New book cover for The Wormton Lamb

The Wormton Lamb now looks like this. I came to the conclusion that the original illustration was dominated by the cars in the foreground. Now the lamb is much more prominent and the cars look more dynamic. As well as the 2CV kicking up its heels you can just make out Hob on Nosferatu riding dangerously close to its cloven heels. I have abandoned the use of marker pens - although I'll continue to use them for website drawings - and after flirting briefly with oils and acrylic inks have adopted gouache as my medium. I'd like to experiment with oils more but oils take so long to dry. It's a whole technique, too, but the paint feels fantastic on the brush and I really like the smell (although not enough to dream of eating a tube of cadmium yellow, as owner of my mates did once.)

Beck said she liked the graph qualities of the clouds in my original drawing and after a great deal of trial and error I am reasonably content with them. I think they make the Giant Lamb look much bigger. She has her head in the clouds and they give depth to the drawing.

It uses the same template as for The Horsepower Whisperer so subsequent books will look similar but without slavish conformity. I want a clear brand identity and I reckon I've got one that has scope to develop as I produce new books.

I'm going to have a break from painting for a bit but one thing I've learnt is that I really must keep my hand in. It's like my guitar. Or using one of my old cars or riding my motorbike. I don't have time to do it as much as I'd like but a little and often keeps everything from seizing up.