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!