MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas everyone x

THE ELEVEN DOCTORS

All eleven Doctor Whos together, drawn with my sonic pen and coloured with my thermal ink.

I'm currently listing several versions of this drawing for sale on ebay (search The Eleven Doctors). Each drawing fits within the confines of an A4 sheet of Bristol Board paper, and a percentage of the money made will go to PACT - Parents and Abducted Children Together, a very worthy charity that deals with the growing problem of parental abduction. I think The Doctor would approve of this (the charity, not the abduction).

Alternatively you can contact me directly. Each original drawing is £35 each.

Many thanks for looking,
Leighton x
Elodie, if you can see this I want you to know Daddy's coming xx

ROYAL WEDDING 2011

I know what you're thinking, you're a bit late posting a drawing depicting the Royal Wedding Leighton. And you'd be quite right, but I have been busy- I didn't even get that Friday off. This little illustration was drawn to promote my agent's children's book illustration agency, GCI.

Belated congratulations William and Kate.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Have a lovely Christmas everybody and a peaceful New Year xx

MONSTERAMA

A little boy and his little dog find themselves in a little bit of a tight spot.

GROWLER

This monster, Growler, was drawn with pen and ink on masking tape.

STAR WARS- An Ewok Family

Chukha Trok, Brenda and kids. An Ewok family.

THE ENTERTAINER

This drawing of an old, forgotten puppet was drawn on masking tape with washes reapplied as more masking tape was added. This has quite an interesting textural effect I think that lends itself to the subject.

HAPPY EASTER

I've been a bit poorly of late, virtually crippled by the side effects of some medication I've been taking. It's addled my feet and my brain which is why my bunny in a field under a Spring sun turned out to be a bunny in a field under a Spring moon because I got my colours mixed up.

And is it really an Easter bunny? Nah, not really.

Happy Easter everyone x

MATT SMITH is the ELEVENTH DOCTOR

I've been very lucky to be asked to draw a picture of the next Dr Who, Matt Smith for the cover of a non-profit making magazine called Vworp Vworp! The cover will feature all 11 television Doctors with each one being drawn by a different illustrator who's drawn for Dr Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine since it started all the way back in 1979. The content of the magazine itself will focus on the comic strip adventures of the Doctor.

When the cover's finally finished with each Doctor added I'll show you- it's quite exciting for me to be in company of such talented (and in lots of cases, such downright famous) illustrators.

Right-o, work has kept me away from this blog for a while (I've got three books on the go) and will keep me away again for the next month at least but I'll try and pop on and add to it when I can. In the meanwhile, if you'd like to see some more of my Dr Who drawings you can pop onto my website if you like and have a poke round.

BAD WOLF

I've only managed 14 hours sleep since Sunday morning and today's Friday. I think.

My poor little eyes are littler, blearier and redder than they've ever been before. And they sting a bit. The reason for the lack of sleep is having to meet my deadlines (or 'dead lions' as my little girl calls them). I've been bustin' guts to complete the final drawings of Gargoylz Put on a Show in which a ridiculous version of Little Red Riding Hood is performed.

But all the subterfuge that comes with that story and the red eyes that comes from illustrating that story reminds me of a time when I got up to some pretty good subterfuge myself...

I was a wee, freshed faced lad of 17 in 1990 with high ambitions and the world at my feet, which I suppose is why I had a part time job working at Tescos. They always made me do Saturday which is the worst day of the week to be sitting on a till from 8 in the morning 'til half 7 at night. I hated every minute of it and invariably left work with a headache. But the worst Saturday for a lad of 17 to be working on was FA Cup Final day and the 1990 Final was between Man United and Crystal Palace. I forgot to ring in sick.

So I arrived at work and was sent to my till by a sour faced supervisor and whilst ringing in the frozen peas (groceries, 59p) I devised my escape plan. Kick off was at 3pm but I had to be sitting in front of my telly by lunchtime as the FA Cup commanded a considerable build up back in the day, so I was going to have to work fast.

Break time came in which I had just twenty minutes to execute the most brilliant plan any boy ever devised to get out of work to watch football. Before going for a rest upstairs I bought a pack of colouring pencils (home and wear, £1.49), a pencil sharpener (also home and wear, 49p) and a small pair of tweezers (again, also home and wear, 99p). Upstairs in the changing rooms I sharpened a red colouring pencil down until I had a fine red dust which I applied around my eyes. I was starting to look a bit ill.

Next, I used the tweezers to pluck nose hairs from my nostrils which had two desirable effects: it made my eyes water uncontrollably and made me sneeze violently time after time so before getting back to the shop floor I plucked several more times. It was now do or die.

Slowly I shuffled back to my till, holding my head in one hand as I went. Immediately it was noticeable I was very sick. I started squinting, believing the lights ought to be hurting my eyes and the sour faced supervisors (not you Sandra, you were always very nice- I hope you're well) were now showing some concern as to my welfare especially as, believing noise ought to be hurting my ears, I couldn't hear a word they were saying.

Within 10 minutes I was skipping work and skipping all the way home. Back of the net!

United and Palace drew 3-3 with United winning the replay 1-0. Result!

THE LOOK OF LOATHE IS IN HER EYES...

...a look her scowl can't disguise. I'm pretty sure when this woman was younger she'd cry for a happy ending but those days are far behind her and now I just think she longs for any sort of ending at all.

I saw her a few years ago waiting for a train and the daft old romantic in me hoped the train would take her to some place where she'd be happy and loved. But those daft old romantic days are far behind me and now I just think she'd be a misery wherever she went.

It ain't natural to be so joyless and jaded and alone and deflated, I wanted to hug her myself but frankly she scared me. She radiated a dark, brooding terror and pigeons fell dead from the sky when she stared at them.

I wonder where she is now.

Ooooo(shivers), no I don't.

BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS original b/w sketch

I know what you're wondering. You're wondering how much more I can ring out of the Beauty and the Beasts post I put up on 2nd May and referred back to again on 12th May.

You're wondering how someone so seemingly fluid in thought has the nerve to waste your time by chopping on about monsters again.

You're wondering how someone so seemingly infallible is so frightened of the opening 10 minutes of Carry on Screaming he can't bear to watch it. You're wondering how someone so seemingly flawless is even more terrified of balloons than he is of the aforementioned film. You're wondering what any of this has to do with anything.

I'll explain.

Because as the night and the moon and the stars give up their space for day, I stop in silence to watch the fishing boat pull slow across the sea. And old, half forgotten and half drowned dreams resurface, tugging my memory, begging for life and I'm dazzled by the speed and strength of their recovery. I'm haunted by her face and words I never got to whisper but now I realise the clouds are getting dark and the chill is getting crisper. All the while I stand on the bay in the rain, restlessly waiting for the boat to sail again. One persistent thought bobs up once more and carries through my mind as driftwood carries to the shore: wouldn't it be quite good if a big sea monster ate all them boats up?

There, much clearer isn't it?

So that children, is why monsters are so good. I look at my own personal demons, balloons and the opening 10 minutes of that film and I wouldn't be without those fears, not for a minute. Actually thinking about it, of course I'd prefer to live without them, who wants to be terrified of telly and parties? It's stupid.

ELF PORTRAIT

From this self portrait you'd be forgiven for thinking I'm just a highfaluting fashion model, the sort you read about in the papers. But you'd be mistaken- I only do that part time. The rest of the time, as you know, is spent drawing. I've just finished a book where I've been asked to supply a picture of myself and a sort of mini-biography. Not much of any interest has happened in my life so even a mini biography sounds like a big ask.

I've been putting all this off for weeks as I'd assumed they'd want a photograph but my agent says that if I don't have a photo of myself that doesn't show me to be too short or tubby or unkempt (I honestly don't have the time to be kempt) or without oddly shaped, elfin ears, I can supply a drawing instead! Erm, thanks Duncan, good man...I think.

So this is my self portrait and it's as flattering as my vanity would allow after it had a big scrap with my integrity. I've left out the really bad parts so you can imagine (though please don't try, you'll wake up screaming) what the photo would have looked like.

Sadly, I've been told the biography ought to be grounded in some kind of reality.

O2 SEE LEONARD COHEN LIVE

'Baby I have been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you.

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

Love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a lonely Hallelujah.'

Leonard Cohen

Last week I went with both my brothers to see Leonard Cohen at the O2 Arena in London. I ain't ashamed to admit that when this brilliant man of seventy-something years dropped to his knees and sang Hallelujah, I blubbed like a baby. And my older brother blubbed. Everybody blubbed except my little brother who saved his tears for Famous Blue Raincoat.

It's not often I nick off to a concert but when Leonard's in town you have to put work to one side and sit in opened-mouthed awe at his genius.

The above pic was done at rapid speed (probably took 30 minutes) in pen and ink and got a bit messy but is a welcome distraction from all the black and white book illustrations I've been doing so much of lately. If you'd like to see an earlier post relating to more Leonard Cohen goodness by way of a charcoal portrait I've done, you can do so by clicking here.


There's a new Leonard Cohen drawing on my Drawing and Painting blog here.

CHIMPANZEE THAT, MONKEY NEWS!

When I'm up late at night and working away on my drawings, I usually listen to a bit of Monkey News to keep me going. Monkey News is a brilliant piece of nonsense from Karl Pilkington (above centre, head like an orange) as he tells Ricky Gervais (above left) and Stephen Merchant (above right) what monkeys have been up to an' that. The above three people are responsible for forcing me to start more drawings from scratch than anyone else as it's hard to draw whilst laughing so much.

The reason I'm mentioning all this is because I've generous permission from Rory Binks to show his brilliantly animated Monkey News on this blog (right hand side of the screen, very near the bottom). The animations add a clever new dimension to Karl's stories and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Rory can be contacted via his email address, rory@abundant.co.uk.

READING BETWEEN THE LIONS

YOU:

Woah, slow down Leighton, what are you some sort of maniac or something? What are you doing rattling off yet another book cover when surely you're busy enough doing tons of other books and stuff?

ME:

'Slow down' isn't in my vocab, not when there's a cover needing doing for my friends over at Tamarind.

YOU:

Oh you're so brilliant, you are- selfless even.

ME:

Well that's not for me to say but thanks.

YOU:

Always a pleasure. I'm going to pop over to read your fantastic blog with your fantastic thoughts more often. You're a genius.

ME:

Stop it, you're making me blush.

YOU:

And you're beautiful.

ME:

Well yeah, goes without saying but cheers anyway. Almost unnaturally handsome some might say.

YOU:

Can I see you later?

ME:

Really, just stop it now...it started out as a nice little comment about the latest book cover I'm doing and how brilliant I am an' all but you've taken it too far as usual and now you've overstepped the mark as...Hello?

Are you still there? Hello?

I didn't mean it, come back.

Please come back.

GONE FIRE NIGHT

Well it's the 5th of November and the Thief of November has struck again. I half expected him to. Some guy's sneaked into my garden in the dead of night and had it away with my bonfire. I'd built it up all nice an' that, ready for tonight but it's gone and this is the third year in a row it's happened.

I haven't even got any fireworks because I'd planned to surreptitiously watch next door's display from behind my rhododendron with my daughter. All I've got is three jacket potatoes and two of those are on the turn, which means I'll be ok but Elodie and her mum are bound to whinge about theirs.

So I've thought things through carefully and next year I've decided to have the last laugh by drenching my bonfire wood with water, rendering it unlightable.

Stay safe and follow the firework code, kids.

TOP CATS

These cute kittens were drawn by my wonderful daughter, Elodie. She was five when she did them and they were used to illustrate Diary Days by Ghillian Potts, published by Random House. I really enjoyed that job because of Elodie's involvement and she still helps her old dad out from time to time by adding illustrations to other books or colouring-in or just coming up with fantastic ideas.

Entirely due to Elodie's influence I should think, Diary Days was voted amongst the Jabberwocky Top Ten children's books (3-4 years) for October 2005.

CREATIVE ARTS WEEK

You know I've danced in the courts of European royalty and you know I've sung at the wakes of Mafioso types in New York (although I couldn't refuse the offer of that), well I also do school visits where I draw pictures! I was in a local school last Friday for their Creative Arts Week where I went from class to class (20 minutes in each) showing them how to draw a Gargoyle and letting the children have a go at drawing their own Gargoyle too. Needless to say their versions were better. Needless to say I looked like a proper chump.

Children are usually very receptive to this sort of thing and it's good to see their positive reactions to the drawings I do as the majority of my work is intended for them. It's also great to see their confidence in drawing grow as they have a go themselves.