Saturday 16 December 2017

Pinecone Pattern

So I decided to add another pattern to my portfolio- this one's got a slightly wintery feel. My cousin's wedding had a pinecone theme, which was great- I've always loved collecting them on family walks in the autumn/ winter, and love their Nordic feel.

Saturday 9 December 2017

So Christmas is approaching!




Over the past few months I've created a series of activity sheets in an attempt to keep ticking on with illustration through a pretty low point in my life. I've made some cue cards and colouring sheets for my very young Chinese ESL learners.

Thinking back over the past year.

I created a series of drawings based on our trip to Japan in February, and here is one of them. I've had some set backs in my life lately, not the least of them being finding new ways to cope with my mother's illness, but I'm now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and I desperately need to get my career back on track.

Saturday 25 November 2017

Skill- the cat and the fiddle

I've been doodling different versions of this print for a while now, but I think that I like black and white work the best.
This is part of my new black and white OrCATstra series.

Saturday 4 November 2017

Illustration Friday- Women

It's been a while since I posted an image on my blog- I've had a lot on my mind.
This is sort of an Illustration Friday, sort of a vent. My mother was diagnosed with Superficial Siderosis, and this is kind of a coping illustration. Not really very scientific, but this is how I see my mother's memories- like a rose hidden in thorns. Difficult to get to.

The human body is a very fragile thing, just the slightest imbalance or foreign object can cause it to malfunction, and it's scary.

Friday 19 May 2017

Children's day

It's children's day in China on the 1st of June. So I made a greeting's card for my Chinese children.

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Patterns!

 April has been a fairly chaotic month- I've won a runner up prize for the Prince's Trust competition that I entered back in January- so there we go. An exhibition was going to be held on June the 8th in Shoreditch, but thanks to Theresa May's announcement, that has been postponed (possibly until the end of the summer).
I've also been designing more country themed patterns (& other designs), I will be opening up a shop on a country themed website set up my Mia Woodford, called 'By a Country Mile.'

Friday 24 March 2017

Illustration Friday- Snail



These are some sample snails from my children's stationery set. I thought that these would be perfect for this/ last week's Illustration Friday topic. It was a slightly quirky idea that I came up with in order to pitch to a Japanese sticker company that I had come across when we went to Japan last month (but unfortunately they have all their designs designed in house).

Thursday 16 March 2017

Stationery set



Recently I've been thinking of creating some sticker/ washi tape packages to licence out, and this is my latest realisation- Snail Race. I originally thought that I'd like to licence it out to a Japanese company that I came across in Tokyo, but so many many companies have their own in house designers, and it's tricky enough to find one that's the right fit.

Either way, I have a lot of stuff to get out there, so I'll just keep on plodding on!

Tuesday 7 February 2017

More new greeting card designs

 I think that it's time for one more blog update before we head off on our honeymoon (we're going to Japan shortly after the wedding). I designed some more greeting cards for my shop/ portfolio- I hope that they do well! When I get back (hopefully with some new material to inspire me!) I need to work on other aspects of my portfolio.

Tuesday 31 January 2017

Rose and Thistle Buttonhole

Another thing that I needed to get done was this- it's a rose and thistle buttonhole illustration; I'm getting married in a week and a bit, and these are going to go on my wedding favour bags. I feel that I may have gone a little crazy with the ink, but I am rather happy with how it's turned out.

Happy Chinese New Year! The Year of the Rooster


It feels as though it's officially 2017 now! Hurrah! I really love the Chinese Zodiac- it's definitely one of the more culturally romantic aspects of Chinese culture. Roosters, especially, have such vibrant colours- I couldn't resist! This year I'm going to try to procrastinate less, and get everything done!

Friday 6 January 2017

British Butterfly pattern


I designed this for a Prince's Trust retail brief. I don't have any expectation of winning, but it did get me focused on completing another project throughout the end of December and the very start of January. The butterflies were originally graphite pencil sketches that I then took into Photoshop, and did my thing with colouring them in. What frustrates me about this is that it always takes much MUCH longer than you'd expect. Even after doing an illustration degree I don't expect it to take as long as it does. I guess that all I can hope for is that it pays off!


OrCATstra



Some work for the sketchbook part of my website, and also some commissions that I'm undertaking. I created the top illustration of Gwendoline, my mother's cat for my sister's Christmas present. I am also making  commission slots available here.

My aim is to create a series of them. Originally the thought behind this was 'what if cats could busk?'