Have you had enough yet? I haven’t.

I used this piece to try a figure out how I’m going to treat the backgrounds. I started with real bold and graphic painted look, but found a more subtle, desaturated result contrasted better with the characters. Is there any cooler tree than a Mangrove? I submit not.

Here’s a detail:

I’m working away on toucans for my picture book. At this stage I’m just trying to zero in on the look. How crisp, how rough, how splatty. ..these are the kind of things that keep me up at night. Really. Other than this, I’ve done a comics coloring tutorial that I’ll post next. Good for beginners

So, Breadwig, you dancin’ around, thinking you can take us all on in an elephant smackdown? I’ll just watch you dance before I land my first sucker punch.

Pow!

I’ve returned fatter and visibly more content.

I had a ball in Florence, as a guest of Luca Chiarotti and his small but perfectly formed art college in the centre of florence, Accademia Nemo. In a country that is short of good quality industry training, this school is a stand out choice. My brief was to come and teach them everything I know. In my mind that stretches to about 1 hour and 23 minutes worth of tuition, but by making the students do all the work, I stretched it out to 4 days.

And Luca being the top drawer generous host that he is, made me eat in lovely restaurants the rest of the time. I love Italy. Thanks to Luca and all the fab students at Nemo, I really enjoyed myself.

I Drew.

I drew some more.

I wondered- is it physically possible to have a car this small? Dangerous things happen when cars get too small. Check it out.

I was intimidated by a steak, but taught it a good lesson. Don’t mess with me. I love steak.

I ate gelato.

Drew some Shaun the Sheep images for Luca’s Help the Hodges auction…

Taught story, character design, flounced about, and mostly asked questions. I prefer that kind of teaching anyway. In the foreground is my excellent translator Bianca. Thanks Bianca!

Indulged in my private obsession, old villages teetering on hilltops. This is Volterra, which has the fantastical translation of ‘Flying land”, on account of the the 24-7 winds you feel up there. Beautiful place.

Painted some chickens for Luca…

Took pictures of my all time favourite car, the fiat 500…

Caught a tuscan sunset.

Turns out the staff in our local restaurant were big Shaun the sheep fans, so I drew numerous cast members on their tablecloths for them. Best Pizza ever.

Caught the train home, very ready to see my family,  but so happy to have some time to get inspired. Thanks to Luca and my friends over there…see you next year.

I’ve been having a very painty week you can check out some new sketches on the facebook page, in the meantime, here’s a robot for you. Watercolour, oils, photoshop. Mixed media joy.

And here’s some detail. Off to Jerusalem for a birthday dinner now. Yikes, 34 years old…

While I’m processing my sketchbook from Italy, heres a little Guru love to keep the blog warm.

It’s possible that you geek out over how other people work and I confess: I do, but you might be normal and therefore not give a damn. But I love to see what I can learn from other people’s processes. So with that in mind, I’ve uploaded the PSD of this piece in low res, so you can see how I’ve gone about it, and how each layer affects the image. You can get that here. Let me know if it’s of interest, and if you’d like to see more of that kind of thing.

Adios,

j