Masha

Creature drawings for my new book

mashadutoit — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 07:17:28 +0000

I’m outlining my new book – something quite different this time, not part of The Sisters series (The Story Trap, The Broken Path). I’m doing the world-building, figuring out how the story world works. I find it helps a lot to draw potential characters or possible creatures.

This one is a kind of fairy that lives in a communal hive very much like wasps do:

This is a household creature, the kind that will do little jobs for a saucer of milk, but will do mischief too, if you ignore or insult them. A sort of brownie or nisse:

This one is something like a garden hobgoblin. She’s a lot more patient than the brownie:

And I’m not sure what this is. A sort of scavenging feral creature? A sort of ratling?

The Broken Path is published

mashadutoit — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:22:53 +0000

At long last — I’ve published The Broken Path, sequel to The Story Trap.

You can buy The Broken Path as an e-book:

I’m still working on the print version, but that is coming soon! Watch this space.

Book description:

What if a story came to life? If the characters stepped off the page and into our world?

Rebecca has recovered from the coma but she still longs for the places she saw and the people she met in the coma-dream. Writing helps her bear her loneliness, but things get out of control when the characters from her stories come to life in the streets of Cape Town. And Miss Mouse, the Antelope Girls, Hyena and the rest don’t exactly blend in with the crowd.

Cape Town in winter is a harsh place to be homeless. Esther, the witch who tried to kill Rebecca, is still at large. Rebecca has to keep her people safe until she finds a way to get them back into their story. She turns to her sisters for help but finds that they have secrets of their own. And Rebecca’s gun-packing neighbour is getting far too interested in her strange visitors.

The Mermaid – she’s finished at last.

mashadutoit — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:42:07 +0000

After a long break, I finally got round to finishing the Mermaid doll. Added some shells and sea-weed. Now all I have to do is figure out a display case or stand for her.

See the work in progress here:

The Broken Path: Cover reveal and first three chapters

mashadutoit — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 10:04:46 +0000

I’m almost ready to publish The Broken Path, sequel to my book The Story Trap. The last stretch always takes the longest, so rather than waiting until everything is done I’m celebrating by showing off the cover and making the first few chapters available. I’ve also dropped the price of The Story Trap to 99c till the end of April.

So. Here it is, the cover for The Broken Path:

Those of you who have read The Story Trap will recognise the water-witch references

In the new story I brought back some of my favourite Story Trap characters like Miss Mouse and Hare. Esther has not given up the fight, and Pippa has to come to terms with her wounded hand. Some new characters feature too, like Rebecca’s nosy neighbour Clare and her gun-happy boyfriend Ryan.

You can read the first few chapters here.

Do you want to be notified when this book is published? You can join my new release mailing list

I will not share your information with anyone. You won’t receive many mails from me – I only send a notification when a new book is launched, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like

Cape Town Carnival: Chameleons, Dragons, and Pirates :)

mashadutoit — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 07:05:30 +0000

We went to the Cape Town Carnival last night. It was fabulous! It was a warm, windless evening, everyone seemed happy and relaxed and the floats were just awesome.

The first real display were these fire-fighters perched on top of their truck, showing off their muscles. You can’t really see in the shot, but they were posturing up there with their shirts off. That is, the men did. The female fire fighters sat on the truck, looking unimpressed.

Many of the costumes had lights inside, like this floral skirt:

This was one of my favourites: a magical chameleon. He was huge:

Each float had a troop of dancers behind it. None of my photos of them really came out that well:

This was another great one. Van Hunks and the devil. You can’t really see the devil, but he stood on the float looking awesome in a great big horned headdress. (Van Hunks is the guy who sits on table mountain and smokes a pipe, causing all the clouds.)

A skinny elephant

This elephant float is probably the loveliest one. There are people inside making the legs walk, and its body is made of foliage:

These guys were awesome too. They balanced the drums on their heads and drummed as they walked.

This float reminded me of that scene in Asterix and Cleopatra, where Cleopatra decides to tell Julius Ceaser what’s what:

And these wonderful pirates and sea-creatures. The pirates had sparkly red hearts visible through their ribs.

Some glowing dragons and sea-creatures:

And that’s that! It was a great evening. Such a good vibe.

Birdface

mashadutoit — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:28:20 +0000

In between work-for-pay, I’ve been doodling. This drawing was prompted by thinking about the difference between being highly strung, and hyper aware:

Introducing Porcupine

mashadutoit — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:50:16 +0000

More work in progress illustrations for The Broken Path:

This time, a character called “Porcupine”. She’s standing in front of the fountain in Company Gardens, late at night.
The first few lines:

Then the rest is painted in using only black and white:

The drawing is nearly done:

Do you want to be notified when this book is published? You can join my new release mailing list

I will not share your information with anyone. You won’t receive many mails from me – I only send a notification when a new book is launched, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like

Chapter Claws

mashadutoit — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:37:35 +0000

I took a break from creating the cover of my new book to work on some of the decorations that will appear under the chapter headings. Here are some options. All derived from crab claws. The first is my favourite at the moment:

Broken Path cover: Work in Progress

mashadutoit — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:44:30 +0000

I finally got going on the design for the cover of “The Broken Path”. It’s a challenge, as it needs to work on its own, and look similar enough to the cover of “The Story Trap” so show that it’s a sequel.

Rough sketch:

Interesting things happen en route, I like the fresh look of this hand by itself, and the black version is also interesting:

I’m playing with doing an open version of the hand as well:

And this is what it looks like at the moment. Very unfinished still:

A night visit to the museum

mashadutoit — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:27:54 +0000

Another work-in-progress for my book. This time, depicting a scene where a witch visits the Museum of Natural History after hours. This is not a finished drawing. Not happy with it yet, but it’s getting there