Some new work

Quote from one of my favourite films- Little Miss Sunshine

Just a round up of some of my latest illustrations. Been having lots of fun on these recently.

Lady in a hat

Just thought I'd share my latest completed illustration with you guys. I'm quite pleased with this one. It's one of the most striking images I've done for a while. Now I want to do more!

At the top is an image all three colour ways I tried. I struggled to decide which one to go for, and thought they looked quite nice all lined up together. Now I want blue hair too!

Valentine's Commission

Sorry for the silence recently, I am a bit rubbish at keeping up with all things online related of late!

I was asked to do a 'retro' style portrait of a couple for Valentine's Day, a brilliant commission to receive and so much fun. This is what I came up with. Hopefully I'll get more commissions like this in the future.

Robot Tower

I started a new job several weeks ago, and it's full time, so it is more difficult getting to do the chance do any illustrations. Especially with trying to finish off the digital magazine, Air Monkeys, that me and my husband run with a few friends.

So the long and short of it, is that it has taken me a very long time to get this one done!

It is my first attempt at using perspective on Illustrator, I'm still running CS3 at the moment, so it is a bit limited on perspective options. It was more of a challenge than I expected it to be, and I still didn't get it bang on, but I'm fairly happy with it.

some new work

Just a short round up of some of my recent work.

This pattern was designed as part of a tutorial I did for Digital Artists Magazine. The tutorial is in issue 31 that is out now.

The idea behind this, was the feeling that there is nothing better than coming home to be greeted by a big hug, be it from your other half, pet or even a friendly furry monster.

Ok, so not the first time this play on words has been used, but with the arrival of spring I felt like doing an image of some dancing bees!

Lots of lovely goodies!

I was lucky enough to have an envelope full of goodies waiting for me when we got back from our holiday. They all came courtesy of the very talented and hardworking Armadillo boy (Jason Smith) go find more about him and his awesome work here

He is also running a very special project called the Oh GOSH project  in which he has rounded up a fine selection of artists and illustrators to created pages for a colouring in book and accompanying posters. All funds raised from the project will go to the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

The big vinyl sticker he sent has already found it's way on to our campervan!

ups and downs

 Last week was a week of ups and downs, as many are when you are trying to carve out a creative career for yourself! I had a great time visiting 2 youth groups in the Birmingham area, and delivering workshops for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Although it is difficult when a lot of the people who you are leading look older than you! (for those that don't know, I am actually 24, but am small in stature and constantly get told I look 18) I met some real characters, who I am looking forward to meeting again next week.

I also had to interviews for Creative Practitioner jobs, one at a primary and one at a secondary. Unfortunately I didn't get either, but had fun delivering the taster workshops. So time to dust myself down, and keep applying and keep working on my own practice. The scary thing is that these jobs will probably not exist next year, as it's quite obvious that whoever wins the election next week, it is going to be initiatives like the Creative Partnership projects that get their funding cut. Which will be a real shame, but I am afraid it is probably inevitable.

But on to happier things, I have begun a small project with a confectionary company, and have also created some new characters, and also created some new sketches of one of my favourite characters, which will be getting the digital treatment any time soon.

Expect to see more from these four friends in the future!

I have decided to do a series of Millie with a pin-up girl style slant. I love the old pin-up girl illustrations. They truly do depict 'glamour' girls! really it is an insult that people like Jordan, or sorry should I say Katie Price get described as glamourous when that couldn't be further from the truth. 

Images such as the one above by Alberto Vargas. They depict a glamour of a by-gone era, and the images are normally sexy and teasing, rather than in-your-face and brainless, like the fodder seen on the likes of delights such as 'nuts' and 'zoo' magazine!