Little Princes

With the recent high profile birth of royal baby George it was a lucky coincidence that my newest set of embroidery designs for Bunnycup were cute little prince characters. 12 designs in all, and fit for all baby boys (lets face it, every baby is special, right?!). They'd look sweet on baby blankets, baby bags, tees and onesies. My favourite one is the little prince with the horse.

Viking Embroidery

Recently I completed some cute Viking characters for Ashlea to embroider at Bunnycup. I was watching a Disney film called "Tangled" for inspiration. Most people with children of a certain must have seen it! It's based on the Rapunzel fairy tale and there's a really fun scene in it where she is at a rough 'n' tough inn full of viking style characters. Of course, it being a Disney film (and not Game of Thrones) she charms them with a song. Hopefully you'll find these little dudes charming too. These are some of my favourite designs!

Yesterday I watched another animation called "How to Train Your Dragon" and that was FULL of Viking characters! Shame I didn't watch that whilst I was doing these drawings.

Karate kids embroidery designs

Here are three of twelve little illustrations I've just finished for Ashlea at Bunnycup Embroidery. They are karate kids. Ashlea will eventually stitch them out using her amazing skills on her digitzed embroidery machine and make them available to download for other embroidery hobbyists to use in their projects.

Tattooed Lady Embroidery

This is an embroidery of a tattooed lady, I imagine her as a performer at the circus. She may be a contortionist or a magician's assistant. I drew the line illustration as I was thinking of characters for the circus themed illustration exhibition we are planning on hosting in Bedford later this year. She ended up looking good enough to stitch.

More Crewel Embroidery

Here is my latest hand stitched crewel work with my original sketch so you can see my starting point. I basted some soluble fabric onto the material, with my sketch traced on in washable fabric marker. It took flippin' ages to finish!

fisherman embroidery

Here is the finished fisherman embroidery from the sketch I posted before. I love the way his eyes and beard have been stitched out. The thread is so shiny but my camera isn't great! I took the pictures in natural light, but the colour and depth of the textures have been lost in these images. If my aim is to avoid using computers to illustrate during my 'out-of hours' work time, it's no surprise that something created without the screen needs to be seen in 'real-life' without a screen. Next problem is to work out how to frame these pieces in the right way.

Hand-Stitched Embroidery

I had this week off work, so I decided to avoid technology and get hands-on with some sewing. I had a whole list of things to do, but I got some amazing art books for my birthday and they were so inspiring, I could not resist the lure of the hoop.
For my birthday I received Push Stitchery by Mr. X Stitch. A collection of contemporary fiber artists. I was so impatient to pick up my needle and thread after reading through the book.
After two days of stitching I finished this embroidery of a girl's face. A self portrait really, but she's miles prettier than the real me. This piece has been influenced by Jenny Hart, who is an amazing embroiderer and illustrator. I love the way she mixes up the way she stitches. Chains for hair strands, knots for textures in the background.
Also, Catalina Estrada for her use of symmetry and cuteness that echoes throughout all her painted and graphic work.

Drawing with stitches

As a full time digital illustrator, drawing at a computer for around 9 hours a day makes you sick of staring at a screen. In the evening and weekends, I try not to switch on the mac.
My day job as a cute greeting cards artist is fun, but I want to start creating artworks in my free time without the burden of using a computer. I decided to use a sewing machine to doodle. I've tried painting in the past, but time and space is sparse and I can't be doing with all that clearing and cleaning nonsense with messy brushes.

Bugs and Gymnasts

It's been a long while since my last post, but here are a sample the latest embroidery projects available by me at Bunnycup.

Owl Embroidery

I have been so lazy this summer, my blog is so out of date! Over at Bunnycup embroidery, Ashlea has been busier than ever and she has a new set of cute owls on her site. She's made them look so trendy and bright with her choice of colours. I would love one on some pjs!

Bear Embroidery

This is my second attempt at some hand-stitched embroidery. I've used some little blue beads to embellish parts of the bear. I used the colonial knot to make the eyes and I think they have come out too big, so will have to use a smaller knot in future.

Hand-Embroidered Ferret

I have been looking at some illustrations by Jenny Hart recently and it inspired me to go out and do some hand embroidery. This ferret is from my sketchbook, a drawing that developed into the ferret toy that I made. I just traced the image in pencil straight onto some material. The stitches were thick enough to cover the pencil marks. It was addictive and I'm in the process of stitching out another character from my sketchbook.

Cat embroidery designs

The latest set of Bunnycup embroidery designs have been drawn. 12 cute cats in this set in a variety of different kitty markings and situations, just need to wait and see how they stitch out!

Autumn Cuties

Four cuties from a set of twelve especially for autumn for machine embroidery projects. They are from Bunnycup Embroidery.

Conceited Little Critters

I think these two have a haughty look to their hand-embroidered faces. Jack thinks they're nonchalant but I don't think they're apathetic little things... I think they're looking down their noses.

Three Russian dolls

These three Russian doll images are part of a set of twelve for a digital embroidery design range for Ashlea over at Bunnycup. The whole set is shaping up and looking great and I hope she's going to love them! I spent the day doing this because it's been snowing and I have a bit of a cold. It's a public holiday today too, but I really just needed to stay in, but I had to be productive. I can't ever just sit and do nothing. Jack is at the pub now, but I didn't want to go with him and venture into the arctic conditions for a cold beer.

Oh! And my sister had a baby boy today! He doesn't have a name yet, and I haven't been to visit because of my sniffles, but I can't wait to meet him. I hope he grows up like a music and computer games geek like me, rather than a sporty type! Ha ha!

Mermaids

After a roller-coaster of a week at the greeting cards studio, I think I can finally relax a bit. The studio is to be shut down in late June as they can't afford to keep it open, but my job as a cute illustrator is safe at least and I won't have to relocate, it is possible for me to do my regular day job from home. Phew! I am so relieved. It just would have been a real struggle if I was made redundant, but I feel such unhappiness because the designers at Poppy Hill Studio are just awesome folk and we are going to miss each other so much.

On a good note though, these black & white mermaid illustrations are new embroidery designs. I think these are great. I liked them so much I have added colour to my favourite one.