© The Great Escape Company

Decided to forgo the digital tablet for this fun map for a outdoor adventure company in Shropshire.

It needed to have the look of E H Shepard’s (and Christopher Robin’s) lovely map of Hundred Acre Wood for the Winnie the Pooh book. So I sketched out the map then inked in and finally added  the watercolours. After scanning I enhanced the colours a little to give it a fresher look.

Will be used on the company’s website and on their literature.

Pooh-style map from Goodman Graphics

I have mentioned this to my bemused family a few times, but put it down to years of reading reports of big cat sightings in the Fortean Times, and an atavistic survival instinct, but last night I spotted this in the torchlight and realised I might have actually been seeing this subconsciously.

Though I’m sure this will go some way to stop me worrying about terrifying animals lurking on the borders of my property, I can’t help feeling a little disappointed.

Found a puma in my garden… from Goodman Graphics

For this site the client wanted something elegant and clear to match the style of the sculptures, and something with a bit of gentle movement.

Although a lot of similar sites use Flash, we decided to go for a jQuery solution. The site itself is just one page with CSS and jQuery rollovers and animations written from scratch to move the elements off and on to the stage.

I was particularly pleased with how the page wipes and the sliding movements of the elements off-stage worked out.

You can see the site at www.stephenpagesculpture.com

Stephen Page Sculpture from Goodman Graphics

Finally finished my sweeeet gifts for Christmas and got 10 bags of festively coloured coconut ice.

They were all going to be an icy blue to begin (and I was going to call them “Coconut Ice Cubes” or “Coconut Ice-nine”) but owing to the fact they came out quite creamy coloured, adding blue created a fetching green! So I made some pink and kept some plain to dip in Green & Black’s dark chocolate and it turned out well in the end!

My nice coconut ice recipe…

Makes 56 – 64 1 inch-ish cubes

• 2 lb granulated sugar
• 10 oz dessicated coconut
• Half a pint of milk (full fat or semi)
• Few drops of vanilla extract
• Few drops of food colour

Grease a large baking tray or square ceramic dish – it needs to have an inch or so depth.

Slowly bring the milk and the sugar to the boil in a heavy-bottomed pan – make sure there’s  plenty of room for the boiling liquid to expand – it grows to 2 or 3 times the size while it’s bubbling away and you definitely don’t want this lava-like substance boiling over and sticking to everything!

Keep it boiling for about 20 or so minutes, until it reaches 236 to 238 degrees Farenheit (Soft Ball stage). If you don’t have a sugar thermometer, to test the syrup, drop a little into a bowl of cold water. If you can pick it up out of the water and it forms a squidgy ball you can roll between your finger and thumb then it’s ready. Leaving it to boil too long will make the coconut ice as hard as a glacier once it’s set, and not letting it boil long enough will mean it’ll end up like slush and never set – you’ll wind up serving it up as a thick sauce over ice-cream.

Take it off the heat and quickly (as it starts to set pretty soon!) mix in the vanilla and any colouring you want to add. The traditional thing to do at this stage is to pour half the mixture into a pan uncoloured and then colour the rest pink to pour over the top. You get a nice pink and white layered effect that way.

Pour it into your tray and place it in the fridge to cool. I find it’s easier to break up if I score a grid out on it after ten minutes of it going into the fridge.

Once it’s set you can remove it from the tray and cut it into length with a knife (careful – it can be quite hard!) and then break it into cubes along your score lines. Makes a bit of a mess and lots of crumbly bits. If it’s too crumbly, put it back in the fridge for a few hours to set completely. If it’s still not breaking up nicely it may be because the temperature wasn’t correct. You have a very nice topping for cup cakes though!

To add a bit of luxury, for one of my finished batches I melted one and a half bars of Green & Black’s chocolate in a Bain-Marie. Gently simmer some water in a pan with a glass or ceramic bowl on top of it – break up the chocolate into the bowl and it can be slowly melted this way to stop it burning – not only is that a criminal waste, it also smells awful! I then half-dipped my plain coconut ice blocks and placed them on a cool silicon sheet and popped them back in the fridge to set the chocolate.

I wrapped mine in food-grade cellophane and tied them with a bit of ribbon left over from decorating the tree.

They’ll last about 2 weeks if kept well, but they’re so nice they probably won’t get to two weeks before they’re eaten!

Happy Christmas!

Christmassy Coconut Ice from Goodman Graphics

Yes, yes I know it’s a bit late, but I’m getting there. Just need to scan and tidy, do the layout, print them out, cut and crease, write them out and send them off. Easy!

Working on my Christmas cards from Goodman Graphics

I love coming up with ambigrams [a word or words that read the same the right-way-up or upside-down] and symbiotograms [words that can be read differently when turned upside-down] and drew on my calligraphy skills to create a kind of flowing text that wouldn’t look too awkward either way up.

Not sure how many people actually realised they could turn the design over and read another message – though the “Merry” and “Happy” should have given a clue – but that was part of the fun!

Christmas New Year Symbiotogram from Goodman Graphics

Ben Arkle pencil sketch from Goodman Graphics

It was for a Christmas ghost story they were running – you might make out the apparition in the armchair if you squint!

I enjoy doing the Chronicle illustrations – nice atmosphere at paste-up and though it’s a bit of pressure to come up with something good in an hour or so – it always turns out well in the end.

Ghost story illustration from Goodman Graphics

Local paper the Tanat Chronicle asked me to do a couple of illustrations for an article their running in the Christmas edition about alternative gardening gifts.

I wanted these to be slightly cutesy but with a bit of fun. Pen and ink as they needed to be contrasty black and white for good reproduction.

Gardening gifts illustration from Goodman Graphics

Was going for a twee but fun look with these. Needed to be contrasty black and white for good reproduction.

Illustration for local paper from Goodman Graphics