I love to draw from newspaper photographs, and keep files bulging with cut-out pictures. I have boxes full of sketchbooks from over the years. Here I have pulled a 2011 book out and opened it at random.

Four new pictures that are part of a series I began a week or two ago. The images were intended as scenery, something like a stage backdrop, for figures I would collage into the foreground. But, strangely enough, the pictures have started to take on a life of their own and they seem to be quite happy to exist without people in them! The elements and motifs in the pictures keep getting stronger, so I have to modify my original intentions. I will take a back seat, keep painting, and wait until the first character appears...
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The other day I started a new sketchbook (hardbound A5 Seawhite, my favourite) by drawing my breakfast toast. I sometimes focus my attention by asking myself what interests me about a subject. In this case it was the pattern made by the grill rack, so I really enjoyed using a ruler to draw that in.
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I start the day with a hot water and lemon, which explains the next picture of some segments of lemon in a bowl. I want this sketchbook to be a mixture of drawing, colour, collage, and surprises. Out in the shed I have some boxes of odd scraps of paper. So here goes...
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The starting point for this page was a newspaper photograph of a Brazilian chef from Sao Paulo.
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The elements here are images of Italian politicians at an EEC summit in 1978, a page from an Arabic school workbook I found in a second-hand bookshop, a piece of wrapping paper and a raffle ticket. 
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I have no explanation for these faces, they just happened. Using washable fountain pen ink and a brush, with oil pastel. I guess the link from the previous pages was the collar and tie.
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These are the last two pages from that day. They seem a long way from the toast and lemon slices, and I have by now gone back to one of my favourite themes:portraits. I think it is easy to see how the process of working with collage remnants and ink washes has refreshed my portrait work at this point.
The portrait on the right was done on a piece of wallpaper.
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There is something peaceful about making these little scenes with no people in them. My intention was to use them as collage backgrounds, and stick cut-out figures on them, but maybe I like them better like this.

I did a series of small pictures of faces, using oil pastel and gouache. The faces just happened - spontaneous creations. As soon as I had done them I had the urge to cut them out and stick them on some kind of background. I started with fine contour lines using a dip pen, and with some of them drew in white Tippex pen over the black ink. I like the way things happen when I decide on a series of simple images and on a number to work with (8 in this case). It's good to set specific boundaries and rules, so that you can be playful and experimental within the context of a project.

I am working on a series of landscape backgrounds in gouache. Quite often while I am drawing or painting, I will find a phrase comes into my mind which helps to direct the way I am working. On this day it was "don't get too complicated". That thought helped me to apply the paint very precisely, but without being too fussy.

One of the reasons I wanted to do a project about football players was because of the beautiful hand shapes that happen while they are in action. Since I have been drawing them I have also begun to notice the way their feet connect with the ground - very firmly planted on the ground.