Who wants a sketch of a child falling from a tree? I'll throw in guy getting blown around by the wind!

Some sketches I made from a photography exhibition at the MCA.

©2013 James Mathurin

Meet Phillippe

A new rabbit for you.

Phillippe - He is Pierre's cousin. He came looking for him when he left France.
He has an obsession for French sticks and steals them from the Bakery across he road. He lives in a  burrow at the top of the yard. He is melancholy, though he does drink coffee to cheer him up. The others know he can't live without his toothpick, which he chews on constantly. He has a lucky beret.


©2013 James Mathurin

Pierre the Rabbit

Here is another character from the Mr Bones post I put up a while ago.

The text, by my wife, reads,

Pierre is a lonely, yet guarded rabbit. He carries a knife with him at all times (how he lost his eye). He is from the forest of Auvergne, though he hopped the Eurostar to London one dreary day..
He found his way to the Southwest, where he made his home an unsuspecting graveyard.
One day after making his home in 'Martha Tanwither 1894-1915', he encountered Mr Bones, the confident though slightly uppity fox.

©2013 James Mathurin

More Sports Day banners

So, here are some more of the banners I did for my school - so you have Picasso, (Bridget) Riley, Dali and Lowry.

©2013 James Mathurin

It's Sports Day!

Well, not yet, but at the school I work at, I've been recruited to do various stages of design on different classes' banners for the upcoming Sports Day.

So, here's my designs for 6 Escher (the classes are named after artists). The fishes are tessellating patterns, based on much simplified versions of some of Escher prints, which allowed the children in the class to do their own motif to the Mobius strip I designed as the central piece, again, based on another of Escher's prints.

I'll stick a few more up (I've now done 5 different banners), as I get pictures of them.

©2013 James Mathurin

Social Education material and illustrations

A lot of the work I've been doing has actually been in my day job, supporting SEN children in a Primary school, so I thought it would be good to share some of that here.

SO here are some pieces I drew which accompany a free social story from a great site called Commtap.

These go with a story called Robert's Friend, and is part of a programme of playing with one friend, then playing with another, which is aimed at primary ages (5-11). I used the images by laminating them and using them to act out the story, and then getting the children in my group to use them to act out better ways of dealing with the problems.

Umm...I did get one of the boys' names wrong, so here is an edited version of the story, all credit to Commtap, and the original can be found at the link I've given above:

One day there was a boy called Robert. He was starting at a new school. On his first day, he met lots of children in his class. At playtime, he went outside with everyone else. Some children played football. Some children played hopscotch. Some children ran around and played tag. Robert wished he could play. He didn’t know anybody yet.
The next day, one of the boys in his class helped Robert find a ruler to use. The boy was called Thomas. Thomas and Robert were on the same table, and they helped each other with their work. At playtime, Thomas said, ‘come and play tag with us.’ Robert was so pleased to have a friend. He played tag with Thomas and the other boys, and they all had lots of fun. 
The next day, Robert wanted to play with Thomas again. He made sure he sat next to him on the carpet, and lined up behind him at assembly time. At playtime, Robert went outside with Thomas. They played tag again, and whenever Robert was ‘it’ he would tag Thomas. Whenever Thomas was ‘it’ Robert tried to get Thomas to tag him. He didn’t want other boys to play with Thomas. When they were tired of tag, Robert took Thomas to play football. He wanted to show him how far he could kick he ball.
On the fourth, day Robert did the same thing. He was so happy to have Thomas to play with, that he played with him all the time. But Thomas wanted to play on the climbing frame with James and Freddie. He was tired of running around, and he wanted to play with other people as well as Robert. Robert didn’t like this. He tried to pull Thomas over to play football with him. Thomas got cross, ‘Stop it!’ he said. ‘I don’t want to play with you. I’m going to climb on the climbing frame with James and Freddie.’ Thomas ran off. Robert was sad. Who would he play with now?

©2013 James Mathurin

This is what I've been working on lately, a commission for a lady I work with, of her daughter, as a child, and now.

©2012 James Mathurin

Childcare logos

Again, while I was on my tonsillectomy break, I also worked on a logo for my cousin, Jane, who provides childcare (something there's a shameful lack of, certainly in the affordable sense), and she also graciously said I could share them here, so here they are (click on them for larger versions):

©2012 James Mathurin

Brothers, sisters and friends

Well, this picture certainly tested my new computer to it's fullest. The background is pretty busy in all the versions, to the point where I find myself wondering if the black and white versions of the drawings don't end up working better. Still, here we are:

©2010 James Mathurin

Fathers' Day?

After posting the sketch and development of this piece, I have finally used my new computer (and thank you to all the family who helped me to be able to afford it!) to colour it, so here are a few variations.

©2010 James Mathurin

Some recent sketches

Here are the prep sketches for a couple of my recent ones, and some things I'm working on now. I've started going over the outlines with pen in my sketches just to give me a better idea of how they'll look as final pieces. I am looking forward to doing a larger-scale version of the carnival picture.

©2010 James Mathurin

Another progressing work in progress

Colour versions still to come.

©2010 James Mathurin

Work in progress which is still progressing

Haven't reached the colour stage yet, but the last bit of inks helped.

©2010 James Mathurin