How Grover put Hadley in the frame

Sketchbook Murwillumbah is a 6 month challenge to be creative.  There are three goals.  One: fill a sketchbook.  Two: use all the prompt words provided.  Three: try to include something blue on every page.
My sketchbook is a bit different because I use the prompts to create illustrations that tell a story.

How Grover put Hadley in the frame.
I used the words frame, book, room and time.  I thought about another meaning of frame, other than 'a frame around a picture' and from there I had a burglar bear, a policeman, an irate judge and the possibilities were endless.
I had to stick the pictures on the wall on separately because when I first drew them, they were the wrong shape for the wall.  This is the third time I've used a poodle in my work and the teddies pop up quite often.
The story is continued on the next page.


I forgot to add the table in the second picture, so I had to draw it in.  Recreating the same picture three times was tricky!

The story is continued on the next page.


I had to give police teddy a badge because my marker slipped, and I had to hide my mistake.  Oops.

The story is continued on the next page.


I really wanted the board Hadley is holding to be black with white writing.  I used black card and a white gel pen from my craft stash and cut into Hadley with a craft knife!  It was very nerve wracking.

I love the judge teddy.  He turned out just how I wanted.  Teddies don't have fingers, so I had to use artistic license.

The story is continued on the next page.


Once my imagination took over, I really wanted to put Hadley in orange prison scrubs.  And he had to look the part with a ball and chain around his ankle.  I loved the idea that he was really holding onto the prison bars (and looking very sad) so I got out my craft knife again,

The picture of Grover creeping around the neighborhood was the first idea I had in my head, and I love it.  Having drawn trees and a house before in other sketchbook stories made it really easy to put in detail.



Chicken escape story


The prompt words I used were 'reach' and 'free'.  This story is based on my own chickens, one of which insists on escaping from her very nice chicken garden at least once a day.

I love the absurdity of a chicken wearing a head scarf or a shower cap when undertaking escape by catapult.

I used a lot of brown so that the green 'pops'.

The story concludes on the next page.




I love the pictures of the 'flying' chickens. 

You might recognise the worm character from 'The Muddy Adventures of Trampy and the Chickens' and "Scallywag and Eccy to the Rescue.'