Artist's sketches, new and old and beginning.

The last couple of weeks have been beautifully sunny and very warm, sometimes reaching up to the mid 30s. Summer is here at last and the garden is looking amazing this year with all the flowers and our honey bees are doing their magic travelling from colour to colour. After finishing a few commissions this last month, I have had a look back at some of the sketches I have kept in my art draw and decided to draw with pencil and pen and ink to create small pieces of art. First I'll show the older sketches. A sketch for each month for 'Earth Pathways Diary' 2012. This morning I went for a wander through the woodland behind my house, 6am and everything gleaming in the summer dew. A few photos of the woods and garden before I show you the newer sketches. The few new. There is a folklore tale that inspired me to draw 'The Keeper of Special Things'. To cut a long story short, and once upon a time, a young princess was lured into a Kings ancient greek kingdom by the most beautiful bright and shiny jewels of crystal and gold. Not so long after, when her father found out he was so angry at her he changed her into a jackdaw. This is why the jackdaw loves bright and shiny things....but look at where she is now and what she has found. I might make this into a story to write soon.

A Mysterious Tale

This autumn, I'm starting illustrations and a tale based on the mysterious harbour of Whitby, England. This beautiful harbour has boatfuls of folklore and tales of goblins, vampires and other ghostly stories, but my tale has a blue crow, an elemental Queen, a hob (goblin), a mermaid and a prince.  I'm not sure if I will ever have this book published but I'm making another hand made book especially for these illustrated pages.
Here are a few illustrations that may appear with this story.

The cover of this book will be hand painted but first I have a few other illustrations to sketch in pencil to finish this story.

I can think of many other harbours and coastal villages around this island that I would love to create a mysterious tale or two!