• A noise woke me in the night. I thought it was one of our cats, who frequently scratches the airing cupboard door, in the hope that someone will let him in. Fuzzy-headed, I crept out of bed too sort him out. But he was not there. In fact the house was totally silent. Had I imagined it?

    I waited – maybe it was an intruder? Maybe they were waiting for me to make the first move?

    My head began to clear. In the gloom I saw that my son’s bedroom door was closed. Quietly, I opened it and the said cat danced out on the landing as if to say, ‘You took your time!”

    Did I get back to sleep? Not immediately, but that fuzzy dozing state is quite a good time to review creative ideas. I’m planning my new series, called Axel Storm, at the moment. I’m trying to find the way in. A series really needs to tell you the back story, make you familiar with the set up and get going with the story in as short a time as possible. So getting that comfortable, simple introductory sequence is very important. Once that is right the rest follows.

    Well, and I don’t know where the idea came from as I nodded off to sleep again, the image of my hero stuffed inside a huge advertising sausage on top of a hot dog van came to mind. This morning it seems like a really good idea and I’m going to run with it.

    Lying awake at night meant that I woke up an hour later, but hey, when you’ve been working through the night, it’s okay. And anyway, the only reason I ever started this job was so that I could get up when ever I liked in the morning. I wonder whatever happened to all those lovely, lazy lie-ins?

  • lockyerI came across the tomb of Lionel Lockyer in Southwark Cathedral last weekend.

    He invented a cure-all pill, which, it appears was basically antimony. I’m indebted to an article, by Dr David Haycroft, for letting me know that the pills were called Pilula, Radiis solis extracta — pills extracted from the rays of the Sun! Lokyer printed 200,000 pamphlets proclaiming the wonders of his PILLS, and made himself a tidy fortune. In 1665 William Johnson, chemist to the College of Physicians, took Lockyer to task, pointing out the pills were a 64 times markup on the basic ingredients.

    Death did not slow him down. Wanting to carry on the family business, his memorial reads as an adverting billboard. I’m sure his children were pleased that the old boy was thinking of them as they carried on the very lucrative Family business. Living proof of the power of advertising – even in the afterlife.

    Anyway, here is the verse:

    Here Lockyer lies interred enough; his name
    Speakes one hath few competitors in fame:
    A Name soe Great soe Generally may scorne
    Inscriptions which doe vulgar tombs adorne:
    A diminutioon tis to write in verse
    His eulogies, which most men’s mouths rehearse.
    His virtues & his PILLS are soe well known,
    That envy can’t confine them under stone.
    But they’ll survive his dust and not expire
    Till all things else at th’universal fire.
    This verse is lost, his PILL Embalmes him safe
    To future times without an Epitaph:

  • waterclourOkay, so it feels like it’s been raining for ever, but that’s not why I’m browned off.

    I’m browned off because I keep keep gravitating towards Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber in my watercolour paint box. Brown, brown, brown.

    I learned a valuable lesson about water colours at art school. Colin McNaughton
    , the Children’s Book Author and Illustrator, used to teach us one day a week. In fact it was he who is responsible for recognising that children’s books is where my talents lay. He looked at my portfolio and asked to see my paint box. He ceremoniously removed the black and the white and threw them away!

    I was a little surprised at the time, but thrilled at the effect. Black water colour paint makes water colours look dirty and white ruins the essential water colour effect.

    Colour is only the wavelength of light that you see reflected from surfaces. The light from water colours comes from the white of the paper. The paint is a thin translucent layer on top. The light from the paper shines through the paint in the same way that a light shines through a film slide to be projected on the wall.

    I traded black for Neutral Tint, a a very dark blue/grey colour that I use for shadows. It works pretty well and can be used without dirtying up a picture.

    My other teachers question whether I was colour blind and did tests on me. I was fine. Maybe no one showed me how to use water colour properly. Maybe I just picked up a load of bad habits and no one put me right. We are all a bit loathe to criticise an artists style for seeming stupid ourselves or for injuring the artist’s Ego.

    I now realise that I use browns too much. Maybe it’s because I live in the northern hemisphere, where we are surrounded by dull light and dead leaves for more than half the year. Whatever, the browns muddy up my pictures, so I’m going to experiment.

    I’m not going throw them away, I’m going to confine myself to the three process colours, Yellow, Cyan and Magenta. I’m going to mix my colours and try to keep them bright. When I’ve played with these colours before, I’ve always been thrilled at the brightness and purity of colour that can be achieved.

    I’ve been using premixed colours from a digital palette in my screen for the last few years. Using colours that are ready mixed is, I suppose, a bit lazy. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.