I woke up this morning and there was a little bird’s egg, about the size of my thumb, smashed on the window sill of my studio. It had obviously taken a tumble from one of the nests in our guttering. I thought to myself, I feel a bit like that egg. There is something about the end of the academic year that sends me into a gloom. It happened last year too. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve worked so hard towards a deadline and then I stop and sort of can’t cope. I think there’s also a weird thing with illustration that you are producing something which is supposed to have a public function such as a front cover or editorial illustration. Yet for an illustration student you rarely, if ever, get that final bit of closure on your work.
The best solution seemed to be to draw some hares. The lovely Carol Farmer of the Chapel Street Gallery in Innerleithen has asked me to produce some pen and ink drawings for the gallery so I thought I’d make a start. All that wind in my long flapping ears and swishing grass. I felt a lot better.
