Cheeky Lee Babcock

This is the third illustration I did for Ten Golden Years.
As you can see, the author Michael McHugh, autographed this page in my copy of the book.
It's quite an untypical subject for me, but in those days I was still trying out different styles, and I had fun with it.
But the idea of having to paint flying baked beans......

Miranda Mary Piker

Here's another illustration I did for Ten Golden Years.
This one illustrates a typically non-PC poem by Roald Dahl.
I had a lot of fun with this one. It shows that I was very influenced by William Heath Robinson all those years ago. A museum dedicated to Heath Robinson is opening in June 2010 in Pinner. I shall have to make a pilgrimage to see it.
Roald Dahl already has a museum at Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire.

The Castle

My kids are learning a lot of cool poems these days and this lead me to dig out an anthology of poetry called Ten Golden Years written by a great range of authors and illustrated by ten Mother Goose Award Winners including myself.
This spread illustrates a poem by Richard Edwards which I hope you will be able to read if you click on the image.
The boy looks a bit like Harry Potter, doesn't he?

Two Portrait Studies

Here are a couple of paintings from the life room.
In both cases I was not too thrilled by the general pose so I went for a portrait study.
John is a model who is new to me. I loved the almost biblical look that his long hair lends him, and he is really good at holding his pose over a long period.
On the other hand, I have painted Tony many times.
Although he is extremely professional, on this occasion he was having difficulty keeping his eyes open, but his body never moved a jot. I tried to capture that sleepy look in this one hour study.

Keshet: Head and Shoulders

Here is a head study of Keshet, our Israeli model.
As I mentioned before, I find her a challenging subject, and I think this picture works better a a generic study of a woman rather than as an accurate portrait of Keshet.
She liked it well enough I think.