Caravan christmas present

As a present for my brother and sister-in-law, Jonathan and Julie, I framed them a print of drawings I did of their caravan. I drew these in August - while I was sat next to one of their amazing kids, George, who was drawing too - while I was in their caravan, so it's not an accurate description at all and is part imagination. I made this into a present because they already display their support on their living room wall - they have a few frames with drawings of mine in - and also as a memento of holidays we shared with them this year in Rhosneigr.

Line work cushion

I love this cushion I spotted in ikea, anything lineworky I am drawn to! (no pun intended)

Fun table

Spotted this quirky table in tk maxx, one of those styles that are so bold you either love it or hate it!?
 Look at the painted legs!

Christmas...

At work I joined in the £1 secret Santa and so I set myself the challenge of decorating a box that would make chocolate coins as magical as possible! I was hoping for it to look like something one of the three kings might bring!

Reading and writing

Well I haven't been posting much lately... This is mostly what I've been doing instead of drawing! Reading and researching and writing about it! I'm learning lots, it's good! :)

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I took myself off on a research trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park... It felt strange but nice going on my own and having a walk to go in the deer shelter.

I went to see Mark Hearld's exhibition. His work is beautiful and really inspirational. I loved his combination of methods, particularly the collage work. I'm researching the topic of unconscious creativity for my MA academic writing and looking at practitioners who revisit markmaking methods similar to those we use as children.. So Mark Hearld's work turned out to be very relevant indeed with his ways he applies paint and collage.

playing with sketchbook pro

I put Sketchbook-pro on my laptop the other day and have just been experimenting a bit with it... It's a lovely programme and oh my, the symmetry setting is very fun!!

Here's a pretty lady I drew. It was only a quick 2 minute thing while I was trying it out...

Other things I've been doing over the last week...

Finally getting my head around Twitter

Designing Christmas cards and crackers and some logo design

Went to Zero2Illo conference in Nottingham and met lots of fellow Illustrators

Making 'vegetable surprise' - being creative with empty cupboards

(you can add 'surprise' to the name of any dish and make it sound fabulous)

Research and brainstorming ideas for my MA coursework, I love a good brainstorm!

That's it!

tree tree leaf

Last week the MA Design massive were very lucky to go on a team building trip at Tyn Dwr Outdoor Centre in Wales. It was amazing!! Did some proper team bonding and came back with lots of new friends who are all so interesting in their own ways. Among different team building exercises we did some crazy stuff that involved climbing really high into the trees and swinging about on ropes. That was my favourite bit (along with the food and people and trips to the pub) even though it was seriously petrifying!

Here's a little papercut I did inspired by our adventures in the trees. It's the place I was thinking I'd like to live when I came home to reality and had to go to Asda food shopping.

Apart from MA coursework and freelancing for Hallmark, I've also been busy doing some app design lately as well as some other graphic/logo design for a software company. Looking forward to the app coming out and then I can share it with the world!

A man and his pet elephant

Another piece I did for the opposites brief - finding a way to make contrasts with my passion for illustrating tiny, detailed things.

Close up detail

Experimenting

Here's some experimental work I've been doing recently. My MA tutor shared with me some of the briefs that get given to the first year Illustration students, so I could just do some exercises to loosen me up. For me, I want to keep doing this at the moment to keep experimenting with different media and finding out other ways to put my own spin on different ways of working.

This brief was 'opposites' - in black and white.

Close up

Near and Far

Generally being a bit messy with ink and a brush

(those funny people who can be far away one minute then very close the next)

Wet and Dry

Pastel for the man on dry land and Ink/Wash for the sea

(a little man who just wanted a bit of fresh air)

Santa's coming...

I was delighted to see a sample of my card I did artwork for long ago at Hallmark (seems like long ago anyway...) for Waitrose. It was one of my first designs I did when I started freelancing for Hallmark and I'm quite fond of it because the card itself is very much just like the original artwork - I combined line drawing and paper cutting on one piece of paper. It is on nice uncoated board with embossed design. A different designer added the page 3 so it was a nice surprise to find my illustration on the inside too. Time to put on your snazziest christmas jumper and get yourself to your local Waitrose now!

Twelve Days...

Hooray! A box of Christmas cards I worked on for Hallmark have hit the shop floors of Tesco. They are Tesco Finest charity cards, contributing to Cancer Research UK. I just drew the pictures for this and another designer formatted them, added text etc. It can be nice to work like this sometimes because it's always a nice surprise to see someone else's spin on my illustrations.

It's all a bit exciting

Right well... I've decided to do a Masters! It was a rather short notice decision although I did get offered a place at Uclan when I graduated, but decided to work instead seem as I was being offered freelance work. I'm really gladI waited a year first because my work has developed in many ways as well as me learning to work quicker and more efficiently.

It feels a bit amazing thinking I'm a student again (a post graduate one)! Even though it's going to be hard - I'm studying part time and working as much as I possibly can. I decided not to keep my website, for now I'm going to make this blog into my area of the web since that's what all the cool kids are doing anyway. Also you can be my friend if you like on my facebook.

In other news I'm also now a member of Farsley Art Club! A lovely little discovery, a group of really talented people and right near where I live. I can do life drawing there as well as other classes etc so I will hopefully be posting up things I've done there when I do something I don't mind showing! :)

Here's a drawing from life drawing. I used to go life drawing a lot but hadn't done it for about two years... so I was rusty. Most of the two hours I didn't really draw anything I liked, but this was a tiny drawing (this one is four inches tall) right towards the end of the session. It doesn't really look that much like the model at all, he has been stylised a bit. When I let my imagination come into my drawing then I produce something I like more. Not sure if that's the norm in a life drawing class but it's the best way for me to get the most out of it. My scanner is not speaking to me at the moment so this is just a photo from my phone, not the best quality.

Amazing rug

Went to visit my lovely friend Sarefa the other day and I thought her rug was pretty amazing!! Just had to take several photos!

Rug by Jeff Banks

Like finding gold

And this is me looking mega mega happy the first time I found my cards in Tesco.. in another country! (Wales)...

More of my cards...

These are a couple I have designed for Hallmark that are in Waitrose. I think I've got a few coming out at Christmas too so once I know they are in the shops I shall share with the world!

Ta daa!! A post.

Goodness, it's been a while... My blog has become a little waste of space where the grass had stopped growing! I've just kept my head down really for the last year having an amazing time working at Hallmark. Until the end of July, I had kept on my second job too so all together I was working 6 days a week for a year since graduating. So... after getting made redundant from that job I've had some time now to start thinking again about what to do. So watch this space because I'm gonna start planting grass!

Here's some of my cards I've done at Hallmark that have made it on to the shelves of Tesco...