February already! Where does the time go? Seems no time since I was sitting with my feet up, stuffing my face with jaffa cakes but I suppose I had to get back to the real world eventually. Well, as close to the real world as I need to. To be honest, I tend to keep it at arm’s length, it’s better for all concerned that way.

I have a few interesting things on the go at the moment but I decided, before I get stuck into commissioned work I’d get some long term plans rolling of my own. I have ideas for paintings and illustrations all the time. Usually I can’t work on them straight away as I’m in the middle of a job for someone else so I draw a quick sketch of write a short description in my notebook to refer back to later. Last year, that later never arrived. I just couldn’t find the time to work on anything long enough to see results. Now, I’m not complaining because I was busy, I’d be worried if I had too much time on my hands but it would have been nice to have struck a balance. I planned to use January to get a head start on some of those ideas before getting snowed under with orders. It’s a quiet time after Christmas anyway so was my best chance to make a dent in it.

The first thing I tackled was some illustrative work that has been on the back burner for way too long. I have recently started making some of my more “cartoony” artwork available on clothes and gifts as well as my usual prints. Some of my existing pieces suit being printed on T-shirts and hoodies etc but most of it only really works in the form it was originally intended. This means I had a fairly limited range of images suitable for clothes so I wanted to create some specifically for that job. With a notebook full of ideas I didn’t have to waste time thinking, except maybe, which one to start with.

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