Tuesday 5 July 2011

Back to work!

Well since my last blog post, I haven't done much in the way of illustrating! Mainly because I was finishing up some uni work, and also, because we now have a little pest to look after. Her name is Violet, and I think she might just be the subject of an illustration some time soon.
I finally got back into listing more items in the shop today though. There's now tonnes of big glossy pendants that have my illustrations inside - they're a really modern alternative to cameos, and you can see them by clicking the big yellow shop button on the right.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Key-wah-wah!

Today, inbetween eating hundreds of white chocolate cookies and drinking so much Diet Irn Bru that I think I might be turning slightly orange, I managed to list some new items in my Folksy shop.

I've made tonnes of different keyrings, but the one that I use on my keys is this little chihuahua. If you feel that you need a tiny little guard dogs for your housekeys, you can find them here.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

I should be so lucky...

As well as a whole load of other rubbish I hoard, I also have an excellent collection of maneki neko ornaments. More commonly seen in Chinese takeaways, I have a whole host of lucky cats that I rely on to bring me wealth and fortune! I've got white cats, gold cats, black cats, cats that move, fat cats, scowling cats... allsorts really.

A while ago I did a quick watercolour&felt pen drawing of one of my lucky cats, and yesterday I decided to spruce it up a bit in Illustrator. It's still not right, but I think I might change it some more and make it into a lino print when my new supplies get here!








Monday 9 May 2011

Summer, summer, summertime!

Recently, I've been frantically trying to write about why you shouldn't use a cat to make a painting, because that's the topic I chose for my dissertation at uni! Whilst I slightly regret my choice of subject now, I am more than delighted that it's now all handed in, and it's pretty much officially, the summer holidays. It'll be good to have some more time to spend on my own ideas for drawings rather than coursework drawings, and something I'm looking forward to is doing some lino printing.

The picture on this post is my very first go at multi colour lino printing, using the reduction method, which is when you have just one block and between printing each colour, you carve away more of the lino. I'm not very good at lining up the tiles between prints (or any fiddly, accurate things, for that matter!) so I'm only going to be attempting 2 colour prints for the time being, but I've ordered up some inks and rollers &I'm looking forward to some printing!


Thursday 31 March 2011

Magnetic


Recently I seem to be obsessed with getting artwork into every area of the home, and as inexpensively as I can. I think it would be great to have a house full of amazing originals, but for now, I'm content with these little magnets! They cost just £2 each and are available from my shop link to the right. Perfect for the fridge, filing cabinet, memo boards, the list goes on!

Friday 25 March 2011

Cardy

Sometimes if you've just moved home, all your cash has suddenly disappeared into fridges, couches and things that you didn't even know what they were (an extractor fan?), but you still need to decorate your new pad and make it your own! An idea that some people on a lower budget have come up with, is to frame my illustrated greetings cards! Ok, so they're not in full colour, but they still look cute in some inexpensive frames either from a charity shop, Ikea, or even the pound shop! I have cards available in my folksy shop (see the link to the right!) and they are available at just £1.50.


Tuesday 15 March 2011

Stocked up!


So finally, I got round to putting some items in my Folksy shop! I had forgotten just how time consuming it can be to take photos of things, edit the snaps, and then go about writing a description before completing the listings! I still have a whole load of other things to be listed, but for now, go have a look!


Monday 28 February 2011

Pop up shop!

Next week, starting from Monday I'll have a pop up shop over at The Life Craft, which is a place you can go to learn all kind of crafty things as well as pick up some supplies to get you going. I'll have a full range of products available, including a whole load of new pendants that have my illustrations inside, and hopefully my new canvasses that I mentioned in the last post!

The pop up shop will be there from the 7th til the 13th of March, so make sure to come by for a look if you can!

Sunday 27 February 2011

Dias los Muertos!


I've just sent away for a whole load of my illustrations to be printed onto canvas, and I think this one is my favourite. Can't wait to see how they look once they're all finished and ready to hang!

Monday 24 January 2011

Flatface

I'm not sure why, but a lot of people think that if I got a dog, it'd be something tiny that I could fit in my handbag. However, if I were to get a dog, it'd be the most butch dog I could get my hands on! I'd get it a studded collar and maybe one of those doggy biker jackets that I saw on eBay. That way, both the dog and I could go out dressed like Cher. I would either get a staffy dog (have you seen the one on YouTube who eats fruit with a fork?) or a bull terrier like the one in this drawing I did today. What do you think? Butch enough to pull off a Cher outfit?


Friday 21 January 2011

New stock

After a good few days of round the clock battling with my printer (printers are something I never seem to have much luck with, no matter which printer, which media or what I'm printing!) I've got together a whole bunch of new stock for taking with me to Sloans Market.

I decided to go ahead with a new style of packaging - backing cards on everything and cellophane bags, and for those of you who had previously seen the keyrings &magnets etc, I hope you'll agree that this was a good move!

Another change is that now I have greetings cards with an actual greeting on them! I still have cards with no wording on them, but I've now introduced ones with 'Happy Birthday!' on them too, as well as some new cameo-esque designs which I'm really happy with. The cards come in various colours, including some fancy lustre finishes and are priced at just £1.

Monday 17 January 2011

Pugly


A little while ago, I took the plunge and started to offer my illustrations for sale as prints. I mounted hundreds of prints, made matching keyrings and magnets, got myself a table at a fair, and then turned into a complete nervous wreck! It's one thing sending your illustrations away by email, or meeting up with someone to hand over an illustration they've specifically asked for, but suddenly it seemed pretty daunting to put yourself out there for public viewing. Fortunately, I didn't have to worry and within a few minutes of setting all my things out, I sold a drawing of a chihuahua (and breathed a massive sigh of relief!). Since then, I've been selling my prints weekly at a market, and expanded into not only prints, but greetings cards and jewellery with my illustrations embedded inside. The chihuahua has remained a popular little dog, but every week I would get asked for a pug. I've only ever seen one pug in real life, and at the same time, a little boy saw it and shouted "AAH! It's a monster!", and to be fair, I do kind of see his point. So, here is my go at a little pug, and hopefully, I'll have his wrinkly snout on t shirts soon too!