May Bootcamp with Lilla Rogers - Editorial

This month's mini was to draw people and faces, looking at dolls for inspiration. I think dolls are a bit less scary than drawing real people and I suppose it's easy to find something which appeals to you. So here are some of my doll doodles! (My daughter enjoyed getting some of her dolls out and drawing them with me).
So, the big assignment was an editorial piece, a full page magazine illustration about Meditating, about someone who is struggling to find the time to meditate - and doesn't really like doing it! I was a bit stuck to begin with as I've never done any editorial work. I also don't know a lot about meditating either. I wanted to use my original sketches, including this cat toy. I thought perhaps the meditating woman could be distracted by her cat. This was my slant on the brief, I tried to make it 'mine'!

Remembering Jack

Unfortunately we lost our big, lovely boy cat Jack this week. He was only 3, but I think he had a happy life even if it was short. :(  He was quite cheeky, and ate a lot! I remembered this moment when the hubby had baked a quiche and left it to cool on the side. When he came back to check it, Jack had eaten about a quarter of it. He did have his naughty moments, but he was such a gorgeous cat. We'll miss him lots xxx

Jolly jellies (for Bootcamp)

This month for Lilla Roger's Bootcamp we were asked to research jelly, jelly moulds and other desserts.  I've had quite a busy month and was struggling with what to do with my jelly mould sketches. I managed to get stuck in this week and I quite enjoyed it. The end designs were to be for bolt fabric. I decided to make it quite fun, as jelly is brightly coloured. I might still have a play around with other colours and a few co-ordinating fabrics.

Lilla's Bootcamp

I decided to take part in Lilla Roger's Bootcamp, as I think it's good to keep pushing yourself to try different things creatively. Our first project for February was to draw cuckoo clocks, and then from those drawings to create a phone cover design. I really enjoyed this, as I would never have even thought about drawing a cuckoo clock, and the palette which Lilla suggested was one which also I wouldn't have chosen myself. So the challenge was to come up with something which you would buy. This is my final submission for Bootcamp, I could have gone on forever with it, but you have to stop at some point!

Make art that sells

Today I have gone back to school! To Lilla Roger's Studio School, to do Part B of the course 'Make Art that sells'. A 5 week intensive e-course!
I do already make art that sells, and I sort of hesitated a bit, but I thought about it, and my reasons are;

* It's always good to keep learning (my grandma would agree with this, she is 86 and still learns languages)
* Many artists, including myself work from home, and sometimes you need a bit of a boost, being pushed out of your comfort zone type-of-thing!
* I want to improve and sell more work
* It's always nice to (virtually) meet new people who do the same type of work as you - I'm making new friends
* It's good to try out new markets

So I'm trying to squeeze all these things in, along with my own work and housework etc..... but I think it will be worth it!

Happy Summer Holidays!

Happy Summer Holidays! I'm hoping it stays sunny for a bit as we are staying in the UK - fingers crossed!

Work Companion

Gosh, I can't believe how long it is since my last blog post! As you can see by the messy desk I've been busily working away trying to earn a crust! I'm honoured to have the company of my big boy cat Jack today. This is very rare, he is a bit wild, he never sits on anyone's knee, and we don't really see him that much. So, today it's been lovely to have him here purring away (even though he is slightly in the way)

Lovely day

It's a lovely day today, and I'm busy with design-work, but I keep having a few minutes outside hanging washing and other exciting stuff. Hopefully this is properly the start of Spring....

Boy's Bedding

I found some of my boy's designs which I did for my lovely agent at Just Kids It's always nice to see how they look on a bed.

Wishing for some warmth....

I think I must be wishing for Spring - this is something I have been working on today, and my last design was a floral too. But, it's forecast for snow, so I will have to wait a bit longer!

Spots & stripes

I decided to enter the current Tigerprint Competition, just for fun as it appealed to me. http://tigerprint.typepad.com/competition/spots-stripes.html I'm really loving all the blues that seem to be  on trend for interiors. I always find it difficult to find nice wrapping paper that would work for men or women.

Sewing Mad!

Father Christmas brought this rather lovely purple sewing machine for my 9 year old daughter Lois, and she LOVES it! She's hardly stopped sewing since she had her first go. All her toys are getting beds and pillows, and I think she will be a proper seamstress quite soon!

Happy New Year!

Just a few days late, but I've finally got round to doing a Happy New Year blog post! All the best for 2013 to my blog friends, hope it's a good one!!!

I'm back!

I'm back! I have been extremely busy....for ages!
It's been Christmas (and I had a lovely family one, but very busy!)
I also had poorly children before Christmas, so not much work being done.
I had lots of work to try and catch up on because of one of us always having coughs, colds, noro-virus etc....
We are also having work done on the house, so lots of builders around.
I also have a lovely new agent, who I have been trying to get some designs done for http://www.janemosse.co.uk/
But anyway, nice to get back to the old, neglected blog!

A bit noisy!

We are having a bit of essential work done on the house at the mo. Chimney rebuilt, as it was wobbly, some new windows, as they were a bit rotten, stuff replaced, re-painted, pointed etc... The road is also being dug up to check the water pipes. The builder keeps saying "Well you will go buying these victorian houses!" It's all a bit stressful!!!! Grrrrr.....

By the Sea

 I've found this lovely range by Northcott (http://www.northcott.net/) taken from a design of mine. It's always nice to see how the end product will look.

Beautiful butterflies

What a beautiful day! Our garden is full of butterflies and I just managed to snap this one before it flew off. I think I feel a butterfly design coming on.....

Cakes, cakes, cakes!

This is a special post for one of my daughter's very best friends, Abby. (I know she likes reading my blog) Abby had a cake-decorating Birthday party yesterday, and I think a great time was had by all! The best bit for me was that Lois came back with 6 lovely cupcakes......Mmmmmm

Chocolate mousse

Well, Green Man Festival was a tad muddy. The kids called it chocolate mousse, we have been cleaning 'chocolate mousse' off everything for the last 3 days. I enjoyed some bits, but it was a real shame about the weather, it would have been completely different, and much easier if we had a bit more sun. I really appreciate my home comforts after camping!

Green Man Festival

Well we must be absolutely potty as the weather is horrendous today, but we are heading down to Wales with the kids for Green Man Festival. We have everything but the kitchen sink in the car, and really hoping for a bit of dry weather. We had to abandon ship one year as the tent flooded, fingers crossed it won't happen again!