daffodils.
for a pound.
from the supermarket.

anyway, they provided the inspiration for a few drawings and then my valentine’s card effort.  i’ve got a bit of a fixation on flowers again at the moment.

happy new year, by the way

i was told that the deadline was tight and a decision on who would get the commission was imminent and to be made by the end of the week so i worked hard and late to get the work sent over in time.  i heard nothing and waited ten days before i phoned them.  i was then told through email that “we were extremely pleased with the work you presented and would have been extremely happy to go forward with what you presented.”  however it turns out that the university will only allow certain ‘authorised’ suppliers to provide them with services.  i thought “it really would have helped me if you’d known this information beforehand.”  after a phonecall i got a bit of a better explanation that the university will only outsource work and services if it can’t provide them itself.  the university’s design team had said they couldn’t do the work that the study required but when they found out that somebody else was actually going to do the work, they decided they could do it after all – and so the university wouldn’t authorise funds to be spent on an outside service (me).

great – two days of my holiday gone on a commission i could never get.  partly it’s my own fault for spending too much time on it, but i don’t think big organisations get how much this kind of thing can affect us little freelancers.  i’d like to have had the opportunity to complete the project and think i would have provided a unique branding image for them – i imagine that now, the newsletter, information sheets and communications for the study will be peppered with  clip-art or stock image rubbish or just (duh-duh-duh-dum)…bad drawing.  shame.  oh well, i’ll have to chalk it all up to experience.

it’s based on an area near to where i live, along a riverside cycle path where wild plants are able to grow freely; i’ve been observing their growth and change every few days as i’ve passed by over recent months, some of them (like these thistles), taking over large areas for a period before they die off and other plants take over.  it’s a subject matter i’ve not found myself that interested in before, but have recently become really inspired by what’s going on in these areas along this riverside cycle path.

he was also good enough to pose for some photographs too – soon to be seen in the new issue of ‘amphibian fashions’.  thanks mister frog.

all the dogs... top: sadie, kelly, lizzie. middle: danny, pip. bottom: bunter, max, rhys..

i did this piece as a gift for a good friend of my family.

for pretty much every year as i was growing up, as a family we would visit and stay with lynda and les in south wales.  they would always have a number of cats and dogs around, some strays that they homed and then others that had drifted by and found a home.  the animals all had unusual personalities and quirks (and sometimes slight injuries or deformities! from the cats – igor had a huge tooth in his lower jaw, garfield had lost half of his tail, flo had a cauliflower ear, alice had a tail which was permanently bent just before the tip).  i used to love drawing cartoons of their pets based on their physical traits and personalities.  as i hadn’t done any drawings of their creatures for a while i thought it might be nice and sentimental to do this as a present for lynda’s birthday.  i really enjoyed doing this piece – looking through old family photos and remebering how much fun i’d had visiting them.  the images are of all of the dogs they’ve had as pets to date – hopefully you can get an idea of some elements of their personalities from their portraits.