Circus of Illustration

The Circus of Illustration is an illustration group I belong to in Bedford. We are professional doodlers who meet up once a month for a chit-chat and to plan workshops in our area. We assign each other little drawing tasks too. This month we had to draw each other. We picked a name from a hat and I got Katy Dynes, aka Kitty Dinners! She's the smiley funny red-head of the group.

Medieval Fair Part 1

During the May bank holiday the Bedford members of The Circus of Illustrators are putting together a little exhibition. Over the Easter break I have been working on a couple of themed pieces for the gallery wall and I've just finished the first character. I'm working on a princess to go with him so they can hang together side by side. I drew him in pen, scanned in my sketch book and coloured him up using photoshop and painter.

The Circus of Illustration

If you use facebook, we have a page: Circus Of Illustration We are trying to bring local illustrators together to run drawing events & exhibitions for our local community. This trapeze artist is my contribution to a project that our group are working on at the moment.

Just a Jester Illustration

It's Sunday, it's raining... What do you do? Do some doodling whilst watching 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold' of course. My boyfriend suggested a jester character. I decided to stick to pencil and watercolours. It's a very soft image, I wonder if I should start using a black pen to do my outlines? I've totally lost the plot when it comes to using real paints, I've been using the computer to do my day to day artwork for so long, I finding welding a paintbrush a bit baffling!

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.

100 followers: Thank you!

Today I have discovered that I have 100 fellow bloggers following this blog. Thank you so much for your support! It's great to know that there are people out there who are reading my rambles!
I've photographed some more embroidered illustrations. I'm still experimenting and not everything is a success, but I'm enjoying the process.

Illustration Friday: POPULARITY

The bear mayor was re-elected due to overwhelming popularity. His policy on keeping honey tax low and increasing spending on the picnic basket budget was very popular with the voters.
This was a quick illustration I did specifically for illustration friday in photoshop.

Circus coming to Bedford

The Bedfordian illustrators team who created the We Are Bedford: Monster Event for the Big Draw back in October, have decided to create another themed illustration event for Bedford in the summer. We are still finalising details, but I am so exciting about doing another doodle day in my home town I've started doing some homework. These are drawings I did in watercolour and ink, but the characters are from one of my favourite books: The Great Alphabet Race illustrated by Tom O' Sullivan. There's plenty of inspiration in there as the next theme will be based on the circus.

Machine Embroidery: Tween designs

I was asked to do some mini machine embroidery design for Ashlea at Bunnycup. I made them a bit gothy, but as cute as I could! It's the sort of thing I liked when I was eleven years old. They are little, only 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches, but if you are a machine embroidery enthusiast, you can get larger applique versions of these designs to use for your craft projects too.

February Issue of The Bedford Clanger

The Bedford Clanger is now published and can be picked up for free in independent cafes, shops, pubs and businesses in Bedford. I do all the design work for the paper. It's the monthly cultural bulletin for Bedford. In March we aim to increase the paper to 12 pages, so I'll be busy, but it's worth doing as small towns like Bedford actually have more creatives here than you think and they deserve to be celebrated. You can read it online here too!

Illustration Friday: FORWARD

This is a sketch I eventually worked up into a birthday card a few weeks ago for work. It's a centre-forward soccer bear being whistled at by the mouse referee. Not sure why he's been yellow carded! Most of the work I do during the day are cute characters and I love my job so much! At the moment I'm working on cute Christmas designs.

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!

Illustration Friday: GROUNDED

I have never been grounded, but if I had grades like this whilst I was at school I think my parents would have grounded me. This little digital sketch took me about 45 minutes to do and hopefully Illustration Friday will help me throughout the new year to keep me doodling and updating my blog.

crochet baby blanket

This is a blanket I have made for my sister who is due to have her baby in May 2012. I chose neutral colours as she doesn't want to know the sex of her baby until the little thing comes out. It's a really snuggly blanket and it was perfect to make in December. As it got bigger and bigger it was covering more of my lap so it was keeping me very warm as I was crocheting it. I hope she likes her Christmas present.

The December issue of The Bedford Clanger

The Bedford Clanger is now available online to read this month. Just click here! This month was a great one to do the layouts for as Erica had written an article about a new photography gallery that has just opened it's doors in Bedford. Rock City Art showcases the best rock photography from the 70s onwards so it was great going through their work, choosing my favourite snaps and placing these amazing images in the page layouts.
We Are Bedford's pop up emporium also gets a fair bit of coverage and rightly so! It's opened until the 17th December. It's a temporary shop stocked exclusively by Bedford made or designed goods.
Lastly, look out for my corny christmas cracker-esque jokes I penned for this issue. They are truly awful, but they link in with the articles featured on each page.

Craft Fair at St. Cuthbert's

On Saturday I was at St. Cuthbert's Hall in Bedford sharing a stall with my two chums Tracey and Gemma. We were selling some of our handmade Christmas decorations.
I was selling some crochet discs that I had stiffened and threaded with ribbons, some little birds, embroidered trees and illustrated soldier characters as hanging decorations. Gemma was selling some origami stars (one made from over 30 pieces of individually cut pieces of paper). Tracey stole the show with her amazing felt decorations. Her gingerbread men flew off the stall and even appeared in the local newspaper. They were beautifully stitched and all had gorgeous little beaded details and ribbon. The day was a success, there were lots of stalls all selling lovely gifts for Chrimbo and all made by Bedfordians.

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.

Sketch of new Embroidery Design

This is my fisherman character that I have created and have started to embroider. I traced the image onto plainweave fabric using my window as a light box (luckily it was sunny). I bought a bunch of shiny embroidery threads from ebay, but they aren't the best quality, you really do get what you pay for in life. I'm having a lot of trouble with their ends fraying, but once this guy is finished I''ll post him so you can see how he shapes up.

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.

Pixies at Christmas

Ashlea at Bunnycup Embroidery has been super busy stitching out various doodles I've sent her for her Christmas rush. I drew a set of 12 'Christmas Pixies' and here are just 4 all stitched out. If you have an embroidery machine these would might look cute on stockings or as a fun festive way to spruce up an item of clothing for your own little pixie in the family.