This illustration style combines loose, black lines and very watery areas of colour. The images are very simple and the coloured areas spill out of the black outlines in a rather childlike way. Unlike my other book illustrations, they are on a simple white background.
I paint these with both acrylics and watercolour on to hot-pressed, smooth, watercolour paper.
The essence of this style is simplicity, humour and quirkyness, but also sweetness and poignancy.
I have often drawn children in costumes, in my children's picture books. So many are unpublished - drawn just for fun. I have drawn/painted this 'acorn' character more recently, as a charity auction postcard, firstly for the TwitterArt exhibition, then a new bigger version for our local arts charity, Arts4Wokingham. The image depicts the hopeful phrase 'From little acorns, do mighty oaks grow'.
