Reference photographs – I shoot a lot of them. These are a some of the many I took last summer for the book, while I was on holiday.

Toy boats in the Grand Bassin, le Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris

Blue boats in Stromness, Orkney Island

Orkney Yoles in Stromness Harbour, Orkney Island

Tall ship in the River Dart, Dartmouth

medium and paint test a bit further along (detail)

I came across this chameleon by chance in a local pet food shop today. Since there’s a chameleon in one of the illustrations for this book project, I took photographs of this one for reference. His name is Oscar and he’s a 2 year old male veiled chameleon. The pet food store took him in when his young owner lost interest in him (how is that possible? this guy is awesome!). A few of his cricket meals have escaped over time and have taken up residence around the tiny shop where they sing from their hiding places among the bags of dog and cat food.