Picture Gallery: February 2010

Here of some more samples of the illustrated stories the children did as a result of my visit in January.

I really like the sense of space in this first pair of illustrations, by Scout Whittaker, and the exciting way the village has been drawn, curving round the waterhole. Beautifully done:

In case the words are too small to read, the story reads: 'Once there was a tall, gangly giraffe called Rufus. He wore worn, blue dungarees. He lived in the scorching hot Savanna, his village surrounded a sparkling, clear water-hole.'

This next one, by Jack Doman, reads: 'The little lion had no roar, so he tried and tried.'

I love the big sky and the way the pencil colours are applied, allowing your eye to mix the shades together, just like the way I showed the children I often work with my pastels. Well remembered Jack!

Orlando Fraser's Dance Duo reads: 'And they danced and they danced until the sun went down. When they didn't dance, they talked about being famous.' Fabulous colour, again cleverly blended for the sky, and what a wonderfully striking composition, with the animals drawn against the huge, setting sun!

This next one, Sports Day by Anna Hester, is written in such beautiful clear handwriting, I'm sure you can read it yourself. Poor Tony - he sounds about as good as me at games! I'm so curious to know the rest of the story, to find out why he is smiling, despite his troubles...

This last one is called 'The Work-out Bunny' and is by Isabel Lee. Great facial expression! Love the design of the bug character too:

'In the dry, dusty Savanna there was a lazy, boring rabbit. One day he was looking for food and found a small bug. Just as the rabbit was about to eat the bug it then talked: "Don't eat me, I can help you." "How?" "I'll be your coach and help you get fit and sporty," said the bug. "Okay." "Stay right there, shouted the bug as he ran behind the tree. He came out holding a headband and water bottle. "Put this on, hold this and follow me," said the bug.

Really lovely stuff, don't you agree? Well done guys, I'm really proud if you!

Yes, I'm back on trains again. If you read my main blog, you'll know that I've been doing quite a few trips back and forth to Nottingham.

Here are some of the sketches that I couldn't fit into that post.

This woman above was strangely intense looking, mostly I think because of her quite harsh makeup.

I spent some time playing in Photoshop with this next one: yes, the seats really are that red!

Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play with colouring most of them yet. Maybe later. I always enjoy that bit and find it rather therapeutic. Actually, the whole 'sketching-on-trains things is rather Zen: such intense focus concentration, it's almost meditation!