at my dear land of story books

December 13, 2008December 13, 20089 Comments

Some of my baby son’s toys and books and things. He particularly likes “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?” The large toy at the top is the French one, but his current favourite toy is not pictured: a colourful guitar toy from the backyardigans, whoever they are (apparently they sing a song about the “movers of arabia”, whatever that is).

Drew this in his journal. And this is my entry for Illustration Friday this week, theme “Rambunctious“. I had to ask my wife what that meant, as I think it’s more common a word over here than where I’m from. Full of energy. Babies who are on the verge of walking are certainly that, we are finding.

le petit

October 19, 20082 Comments

Over eight and a half months old, baby luke is becoming little boy luke, and is getting himself around and into all sorts of mischief: what i didn’t draw here were his surroundings, a pile of dvds he just pulled off the shelf. Life is about to become a whole load of fun. He already loves to tear magazines apart. My sketchbooks will be hidden far far away.

This was drawn in baby’s journal. I can’t quite get his face right yet though. Eyes are wrong, face too round, hair too dark. Then again each time I attempt a drawing, he changes a bit more. They really do grow so quickly at this age, just like everybody says; I can barely keep up.

ainsi font, font font

August 19, 20088 Comments

Luke has this great toy (given to him by my cousin) full of lights and shapes and buttons and songs, all in French, and he absolutely LOVES it. “Ainsi font, font, font, les petites marionettes,” it sings as you turn it on. We’re trying to expose him to French early on (we also have a CD of French nursery rhymes and sounds for babies his age), so hopefully one day he’ll be able to teach us what we have long forgotten. I look forward to us one day taking him to the south of France, to where I met his mommy. And we’ll eat poulet-frites. (Funny enough I got a postcard from Menton today).

happy feet

July 17, 2008July 20, 20083 Comments

And so Luke has learnt how to eat his toes! At five and a half months. He’s getting bigger every day, and very funny! Hey if he keeps putting his foot in his mouth, he might be President some day…

Drawn in his journal.

at world’s end

June 27, 2008June 27, 20083 Comments

After – how long is it, a month and a half maybe? – it looks as though I am finished with the ‘how to save the world’ sketchbook project is finished. Well, there are a few finishing touches to be done to the inside cover, perhaps, but all of the pieces are now complete. Here we are then, at parts 23 to 27.
Part 23 is ‘feed the baby’, which is a pretty good idea if baby wants to keep growing like he does. And he does. Most of these drawings were done at night either while waiting for baby to wake up for his bottle (in this case he was sleeping pretty well), or just after he’s had his bottle and gone back to sleep.

Part 24 is ‘write postcards’ – as you may have seen from a previous colourful drawing, i do like postcards, and have a great deal, in fact it is possible that by saving these little pieces of the world over the years i am in fact saving the world, you saw that one coming didn’t you. (ok no you didn’t but i bet you like to think you had).

Part 25 is fairly relevant to the current period as it is follow the football, or the footy, or as many of you on this side of the pond say, the saacurrr. This is a fair attempt at drawing a couple of footy magazine and a pile of football shirts while watching the semi-finals the Euro 2008.

Part 26 is easier said than done for an up-late-stayer comme moi. My foot appears to have edged into the picture. The crib obviously belongs to the baby. He was alseep in there while I drew, so I had to be quiet with those micron pigma pens. There is a cd player, playing pre-recorded noises of the bathroom fan, which helps the baby sleep; he’ll probably grow up all into avant-garde experimental sampling music now, oh dear.

And then finally, at the top, Part 27 which is of course ‘save the world’.

And so the overall theme was to draw things around the home (which is where the world begins for everybody) because by drawing them you are saving them in some format. And the writing is completely and utterly made up as I went along with pretty much no aforethought whatsoever. Pretty much like the world in general I think. And there you have it. I’ll have to send this off to Atlanta at some point soon.

the boy and his grandad

June 5, 20081 Comment

Baby Luke just took his first trip back to London (where it rained every day, unlike in California), where he met the rest of his family, who naturally all absolutely adored him.

Here he is with his very proud grandad, who was celebrating his 60th birthday.

This is my illustration friday entry for this week (theme: baby), drawn in Luke’s journal. I might finish it with colours but kind of liked the simple version here.

tummy time

May 7, 2008May 7, 20082 Comments

I’m still practising drawing Baby, and here is young Luke – at 14 weeks old – practising tummy time. He’s pretty good at it – see how well he hold his head up now! – and rolled over for the first time on Saturday. Well done little dude! He’s cooing and babbling a lot now, he has strange conversations with the ceiling fan. He is just so interested in all of the world around him.

I’ve drawn the eyes a bit too big, and the head’s probably too long. I drew this in copic 0.05, with cotman watercolours, in the baby’s journal, drawn from a photo taken at the weekend. I normally draw Luke in pecil but have been trying to do pen, even though you cannot erase your mistakes when the eyes look too close together and stuff, and I quite like the effect in this one.

Here are some more pen sketches of Luke from his journal showing his difficult to capture baby expressions. I’ll keep practising!

my baby don’t care for clothes

April 10, 2008April 11, 20085 Comments

One of my art goals this year is to learn to draw baby. One particular baby. So far I’ve mostly drawn him asleep; only twice have I drawn him awake, both times from a photo. Above are the second attempts; the boy with his easter bunny. I drew in pencil and scanned before adding watercolour; still learning. I tell you what though: the top he’s wearing, I totally want that top in daddy size. It’s damn cool. Luke’s got some cool baby clothes. Of course, he quite likes to stain them.