I sometimes do commissions: when I have the time into my busy schedule, or as a swap of skills for example. I have clear boundaries about them: you give me a prompt and a size, and then I am free.

I was so delighted to work on this commission last month: an illustration of the little red hen, a old school American children’s book. I never heard of this book before (what?? as a chicken mum how did I miss that??) so it was a great discovery!

So I took my gouaches, read the book and started sketching. Lately I have been a lot into patterns on fabric, so this was the perfect opportunity to play around with it!
I put a square of fabric on the hen’s head, a nice apron for her baking and a cool carpet as a background.

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I chose a cool photo of a red hen on the internet and used it as a reference for my character shapes and colors. I made her a bit rounder, fluffier in her little apron.
Then I sketched a few patterns until I found the ones I want to use. I wanted them really specific to each material (fabric, apron, carpet) so the image would not be difficult to read, but also with ranges of colors that would make them go nicely with each others (I used a base of yellows and blues)

Obviously I had fun painting the tiny kitchen features. Sugar and flour for her cake, and a couple of wooden tools. She’s now happy and proud of her baking, which she made all by herself and which she will eat for afternoon tea!!

Which makes me think that it is time for me to bake a delicious apple crumble, and that I should probably share the recipe with you. But that will be for another day!