This one got rejected, but was still an interesting idea.
I think it was a little bit too “environmentalist”… (It was penguins chasing colourful pegs and other plastic junk that look like schools of fish). Above is a super rough draft. I realised it was quite a negative theme even though my intention was to render it so that you have to look twice to realise the plastic. – Elise Martinson
Pencil sketch with the site overlaid. Idea two.
Idea two in colour.
A close up of the coloured sketch.
This is the one we went with. 🙂
Close up one.
Close up two.
First colour rendering.
Did you notice the detail added to the snow and the addition of some birds?
Big changes with lots of refinements. Some elements are gone and a couple have been added.
This is the final image and we absolutely love it! You probably can’t see it in these images, but comparing this to the last one, there’s so much more detail.
Close up of the final.
Close up of the final.
We’ve got lots of books that we’ve been meaning to post about for ages, but this one is especially overdue (sorry Ginger)! Written and illustrated by the very lovely 
As soon as we saw the Lemurs we were sold on the piece! We think WB did a wonderful job, what do you think?
Backtracking a bit, here is the original rough/sketch. Miriam was a joy to work with and very quick off the mark. From the word go, she knew exactly what we were after.
Miriam explained to us that the image had a story behind it and it was the story that was the basis for the concept. There was an elf who thought that the winter was so cold that the trees needed clothing to keep them warm! After receiving the rough I made a few small suggestions, like moving the squirrels onto the inner trees to give them a bit more screen time, but all in all I was happy for Miriam to proceed to produce the final image.
The final was then produced and we went back and forth a few times, knocking off a few pixels here and there, optimising the image for web, and arranging it to work with the layout of the website and logo. Once that was all done with a couple days to spare we got the new background up for Christmas!
With a great eye for colour, Miriam Bos was a pleasure to work with! Check out the new background on the 
We were very happy to give this rather cool, folksy fish a new home! He’s hand carved and painted by the awesome 
Jane was extremely chuffed to get some fab 
It’s the perfect print for any lover of cats, coffee or cakes (or all three, as in our case!). We love it, thank you Gemma! The 
…and Lottie very generously sent us an extra one too, which was much appreciated as they look just great as a set! Check out Lottie’s 
We were very happy to receive the latest collectible trading cards from the talented Mr Chet Phillips this morning! Chet very kindly sent us the Artistic Pets and Literary Pets 2 sets, which feature such eminent artists and authors as Labrador Dali, Oscar Wildecat, Franz Katka, MichelangeLab and Edgar Allan Pug. There are 20 cards in each set, which come nicely packaged in their own little portfolio. These are really lovely, and would make great original gifts for cat, dog, art and literature lovers alike.
Artistic Pets and Literary Pets (1 & 2) are available to buy, along with 8″ x 10″ prints of the characters, from Chet’s 
