Being out in the countryside has always been an important part of my life ever since I can remember. I was very luck to grow up with parents who took us out to wild places and beauty spots whenever they could and I started learning about flora and fauna, geology, the weather and natural history from a very young age. I was fascinated, and I can remember being at my happiest as a child when we drove out on a day trip, such as to the Lincolnshire Wolds, or the nature reserve on the coast at Gibraltar Point. For the summer holidays we’d go further afield, to Pembrokeshire in Wales, the Isle of Wight, and, best of all, up to the west coast of Scotland, where I can remember fishing for mackerel in a sea loch with great basking sharks gliding through the water around us. I was fortunate growing up in the UK which is blessed with such beautiful countryside.

This delight in the natural world has never wavered, in fact, as I’ve lived most of my adult life in large cities it has become more keen as time has gone by.

I now live in Germany and i’m discovering new places, new species and habitats; great beech forests, crystal clear lakes for swimming and wide glades of soft white sand, left by the glaciers when they retreated at the end of the last ice age.

I’ve not been able to get out and about nearly as much as I’d like this year due to the pandemic restrictions so I thoroughly enjoyed a recent trip up to the Uckermark region north of Berlin. We stayed in a small guesthouse with a wonderful old kitchen garden attached and walks through woods and along streams nearby. The colours were rich with impending autumn, fruit and berries on the trees and fungi appearing on the forest floor.

The Forest Floor painting, above, is based on my wanders through the woods there. I really like the very wide format, although, compositionally, it is a challenge. If it works, as your eye moves across the canvas you create rhythms and patterns that can feel very satisfying, like music.

I’ve missed foreign travel this year, but i’ve also realised that each time I go out for a country walk there is still so much to learn, even when I’m hiking along very familiar trails. The discoveries never end, even on the doorstep, which is a nice thought as we seem to be entering a new phase of tighter restrictions…

Chimera is a terrific series of children’s books written by my friend Phil Gomm that’s being released as an audiobook this week. I can’t recommend it highly enough; Chimera manages to do what all those classic children’s books do which is to be rewarding for readers of any age.

Book 1 has been brilliantly brought to life by actor Dan Snelgrove and his narration is an absolute treat. Head over to https://anchor.fm/philgomm or https://pca.st/9x3tcm8l to have a listen. Phil will also be releasing the episodes on his blog at https://reds-kingdom.blog.

To accompany the podcast episodes, Phil has asked me to produce illustrations for each release. I was delighted to be involved as I’ve loved the books since their publication as e-books a few years ago. The rip-roaring tale is a gift for any illustrator; there are so many extraordinary character and scenes to get your teeth into visually.

Delighted, as I say, but also a bit daunted – I’m not a trained or experienced illustrator, and I wondered if I would be able to deliver images that would do the wonderful words and narration justice.

So, over recent weeks, I’ve been chatting to Phil about honing in on a particular approach or feel for the illustrations that we thought would work. As we talked we discovered shared common enthusiasms for certain genres; vintage Christmas cards and firework packaging, ’70s halloween shop displays and lurid hand painted fair ground rides such as the ghost train and the helter skelter. So, with our ‘mood board’ established, it was time to start making the illustrations for the opening chapters. Here’s a detail of the ‘book cover’ image for the podcasts which gives a flavour of the stylistic influences (we changed the colour palette for the final version to ensure it would stand out clearly as a small thumbnail images on the podcast platforms):

I started the process by making quick sketches to get an idea down on paper and then developed and refined the image in colour. I would send ideas to Phil and we’d tweak and adjust until we were both happy with the final result:

Chimera will be released in weekly episodes from now until Christmas and i’ll be providing an illustration for each episode. I want the illustrations to add a bit of extra atmosphere to the audiobook experience, but without describing the action in too much detail – I don’t want the images to be trying to do the same thing as the narration, they must enhance the words rather than compete. I’ll be writing more about my adventures in illustration in the weeks to come!