No hosepipe ban here...

The Scottish summer usually means drowning not is deep sea waters but rather in rain and...juicy strawberries which seem to thrive in the permanent humidity!  Here is another drawing from my series of summer accidents to avoid this year: drowning.

Coup de soleil...

...nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!

Today on the blog another illustration from my series about dangers of summer holidays for July issue of Twoj STYL magazine, this time a sunburn.

In the blazing sunshine

Wow! I would have never thought I would be writing these words while in Scotland but my, oh my, it is really hot here this week! We are living with our windows wide open and enjoying laying on the grass in the park and working in a blazing sunshine! The red, juicy strawberries and barbacues are all over the place and one has to slather a lot of sunscreen so that to survive whitout lobster's limbs.

Therefore my latest commission was spot on with the timing, with lots of swimming suit cladded gals, sunshine and hot summer dresses in the brief. It is not all about the sea and the Sun though, there are some serious issues in the article that the drawings are illustrating but it is better to be safe than sorry. So do not stay in the sun too much, reapply your sunscreen, hydrate and enjoy your summer while it lasts! I am off to a barbacue now!

I am in the new issue of Twoj Styl Magazine

I know, I know, I am a bit late again with that but the latest issue of Twoj Styl magazine has just reached me from Poland! And my illustration is in it:

New work for a beauty department of Twoj Styl magazine

It was a tricky subject to pull off in style, this one!

The picture editor emailed me about a new commission, stating that this one is not especially attractive as it concernes a foot peel, one that is really thorough so that it leaves your soles baby smooth and delicate for Spring but...it involves some unapetising elements that need to feature in the illustration for the article about a foot therapy called 'callus peel'.

I like a good challenge and after a quick exchange of ideas in our emails I sent this two illustrations which are now published in the April issue of the magazine.

Luckily the other illustration was concerning a sound massage so it was much more picturesque. Here is one of the sketches for the first idea, as you can see, we decided to feature an esthetician in the final version!

Back from Texas!

My sincere apollogies for such an extended absence on this blog but I've had some travelling to do. Some serious travelling at that, which invloved a 10 hours flight to Houston, Texas.

We had 10 days in there, it was +35 degrees and 90% humidity but it was great, even though very busy (we went with Simon for a portfolio review that is the biggest event of that kind for photographers in the world!) and a bit stressfull.

America has certainly made an impression on me (it was my first visit there and I hope not the last one!) - I liked people, the landscape, the architecture, even the weather (luckily a tornado occured in Dallas not in Houston while we were there) and... walking everywhere (we did not drive, I know, stupid or just plain scary - there were at least 4 lanes of traffic in every street in Downtown!).

The thing that struck me the most was a good design of signs and fonts everywhere, no kidding! and their art collections (we went to see a great Surrealists collection and a Richard Serra exhibition, all at The Menil Collection - both, Serra inside and outside of the building is in these images) fuelled by oil and Texans' passion for good art. Even our hotel had very interesting (in a good way of course!) photographs hanging in its corridors!

Another great experience was visiting a Rothko Chapel, Rothko being one of my favourite artists ever but it seemed that he must have had some bad time in his life while in Houston because all the 'rothkos' there were all very dark, sad and depressing. I would like to read some more abou it as it cannot be a coincidence.

Unlike my stay in Houston! I am sure that having Simon there with me helped a lot but if you followed me on Instagram you knew that I have posted at least a hundred happy photos from that trip!

It was inspiring, full of sunshine (even tough we got some sunburn while doing a 13 km treck through Houston suburbs) and positive energy. Let's hope we will be able to repeat that experience!

Penelope's new book

Waking up to a package from Amazon equals only to waking up to a bacon sarnie (preferably accompanied by a cup of freshly brewed coffee) courtesy of my husband Simon!

This morning it was the Amazon man. I had to get up for a client meeting anyway so it was quite timely but I had to wait with opening the parcel until I was back home again. And then I have devoured it just like a bacon sarnie!

It is a latest comic from my favourite French dessinatrice Penelope Bagieu. I have started following her blog many, many years ago (even before her first book was even published!) and it is still among my favourites. I have all her books in my home library (adventures of Josephine are my favourites) and this one does not dissapoint either!

I was in Brussels last week and this book was in all shop windows displays of the comic book shops there (of course not a sight of it here, despite an old alliance...) but I have managed to restrain myself as I knew that Simon has already ordered it for me! However I have not managed to restrain that well from the huge amount of Belgian waffles (surprise surprise, the REAL Belgian waffles do not have anything in common with a company of either bacon or maple syrup. Actually my fellow Belgians were really appalled by the whole idea - for them it is whipped cream all the way!).

I have not brought the book but I brought a massive cold. I have recovered now but last several days were quite a struggle for me. I am working on another editorial commission and I hope I will be able to post some more about it soon. Meanwhile - bisous!