I began introducing and mixing up some of my usual mark-making techniques in the diary of templates. I do six a week (Saturday and Sunday are both on one page in this diary) and have made 74 drawing's with my Dad's old templates now; by the time I get to 100 I hope to see something distinctive and new emerging.

I am really into yellow and black at the moment, and layering semi-opaque papers over the drawings. I had a lovely busy weekend, my godson Theo (B's son) and his friend Dan drove up from MK in their drift cars. On Saturday B and the boys went out west to the mountains and made a very impressive convoy, B in the Lotus and the boys in their crazy cars - lots of colour, stickers, low-down chassis and throaty growly engines. They turned a few heads as they pulled away. I stayed at home with the dog, did some drawing and housework, watched Gavin and Stacey on iPlayer, and cleaned the windows - glamour and grit indeed. It was so nice to have the distraction from the world news for a couple of days.

Diary of templates work from last week, bearing in mind translation onto wood veneers. Centre top is interesting, I found the funny in the shapes. I got into trouble with the bottom left and ended up with a lot of grey, but it worked out fine.

This is the first template work on wood veneer, which I made for B's birthday card. It sports the letter B, and paired images to reflect the Pisces star sign as planned in the diary of templates work last week. It was more difficult to make than I imagined, although I made it in exactly the same manner as the ones in the diary of templates. I wanted to work with the wood to strike a balance between the collaged and painted shapes, and to allow the wood the illusion of coming forward in some areas.

Six template drawings: I waited until today to post this because it's B's 60th birthday. These 6 are all based on the letter B, and use two main elements to reflect the Pisces star sign. They are development work for his pressie and were made in top secret, although I am so transparent I bet he guessed what I was up to.

Happy Birthday, B! XXXX

Leap Day's entry in my diary of templates.
If we didn't add a leap day on February 29 almost every four years, each calendar year would begin about 6 hours before the Earth completes its revolution around the Sun. Introduced by Julius Caesar, an extra day every four years keeps our calendar in tune with the seasons, and it must be right because today is March 1 and it is truly coming in like a lion!