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!

Green Man

I've been away at the Green Man folk festival in Wales and it was pretty marvelous although a tad wet and scary in my little tent on the first stormy night. It gradually brightened up though and the music was great and the people who I camped with were very very lovely indeed. I just wish I was still there, but imagine how stinky I'd be by now... And my hair would be crawling. Highlight of the festival for me would be a film we watched in the cinema tent called Vali. Its a "documentary" about a 1960s witchy reclusive who lived in some grotto in Italy and freaked out the local children with her hippy attire and orange birds nest hair-do. She also had a wild/pet fox (don't ask, but she like rubbing her face in his fur). Ahh cute. Apart from the fleas, of course. And she collected really ugly dolls. And she was probably the most bizarre lady I have ever seen. I wonder what she's doing now?

I've been neglecting my little blog and there's an increasing back log of little projects that I'd said I'd do for people. Argh! Sorry!

Yet another bird in a hat

It turns out that there are many people out there with a love for birds in hats! I have to mention Lisa's photos of pigeons in hats because they are hilarious click here to see her blog. This ostrich was created from a variety suggestions I've received from previous posts and has some flash accessories too. I'm toying with a drawing of a "birds-in-hats" wedding photograph. Imagine them all posing outside a bird box/ birdy church, but that'll take bloomin' ages and I wonder if I'll actually have the time and patience! I've a few other drawings I need to finish first though. Hey-ho, always busy busy busy!

Two budgies

Thanks to Penny for suggesting, budgie in a trilby. I don't know why but I find birds in hats all so amusing. I think I'm going to start adding colour to these critters, but they need to look more ridiculous! If anyone can help me out with more stupid/ genius combinations, that'll be great. Also, Garreth has kindly sent me a ludicrous link involving some sparrows dressed up looking stupid. I like it a lot.

Birds In Hats

Is an idea Jack had at the start of last week. Its not exactly an original idea, but it made me giggle and I'm fresh out of inspiration today so I thought I'd give it a whirl. There are all sorts of possibilities and combinations of birds in hats. Pigeon in a policeman's helmet is a bit cliched actually, as is macaw in a tricorn which was my second choice. Sparrow in a bowler hat and monocle might be cute... And what about a finch in a fez? Not as good as a monkey in a fez I know, but monkeys are harder to draw.
Any weird suggestions of birds in various hats would be gratefully received, ta!

Autumn in July

Its been so unbearably hot here recently, that I've little motivation to do anything constructive after work. There are wilting tired old trees near my flat with dry orangey brown leaves and freakishly early big spiky conkers on others. On my way to the studio, the flat Bedfordshire landscape looks pale. Everything looks like its given up because its just too darn hot and dry.
At work I'm going to start to figure out a convincing way to get a watercolour look because the watercolour brushes in Painter are a tad weird. I suppose I could just use real watercolours and scan the images in and tweak them digitally, but I feel like the challenge and I enjoy making my own brushes anyway. Actually, I'm bloody rubbish with a real paintbrush, it goes so well until the last moment, then I accidentally splodge the page with some stupid colour or spill my dirty water over my work. I've also had suicidal insects get stuck to my page and I end up trying to scratch them off, but I'm always left with a brown smear.

Jesus!

When my niece got baptised a few weeks ago, it was the first time I had been to a church for years and years. Still not sure why my sister decided to christen Sienna, perhaps she is more religious than she lets on.
Anyway, my point is, the stations of the cross are unbelievable! The images are so powerful and kind of scarey. Poor Jesus! I'm not really that religious myself, but I do like him, I like drawing him too ( I've drawn him before). He's a hippy for starters, maybe the first, and his hair and beard combination is pretty fashionable at the moment too, don't you think? Why do all the cool boys have long hair and beards? It's because of Jesus, what a trend setter!

Illustration Friday: Skyline

I think I could have worked on the sky a bit more, but I went swimming today and I didn't eat well, so my head is throbbing, my body aches and Lost has just started so I've kind of rushed it at the end. What a naughty girl. I like it though, so I'll come back and finish it properly one day.

A zombiegirl

Well! It has been brought to my attention recently that I am starting to slip into a world of cute! I blame this on my Nintendo upbringing... Super Mario and Mushroom Land have a lot to answer for. Anyways, I hope this satisfies the horror-lovers out there. If not, I'm sorry, I did my best!

At work I am working on some traditional floral greeting cards. I find painting flowers all day quite tranquil actually!
(Now where are my woolen slippers and knitting patterns?)

Bedford Italians

Apparantly there are 14,000 people of Italian origin living in Bedfordfordshire (that's why we have no stinkin' Starbucks because they'd get laughed out by our superior family-run authentic coffee shops) and if Italy win the world cup on Sunday they are all going to be down the Embankment waving flags out of their cars, tooting their horns and banging drums in celebration. Its great fun at the river when Italy win an important game and its been a Bedford tradition for many years. When we won the semis against Germany I was at the river with my pa and bro and half of the extended family along with many other Bedford Italians getting excited about being in the final!

The little Italian kids go nuts chanting and whistling and a lot of families go for the atmosphere and community spirit. There are some real characters too... Like the fiat500 with the salami and Italian bread taped to the bonnet of the car, the chap with the green white and red wig and matching frock and various others dressed for the occasion, draped in flags and azzuri blue. Its England's little Italy, I guess. And there's never any trouble because its family friendly, no pissed-up meat-heads getting aggressive, even though the police are present just in case. You can even get an ice-cream! Lord knows what the residents who live by the river must think.. Hey-ho, its only once every 4 years!

Anyway, it'll be great if we win because I don't remember 1982, and there's bound to be an amazing celebration if we beat the French! Perhaps I should change my name to Signora Bogg?

Too Hot!

Feeling rather delicate today after more summer party antics. England lost the football in the cruelest way as always, but I don't mind that much because due to my Italian heritage there is still a chance of world cup glory, at least for my family. And the Bedford mob haven't smashed up half the High Street either, so well done for loosing graciously, you goons.
The red hot blazing sun is not to my taste, it makes me grumpy and my back is uncomfortable and sticky. I've been playing around, adding a few new bits to my website and sticking my feet in washing-up bowls filled with cold water.

Wolf People: Stamp

Here is the stamp in action on the CD sleeve. I'm quite pleased with the results too! I'm also working on some nice splattery effects in painter. You can see my latest efforts here.

Startastory

Here is my submission for Startastory's "Layer by Layer". Its a collaborative web site where everyone chips in to make little cool narratives and pictures. In Layer By Layer each page is illustrated and written by someone different, and each image in the story is drawn on the layer above the previous one, so you'll have to go to the Startastory website to see my picture in context! And I encourage everyone to have a go because its jolly good fun.

And if you click here, you can see my submission for yourshout, another project from startastory.

Illustration Friday: Dance

I drew her about a month ago when I first started developing my bogg-style girlies. I like her wild green hair and the dreamy look on her face.

Wolf People

This is my first stamp design that will go on the cover for the new Wolf People release. Isn't that exciting? They are a great psychedelic garage band based in London and bedfordshire. Its available to buy at the Liverpool based Sea records

I'm quite fond of Jojo. He's the 1920s Russian wolf man circus freak who I based the design on. Thank you Jojo. You look like a wookie, but you're so sweet.

Jack's birthday

Is today! Here is the card I made for him. As it's coincidently our portraits I thought I could sneak it in the illustration Friday submission too. Crafty work huh?

Mazestock

Mazestock isn't a festival really. Its Jack's birthday party! We're all looking forward to camping out with a bonfire and barbecue and a lot of booze amongst a proper hedge maze! The weather looks good for the weekend and we have chums from the capital coming over to see what a field looks like (as they've probably forgotten).

The Hoo Hill maze is in sleepy Shefford in Bedfordshire and we all love it!!

Off work sick

...Because my right hand is in Pain City. I'm writing with my left hand whilst my other is bandaged up to my elbow. I've got to rest it until nursey can take a look at it. I think I've messed up a tendon in my hand from working too long without a break. Stupid tablet... I can't even hold a pencil without a shooting pain going up my right arm. I'm so bored and there's so much I wanted to work on over the weekend too. I tried doing some sudoku puzzles to pass the time, but the numbers look weird like a toddler's scribble because my inferior left hand is totally rubbish and now countdown is on and Des will probably bore me into a little sleepy.

Bank Holiday Antics

Here's a piccie I've finally got round to finishing. I like fuzzy critters. Today is Bank Holiday Monday, so no work for me. We went for coffee and cake at one of Bedford's family-run Italian cafes (hmm yum) and then walked to the marina to fly our kite which has been gathering dust and spiders since November. It was excellent kite weather. Then a quick walk around the marina with a outdoor pint at the finish. Got drenched in the rain, but it was worth the effort. Feeling quite drained now though. Jack is cooking up chick pea curry for dinner then we'll polish off the wine in the fridge. Ah... Today is a good day

Cake

Here's one I didn't make earlier. It's fresh today.

Mucking About

Alex Noriega is a genius. When I stumbled across his blog his work made my jaw drop. Its quirky and brightly coloured with lots of crazy business happening all over the page. Type of thing you can look at for ages and get lost in. Check it out here.
With another birthday looming, and Mr. Noriega's work floating around inside my eyelids, I thought I'd try out some of his techniques digitally using Painter. The results aren't that great but I reckon with some tweaking they could look rather nice as a lovely new afro for a Bogg girl.

Lovepics

Contest entry for Lovepics postcard competition. Well... I love picnics, so it seems like a good idea to me.

Present for Kathy

This is a hand-made envelope I've sewn for Kathy who is my boyfriend's grandmother. She's taking us out for some posh nosh tomorrow, so I thought it'd be nice to make her something so she knew I appreciated the thought. Because she's blind I tried to make it as tactile as possible. Its made of felt and ribbon and buttons and glitter and sequins and little bead bits The idea has gone a bit pear-shaped because I wanted to put a Braille message inside it for her, but when I got the transcript back from L-Mail I couldn't believe how huge the letter was! I had only written one paragraph! I can't fold it up and force the paper inside the envelope in case it becomes unreadable, so I'll have to think of something else to put inside it! The Braille looks so amazing though. I can't believe all those dots form legible sentences. They look so delicate on the page and it really impresses me.

Aeris Presley

Here's a logo I've done for Aeris Presley. In the next few days he'll have a little site through channel4.com/music and Steve Lamac has played his demo on BBC radio 6. His music sounds like Graham Coxon, but with more punk and humour. I suspect this is due to Aeris being 10 years younger than greying old Coxy. But its good stuff! And look! I didn't draw a fluffy rabbit this time!

(Apologies for any Illustration Friday folk, I submitted the wrong link so you'll have to scroll down a tad to see my doodle)

Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday... Angels and Devils being the topic. Little miss Blondie did have blue eyes but it made her look too cold. And that kid has a licorice lollipop. Man, that stuff tastes evil.

Daughter Of Rambo

This is doodle I've created for a great website called son of rambo. Not sure if they'll like it though! Its 80s inspired at least, but as I was a little girl back then. It was more about care bears and gummi bears rather than Big Arnie and Sly Stallone with big guns and explosions. Actually I think the 80s sucked and the current trend with 80s influenced electronic music and fashion makes me wanna scream with frustration. At least next decade will be the nineties revival... Which leads me to believe it'll be an actual 1960/70s revival. Hmmmm.... But at least I'll be able to find myself a decent pair of bellbottoms as I wore out my beloved ones in the late 90s and so I'm actually waiting for the next decade in anticipation so I can repair my long lost wardrobe.

Nice news

Good news! I may have got myself a fab new comission! It would be to illustrate a children's book for committee members at the NSPCC! This is very exciting as this will give me a great platform to showcase my work... the committe list is full of great people! I just can't wait to get a more detailed brief so I can get stuck in! I'm feeling pretty darn lucky at the moment. The picture book idea will give me an opportunity to develop a style of drawing I feel more comfortable with. You can see more of this feldgling style if you click on the Moji link. Its kind of like myspace for character designers and its quite a social too.

Also, I've been asked to design a record cover for an upcoming psychedelic blues band called the Wolf People. They also want a stamp design too. I believe there will be 500 7inch records pressed and there are already pre-orders!

Finally, I've been dabbling in online collaborative projects. I like having a sneaky peek at what the world is up to since I never went to study art at university. And hopefully it will get me noticed! I've submitted to Illustration Friday, Start a Story and once I buy some stamps, the envelope collective.

Too Darn Cute

I am a digital artist. I'm pretty chuffed that I can say that.

I can pay the rent as a greeting cards illustrator, that's quite something too I'd say, but its not cool. In fact, you'll find me at the other end of the spectrum with the grandmothers and the tacky American giftshop owners who'd think one of my cute and fluffy characters would look nice on a tea-towel or an apron or a badly knitted sweater. Compared to some of the tat I've seen, my creations have a certain quality to 'em though...

I draw innocent little critters... Harmless, fluffy and friendly with sugar on top. I like to call them sunshine vermin. The best thing is children especially like my pictures a lot and I can sell a lot of birthday bunny cards and safe and snugly woodland creatures. Bunnies that like lemonade and ice cream, sunflowers and picnics, exchanging Christmas presents and generally cheering people up. Bah! I wanna puke! I like computer games, preferably with some psychos or zombies in. And I kill my houseplants on purpose.

Trouble is I can't draw dark. I was bought up on Nintendo, so EVERYTHING is cute, even if I try to fight it.

As I battle to deviate from cute, I'll post my attempts up here for scrutiny. Perhaps I should except my fate as the fluffy cute queen. Who knows.