The fox, the crow and the old smelly cheese

Here are some winter scenes for the reworking of the Aesops fable I started a while ago. I've been experimenting with pencils and tie-dyeing for the backgrounds. I do think the tie-dye textures add a bit of extra atmostphere and light/dark.
Adding that extra eye to profile views seems to add more character, too.

Twitch the harvest mouse

I am working on a new story about a harvest mouse called Twitch. Here are some of the character studies. I am fascinated how these mice use their tails like an extra limb to keep them balanced in the grass. I remember as a child being entranced watching them in a field.

Indigo tie-dyeing inspiration

I went on an inspirational tie-dyeing workshop last week, run by Beetlefelt textile artist Carol Mowl ( http://www.beetlefelt.co.uk/) in her wonderful studio. After tying-up, pleating, pegging and stitching pieces of fabric in a variety of ways, we dipped them in the dye-bucket for 5 minutes. The colour was green when we took the samples out, but as the dye oxidised, the colour turned indigo. The real fun bit was untying the fabric to see where the dye had taken. Won't some of these patterns look just great in children's book illustrations....