Day 5 - Best Friend, gonna save some time for this...later. Day 6 - favourite book character: Rincewind the failed wizard from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.runner up; Sam Vimes, city watch, from the same:

Day 7 - Favourite Word: MYRIAD. runner up: Plethora (no image, poor little plethora)

Day Four - Favourite Place

I'm behind 2 days now, but i'm not gonna beat myself up about it... Today's offering is a place in my head... the land of milk and honey, my dream home... a lush garden oasis in the middle of a city...

Day 3 - Favourite Food

I cheated again - this isn't my favourite food, it's just the nicest looking food nearby (from arts and crusts cafe in walthamstow, which incidentally is awesome). considered getting a steak or some prawns which are my actual favourite, but couldn't be arsed, frankly, as i'm on a health kick and steak a few days ago.

30 day drawing challenge - day two

Favourite animal... i couldn't decide which animal i liked best so i went for a combo me and my nephews were laughing about the other week... still havent seen the real sharktopus, dont intent to, my own imagination is blatantly more fun.

click image to enbiggen.

30 day drawing challenge

Stumbled across this via stumbleupon: http://blog.allisonlehman.com/2011/04/30-day-drawing-challenge/

and to coincide with 30 days of not drinking any booze, i'm taking up the challenge... today is already day 2 and not having a hangover on a Sunday morn is rather splendid. I'm sure it's gonna be difficult over the next few days but i've written myself a list of reasons to stop drinking, i've done my research to help me along, and i'm looking forward to feeling fresh... anyway, enough about that, here's my first offering...

by the way, i dont always look like a psycho, that's concentrating face. i wondered why my girlfriend always asks if i'm alright when i'm deep in thought - now i know!

click the images to see full-resolution

More Orchardness

Just finished colouring some more decorative illustration for my forthcoming site..

Design Orchard

Is going to be the name of my new company, i think. Have been working on a background illustration for the website, and decided it was high time I put some serious effort into learning the pen tool in illustrator and photoshop... definitely making progress, although still have quite a hill to climb. i will get there! (i'm self/google taught, so any advice gratefully received)

stripped back to pure shape



added a few strokes and gradients



original pen marks with pen paths used for colour block




Squirrel and bird have their moment. tempted to re-draw but know i should press on with sorting the grasses and shading under each tree. Dont want to get too lost in the detail... yet.