Follow my Kickstarter at www.wigtownsketchbook.com

Today is the first day of the Wigtown Book Festival and I was sent to Dumfries Prison where I spent the afternoon drawing with eight big guys in a small art room! I’ve never been in a prison before and I have to admit that all the security and that locks and heavy doors and bars and razor wire is a bit intimidating. But we had good fun drawing cartoon people and cats and dragons and discussing stuff along the way. I wasn’t allowed a phone or camera, so I have nothing to show for most of today – It was exhausting. There was the drive there and back to add into the mix too.

The festival has started with bagpipes and fireworks and meeting lots of old friends and catching up. This evening I went to see Mairi Hedderwick, who wrote the Katie Morag stories. She showed us her sketchbooks, which was wonderful. She too see her sketchbooks as story storage devices.

Everyone asks about the tools I use when I’m out using my sketchbook. Here’s a video to show you what and how I use them.

The Pentel Aquash Brush is here in the Uk http://bit.ly/PentelAquabrushUK
and here in the US http://bit.ly/PentelAquashBrushUSA

Rotring Tikky Graphic in the UK here http://bit.ly/TikkyGraphicUK
in the USA http://bit.ly/TikkyGraphicUS

The Cotman sketching watercolour set is here in the UK http://amzn.to/1gNpZ8s
and in the US here: http://amzn.to/1gaG6qA

The Seawhite of Brighton a5 travel journal is here in the Uk http://bit.ly/SeawhiteJournalUK