Winter Tales

A glowing hearth, warming single malt and... hot water bottles.
Winter is almost here!

An early illustration to accompany an essay about walking a dog
in stormy Island Bay, and still one of the looser pieces I've ever done.

The advent of June also means winter essays - an annual tradition in Your Weekend magazine which I suggested four years ago (partly as a way to insidiously get more of my own writing published), and is still going strong.
I've already posted four previous essays here: and there will be another one along in a few weeks time.
http://fasmatodea.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/flame-at-last.html
http://fasmatodea.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/frost-and-space.html
http://fasmatodea.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/winter-solace.html
http://fasmatodea.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/dry-spell.html

But to mark the advent of winter, here's a small gallery of art I've produced to illustrate other people's essays.

Unrequited love in Copenhagen. The sleeping object of the author's affection is posed
to evoke that city's most famous statue - Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid.

The last time I illustrated my friend Kimberley's essay
the art only featured the back of her head, so I tried to redress
 the balance in this piece for her running story.

A winter weekend tramp which turned into a raucous
 and revelatory night in a remote hut.

This essay was about schoolboy bravado against the
 teeth of winter, except when no-one's looking.

Not for a winter essay, but this illustration of the Aotearoa
during the doomed first attempt at the trans-Tasman flight feels like it belongs with the others.