the opposite page, so it's almost like having the real thing! Brilliant!

Soon to be sold at a charity stall on behalf of Cats Protection , these slightly weird looking cats are part of my first batch of greeting card designs, printed by Moo ! The original pictures were made in pen and watercolour.

Another effort for IF . I made this a while ago hoping to turn it into a T-shirt design, but as usual never got around to it. I was reading a book about Marx and sketched a quick charicature from a photo of him. He's always depicted with that serious look, hence the captions. He had a hard life, but I think he would have had a chuckle now and then - and he'd certainly appreciate all the bloggers who are "rising up" and producing their own content...!