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Here's something Philip Reeve and I came up with while Stuart and I were visiting his family over Christmas. (Philip did the drawing, and most of the writing, too, but I SUPERVISED.) :D You can read Philip's New Year blog) here. (Contains pugs.)

I love having a studio, but one of the problems is that when I go home, I only have my pencil case with me, none of my paints. So I recently bought a little Winsor & Newton travel watercolour set (recommended by @Jontofski) and thought I'd try to play with it a bit more when I do morning sketches. Here's a little grass sprite I came up with today:



It's the second paintings I made, after this little study of a tuft of grass:



I found the tuft in my pocket from one of my trips to visit the Reeves on Dartmoor. I love all the different kinds of grasses we find there.



And, of course, it only seems natural to attach it to one's head. I suspect the tuft started out as fake ear hair, and Philip said 'GROW UP, MCINTYRE'. My Dad, also, has never grown up; here he is in fine mossy moustache.

And here are all twelve installments of the Dartmoor Pegasus story, starring Kevin the fat flying pony, by Philip Reeve and me! Well, we've come to the end of the first story; we might come back to it because I had too much fun to stop.



































. . .

In that second-to-last picture, that's Stuart and me in the Pegasus nest with Sam (Philip and Sarah Reeve's son) and Sarah and Philip down below. (Check out Sarah Reeve's great Dartmoor Instagram photos if you want to see more of the landscape.)

Going on hikes with the Reeves, Stuart and I have encountered quite a few of the flightless ponies. Here's one of them:



On one of these walks, I was telling Philip how I'd always wanted to create a horse story because I was one of those horse-obsessed children. My family used to visit a place not far from our house called Kelsey Creek Farm where I took a 'farm experience course'. I remember making such a stink about not wanting to wear this beige farm experience shirt (beige!) but I loved the horse riding. My legs are too short to reach the stirrups in this photo:



I devoured stacks of romantic stories about horses, and here are just a few of them:



And I watched all the films: The Black Stallion, The Black Stallion Returns, Pharlap, The Man from Snowy River... Here's a scene from that last one that I thought was the most amazing thing ever:



For a horse-obsessed kid, I was incredibly lucky. My mother had a friend named Betty who bred show horses, but she always had a pony or two kicking about in the pasture. This one was named Bluebell and I LOVED Bluebell.



In almost all the books I read about horses, they always featured the theme of this SPECIAL BOND between the horse and its rightful owner (the main character). Perhaps no one would be able to ride the horse except this one good-hearted person. The horse would be wild and free, but come as soon as it could sense its beloved master nearby.

I knew that I couldn't possibly love anyone more than Bluebell, and surely she must realise this - I longed to have her love me back - but the problem was that Bluebell HATED me. This was deeply upsetting.



See how tight those reins are? Staying on top of Bluebell was a constant battle. She was the Amazing Inflatable Horse, and would blow up her belly to an obscene size while I was putting on the saddle. Then I'd ride out and she'd blow out all the air and the saddle would flop sideways with me in it. If that didn't work, she's scrape me off along a fence post. Or buck me over her head. Or roll, or throw me into farm equipment.

No one else wanted to ride Bluebell so it became my mission to be the one person who could tame this wild pony and make her love me. We'd go for mad gallops through the pasture and both come back covered in blood and sweat and foam, and Bluebell hated me with renewed vigour.

I never forgot this deep sense of LONGING as a child, and the thrill of riding very fast and not knowing if I'd break my neck and kind of not caring. I thought, I really must write one of those horse books, like the ones I loved as a child.

But... well, take a look at this cover. Here's one of my Black Stallion books:



It's awfully hard to take this stuff seriously when you're a grownup. Them ponies ain't ever gonna love you, little Sarah. I'm not sure I could make one of these stories with a straight face, it might take a better person than me. So when Philip and I started the Dartmoor Pegasus drawings, with their element of fun absurdity, they felt just right.

People have asked if we're doing a book, but I have no idea; I just wanted something fun to draw that doesn't have any expectations or deadline. BUT... hold your horses! There WILL be something for you to read, that is sure to be a great laugh: one of my favourite webcartoonists, Kate Beaton, is bringing out a fat pony book!



The Princess and the Pony launches at the end of June with Arthur A. Levine Books in the USA, and you can read a Wired interview with her about it here. Kate's book started with some fat pony comics on her blog, such as this one:



Also check out horse books for older kids by Lauren St John. But I wish there were more comics about horses and ponies. The only recent one I can think of is My Little Pony comics. Here are two panels by Andy Price (story by Katie Cook) and you can get a preview of some more on Comic Book Resources website.



I wish I'd known when I was a kid that I could have made horse comics, when I had all that time and passion. I totally would have done that. Why did I not figure that out?? If there had been any at the library, I would have sat down and read them ALL, in one sitting.



News flash to all the little Sarahs of the world: WE CAN ALL MAKE PONY COMICS.

And here's the latest installment of the Dartmoor Pegasus, by Philip Reeve and me! (You can read earlier episodes here.)

If you're not from Britain, and don't know what a 'custard cream' is, here's a description. They're not the most luxurious biscuits available, but I like them very much and the packet level goes down very quickly once the tea's made. You can also read a review of the custard cream over at nice cup of tea and a sit down.



And this isn't very much related, but I just thought you might like to see this lovely video, 'Bird on the Wires', by Jarbas Agnelli. He noticed the birds looked like musical notes and decided to see what would happen if he played them.


Direct YouTube link

Back to the Dartmoor Pegasus! Here's the latest installation in the story by Philip Reeve and me. (You can read earlier episodes here.)

(See the earlier episodes here.) Sad events yesterday, but we just keep doing what we do. Tell stories, draw pictures, keep flying.

Dartmoor's fat flying ponies find themselves grounded. (Here's the latest installment in the Dartmoor Pegasus series by Philip Reeve & me.)



I love drawing Dartmoor, it's like visiting Middle Earth. It had fun with the detail in this one, trying to capture the twisty trees and stone walls. And a little tor on the horizon.



Speaking of Middle Earth, we have a new troll in our studio. (Elissa Elwick arranged him nicely for the photo.)



And one more thing, this is quite funny. (Thanks for the link, nice_cup_of_tea!)

FLUMP. (By Philip Reeve & me, see earlier entries.)



Philip has blogged about the Dartmoor Pegasus, and you can also read his new review of the film Maleficent, which I also very much enjoyed.

By Philip Reeve & me: it all starts to go horribly wrong for the fat flying ponies.





(You can see previous Dartmoor Pegasus episodes here.)

The fat flying ponies of Dartmoor meet their first resistance.









(Read previous episodes here.)

EXTRA! I just have to include this Dartmoor Pegasus Toaster drawing by Howard Partridge:



(He's hoping for a return to the apocryphal toast appearance.)



In other news: here's an interesting link to '10 comics that shut down terrible internet arguments', worth a browse. The one about the sea lion really made me giggle.

Here's what Part 2 looked like before I coloured it and added lettering:


And after:



(See Part 1 of Dartmoor Pegasus by Philip Reeve & me.)

This year I want to try harder to make a just-for-fun drawing every day. I've been having such a good time drawing the Dartmoor Pegasus - inspired by Philip Reeve's little painting and sculpture (see the earlier blog post) - that he's agreed to do an ongoing story with me, to accompany my drawings.



So here we go, let the story begin! Check back for updates. (And, of course, check out my other stories with Philip - Oliver and the Seawigs, Cakes in Space - he's such a fab writer.)

This year's been amazing but I've also been working very long hours, so it was BRILLIANT to get away with Stuart to Dartmoor for five days over Christmas. Dartmoor must be one of the most beautiful places in the whole world, it's like stepping into a Tolkein book or a Dark Crystal film set.


Photo by Sarah Reeve

Stuart's dad died this year and my parents are far away in Seattle, so we were so glad to be adopted again by the lovely Reeve family. Their poodle, Frodo, was thrilled about GIFT WRAP everywhere.


Photo by Sarah Reeve

Oh, poodle happy day!


Photo by Sarah Reeve

We went for lots of walks, including some which were a bit muddy to suit the footwear of everyone involved.


Photo by Sarah Reeve


I love the tors scattered around Dartmoor, it's like being in some amazing sculpture park.



I call this Pancake Tor.



Boxing Day, in particular, was VERY MISTY. Well, downright wet, actually. But the moor still looked beautiful then, what we could see of it.



This tor almost looks like the ancient rubble of some giants' fortress.



It was so good to be with friends, including glamorous moorland photographer Sarah Reeve (she's @SarahReeve3 on Twitter).



And comedy duo Philip Reeve and his scooter-obsessed son, Sam.



I love how the moor messes with my sense of scale. My Cakes in Space co-author Philip looks like a 1/48th-scale action figure in this setting:



Tiny Reeve o' the Rocks:



And the landscape's so varied, with so many beautiful, subtle colours.



Everything from wide grassy plains (spot Reeve & son by the holly tree)...



...to mossy forests with boulders that look like the trolls in Frozen.



And yes, we occasionally get very wet, but this is okay because we have ponchos! And wellies. Well, I have wellies to stomp around in, I don't know why Stuart doesn't wear them.



But that is why it is so nice to come back to SNACKS.



Philip's parents brought Christmas cake from the local Christmas fête. (We don't really do Christmas cake in the USA with marzipan and royal icing, just fruitcake, so here's a description if you're interested.)



Oh, and Christmas pudding, of course.



The Flake bar in breakfast cereal is Sam's addition to festive food.



And here's the inevitable Mountain of Teabags.



And prezzies! Sam got Mark Lowery books and was thrilled:



But also orange gloop.



I spent a WHOLE EVENING stitching this pug cushion for Philip - to give something genuinely homemade, you see - but I'm not Felt Mistress and it didn't come out exactly how I'd hoped. But then I didn't have time to make another prezzie, so he had to lump it.



Sam and I got busy with Sarah on camera, making light drawings:



And I didn't have time (or shelter) on walks to make landscape drawings, but I did a few portraits in the dry indoors. (I've posted them earlier but wanted to keep them all together in one blog post here.) Here's Sam:



And Sarah:



Philip's dad was making his own drawing with the sketchbook and brush pen I gave him, so he held still much better than Sam:



And a bit of moss I found on the ground:



Thanks so much for hosting us, Reeve family; you're the best! :)



Then it was back to London, and one last hurrah for 2014 at the house of our friends Eddie and Caroline. (Eddie Smith is the sculptor who helps make the more ornate of my hats and their daughter, Dulcie, stars in my picture book There's a Shark in the Bath.)



We even had a surprise piper appearance:




Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks so much for following this blog, and I hope 2015 is a good one for you. Don't miss Philip's Year in Review, which you can read on his blog here.

And then the oversize slice rose up with a mighty PING.



Today's morning sketch; see yesterday's Dartmoor Pegasus. The rocks are based loosely on this chunk, which looks like it really ought to have some sort of domestic function.



Also, have a look at this beautiful and sad comic by Lucy Knisley: A comic about a sad thing that happened.

Meet the Legend:



Ha ha, Kevin the fat Dartmoor Pegasus isn't my creation, he started out as a little painting that looks sort of pre-historic but was actually painted by Philip Reeve and hung above a door in his kitchen.



He modelled a more slimline version of the Pegasus out of Sculpey clay for his wife, Sarah, for Christmas. I love its stubby little legs and gilded wings, so cute!




So for the picture, I set the Pegasus atop this rocky outcropping - a tor - where earlier in the week I'd photographed his son, Sam.



That's how a lot of story ideas come about, taking a made-up creature and putting it somewhere I've had fun exploring. And hanging out with Philip always gives me lots of ideas (which is why I love making books with him). Even the grass on Dartmoor is inspiring, I want to sit there drawing it all day long.




In other news: Jamie Smart just linked on Bored Panda to some great comics by Fran Krause (@frankrause on Twitter), about people's fears, some quite odd. Check out Deep Dark Fears.

It looks a little bit like him, but not exactly because he wouldn't sit still for more than ten seconds.

Stuart and I visited the Reeves on Dartmoor this Christmas, and went on loads of walks in the area. I love all the mossy trees and stones and lichen everywhere. Here's a photo of us by Sarah Reeve:



I keep wanting to stop and draw everything, but it's way too complicated to sketch quickly, so I took some reference photos, like this one. I love how it looks like a beardy old man - well, alien - and the raindrops make an eye and a sort of crown.



When I got back to London, I made an ink study from the photo:



I'm not sure it really works as a picture, but I had fun doing it and learned a lot about the textures and patterning.



Oh look, there's a tiny Philip Reeve down among the mossy rocks!



Ah, it's not Philip, it's his 1/48th-scale action figure.

CAKES IN SPACE landed in North Cornwall! And there was much merrymaking to be had with the Earthlings there, and CAKE.


Photo by Mike Bralowski


Such a fine location for the North Cornwall Book Festival, at Sue Harbour Robertson's house in Endellion, we rejoice to find Earthlings inhabiting such fine dwellings. Also, the abode contained the perfect materials to rebuild a perfect Nom-O-Tron machine, as the original had somehow been left behind on the mothership. (Thanks for your help, Sue!)


Photo by Sam

My co-pilot Philip Reeve and I discovered that our host, Sue, was also not entirely of this world, for we assembled ourselves for her very first SELFIE. With alien expert Moray Laing, editor of the Doctor Who Adventures magazine.



And what fine humans there were to be found after our landing! Unfortunately we did not get a photo of our wonderful co-host and writer Patrick Gale, or writer colleagues Matt Haig and Christopher William Hill. But I got to meet one of my children's book heroes, writer and illustrator Jill Murphy.



Jill's such a natural, convincing storyteller and her detailed pictures are warm and bring you right into the lives of the characters. I think my favourites of her books are Five Minutes' Peace and Peace at Last, both about weary parents.



Thanks so much to Patrick, Sue, the schools in the audience and everyone who made us feel so welcome!


Photo tweeted by @NCornBookFest

Travelling to Cornwall was also a good excuse to stop off at the Reeve Ranch, where Philip, photographer Sarah Reeve and I raced out for a couple quick hikes on Dartmoor.



Here is Philip doing a good Serious Author face. Also, he is branching out in his career to knitwear modelling, which is always a fine thing.



He laid the grave accusation upon me that I was not taking the walks entirely seriously.



One evening, Philip was on a songwriting roll and he and Sarah helped me come up with a couple more book-related songs. So a very useful trip. Thank you, lovely Reeves!



OTHER NEWS:
Zoe Toft at Playing by the Book has posted an interview for HAT WEEK(!) with one of the illustrators who most influenced me, Satoshi Kitamura. Go have a read!

And Scottish Book Trust have posted a encouraging response to our discussion about Co-Authorship. You can read it here, and I've added a bunch of links to the end of my blog post on the subject here.

I have LOADS to blog about this weekend - my first eBooks! Exeter's animation festival! - but I promised myself I'd get a whole picture book spread painted today, so I'll have to blog about those later. But I thought I'd post a few drawings and photos from my interplanetary trip. This is how I looked on my spaceship about 9:30 last night.



Yesterday morning, I did some exploration of the martian terrain. (Funny, I thought Mars would be much hotter.)



And aliens! I met aliens! These two are named Alfie and Iggie.




I spotted strange liquid formations on the planet's surface:



And found it was inhabited, and not just by aliens, but by two eccentric explorers from Earth, named Sarah and Philip Reeve.



Here's Sarah, back at the comfy space station.



I made an alien comic with their hatchling, Sam:



And we left a coded message to beam back to Gary, my studio shipmate:



Back on Planet Earth now, but just before landing, I caught one last glimpse of the alien landscape:

I love going to Dartmoor, it's like stepping into a Tolkien book, or in this instance, a Philip Reeve novel. In my last post, I put up some pictures from a comics workshop I did for Sam and neighbours in the Reeve kitchen, and here are a bunch more photos from our travels.



And here are our lovely hosts: Philip, Sarah and Sam! Sam came hiking with despite the drizzle and perked up when he and Philip composed a song with a chorus that went RAIN-RAIN-RAIN-RAIN-RAIN-RAIN-SPLODGE!



If you follow my blog, you'll know that Philip and I are working on several books together, and we've also spent time doing landscape drawing. I haven't done as many drawings of trees lately as I would like, and the rain made drawing outdoors on this trip rather tricky. But here's my favourite tree drawing of the week, which I actually did indoors, studying some photos I'd taken of trees on Exmoor. Here's the drawing half-way finished:



And the completed picture:




Dartmoor has loads of different kinds of trees, in all sort of shapes; I could spend a life-time just drawing them.



Check out these ancient oaks in Wistman's Wood. Aren't they incredible? Apparently the wood harbours lots of rare kinds of moss and lichen, and the moment you set foot there, you know you're somewhere special. And a bit magical - so very '...tree-ish', as one hobbit said of Fangorn Forest.



I have no idea how I'd draw this moss. I tried a few different techniques on the train ride home, but I'm dying to go back and draw them on the spot.



From lush to stark, I like these trees with the dramatic clouds behind them. I really must practice drawing clouds, too. My studio mate, Gary, is always taking photos of them.



These Dartmoor ponies were sweet, and the mare was remarkably easy about us coming this close to her foal.



And here's a Dartmoor poodle, named Frodo, who doesn't bother lying down when he sleeps, he just goes FLOP.



Note the Brian Froud print hanging on the wall. Philip was hugely inspired by Froud's early work and interpretations of Dartmoor landscape (not his later faerie stuff), and it's one of the reasons he wanted to go live there. I loved Froud's work as a kid in The Dark Crystal, but I didn't know it was Froud, I thought it was all Jim Henson's work. I remember thinking Kira the Gelfling was the most beautiful creature imaginable.



When Stuart and I went out to Exmoor, we both tried drawing a scene on a wooded path together. We both got rather frustrated, it was a very complicated scene.



I wasn't very happy with this drawing - it didn't start to capture the feeling of the light filtering down through thousands of leaves - but it's all good practice.



I love it when Stuart draws; he's pretty good for someone who almost never does it.



Here's a view from the coastal path of Lynton and Lynmouth, where we stayed for four days.



And meet our fabulous hosts, Alistair and Emma Mundell, who run the Castle Hill Guest House in Lynton. If you ever want to stay somewhere in coastal Devon, definitely look up this place. Alistair and Emma couldn't have done more to make our stay wonderful: lending us guidebooks, giving us good advice on places to walk and eat, keeping our bedside tables topped up with biscuits and jelly beans, and oh, did I mention the goats?



...Each room gets a goat!



The nearby Valley of Rocks is known for its feral mountain goats, but we didn't actually see any. We did, however, see some of Exmoor ponies, which are apparently more rare than pandas. Clouds, however, are not rare on Exmoor. We saw lots of clouds, BIG clouds. I was trying out a new filter on Instagram; I hope I didn't go too over the top with it in my cloud appreciation.



Wildlife on a smaller scale. I love stag beetles. They look big and scary but you can pick them up, and they have beautiful, luminescent purple tummies.



Slugs, on the other hand... well, there must be something good about a slug, but I can't think about it just at the moment. Their eye tentacles are rather distinctive. We saw lots of slugs on this trip.



Here's the town of Lynton, looking back from the Valley of Rocks.



Stuart above the Valley of Rocks in his fine sun hat that got rather squashed from the rain.



We got drenched in a thunderstorm on our first day's hike, but the sun made an appearance after a welcome pub stop at The Hunter's Inn.



The heather and wildflowers looked amazing.



We walked the coastal path to Hunter's Inn, but then took the road back for drier footing. More big sky.



On the second day, we hiked to a National Trust property called Watersmeet.



The Watersmeet tea rooms do very fine cake! Here's Stuart reading the Ordnance Survey map and looking like a proper Englishman on holiday.



Right before we got to Watersmeet House, we walked along this bare field which had a little settlement during the Iron Age.



We didn't find any interesting archaeological treasures, but we did take a few too many heather photos.



Here are the twisty trees we saw between Watersmeet and Lynmouth which inspired the drawing I made. (I've also blogged about it over on the David Fickling blog, if you want to hop over for a peek.)



Going to Lynton and Lynmouth made us feel like we'd gone back in time at least sixty years. A wonderful, strange place.



I can't get over how much I love these chimney pots.



Here's Lynton town hall. We did a bit of exploring on a particularly wet day, until overly pink-and-glitter craft fairs and excessive tea-rooming drove us back out onto the moor.





One of the coolest things about Lynton and Lynmouth is the Victorian-era funicular Cliff Railway which connects the two. It's proper wood and polished brass, and creaks its way up as the second car lowers itself. Lynton's on the hill and Lynmouth is way, way, down the cliff. After you've had a dinner in Lynmouth (we recommend the top-notch chip shop Fish on the Harbour), it's great being able to get the funicular back up to the guest house.



Lymouth harbour:







And here we go, 1950's England:



Oh dear, the fudge packaging was not very subtle.



Apparently our visit was not the first time Lynton and Lynmouth had been awash with rain. We were hoping it wouldn't happen again.



On our last full day, the rain was coming down, but we hadn't been properly out onto the moor, into Exmoor National Park yet, and we heard a rumour the weather might improve. It didn't.



In fact, it got so grim I wondered if one of us was going to have to carry the other, like Sam and Frodo in Mordor. But even in the foul weather, the moor looked strikingly beautiful.



I was very glad I was wearing wellies.



Here are a bunch of shaggy cows, thinking, what are these silly people doing out on the moor on a day like this? We saw a few people on horseback early on, but then it was just us.



And it got wetter and wetter and wetter.



Fortunately we had some of Emma's muffins and two Tunnock's teacakes to sustain us. But when we got back to the guest house, Emma said we were the most soaking-wet guests they'd ever had. Aïee!



We caught a bus to Barnstaple to get the train to Exeter, to return to London. I loved the bus between Lynton and Barnstaple, listening to the conversations of all these old people who knew each other. The market in Barnstaple was in full swing, and we were still in 1950's land.









A last photo, here's the beautiful painted ironwork at Exeter St Davids railway station. I love that they keep it so well maintained.



On the return journey, I tried not to think about how many things I had to do when I got back and how many e-mails would be piled up in my Inbox. And yes, there are a zillion items on the to-do list - it's a bit overwhelming - but what I really want (and need) to do is hunker down and work on my book with Philip, Oliver and the Seawigs. So holiday over, time to FOCUS. But it was a great holiday, really glad Stuart and I could get away for awhile, and I'd recommend a Devon holiday to anyone. Be sure to bring your rain gear.

Some photos from yesterday's trip to Chagford to see the lovely Dooleys.