It'll soon be time to organise some new year greetings, as is the custom in Japan. Over the last few years I've tended to follow the Chinese animal calendar with images, next year will be the Year of the Boar (often misinterpreted as pig). This (Dog) year I copped out and used an illustration from one of my books, but here's what I came up with in previous years.
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For anyone who fancies a peek at my work studio , I've just posted some snapshots to The Dust of Everyday Life blog, the off-duty ramblings of my illustrator friends at Picture Book Artists. Now all is revealed...

Well, travels over, back home in Japan.

It's our first trip into town to do some shopping. We get out the station, climb the stairs to the busy city street, and WHAM!

Something grabs me on the head.

It was a crow. It took me right from behind - it must have singled me out from all the myriad people on the busy street (this was the middle of Shibuya!) and tally ho down he swoops. Groped my head with both claws then flew off to a nearby tree.
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The last word on Amsterdam - during our all too brief stopover the only chance I had to sketch was this quicky from our hotel window.

The UK was a busy trip for us, four days in Lichfield to see the family, a couple of nights in Oxford, and finally five days in London before heading back to Japan. I wrapped things up with a meeting with my children's book agent in London. Naturally I wanted to hear some good news that would encourage me to come running back to the old country, but all was gloom and doom.

"In 40 years in the publishing business I've never known it so bad for illustrators" I was told.
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One of the highlights of the trip to Amsterdam was finally getting to visit the Rijksmuseum. This was my second visit to the city, but only now was I able to get to the museum. I was particularly hoping to see some of Rembrandt's fabulous etchings on the second floor, but the room was closed for renovation. Just my bloody luck! Nevertheless this was more than made up for by a discovery in the ground floor exhibition tracing the background to Holland's seventeenth century "Golden Age".

I'm posting this from a hotel room in Amsterdam, as the missus, daughter and I are at the beginning of a 2 week break in Europe. We've three days here in Holland then on to the UK.

Today we visited the Dick Bruna House in Utrecht, ostensibly to appease our 3 year old daughter, a big Miffy fan, but also to satisfy our own curiosity.

A slightly different world to mine, in the sense that it's a blog about creating cartoons and animation by Mark Kennedy, who's worked for many of the big US studios. Temple of the Seven Golden Camels

What really attracted me to this blog are the excellent links to tutorial pdf's and sites covering all aspects of making pictures. Even if you've been in the business a good many years like myself, it's always useful to "go back to school" on occasion.

Yes it's been a hectic summer, hence the lack of posts here. Family visiting, deadlines, and not a holiday in sight. Oh well, at least I have the consolation knowing that by being freelance I can travel off-season rather than having to fight through the crowds escaping the humidity of Japanese summers.

There's more pix, posts and perambles in the pipeline, watch this space.

Finally I've got myself a brand new scanner (newly released Epson f-650). So here are some recent doodles from my pocket sketchbook... it whiles away the time on the train when I have to go into town.
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