Boats and In Watermelon Sugar

I made a short trip to London on Monday.  As a part of  the Pop Up  project I visited Grafton Primary School in Holloway. I was drawing, talking and reading stories to the nursery children. I like this age group, they are so funny and get so involved. We had a great time.

The rest of the week I spent behind my desk drawing pirates and boats. Here is one of my old drawings of the Titanic. I knew it must be somewhere and I found it.

 

The work I’m doing now is a bit more realistic and definitely more fiddly.

I’m nearly there. Two more pictures to do. I’m having a great time illustrating a picture book version of “Treasure Island” and if it wouldn’t be for the crazy deadline, it would be even better.

Last night when I’d finished working I ran my bath and put the radio on. This is my bath, my foot and my boat. The programme was “A Good Read” with Colin Murray and Bob Mills and Harriett Gilbert as the presenter of course. I was very plesantly surprised, since they were discussing one of my favourite books ever – “In Watermelon Sugar” by Richard Brautigan. You can listen to the programme again on iPlayer.

I love the book so much that I had to illustrate it,  just for myself.

I’ve never shown it to any publisher.  At the time I did 35 illustrations for the book. It’s quite a lot compared to the fact that the book is not very long. It’s now some time since I did the pictures, but I still like them and I wouldn’t change them.

Hearing other people talking about the book made me look at the illustrations again. There are more pictures on my website. I must read In Watermelon Sugar soon again. And again…and again.