A Poem for Valentines Day

A special client commissioned me to hand ink this poem for his loved one on Valentines Day. The poem, hand written with a dipping pen and italian calligraphy pigment is so touching, I wanted to share it with you:

I could happily waste a day
in Paperchase
searching for the card
that perfectly captures in paper hearts
how it feels to look upon your rollercoaster grin
when I am within you.
There is no perfume
that smells exactly
completely
absolutely and entirely
of your particular shade of blonde,
the sweet and secret taste of your skin
cannot be found
in any multicoloured flavour combination
of Jelly Bean,
and as far as I can tell
there doesn’t yet grow the rose
whose name
roughly translated from latin
describes the dumb rush of blood to my heart
when you first walked towards me again.
And so
yet again
calendar-trapped and lacking the exact cliché
I depend upon this final redundancy –
my words,
awkward, graceless,
but all that I have to tell is what you already know.
I love you.

Anonymous

Valentines warm up

As you know, V.day is tomorrow so to get you in the mood, here is a little preview of my illustration for our LOVELY mailer from my agency, The Artworks.

Oh la la!

US publishing house Harlequin commissioned me to design some typography for this saucy novel.

Waterstones Prize Winner

I have some really exciting news to share with you today...Artichoke Hearts by first time author Sita Brahmachari has been awarded first prize in Waterstone's Children's Book Awards 2011. This beautiful novel, aimed at 11-14 year olds, explores some delicate and sensitive subjects about life and death as well as culture, friendship and identity. I was also lucky enough to have illustrated the cover and the drawings throughout. So it is an attractive package and a thoroughly good read- whatever your age!