New Year, new start...

Right, 2013 WILL be my year, It WILL be the year I get a full time job doing something I love and it WILL be the year that I actually start doing something productive with my illustrations.

Back a few posts ago, I mentioned a children's book a friend of mine, Emma, has written. Like a lot of things at the end of last year, it got put on hold. But now, its time for me to get my bum in gear and actually get this ball rolling! 

I showed you some VERY rough sketches I did last year for the main character, Sophie-May. Here are some more rough doodles I've been doing of Sophie-May and some of the other characters. 

I actually met up with Emma the other day to show her some ideas I'd had so far. She loved what I'd done for Sophie-May, but wants her to be wearing dungarees and wellies. So that's what I'll do! It is Emma's story after all, so I want it to be exactly as she'd imagined it would be.

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Again, this was a rough idea for Sophie-May's dad. Em wants the Dad character to be slightly taller, so that's what I'll do. Even though Emma's given me quite a lot of freedom with this book, I want her input for every step of the way.

My next job is to get all of the characters finalised and to get them painted.

Abacus Cards brief

So as I said, I was lucky enough to get an interview for a Greeting Card company called Abacus Cards. My first interview seemed to go well, and obviously didn't go too badly, as I was called back for a second one (woooo!) This time they wanted me to complete a brief for them. The first part was to select an existing Abacus card range and suggest ways in which to develop/improve it, along with a mock up card and mood board. The second part was to identify a gap in their product offering i.e. a style or genre they are not offering or a market they are not catering for and suggest an idea for a new range of cards. And again, to present my ideas on a mood  board and create two mock up prototype cards. (You can see how I got distracted from creating my own Christmas cards!) I did really enjoy doing this brief for them, and felt very lucky to have been given the opportunity, however, as I was working full time, trying to get this finished in a week proved a bit of a strain.

Buuuuuut, I did it.....

The cupcake in this card was actually made and taken by my good friend Mickey, who, as you can see, is a very talented baker, amongst other things. Here's a link to her blog: http://www.mickeyrichards.blogspot.co.uk/

They're probably not the best I could have produced, but given the short time in which I had to do it, along with working, they didn't turn out too bad. I got down to the final 2 people (which I was very chuffed about), however, as you've probably guessed, due to my lack of previous studio experience, I unfortunately didn't get the job. Never mind, as I said, I was grateful for the opportunity, especially at such an established company. Hopefully one day someone will look past the fact I have no studio experience, see the potential, and give me some studio experience...!

Happy New Year!

Hellooooo!

OK, I may be a bit late saying Happy New Year as it is almost half way through January, but as they say, better late than never!

I have to admit, I have been terrible at blogging over the last few months. I know it's no excuse, but as you can imagine, Christmas takes over your life! Especially when you work in retail (which I do). I ended up working all hours under the sun and it is only just now going back to normal.

Anywho, enough of my rabbiting, back onto the important stuff. My last post was me showing you one of my Christmas card designs, with the intention of doing between 4 and 5 designs in total. And it started going well...

Here I am sprawled out with all my papers taking over my friends house!

...And the four were nearly finished...

However, this unfortunately didn't go much further. I planned to sell these at market stalls, as I did with my cards last year, but various things got in way. One of these things however, happened to be a job interview (which I am definitely NOT complaining about!). It was for a Greeting Card company in Suffolk called Abacus Cards. I was so chuffed to even have the opportunity of an interview, so was even more excited to be given a call back for a second interview. The second interview involved me doing a brief for them, but I'll get to that in a mo. I was also lucky enough to have another job interview, but for something slightly different. This interview was for a placement at Constructive Media, which was more of a Graphic based placement than an Illustration one. I will get to that in a bit as well. Anyway, I know it's no excuse, but these interviews and the work involved, as well as my retail work, ended up with me not quite finishing my cards in time for the Christmas markets. I didn't want to rush them and finish them half heartedly. It was probably my own fault for starting them so late in the year, especially when card companies are designing their Christmas cards in the Summer! Ah well, there's always next year. 

One down...

 

 



Well here is one collage finished. I still need to scan it into Photoshop and have a play around with the background and text, but I'll do that when all 5 collages are finished.
 I'm making the most of having a free Saturday-I've got my ipod on the go (I can't work in silence!) and everything spread out across my 'studio' (cough...bedroom). I'm aiming to finish another 2 collages today and the last 2 by tomorrow afternoon.

It's that time of year...

OK, so it's that time of year again...well, almost...Christmas time! I know it seems a little early, but Greeting card companies have been designing and making their Christmas cards, wrapping paper etc from probably the beginning of the year, so in fact, I'm a little late!
I made Christmas cards last year and sold them at a vintage market in Cardiff town centre. It was a good experience, however the market was upstairs in a local bar and wasn't very well advertised, so unfortunately not many people knew about it. I've decided to go for a different approach this time, and see if local businesses will buy packs to sell on. I'm hoping this means that more people will see my designs...I can only try anyway.
So here I am, using my only free time after work, to try and get atleast 5 designs done by the end of the week. As you can see, I'm not lucky enough to have my own studio (yet...one day!) so have resorted to spreading out across my bedroom floor as usual...gosh it's a mess!

 

 

Here's a really rough sketch of an idea so far...

 

 

...and here it is in process!

 





A Little Story...

I always love getting new projects or new ideas for illustrations, so when my friend Emma told me about this children's book she'd written, I jumped at the chance to do some designs for her! The book is really cute and tells the story of a little girl called Sophie-May trying to discover why her toys and the animals won't answer her when she talks to them.
 So far I've only done 4 REALLY rough sketches of what Sophie-May could look like, but need to have Emma's input as to what she imagined her main character to look like (just imagine them painted and collaged like my previous post!) This is such an exciting new project, and I can't wait to get started on it properly :)

Work in progress...

Hello! So here are a few pieces I've been working on, none are finished yet, but just wanted to have a play around. The one is a mix of my old style, paint, pencil and fine liner, mixed with some collage. With the other two, I wanted to try something different from what I have done before, so they are purely collage. I collect a LOT of patterned paper, so thought I should make use of it. Some of the patterns are so pretty, they seemed a waste just sat in my drawer. I actually really liked creating the collage ones and think I will be using this style more often when creating my little characters :)