Happy New Year!!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

2010 is the year of the Tiger.

My favourite tiger has to be Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes :)

old and new

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...I've been busy writing my Christmas cards - around 60 this year(!) - and sorting out various stuff and things. December is always a bit hectic!

Still got a few more Christmas pressies to buy but I'm reluctant to go into town to face the ridiculous chaos and crowds. And it is freezing outside, brrrr!!

Here's a new illustration of a lion I did, and an old sewing on felt of a lion and dolphin I found whilst rummaging around in my studio. The felt pieces are based on constellations. I used to sew quite a bit, but haven't done in a while. Maybe I will get back into it in the New Year...

My new shop

My Christmas cards are now available in my brand new Etsy shop!

The colours came out a little darker than I expected...it's tricky getting the colours right, from screen to print.

Lesson of the day - must be more organised and not leave things till the last minute!

Christmas cards

I saw this Christmas card of mine for James Ellis Stevens at Paperchase in Goodge Street today yey!

Do people send Christmas cards to their teachers??

This design is also available as a pack of 5 mini curved top cards here.

Here are the other cards. Some are available addressed to people such as grandson, granddaughter, friend, special couple and the one I love.

(This one is also available as a pack of 5 mini curved top cards, although it doesn't seem to be listed on the website.)

These cards are available here and here.

Let it snow!

Oops, I forgot to crop the images so please excuse the messy edges...

Anyway, here are some personal Christmas card illustrations I've just done. I've ordered them to be printed as greeting cards. I hope they come out ok...I am a little nervous!! Typically it's all last minute stuff with no time to spare for any mistakes. hmmm.

But I like to at least make an effort each year. I enjoy sending Christmas cards as it's a great chance to get in touch with people and actually write something using a pen :)

I also have some Christmas cards for sale here.

They are the cards I worked on for James Ellis Stevens at the end of last year. I mentioned it in the early days of my blog. There are 6 different designs. I'll post about them properly the next time...(it's 3am and I need to go to bed!)

short days, long nights

I've been exploring colour!

I want to make pictures using colours I don't get to use in my commissioned work for children's books. Maybe it's the cold grey windy days and long dark nights affecting me...

I'm also enjoying exploring shapes, collage and layers.

Inspiration!

It's been a while since I last posted something...

I've been looking at lots of things for inspiration!

I recently visited The Museum of Everything, a great museum in North London, crammed full of everything! It's a brilliant space, with lots to look at and interesting background information on all the artists. I loved it and hope to visit again soon.

I love this little creature made by Mary Fedden!

I've been enjoying wool and knitting.

Loop, a beautiful yarn shop in Islington.

I buy lots of wool, but sadly all I do is look at them. Maybe one day I will knit myself a great big woolly jumper :)

All these lovely colours makes me want to experiment with a different colour palette to my picture book work.

This is a (very badly taken at night) picture of some work in progress, a personal project inspired by "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

Trick or treat!

Another new entry for Gemma's Flickr group What I wore today.

Treats

I've been enjoying a bit of time off lately...a rare treat! It's a little strange at first to have all this free time after being chased by deadlines for so long, so I'm trying to keep myself busy and stimulated by feeding my mind and eyes with lots of treats :)

I watched a couple of great films recently at the London Film Festival:

The Wind Journeys

Milk of Sorrow

Both films were full of beautiful imagery, landscapes, music and colour, really really inspiring!

Another film I watched recently full of beautiful imagery is Beau Travail by Claire Denis.

I also LOVE this animation by Jonathan Klassen and Daniel Rodrigues, called "An eye for Annai".

With all this inspiration and free time, it's the perfect chance to start creating some personal pieces of work, and think about what to do for my exhibition in Japan next Spring.

I missed the Bologna Illustrators' exhibition this year as it coincided with a big deadline (I was really disappointed with myself, as I try to enter something every year), but I'm entering these 3 pieces for Ilustrarte 2009 instead, an exhibition of children's book illustrations which takes place every 2 years in Lisbon, Portugal.

Even more outfits

Here's a couple of new pieces for Gemma's Flickr group.

With my latest project completed, I suddenly have lots of time on my hands. It's amazing how quickly the hours and days disappear doing nothing much in particular. As much as I love this free time watching films and mooching about, I now need to be really disciplined, resist the comfy sofa and TV, and get on with some personal work I've been meaning to do for ages!

I've been invited by a gallery in Osaka, Japan to exhibit some work for next Spring, so am starting to think of pieces for that. I'm very very excited!! (and a little bit nervous too).

Rubbish, rejects and bits

I find leftovers and rejects quite interesting. I once gathered some bits of paper from the floor, and instead of throwing them away in the bin, I stuck them down and this is what happened (above).

Here are some bits I found going through the mess on my desk.

I can cut really tiny circles! I'm sure it will be much easier to draw or paint eyes for my characters, but no, I have to do it the ridiculously fiddly way.

There are also some glasses, boy's hair, a ponytail and a bird's leg.

With each project, there are always lots of bits that don't make the picture. I sometimes use these rejects to create a totally new picture.

One of my Bologna pieces from last year evolved from all the rejected paper mice heads from a previous picture book project. Can you spot them?

Palette and papers

At last, the light at the end of a very long tunnel! I'm free!! I feel like a mole stepping out into the world - everything is so bright and colourful! It feels good to walk, and be part of the outside world :)

After a good 10 days or so of locking myself in the studio and working non-stop, I've finally finished the artworks for the Lion Hudson book.

I can't show the finished spreads yet, so here are pictures of the mess left behind...

Things get very messy during projects - there's bits of paper all over the desk and floor, which get stuck to my socks and travel all around the house. Sometimes I find miniature paper trousers in the bathroom and tree branches in the kitchen.

More outfits

I've done another piece for What I wore today. As you can see, my outfits don't vary that much when I am at home...

I've been at home a lot, working on the pieces for the Lion Hudson book. I've roughly finished around 16 spreads out of 28 - I'm getting there!!!

It takes a long time deciding the outfits for all the little children, but it's good fun :)

I will post pictures of the finished spreads soon.

Brrr

Seems like summer is over :( Today was a very wet cold grey day.

Oh well...perfect for staying indoors, drinking cups of tea and locking myself in my studio. Still got lots to do but I'm getting there slowly.

Here's another new piece for Gemma's Flickr group.

Outfits

Here's another piece I did for Gemma's Flickr group What I wore today, in between working on the picture book spreads.

I've finished one spread - just 27 to go, hurrah!

I will post the spreads from the book soon.

For my picture book work, I realised I spend a LOT of time trying to decide what the characters will wear. Hours, sometimes days disappear just trying out different outfits for all the children. I can be really indecisive sometimes...

In real life, I spend much less time deciding what I will wear as I am mostly at home. I am a bit of a slob. So yesterday was pretty exciting as I wore 3 different outfits in 1 day! I left the flat for the first time in 5 days to go to my part-time job. Yes, I still have a crappy part-time job. The pay is poo, it's not particularly demanding and there are lots of silly rules that annoy and frustrate me, but it gets me out the house, I get to see lots of lovely people and films for free :) I can't be a hermit all the time. It also makes me appreciate the freedom I have in being a self employed illustrator. No uniforms, no rules, no one to answer to and cups of tea, coffee and treats whenever I like :)))

what I wore today

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I've barely left the flat since coming back from my mini-break in Wales, just sitting at my desk, with occasional trips to the kitchen, but otherwise working working working towards my deadline. So sometimes it is nice to take a little break and do something different! I've done a piece for What I wore today, a Flickr group set up by the very talented illustrator Gemma Correll. It's a nice idea, and a great way to quickly work up pieces for fun :)

Now I must get back to my messy studio and face the world of deadlines and 28 unfinished illustrations...boohoo!

desk, floor

Maybe I've been a little bit too relaxed the last couple of months...suddenly it is almost September, my deadline month!! It's time to become a hermit and resist all temptation to see friends, spend the afternoon watching films or have a little snooze on the sofa.

I've got to illustrate 28 spreads for my second book for Lion Hudson. I'm about half way through...got to do a bit more before I'm off to Pembrokeshire for a 4-day break next week. I shouldn't really be taking time off at this crucial stage, but I work better under pressure. I say this now but I'll be crying and stressing and cursing and panicking in a couple of weeks.

Blue

The last week gallery opening soon!

I spent most of today trying to finish off the pictures for The last week gallery.

It's been lots of fun, making pictures all over the walls, spreading onto the ceiling...it's hard to know when to stop! I'm not used to so much white space as I usually tend to fill up whole spreads with lots of colour, but on a canvas this size with the time that I had, it was impossible! Maybe it's good to have a little breathing space sometimes.

The private view is this Saturday 15th August 6:30-9:30pm, Flat 61, Cotall Street, London E14 6JX

It's a group show, so there will be a whole variety of works, each artist responding differently to the space, which is a squatted flat currently in the process of eviction.

Come say hello before it's all gone...!