Sketchy Times

        I'm not usually in the habit of posting roughs and sketches (...anal retentive? Who, me?) but I know how I often find looking at other people's sketches more interesting than seeing the finished piece, so I thought I'd put a few up here.
       I'm in the process of developing a black and white portfolio so that I can illustrate for older children too, so I decided to make a story about an abandoned Ghost Circus. It's in the early stages so I won't go into it too much but a couple of interesting characters are emerging.
          It's strange drawing in black and white, and is something I hardly ever do. I keep imagining the circus in full-blown, all-singing, all-dancing technicolour in my mind's eye and I remember that I'm only allowed to use black and white. It's a challenge.
       I suppose it's a very common complaint among illustrators that some of the lovely spontaneity that's present in the early sketches seems to vanish when it comes to making the finished piece. I'll try to keep some of the looseness for the final drawings. We shall see. Click on the images to make them bigger.