Something a little special...

I'm in the middle of creating something small, for some very special friends of mine. But I don't want to spoil the surprise so you're going to have to wait for the finished result!

I've moved to the big city

So this was probably more scary than when I moved away to Uni! But this was an opportunity I definitely couldn't pass on. After 2 years of applying, emailing and interviewing for countless amounts of jobs, I was finally lucky enough to get offered a job as Social Media and Sales Assistant with Olive&Moss, the company I did a 2 week placement for in May. 

So in July, I packed up my life, squeezed it into my Dad's car (just) and moved to South East London. Talk about scary! 

See, I said it was a squeeze!

And here's my new room...

What can I say, I like floral print!

The Months of May & June

A month after I did my Fat Face Work Experience, I was lucky enough to get another placement (it's true what they say, you wait ages and nothing...then everything happens at once!) 

I worked 2 weeks at Olive&Moss, a baby and toddler clothing company based in West Dulwich, London. I helped them with some Graphic Design work for their Autumn/Winter catalogue. Check out their website, if you've got a little one, you'll love their stuff! http://www.oliveandmoss.com/

JUNE

We went to Glastonburrrrrryyyyy! This was my third year going, and as usual, we had an absolutely brilliant time. Who cares that you don't get to shower for 5 days? Embrace the babywipes I say! The fact that you get to spend 5 days, with some of your closest friends, having a few ciders in the sun (if you're lucky) watching your favourite bands, is my idea of heaven. 

It's been a while...

OK, so it's been an extremely long time since I've blogged. 5 months to be exact-eek! However, I feel I have a very good excuse...I got a new job! :D Wheeeey! And it's in London, so have had to pick up my life in Cardiff, and move it 3 hours across the M4...that's a pretty good excuse I feel. OK maybe not 5 months worth of an excuse, but I'll be good from now on!

So instead of boring you with 5 months worth of blogs, I'll quickly give you some highlights in photo form...

April

Sooo, I used to work in a Fat Face store in Cardiff and, thanks to my awesome Manager, Stacey, she managed to get me work experience in the Women's Design Department at their Head Offices. Was only for a week but was definitely beneficial and pretty cool to see how the clothes are all designed and produced. Plus everyone was lovely! This little fella was just casually hanging out by reception.

Also...we got a dog!! :D

And here's the little beaut herself. Her names Roxy, and she's a 22 month old Chocolate labrador from Dogs Trust. And she is GORGEOUS!

Here's a quick post to show you the Valentines card I made my boyfriend the other week. He's not really a soppy person, so I thought I'd keep the lovey doveyness to a minimal, but also wanted to make it personal to us. We've always liked going for coastal walks, so I drew an image of me and him on one of our walks, watching the sun set over the sea. Now that I've written that, it does actually sound a little soppy, but once you see the picture you'll see it's not too bad!

Obviously if I were to be selling an image like this on a card, I'd edit it on Photoshop to get rid of the paper lines, like the ones on her hair from the collage etc.

Anyway, hope you like! :)

Let it snow...

Soooo, since I last wrote, we've had snow...snow...and more snow! And even though it's lovely to have a bit of the white stuff, I have to admit, I'm glad it's gone! Now I'm not being a scrooge, it's simply because I was snowed in for 3 days, which you would think meant I had plenty of time to do work (which was true), however it did make me a little stir crazy!

This was my street...

...and this was my back garden. Very pretty I have to admit.

So anyway, whilst snowed in, I did a bit of doddling and painting. There are lots of rough sketches, some have potential...some not so much!

 Here is the main character Sophie-May, painted.

Emma wanted her in a pair of dungarees, so here she is!

Sophie-May in her onesie, with her teddy.

Possible ideas for the mum and dad...

Rough sketches for the dog...think the bottom left one works best.

Rough sketches for her sister.

Rough sketch of the possible first scene?

On a completely different note, after struggling for years to trace larger images on my A4 lightbox, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a larger one. Quite a bit larger...A2! Thought I may as well skip past A3 and go the whole hog! 

And here it is!

Of course I didn't take in to consideration where exactly it was going to fit in my bedroom, which is already full all my paints, papers, books, my A3 scanner (no room for this either, it lives under my bed). Although it sits very nicely on my desk in the picture, I kind of need that space to draw and paint! Ah well-a worth while investment I feel. 

On a side note, I procrastinated today by sorting through some of my paint brushes and finding a nice new home for them...

My hero...

So today I was sent a link for a video on my all time favourite illustrator, Oliver Jeffers....http://vimeo.com/57472271 (Check it out).

I love, love, looooove his children's books and this video has made me love him even more-he's just so cool!! I'd definitely recommend checking out his work, especially if you love illustration. http://www.oliverjeffers.com/ (Link to his website...warning-you'll fall in love with him too). They're so simple, yet so quirky...

Incredible Book Eating Boy

And Santa Claus must know me very well, as he very kindly brought me his book, Neither Here Nor There for Christmas...

 It's a collection of his paintings rather than his Children's Illustrations, but I still love it!  He really is my hero.