And (by far) the biggest of the recent projects, an illustrated picture counting book about a flock of enterprising sheep fighting the powers that be, while providing instruction in Cumbrian numbers, which are a) mostly all that's left of Cumbrian and b) hilariously weird. ('Eighteen,' for example, is 'tethera-bumfit.'). It's not, um, commercially available (yet), but if you need a copy, let me know and I'll put you on the list for if/when it gets properly published. Here's the cover :
...and then my favourite pages, the grumpy shepherd and her grumpy dog:
...and the sheep dyeing their shorn fleeces in the barn (notice the red steel beam support in the back, a nod to my engineer father, for whose birthday the book was a gift):
I have no idea whether this project will ever see the wider light of day beyond my parents' bookshelf, BUT innumerable lessons learnt, too many to count, about illustration in general, about how gouache paints behave, about planning out the pacing of a children's book, about trying to consistently draw characters in different positions and emotional states. Oy. Many, many lessons still to be learnt.
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