So...where have you all been?
My friend Jenny emailed me one day and said 'would this be of any interest to you?'. She was referring to a competition to illustrate the new Julia Donaldson book - 'Freddie and the Fairy'. I though about it for about three seconds and decided to enter. I had less than two weeks to complete five colour character sketches and a full page double spread. If any of you know my daughter then you know how little time I actually have to do any work. But, for once I worked to a deadline and it was good. I loved it. I actually liked the piece.
It got posted on the day Emily was having an endoscope examination at Yorkhill. As a result of trying to get back to the hospital I never had time to find a printer that could do large scale uploads - so I had to make do with two horrendous A3 colour copies. Like most people (I suspect) I thought I might be one of the six shortlisted, so never bothered too much about the 'send original art which cannot be returned' part of the terms and contracts. Naturally, I wasn't shortlisted, and joined a queue of people suddenly thinking, 'Shit - they're going to trash my work'. Meh - you win some lose some. I like the idea of my picture being recycled...maybe into a nice pair of sap green knickers (If anyone wants to start a range then get in touch :)) Anyway, I digress - all I had left to show for my efforts was the photocopies, which scanned into my computer with all the colour definition of a chalk drawing at gthe bottom of a lake. I tried to fix it the best I could in photoshop but most of the colour has been lost - most notably the green hue that permeated the background. I can't use it as a folio piece but it's a nice cationary tale nonetheless.
I'll do another post about the other entries. Some of them really, really need to get published.
Current listening - Die Krupps - Machineries of Joy
