I’ve been writing a lot lately – more than drawing, in fact. One of my new projects is developing an idea for a young fiction series. I’m enjoying plotting in a longer form, which is new to me, and it feels like a luxury to have more than 12 double page spreads to fill with action. It’s interesting to feel my way through the process – I can’t help tackling it visually and have created a pile of charts with notes on colourful scraps and taped-on extensions to try and help pull the different elements of the story together. I’m also playing with how the characters might look, and finding a completely non-digital approach quite refreshing…

It’s now over a year since I started keeping a comic diary, inspired by homework set on the Graphic Novel course I did last year at the Royal Drawing School, with excellent teaching by comics artist Emily Haworth Booth. I no longer do it every single day, usually a couple of times a week, but it has proved a wonderful space to reflect and record all the hundreds of small things that make up day-to-day life, and otherwise just get forgotten. I’ve got lots of entries inspired by all the funny things the three-year-olds say at my under 5s art group, one about unblocking the sink, and rather a lot involving a pint of beer at the pub. Dipping back into my comic diary from last year brings back so many things that would have been lost forever otherwise, so thankyou Emily for getting me started!

Here’s a sad one from last weekend, featuring a dead owl and a game of dominoes.

I’ve got lots of exciting new projects in development for 2016. One is a picture book about a bowerbird and an orangutan – more on this later I hope, but in the meantime here are some character sketches using household paint, watercolour pencil, and good old Quink.

I’ve been asked by a publisher to do some samples for a picture book about birds – it would be a dream job for me as birds are just about my favourite thing to draw. But, perhaps because it feels such a perfect opportunity, I’ve got tangled up in knots trying too hard, and have spent ages doing lots of research, and filling dozens of sheets with all sorts of birds in many poses, media and colours.

It became clear that what I really needed to do was simplify, and loosen up – which is much easier said than done. Then something unexpected intervened: a week or so ago I was at the monthly river cleanup organised by the Wandle Trust, up to my waist in the icy waters of the river Wandle in chest waders, fishing out rubbish with my hands in just a pair of heavy duty rubber gloves. After a couple of hours my hands went numb so I worked on the bank instead. Even after a hot bath back at home my fingers were numb, and a week later the tips of my middle fingers are still numb – and this has affected my drawing style. I normally grip a pencil or pen very hard, but it’s forced my hand too be more relaxed. (Although I do hope my fingers will come back to life soon…)

I’ve also been using a feather to draw with (dipped in Indian ink) – and when I produced this little kiwi I felt I had perhaps cracked something – it’s got the looseness I was aiming for. Last summer I heard Helen Stephens give a talk, and she gave away another tip for how she achieves her wonderful flowing relaxed lines – she stands up when she is working. Another technique to try!