Red Work

Last week before the mac disaster (which thankfully seems to be resolved now) I completed some embroidery designs. They have been worked on in a style called redwork which is an outline stitch. I think the characters look really striking like this and I'm pleased with how the whole set have turned out. Pretty cute, but not too corny! All 9 characters can be seen at Bunnycup Embroidery. I was just really pleased with the results and wanted to share it!

Dead Mac!

Yup, that's right. My mac is dead. Its currently being revived by magical computer wizards who know all about that type of technical mumbo jumbo. Here are some embroidery designs that I did recently before disaster struck. Stupid computers. I hope he gets well soon though.

Buzz

Buzzy bees flying around a bouquet of posies. Don't fret though, they are friendly bees and they're only interested in gathering pollen to make tasty honey for honey monsters like me. They won't sting the cute little girl. Its only nasty wasps that do that. Boy, I hate wasps, they're pretty horrible.

Girl in snow

And now she has a pretty wintry scene too. I also added some textures to her face and hat but its hard to tell on the picture as the resolution knocks out the detail.

Work In progress

Here is a work in progress of a little festive picture I've been doing. It needs a nice wintry background next, with pretty snowflakes too!
Last night the xmas tree went up along with the home-made decorations. Next is the repetitive task of wrapping up all those pressies.

Merry Christmas!

Hello out there! Merry Christmas and I hope y'all have a very wonderful new year. I haven't been updating my blog like I should, but it has been a very busy time for me recently. Lots of work to do and Christmassy things to organise. Anyways, I'll make it a resolution to try and update this blog more regularly in 2007!

Christmas Card Blunder

I thought it'd be a good idea to make my own Christmas cards this year and half way through this attempt I knew it wasn't going to work... However I read somewhere that you should always finish your projects, so I preserved and I still don't like it. Ha! I should have stuck with a comfortably safe snowman or 'Lil Baybeee Jeeesus (Aw bless!).

Amateurillustrator.com Article

Ingmar Zahorsky, one of the three administrators over at amateurillustrator, has used a screenshot of my website for an article about building a website and establishing an identity online. Its a good overview for beginners and can be viewed over at
www.amateurillustrator.com/articles/.

Black and Orange

This is my entry for the Black and Orange collaboration gallery for Halloween. Seven of us are going to a secluded English country cottage this weekend for birthday fun and Halloween antics. I hope it doesn't get too spooky.

Ghost girl and Cat monster

Halloween is approaching and the theme for Illustration Friday is ghost, so here is my effort. I don't understand my cat obsession at the moment. I keep putting them in my drawings. "Hmmm, what does it need.... Heck, it needs a cat!" I've even got Cat girl in this issue of Creaturemag too and you really must take a look because its a pretty nice website with loads of nice quirky artwork (much better than mine), photography and little puppets n toys to coo at.

I'm Really Stupid

Listen to your teacher. They always used to go on and on about checking your work. Its actually sound advice. I didn't realise until just right now that the contact email address on my website was one letter out... How dumb am I? All that spam about discount watches and viagra that I've missed out on. I'm totally kicking myself. What if somebody out there actually liked my work and wanted to tell me? How many opportunities have been missed? I'll never know now dammit!
Anyways here are some roughs for a logo. It's for my chum whose new music adventure is called Brainwig.
Bloody email....

Illustrated Tapestry

This here is my submission for the AOI illustrated tapestry. Based on the theme of love and affection. Unfortunately for me I've got a heavy load of work on at the moment... Good for money, but not good for personal development, so there'll be no time for birds in hats or bogg girls for a while, which makes me very sad because I get a lot of enjoyment from doing my own thing in my spare time. Couldn't turn my nose up at a bit of well needed extra cash though. My new website is up and running too. Looks better than before and I've learnt a bit about web design too.

More Wolf People Stuff

Mister Bogg has been very busy being cooped up playing with all his retro musical gadgetry. Then someone from the new Battered Ornaments label heard it and liked it so much they decided to release it on gorgeous vinyl complete with a well flash picture on the front.

Birds In Hats... Are back!

Thanks to the enigmatic, Zetty Boins who emailed me this photo of a very lovely sparrowhawk-barrow-boy creature thingy. Isn't he luverly? I take my hat off to you, Zetty!
The birdies will make a return, I know a lot of folks like them, but I want to reinvent them a bit... I'm still working on that in my sketchbook. Also, I have to sort out my website because it needs a mammoth make-over and my skills are pretty limited. I'm doing my homework though, so hopefully my next attempt at showcasing my doodles to the world will look a tad more professional (if I'm lucky!)

Phobia

Yeah that's right! Domesticated cats have a phobia of water yet little girls still insist on bathing them... Everyone knows that! They look so silly when they are drenched and pretty sorry for themselves too. Mwah ha ha!

I should also mention that catgirl will be in the next issue of Creaturemag, which I'm really excited about! Creaturemag is a quartely online magazine with lovely folky undertones, where it shows pretty lovely things. Things that people took pleasure in creating just for the joy of creating it. Hope that makes sense. I've had 2 Leffes and 2 glasses of red wine so I'm a tad fuzzy. Sorry.

Digital Show and my first interview!

A couple of my pieces can be seen in an online digital show from September 16th - November 26th 2006. So click on this here link and check out all the cool stuff on there.

Also, I have just done an online/email based interview about my work and quiet life for a design magazine based in Taiwan called Freedom Magazine . The magazine explores and shares the experiences of people around the world in all aspects of the design industry. They also report some interesting things (like special hotels or fantastic shops...etc) from around the world. They aim to make their readers feel free and widen their view which I think is great. I don't know when it will be published, but it will all be in Chinese so I'll just have to look at the pretty pictures!

Pandagirl

I've had a quiet day today, so I finished another piccie in the same style as the previous post. Besides that, I've been playing Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo DS, knitting my luscious green scarf (its very long now) and clearing my wardrobe out. Yawn! How boring. I have the pop quiz at the pub tonight though, so that might be entertaining (gawd, I must be getting old). *sigh* I can't help thinking that this weekend has been an uneventful blip but at least I have done lots of nice drawings.

Change

For the first time in ages, my doodling and messing around on the mac at home has conjured up a character I feel kind of proud about. Its a change of style, but as I flick through my sketchbook I find that its also natural evolution. I like the way the background is influenced by my experience of card design working for Riverdale Publishing and how the textures I started to use in previous posts has progressed and I'm using them in a more sophisticated way. She is still cute though! I suppose I can't help myself! And Japanese-esque. I lurve Japanese character art. I picked up my Yoshitomo Nara postcard book before starting this and it shows. He also uses a lot of texture in his paintings. Even the kitty is cute, though he has a moody little face on him.

Little card

This is a card I made for Tony's girlfriend, Agnieszka. I can post it now as it was her birthday yesterday and the surprise won't be ruined! I hope she liked it. A narrative project I was involved with has now been finished called Layerbylayer which is part of the increasingly popular startastory website and I have some work in the digital show for the Liverpool Biennial, but the site isn't ready until Friday, so I will post a link then.

Safe

Its another bird in a hat! Surprise! This was scribbled super quickly, so its a bit rough around the edges and the magpie has a head that looks more like a duck's. I suppose I should think about some sort of direction as to where I should go with my increasing collection of birds, but for now I'm just enjoying the fun of it.

Its September, its colder, its darker and as my wardrobe mostly consists of scarf and cardigan I thought I'd try my hand at knitting. So far I'm doing pretty well and hopefully I'll have a lovely long dark green scarf to swish about in about a week. Yay!

Finally, there is the Forgotten Sausage. If you would like to listen to songs about sausages and maybe submit your own (again, just for fun) then check out the bloomin' hilarious

Forgotten Sausage!