Work in progress: Eli's Dad in Trafalgar Square

I was working on this illustration for my sloth book before Christmas, and I mean to go back and finish adding colour soon. After planning my book, this was the page I was most excited to draw. I was thinking what professions a sloth would be suited to, and I came up with the idea that Eli's Dad could be a living statue, and his Mum an artist's model. I hope the concept of a 'living statue' is universal enough to make sense for most readers. I decided to show Eli's Dad as a sort of Lord Nelson-type statue in front of the lions in Trafalgar Square. I had a lot of fun drawing the 60's-era pigeons with pill-box hats and bouffant hair, as well as the Polar Bear family as tourists dressed for the relative heat of London!

The next page, which I've done some sketches for, will show a framed copy of the photo the Dad Polar Bear took just as Eli's Dad moves and scares the Little Polar Bear. The rest of the page will show pastiches of famous portraits with Eli's Mum as the sitter.

Mix-Tape

I've been obsessed with the idea of mix-tapes since reading 'High Fidelity' when I was a teenager. 'Love is a Mix Tape' by Rob Sheffield is still one of my favourite books. For us geeky music girls whose ideal man arranges his record collection 'autobiographically', a mix-tape is just about the most romantic gift. Having coerced my own vinyl-loving boyfriend into making me a Christmas mix-tape, I decided to return the favour. I guess the strong point of my own mix-tape may be its cover, although even that doesn't have the charm of my boyfriend's hand-made CD sleeve featuring a photo of a penguin chick taken from his 2011 calendar.

Here' the front cover:

Notice I finally utilised the snowflakes I made for the Morozko illustration.

The back cover will be up soon once I finish tweaking it a bit.

Sherlock Holmes

For Christmas, my sister bought me 'The Complete Sherlock Holmes', published by Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics. I'm completely in love with these vintage-inspired designs, I think I've spent more time staring at the cover than reading the book (although I definitely plan to get through the whole collection at some point).

I also love the Jules Verne and 'Arabian Nights' collections.

It's fitting that my sister bought me this just as the new series of 'Sherlock' started running on the BBC. I'm swooning over the TV series as much as everyone else, but I don't think another version of 'Hound of the Baskervilles', will ever have as much impact on me as the 'Wishbone' version I saw as a kid. I remember it being dark, deeply atmospheric, and ultimately terrifying. I don't think I slept properly for at least a week afterwards. Obviously, 'Wishbone's versions have lost some of their grandeur and mystique now I've gotten older.