Friday 30 December 2011

Bleubird Vintage

 I started following James Kicinski-Mccoy, or as she has become known to the internet world, Bleubird Vintage, after seeing re-tweets on twitter. As soon as I saw her blog, I fell in love. It is full of posts including fashion, photography, craft, home-schooling, family (beautiful family!) and much more. Everything is incredibly inspiring and I would recommend reading it to absolutely everybody. There will be something for you!

I was recently asked by Hels Martin to illustrate a picture of her and her youngest daughter, Gemma Bird to accompany her interview in Lionheart Magazine. Of course, I jumped a the chance. I illustrated two in the end and one can be found in the magazine. I hope she will see and like what I have done! They were beautiful photographs to illustrate.




Both illustrations were created using photographs from Bleubird Vintage and you can find these and many more over on her blog! Do go and look at her posts, you'll feel warm!

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Christmas Illustrations

I've produced a couple of illustrations this Christmas and thought it was the perfect time to share them with you! I'm really happy with how they both turned out and I'm very glad the recipients were happy too! The first is an illustration for my friend, Sam. He wanted an illustration of him and his two sisters as a Christmas present for his mum. It was a fun and happy piece to illustrate and apparently it printed up beautifully.


The second picture I did as a little present for someone I work with. She's currently on maternity leave with her beautiful baby girl and I wanted to do it for her as a Christmas present. I really enjoyed illustrating her and I will be sharing a couple more baby illustrations tomorrow. I've discovered babies are one of my favourite illustration subjects! Maybe I will explore this are more, if you'd like something produced don't hesitate to contact me!


I hope your Christmas has been wonderful and have a very happy New Year! I will be back with more new work and Christmas books posts!

Tuesday 20 December 2011

A little fox for a beautiful Wilfryd

Those of you regulars will know Fritha Strickland, fellow Tea & Crayon member, wonderful illustrator and friend. After months of excitement she has finally had her baby boy; Wilfryd Cadno Quinn. Congratulations!


He is beautiful, isn't he? Very proud of her and extremely happy for her and her partner, Tom. His middle name is welsh for fox, one of Fritha's favourite animals of the moment. I love his name! I did a little fox illustration ad sent it to them framed. They really liked it and said they'd put it up in his nursery. I'm so glad they like it, makes me very happy! I hope little Wilfryd will like it too! Here are some stages :)






A little out of my comfort zone but i stuck to my usual methods and i like the way it turned out! I hope everyone is feeling festive!

Thursday 15 December 2011

Smarten Up Your Fashion Drawings

You may remember that I recently produced a tutorial for Digital Arts Magazine. Well it is now available to read and view online, so feel free to go and have a look! Here are a couple of the steps, I hope you enjoy!









Also, massive CONGRATULATIONS to Tea & Crayons member, Fritha Strickland on the birth of her beautiful baby boy, Wilfryd. can't wait to meet him!

Sunday 11 December 2011

Prints To Buy!

Due to some extra materials after sending prints to be sold at the Lionheart Magazine launch (today!!), I decided to three prints through my blog. I've never found online shops to be rewarding, so this is quite a rare opportunity! Also, with Christmas sneaking up it seemed like the perfect time. So if you or someone you know would like a signed, mount framed 300gsm fashion illustration print (measuring 8 by 10 inches), here is your opportunity!


 Made Bracelet Fashion Illustration.


 Made Necklace Fashion Illustration.


Homespun Fashion Illustration.










Each print is £18 including postage. If you would like to buy one please email me on yodalpip@hotmail.co.uk and let me know which you would like! Remember, I don't sell my prints that often, so it's a rare opportunity!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I will be blogging again soon! Bye for now!

Thursday 8 December 2011

Shipshape Studio


I told you I would be blogging about another wonderful and inspiring young lady, well here we are! I have been a fan of Emily and her works for some time now, in fact I blogged about Emily and her beautiful crafts earlier this year. Not only is she designer and writer, but she, along with her partner, Adam, has just launched a new creative venue and boutique in Greater London. I'm so happy for her; it's been a dream of hers for years and she's done it! I love that she wants to encourage people to try new things, not to be afraid to experiment and give them an outlet to learn new skills. Shipshape Studio looks and sounds like an amazing place!

"Shipshape Studio is an engaging and friendly space where new skills can be learnt
and ideas swapped. With the skills that you learn at Shipshape Studio you can carry on 
making the things you love at home. We host art, craft and creative workshops,
as well as events and parties with a difference."

Shipshape will be selling handmade and vintage homeware, stationery, clothing, craft supplies, books and magazines (including the lovely Lionheart) and art. In fact, they asked if they could stock my prints, I jumped at the chance, of course and you can now find my framed prints in their shop. Wonderful!

There will be plenty of craft and design type classes - including classes in illustration, printing, jewellery design, sewing & embroidery, paper craft and knitting. Sounds perfect! You can find out more about these classes here, follow them on twitter and read their wonderful blog. It's such a massive achievement and they've clearly worked their socks off - cleaning, building, sanding, painting, staining and much more. I couldn't feel more proud, impressed and inspired by the hard work and dedication that has gone into achieving the dream. Well done Emily, enjoy it! (Below are some photographs taken from inside by Emily - it looks stunning, I can't wait to see it for myself! I love the colours, reclaimed and second hand fittings, handmade decorations, ahhh...)









I'd also like to say a big thank you to Emily for always being so supportive and encouraging towards me, it means a lot!

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Prints: Lionheart Magazine

As I said in this recent post, Lionheart Magazine is launching this Sunday! I'm so happy Hels asked me to sell some of my prints at the launch. Everything about the magazine looks just beautiful so to be involved feels so wonderful. 

I wanted my prints to look their best so did lots of research into mounts and cellophane packaging. I find that a lot of mounts you can buy in shops seem flimsy and poor quality. They're never as thick as I would like, very expensive and have no backing. I found an online picture framing specialist (based in Bedford) that seemed perfect. The Picture Gallery do made to measure mounts from as little as 70p (when you but 10 or more) and offer you board backs for as little as 40p! I was a little worried to go ahead as it was the first time ordering and I know nobody who has used them. They arrived in great timing (3 days after I gave them my measurements) and were very carefully packaged. They are amazing! Thick, quality, clean - everything I had been searching for! I would completely recommend them, I couldn't be happier! (The print feels so hefty and I think it adds a certain distinction).  I have the same feelings towards cellophane print bags. They can be so poor in quality. Luckily I found another online shop; Eden Wrap. Again the quality is fantastic, the delivery fast and the price very reasonable!

I hope this may come in useful to you now or someday. I do think the quality of the packaging reflects on the work and, of course, first impressions count! 






Hels is (not so patiently) waiting for her printing to be complete this Friday, reading to sell and send out. I cannot wait to see! Here are some sneak peeks she took on her printing visit to see the process happening!



Exciting!!

Thursday 1 December 2011

Portfolio

Something I have discovered (through learning and personal experience) is that a good portfolio can be so important for an illustrator. And it makes sense, how can we expect someone to hire us/ represent us/ want to work with us if we don't make our work look it's very best! There are so many ways of displaying work, of course, but I've always found my illustrations look their best in a clean and crisp setting. I found it so bizarre going from my foundation course where they raved about big portfolios, the bigger the better, to my degree where suddenly bigger than A3 was a no no. I guess it definitely depends on the work. And I must say, I like them compact! Mine is A4 which I think represents the way I work well. I want to work in editorial, publishing and fashion, so bigger than this isn't really necessary.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what the point of this blog post is (most probably my love of blogging & love of sharing everything..), but I've had a few University students and people who are interested in working as an illustrator contact me, so just wanted to share this advice; a good and well presented portfolio really can help! First impressions are crucial. Whenever I share my portfolio, I get really good feedback on the overall look. I think it looks professional too, so definitely worth an investment!

EDIT: some people have asked where I bought my portfolio from. I got mine from here. They were a great company to buy from, I would definitely recommend them!

















I do love a good nosy at other people's portfolios, so if you have any images of yours, i would love to see! :) I'm going home for the weekend so I will probably post again on Sunday. I hope you have a lovely weekend and please let me know your thoughts in the meantime!