fox cycletots

I've been working with fox cycling in Portishead, Bristol to develop some characters for their foxcycletots classes.  Each character was designed to illustrate a different stage of learning to ride a balance bike or a pedal bike.  It was a lot of fun to come up with the faces of the characters and further develop my skills in Illustrator.  I'm particularly pleased with the bicycle wheels!  There is a trail of posters around Portishead, each with it's own little cycling challenge and a top tip from each character.  I'm particularly fond of Foxy (of course) and Molly, she's on the move!

I rather enjoyed drawing the icons for the Fox Trail - as I'm not too familiar with Portishead.  The light house was fun to draw and I'm sure I've been to the open air swimming pool a few times in my life although please don't ask me for directions as you may end up in the Severn Estuary.  

new print designs

Hello!  I've recently finished these new designs for art prints and a range of cards.  I've had a few printed and they're proving quite popular.  Each one started as a pencil drawing which I then altered in Adobe Illustrator.  It's been a really fun thing to learn and develop my Illustrator skills, I hope to do some more to go with them but I'm not sure what to draw.  I'm sure it'll come to me at some point, probably in the middle of the night...  They are all available now in my etsy and folksy shops.

more hairy things!

I'm back again already!

I was trying to think of something to put on a tea towel.  my first thought was fruit and my second thought was faces.  so in the end I combined fruit and faces.

new work

hello!  Long time no see... I've been neglecting my poor blog (again) sorry.  there are just too many things to do!  some of which are too boring to mention (hoovering) etc. 

so... I've been trying out some card designs - having been to pulse and picked up a brochure for cards designed by the lovely laura skilbeck.  so here are a few of my try outs.

I still think a few of them need some work but it's nice to have actually started and to have come up with some things that may lead to sets of cards.  that beaver definitely needs a friend (other than the ladybird in the  picture).  the happy birthday card with all of the hand drawn fonts was accidental, having drawn them out and arranged them on a page together I thought I might as well make a card out of those too.

I had an idea for another beard card, the one below is for any occasion.  I'm not sure which (if any) will ever make it to the printers but I'm having lots of fun.  hopefully I'll be back soon with more goodies!

greetings cards for an estate agent

 

I've just finished designing these house related greetings cards for my dad's estate agency.  it was fun to do and quite refreshing.  I did them all completely digitally which is a first for me and it was great to be able to change the colours at the click of a button. the colours look a bit mad on my screen or some reason (maybe as they are cmyk images for printing).  my dad liked them anyway!  They all have the bird house and a row of houses printed on their insides too. tweet!

laser cut jewellery!

it's been a while since I last updated my blog (naughty!).  I've had a good excuse though... I've been designing and making a whole range of wooden and acrylic laser cut jewellery.  it's been really amazing seeing it all come together - I want to wear it all at once!  you can see the whole range in my etsy shop.

christmas cards

This week has been about christmas cards!  I'm hoping to get them printed before I go off to spitalfields market in london.

I wasn't sure about this one - whether to print it with a blue background or a white one.  most people I asked wither said blue or both so I think I'll go for blue.  I did it entirely on the computer which is unusual for me but fun all the same. 

I just did this one for fun but thought it was quite amusing so I'll get some printed.   I'm not sure who is going to buy them though!

This week has been all about hair! 

It started as a piece for a magazine about fears and I chose trichophobia - a fear of hair.  I was so excited I decided to try out the whole alphabet.  W seems to have got a lot of attention!

Then I made a birthday card but I thought all those little heads looked a bit lonely floating around on their own so I put them in a frame, now they are all happy bobbing around inside it and can't float away...

sock creatures

I've been playing with socks today - first I made a little gopher like thing, with knobbly ears and a bendy tail.  he's a little plump to say the least!

originally I had set out to make a cat, so with a little tweaking here and there (and losing all the legs) I came up with this sleepy cat, he's got one eye open - to check what that pesky mouse is up to.

I've got ideas of how to make them better next time and now I know what I'm up to hopefully they won't take (quite) so long.

circles and stripes

I was searching for inspiration in some old selvedge magazines and I came across this photo of a chinese skirt advertising a textile exhibition.

I thought it was really beautiful and I got slightly addicted to looking at it, hypnotised! 

I wanted to start a new project with no preconceptions - to just start on a path and see where it ends up.  So I started mark making.

I tried using all sorts of pens, pencils, paints, coffee and even nail varnish - there really isn't enough neon in the world for my liking!   

This is the sort of thing I came up with.  I quite liked the idea of eventually turning the circles into a skirt for a model or doll to wear.  I'm not too sure how far I'll get with that though as it's really time consuming and I'm really impatient.  I did play around with using the circles and stripes technique as part of a character design.  

I liked the fact that my circles weren't perfectly round - they had a much more organic feel to them.  I found the drawing process quite therapeutic which is always an added bonus.

I made a mock up of my 3d idea, it wasn't brilliantly executed but I was happy with the process and I worked out how I would do it better next time.

I've been thinking about what to enter for the inkygoodness beer mat competition - all you have to do is turn a beer mat into a character.  So I played around with my new techniques and came up with this.  I'm going to post it off tomorrow.  Exciting!! Fyi  it's a beer mat cat in a hat (just in case you couldn't tell).

paper scissors stone, bristol

my stitch-ink prints and products will be on sale at this amazing shop in cabot circus, bristol, along with lots of other brilliant designer makers.

It opens this thursday and will be open for 7 weeks, we'd love to see you there!

Paper Scissors Stone
Quakers Friars
Cabot Circus
Bristol
Bs1 3BU

I'll be at 11 birch road this weekend as part of the southbank arts trail with the lovely paula bowles, louise cunningham and other beauties - there will be live music and cakes!!! come and see us...

rice monster line up

this is the latest monster line up from which you can choose your favourite critter!

London Book Fair

the london book fair was lots of fun!

I got to meet lots of renowned chinese book illustrators and publishers and they gave me this amazing book.

there is an exhibition on at the british museum this week showcasing the best of chinese children's book illustrations - pop by if you get the chance, it's going to be ace!

colour pages from my book - the fox that couldn't skip

The fox is really cold with a drippy nose, alone in the woods and is trying to think of a way to warm up.

London Book Fair

I was at the Harbourside Market in Bristol at the weekend with my stall - selling my illustrations and other hand made delights and I was visited by a very lovely Chinese lady.  She invited me to the Chinese Forum at the London book fair as she said they are looking for people just like me!  So a few of us from Brillustration are going on a school trip to the London Book Fair!  I've never been before and I'm really excited.

Here are the two new prints I had on sale at the weekend.

printing monsters

                                        

Today I have been printing using the equipment at the drawn in bristol studio where I have a desk.  It's the first time I've done it on my own and once I got the hang of it there was no stopping me - not even the fact that the ink soaked through 2 layers of my clothing and I'm more inky than the paper.  No surface is left uncovered... the monsters have taken over!  

here are some of the finished critters

monster making

I have been making lots of eyes for my monsters as they will hopefully be on sale in the June and July session of paper scissors stone in cabot circus, bristol.  I realised I'd better pull my finger out and get stocked up!

This is where the little socks get their personalities, faces and rice for their insides.  then they are piled up on the floor while they patiently wait for their name tags.

the big scribble

as a member of brillustration I was invited to take part in the big scribble at ashton gate primary school.  a large roll of paper was taped to the floor and children and illustrators were let loose with pens and crayons.  a lot of it actually ended up on the paper - result!