London flowers

I'm in London for an early Spring, and enjoying the flowers in the changeable weather. I've been experimenting with mixing watercolour and pen and ink, and drew some peonies for my mum.I visited Petersham Nurseries with my parents and had a lovely lunch, and I wished I could take every single flowering plant home with me...

exhibition prints

My show continues for 2 more weekends, and I'll be at the studio this afternoon (saturday) so please feel free to drop in!Here are two of the newer pieces in the show. I've been experimenting with adding different media onto prints: the pink jug is a mokuhanga print with added pen line drawing, and the bird mug is an etching with watercolour.Graphic Arts Workshop: 2565 3rd St #305, San Francisco, CA 94107

kung hei fat choi

Wishing you all the best for the year of the monkey! *This is an adapted version of an image I made for the Keswick Foundation charity in HK.

Click magazine

I did a fun illustration for the current issue of Click magazine, for their photo contest page, with all sorts of pets. Which one is your style? I like the layout of the online mag a lot...Hope you all enter the contest!

Dr Oz Magazine

I did some chalk drawing backdrops a few months ago for Dr Oz The Good Life Magazine in New York, and I just got a printed copy, yay!I love this one with the frosty blue colour and wintery trees. Here's a detail of the actual backdrop, where you can see the chalky lines.And here's a sequence showing my progress as I was drawing.For the home interior, I started with a more elaborate staircase, but developed my sketches to create a simpler scene. I even drew a simplified version of one of my own prints in the background ... It was a real pleasure to be there on the day of the shoot, here's a little scene of me sketching the set-up.Let's all walk more this year and get healthy, whatever the background...

Point Reyes

Hope everyone is having a relaxing winter break. I just got back from a little visit up the coast to Point Reyes National Seashore, which was chilly but oh so beautiful! We visited the Point Reyes lighthouse, and saw grey whales on their way to Baha.In Inverness, right by the water, the sunrise glow with mist over the water, was pink and golden and like a dream...Limantour beach was wild and empty, and I lay on the sand in the sunshine and painted the grasses in the sand dunes.Really, really, can't wait to go back again and discover more!

a little extra Christmas

Here's a cute little thing I drew for the Croucher Foundation in HK this year. Yes, that's the star ferry speeding along there, obviously in a hurry to get home for Christmas...

Christmas greetings

...from me to you! Mx

London

This week I'm in London, admiring the lights, and loving the Chrismassy-ness of it all. Along with two of my monsters colleagues, Lynn Hatzius and David Humphries, we had a stand at the House of Illustration annual Illustrator's Christmas Fair, held in King's Cross. We sold prints and cards, and I even had some of my London Toile products.I've been admiring the wonderful Christmas windows around town, and my favourites are the glorious Fortnum and Masons...and of course Tiffanys.And the best thing about London is the choice of exhibitions, and these constructed trees by Ai Wei Wei at the Royal Academy were stunning.Can't wait for more London inspiration this week!

Kyushu part I

This week I have been in Kyushu Japan, starting my travels by train around the island. I love travelling by train here, it's so efficient and also somehow charming. As you get further into the countryside, the trains become smaller, more unusual and fun! We started in Fukuoka, eating at yatais, and we're now in Kumamoto, at an adorable minshuku guesthouse in the countryside. I drew the view from our two windows.The rice has just been harvested, but the fields are still beautifully green, resting until the summer.

New York trip

I just got back from a quick trip to New York, where I worked on a lovely project for Dr Oz The Good Life magazine. I can't show you what it was yet, but here's a sketch I drew on the photoshoot day. I also drew the model several times, in various of her outfits...The view from the studio was gorgeous, so New York!I had a fantastic dinner one evening at the Brooklyn Diner, and sketched while I was waiting. The waitress was so happy with the sketch that she gave me a bag of delicious pastries to take home with me! I love New York, I really do. I'll be back soon, just you wait and see...

kapok shop window displays

I recently designed an autumn window display theme for kapok in Hong Kong. I created watercolour illustrations in shades of reds and browns for their 'into the wild' theme, featuring foliage, berries, and cute woodland animals.

I created various layouts of the illustrations for the six different store locations.

Kapok has two stand alone stores in Wanchai, one large one in PMQ in Central, and several concession stores within department stores,so they all needed slightly different treatments. I love the cube stands and little details inside the stores too...Here's to a happy Autumn!

winter night light

I designed this wintery forest scene for a new wooden light for Thinkgadgets in London. It's available to buy in stores across the UK, and from the Spirit of Christmas. It comes in a natural wood or painted white finish and is 15" wide.It's super cute and friendly when the starry lights are shining through it!Hmmm, wonder who might like it for Christmas this year...

stationery set

I've collaborated with my friends Katie Baldwin and Yoomni Nam on a hand-printed paper stationery set for Wonderfair's Letter Writing Club, in Lawrence, Kansas. This is a photo of all the elements before they're packed together. I made the letter sheets with envelope, and also did the calligraphy for the top label (which Katie then screenprinted). The letter sheets are relief printed in green/gold. Here's the gold block,and the tests I printed to choose exactly the colour that would work.Here's the final set all put together. They'll be for sale at the club, and then afterwards at Wonderfair. The club meetings are held regularly, to encourage good ol' fashioned writing letters, and we'll all be attending the next one on Sunday 20th September. Hope to see you there!

Marc's wedding

We attended our friends Marc & Liz's wedding at the weekend, which was a beautiful, sparkly, glamourous event in downtown Los Angeles.I sat to one side, and had a wonderful view of all the pretty bridesmaids, and loved the way they all had the same dress, and yet managed to look individual.My favourite sketch of the evening is this one of the bride and groom cutting the cake, it really makes me happy!We sat at a table full of wonderful people, surrounded by glittering glass and soft lights in the trees.Congratulations Marc & Liz! Happy days to follow...

botanical pattern

I've  designed a pattern of coral and seaweed for Spoonflower's fabric competition. The brief asked for designs reminiscent of those found in a botanical sketchbook.I based my watercolour drawings on seaweeds I'd seen at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, and references from various old illustrated botany books, like this one.Here are a few of the original sketches, including some that didn't make it into the final design. I added pencil calligraphy to the sketches, in a variety of styles, and developed a repeat pattern in soft shades of red. The design has now made it to the semi-final round, hurrah! This round is open to public vote, and voting is open until the 2nd of September, so please vote for it here. I'd love to see this made into a fabric, and to develop it further into a collection you can actually buy.

botanical garden

I went to the botanical garden inside the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with my friend Aude Van Ryn when she was visiting, to do a spot of sketching.I have a soft spot for succulents and cactii, so I spent quite a bit of time looking at all the colours and textures...

Max & Mei books

Martha, who wrote the bilingual Max & Mei books I illustrated, donated some books to an orphanage in China for Half the Sky, and we were sent these photos of the kids enjoying them. They're adorable!I'm so happy to see kids enjoying the books...Looking forward to working on new projects with Martha soon!

summer solstice

Today is the longest day of the year, the summer solstice (for us in the northern hemisphere). This is an illustration I made for the poet Dick Russell who commissioned a set of cards for his summer and winter solstice poems. I picked elements from the poem and did a watercolour painting in summer greens...Happy Midsummer everyone!

social media update

Hello! I'm finally upping my social media presence, and am now on twitter and instagram, as well as facebook. Tweet me, follow me, and let's all be online more together. Here's a sample of what you could be seeing on instagram every day... I'll still be blogging, I've grown to love this weekend ritual, but there'll be extra treats to see mid-week on other platforms, hurrah!