Illustration

I don’t need much excuse to get the pens and pencils out and get scribbling. Sometimes due to budgetary constraints, sometimes because it’s quicker than commissioning out illustration, or because there’s an idea which is best communicated directly pen to pad. Many a conversation has been facilitated by a few doodles. To paraphrase Quentin Blake’s famous phrase, the question’s not why I started drawing, as every child loves to do, but why I didn’t stop. As pencil and paper morphed to digital tablet and Photoshop, the essential skills stay stubbornly persistent; keen observation and hand-eye co-ordination. Having now long surpassed Malcolm Gladwell’s 10 000 hours, if all improves with practise, this skill should by now be optimum (I like to think so, anyway . . .)