Creating a bear Illustration and memories too...

This is a tiny corner of a picture book project I have been working on with the experienced eye of a children's book editor. 

Like certain pieces of music can evoke  memories, the textures I created by hand for this illustration will always remind me of my current home and 2015. Our old, scarred chopping block  made the tree hollow. A clay disc by potter Johnathon Garret I bought 17 years ago and which survived tribes of kids playing in the garden created the bears fur. The weathered 80 year old shed doors (keeping the shed up!)  and a rushmatting door mat created the trees. Everything I have used to create texture using wax crayons, graphite and inks has a story and a practical  use.

I travel back in time to Cambridge 1990  whenever  I hear the evocative Koln concert by Keith Jarrett and the beginning of a romance.  And  I will look at this illustration in years to come and remember how much I disliked chopping the logs!