cosy?

To avoid the rising cost of gas and electricity spiralling out of control whilst working alone from home, Neil has suggested turning the heating off.

He offered me two options as a solution to the risk of freezing to death:

1. Wear warm clothes and learn to light the wood burner.

2. Take my laptop and go to work with him every day as he "has the heater on anyway."

He's a driving instructor 🤨

I went for option 1.

making patterns...

I made a pattern out of my latest little characters.
And then I made a mockup of a notebook.
I don't make many mockups. I had to google how to do it.

I need to go for a lie down in a dark room now.....

Pattern available to license 

more autumn stuff

Stuff I drew last week. I got a bit carried away with more autumn animals. I mean how many times can you draw a rabbit and a fox before you get bored?

Also.. that's an autumn deer, NOT a Christmas one. Definitely not a Christmas deer!

crow

Found a #tober prompt I actually wanted to do, "crow" from the SCBWI. Yay!

#scbwiartober

procrastination

I've set myself the task of updating my website.

So far I've drawn a bear.

Website updates aren't my thing.

#___tober

I thought I might join in with one of those things that begin with a # and end in tober. Cos they seem to be all the rage in October.

So I did mucho research into the various prompts that were on offer for today.

The best I could find were:

scallop

clean

tacos

bundle

tiger

bats

So I drew a hedgehog.

october colour palette

New month...new colours...

 

a couple of autumn patterns

Made a couple of patterns from the autumn stuff.

All this range is available to licence.. email me dawn@dawnmachell.co.uk to get first dibs!

autumn legs

A fox with short legs and a hare with zero legs...

living with a twitcher...

Neil has discovered that there’s a barn owl living just over the moor from us. The best time to spot a barn owl, apparently, is at dusk. So now every bloody day at dusk he sets off on his bike with his binoculars to spot it. He’s been very successful so far and the stories he tells when he gets home are RIVETING 😐

Disclaimer. This is NOT a picture of a barn owl. Just a GenericNotReallyARealOwl. Barn owls are white. With a bit of brown. Apparently 🤷🏼‍♀️🙄

autumn

Autumn.

Nice to draw.

But cold.

And grey.

And dark.

I prefer summer.

catchup...

Hellooooo

I'm still alive!

We went to sunny Florida on holiday, had a fabulous time, then life took over for a couple of weeks...but here I am with a little life round up. Cos I know you were wondering....

Autumn had well and truly arrived as soon as we landed at Manchester airport.

The holiday was a distant memory as soon as we got on the M62.

Then I went for a little NeilNap and woke up to the sad news that the Queen died.

We then spent 2 days buying pots and pans and plates and bowls and quilts and pillows. And food. A lot of food. And on the Sunday we drove Alf to Salford and moved him into his new student flat. 

I was a student in Salford myself back in the day...and let me tell you, things have CHANGED! His accommodation is like a hotel. With an en suite and a fancy kitchen and living area for him and his new mates.

Mine was a bedsit situated next door to a brothel. And if anyone came in a car to visit me we had to sit at the window watching it, otherwise someone would nick it. 

Anyway. After leaving Alf, and being very brave, we then dropped Jodester at the station to go back to student-land in Newcastle. 

Suddenly, after almost 22 years, we were home alone!!!

We are now empty nesters with just each other and the dog to argue with.

So...I've spent the last two weeks catching up on commissions and drawing autumn stuff.

And booking a little sunshine break to Portugal with my mates.... I needed something to look forward to 😜

autumn vibes

It's feeling a bit autumnal round here. Not full blown autumn. Just a bit. Like it's dark earlier. And the shops are full of winter coats. And you just know that they're already making space for Christmas shit...

mousey mouse

We're off to see a mouse next week. 

Not this mouse. 

Mickey Mouse!

Alf's never been to Disney World so we're taking him for his 18th. 

Well, mostly to Kennedy Space Center actually... cos he's into rocket launches and shizz....but we can't go all that way and not see MM can we!

Excited!

 

hello

I'm still alive!

This is a lil mashup of stuff I've drawn in August.

July was good.

But if you need to see it you'll have to look on instagram cos I cba putting it all on here.