British University Artists

I joined up to the British University Artists website a while ago and they have recently set up a Featured Artists section. This week I am one of the five artists on this week's featured section. I feel very honoured. Take a look here!

And don't forget you can now like me on Facebook too! :)

Over at Tea & Crayons were are working hard on our promotion material! With our postcards looking fantastic, individual tea sachets on the way and badges and stickers being ordered, these little packages are going to be something special!

 

We are currently exploring different ways of presenting our packages! We will keep you posted on the blog! :)

Talented boy!

I went around to my mums today and she brought out this beautiful wooden otter my dad had made when he was about 15. I thought it was absolutely beautiful, so took him into the garden to photograph!

I really do feel inspired by all types of art and this is no exception. What a talented young man he was! :)

The Oscars

With the 83rd Oscars Ceremony taking place tomorrow, Amelia's Magazine has produced this wonderful round up of the 13 films nominated. Helen Martin has written another great piece and the accompanying illustrations are fantastic, I'm stunned by the quality of this post!

I produced an illustration of Natalie Portman, up for the best actress award for her role in Black Swan. She is absolutely stunning, with her eyes, lips, cheeks and even her eyebrows standing out beautifully! This has been one of my favourite illustrations to produce recently. I hope you like it too! :)

I love you so much ♥

I just wanted to write a quick post about me and my dad. He was the nicest, sweetest man and the most amazing father I could hope for. He died very suddenly of a brain hemorrhage a week after I started University, and so I only took a two weeks out.

Having my life torn apart when I'd just started my course was so hard, I'd also just moved into a student house and I wanted to join in the fun. Dealing with my mum's grief at the same time was possibly the hardest bit, being in love myself, I can only imagine the pain of loosing someone you have been with for 35 years. I tried so hard not to give up and I'm so glad I didn't.

I just want to say thank you to all my followers here and on twitter who have given me much confidence in myself and work, you make it all worthwhile :)

I'm also very proud of my sisters, brother and my wonderful mum who has done so well, seeing her smile now makes me so so happy ♥ and thank you Mat for helping me through the pain then and now.

 ♥

London Fashion Week A/W 2011 Presentation Review: MariaFrancescaPepe

Take a look at this stunning review of MariaFrancescaPepe by Hels Martin on Amelia's Magazine. It sounds like quite the experience and I was pleased to produce an illustration for it.

 I hope you like it, I enjoyed the perspective of this piece.

I have just been given the most stunning fashion designs to illustrate by Matt Bramford, so once this dissertation is done with (due in on Monday!!) I can get on with those :)

London Fashion Week A/W 2011, Catwalk Review: Carlotta Actis Barone

I have another London Fashion Week illustration to share with my lovely followers! This time the designer is Carlotta Actis Barone. I was asked to illustrate the finale dress, a full length, luxurious, crimson red design. I was delighted to do so. The line detail, colour and textures were extremely fun to illustrate! Check out the full article by Hels Martin in Amelia's Magazine here. There are lots of beautifl illustrations too, so enjoy!

I wanted the gorgeous red dress to be the focus and stand out, so placed it with neutral tones. I hope this works! :)

London Fashion Week A/W 2011, Catwalk Review: Corrie Nielsen

My next London Fashion Week piece is fro an Amelia's Magazine review of the Corrie Nielson show. Witer Helen Martin writes, "Big shoulders, high necklines, victoriana, huge circle skirts, sashes over shoulders, trouser suits with extra long legs and short jackets, balooning at the middle slightly, and beautiful midi length skirt suits with puffed shoulders." Sounds amazing doesn't it? Read the full review here. 

With so little time to get this piece together, I concentrated primarily on the clothes, as this is, of course, the most important part! 

I liked the contrast between the really light clothing and the darker background. I enjoy these super quick (and I mean quick) illustrations as they really loosens you up!

London Fashion Week A/W 2011 Womenswear Preview: Les Chiffoniers

Next up is my illustration for a preview write up of Les Chiffoniers on Amelia's Magazine. As they are known for their incredibly skin-tight leggings, I felt that this must be the focus of the illustration! Hope you like it.

London Fashion Week A/W 2011 Catwalk Review: Prophetik

My latest illustration is for a London Fashion Week review by Hels Martin. The piece in Amelia's Magazine also features illustrations from the wonderful Gemma Milly. Do go and take a look at the review, the clothes are beautiful!

Before my love for fashion illustration, I doubt I'd be so excited about London Fashion Week, but now I love everything about it. Maybe some day I'll get to go myself, but for now illustrating it will certainly keep me happy!

Website Updates!

I've made some developement with my web design work but I'm working on it more tonight, so hopefully tomorrow i'll have the finished thing to show! 

I'm going to be editing the 'Abby's' part as well as possibly adding some buttons :)

Expect another update tomorrow! :)

London Fashion Week Preview: Rachel Freire

Well, this week, along with website design (which is coming along quite nicely!) and dissertation writing (coming along less well..), I have been doing a couple of London Fashion Week preview illustrations for Amelia's Magazine. I'm really excited about doing a few one night deadline pieces for London Fashion Week, which starts on Friday. The rush that is needed is really exciting and can produce some great pieces! 

Before my love of fashion illustration took off (thank you Amelia!), London Fashion Week didn't mean much to me. Yes, I like clothes but I generally didn't really know what was going on. Now, I find it so exciting, love the clothes and love seeing photos taken on the catwalk!

My first illustration is of Rachel Freire and is for this wonderful interview with Matt Bramford. It's a great piece and I must say this is one of my favourite illustrations to produce so far! I loved how fascinating the clothes were and the detail I could add :) I hope you like it too!

Tonight I am doing another, this time with an over night deadline! Oh and before I leave, I now have a facebook illustration page, so please like if you like! :)

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration

 Have you purchased your copy of the book yet? If not, why not? Now is definitely the time, with l0% off with code: ACOFI LAUNCH. You can also purchase it with Amelia's first book, Amelia's Anthology of Illustration for an amazing £28 for both!! I own both and really do love them. 

And finally, you can buy both of these plus the magazines issues: 7, 8, 9 and 10 for just £50 here! The magazines are so thick and glorious, much like a book in themselves. So all six for this little is such a fabulous offer! Go and treat yourself now! :)

ACOFI launch live illustrations

My Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration's launch illustrations are now up on Amelia's Magazine! Amelia wrote some truly lovely things about me in her post. It made me so happy, so please do take a look! 

A couple of lines that really made me smile: "Never has someone still at university so inspired me. Some people just get it you know? And she’s one of them... This girl has got it going on." Thank you so much Amelia!

The very fabulous cake from Lily Vanilli. It's a beauty and a joy to illustrate!

Ashanti Jason (otherwise known as Adorngirl) had the most fabulous necklace which was a joy to illustrate!

Johann Chan, art editor of Digital Arts was a joy to speak to during the launch.

Emma Davenport was my first subject. Lovely big smile!

Neil Bennett, editor of Digital Arts and I talked about illustration for quite some time, very interesting!

Very lovely blogger Nikki Nakki Lou!

Socialite, Prince Cassius instantly caught my eye at the party so I had to illustrate him!

The very lovely Sarah Williams (known as Sarah Scribbles). It was a delight to meet her!

Charles Ampadu, fashion stylist, looked fabulous too! Had to illustrate him.

I hope everybody likes them!

Web Design

So as part of my degree we have to build a website (despite some already having one) through Photoshop (layout) and Dreamweaver. I thought I would share the making process on here so I can track my development later (clever, yes). Here is my basic design for the opening page (in stages), I hope to add links through this page to my portfolio, contact page etc. I hope you like it!

I really like the pose I came up with and I think it works quite well at one side. Originally I wanted a central image and arms sretched out to make up the room, but I'm glad I decided to work in this way. I will add text down the left hand side I think.

Experimentation

I've been doing some quick experiments with some old work so thought I would share them! I've mostly been playing around with colour and more bold pieces that I wouldn't normally try. (To be honest, this was mainly a distraction from writing my dissertation - boo!) I'm quite pleased with the results, something to look at again perhaps :)

Illustration of Anna Calvi. The original can be seen on Amelia's Magazine, here.

The original of this Ada Zanditon illustration can be found on Amelia's Magazine and in Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration.
 

And finally the original for this illustration can be found in this Amelia's Magazine article on Foale & Tuffin.

Hope you like them! :)

My lovely boyfriend

I've been with my boyfriend for over four and a half years now, and not only I am completely in love with him, he is my best friend. 

I love living with him, loving going away with him, and really really love drawing him! He has lovely eyes, I want to draw him again.. ha :) I just thought I'd share some of the drawing I've illustrated of him over the years, starting with the earliest. It just shows how my drawing has improved too I think :)

University - first year

University - second year

Summer between second and third year

University - beginning of third year

 I hope you enjoyed my little visual journey over the years of drawing my boyfriend, Mat. Maybe soon I will draw another so you can see what I'd achieve now! :)

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration: Vogue feature!

After the Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration launch last week, Vogue wrote this post about the launch in their Green Style blog.

The post included seven images from inside the book, including one by myself! i can't tell you how exciting it is to be there! Here is the image they used, as well as two of my favourites from the post.

Fifi Bijoux by myself.

Beautiful Soul by Zarina Liew

Partimi by Jennifer Costello

Avril Kelly

The very sweet Avril kindly drew this fab picture of me. It was a lovely surprise, and made me very happy! Check her out, she's wonderful!

ACOFI launch party!

So last Friday was the long-awaited launch of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration. I woke early to explore galleries with my mum. It certainly got me in the mood but the reality that I would soon be illustrating live at the launch kicked in.

I arrived at Bethnal Green Station and set off down Bethnal Green Road. Having never been outside of the centre of London when visiting, this was a bit of a shock to the system. Convinced I was going the wrong way, I jumped on a bus only to hear the announcer mention 'Brick Lane'. I knew I was in the right place and just opposite was the massive 123 Bethnal Green Road building (very handy if you have no idea where you're going).

I entered the hectic shop and knew I was in right place. I met Amelia herself, looking stunning in a Beautiful Soul cape, Joanna Cave earrings and Nina Dolcetti shoes. Matt Bramford was also there to greet me; he was very smiley and sweet, if not a little chaotic (understatement!) He had sent Rachel de Ste. Croix and Joanna Faria to grab a coffee whilst everyone frantically got the place in perfect order for the opening. Luckily I caught them just before they were leaving and went along. They were very lovely and instantly calmed my nerves (in that they were nervous to be live illustrating too). We headed back soon after and found people still running around. It was then that we met Antonia Parker, Michelle Urvall Nyrén, Naomi Law, Andrea Peterson, Jenny Robins and Zarina Liew. It was so fantastic to meet these other illustrators I had talked to and admired through twitter.

Naomi Law and Michelle Urvall Nyrén

Andrea Peterson

Zarina Liew

Antonia Parker

Jenny Robins and Joana Faria drawing away.

 I was amazed by how quickly the afternoon tea party filled up, brimming with wonderful industry professionals. The tea shop looked beautiful, stacked with pukka tea, with scones and a fantastic cake made by Lily Vanilli. I had three cups of tea throughout the afternoon, and they were delicious!

The cake, scones and other delicious treats.

Lots of lovely teacups!

I really enjoyed networking with journalists and producing illustrations (not my best, but fear not they have been suitably rendered at home!) I met the editor and art director of Digital Arts magazine. They were really friendly and we talked for some time about university, illustration and breaking into the world of freelance.

After grabbing a cheap and cheerful bagel down Brick Lane, we returned to change and prepare for the evening party. I found my mum and boyfriend in the Scout Hut (who both loved the people, the dancing and the excitement of the night.) They had spent the time I'd been illustrating exploring London together; very sweet! Once again it soon became packed out. The night had such a great atmosphere; everybody was friendly and approachable and it was a delight to meet so many people from twitter. I met wonderful illustrators such as Lesley Barnes (instantly recognisable thanks to her fab cape!), Natsuki Otani, Faye West, June Chanpoomidole, Jo Chung, Erica Sharp, Krister Selin, Kat Tromans, Gareth A Hopkins, Dee Andrews and many more. They're all so fabulous, so glad I got to meet them! I also met the lovely Hels Martin and her boyfriend Charlie (Curls), who i'd had the pleasure of illustrating last year, It was lovely to finally meet her after working with her on so many articles, I only wish i'd got a photo! It was also lovely to meet Emily of Handmade by Emily, who wrote this lovely feature on my last year.

Myself and Dee Andrews

Myself, Kat Tromans and Krister Selin

Me and my lovely boyfriend

The very sweet Lesley Barnes

My mum and boyfriend:)

One of the biggest highlights for me was meeting Avril Kelly, someone I talk to so often via twitter. I spent a lot of the evening with her and we walked her back to her creepy little bedsit after the party. I think my mum wanted to adopt her, she was incredibly lovely! Also, meeting fellow Tea and Crayon member, Rachel Lewis later in the evening was amazing. The first meet up and definitely not the last for us!  

Rachel Lewis, Avril Kelly, Mat and me

I loved watching 6 Day Riot perform and The Pipettes were fantastic party DJs! Of course the flowing alcohol; Vodka O and Adnams beer (I think these are perhaps to blame for my mother and boyfriend's extra giddiness!) went down very well too. This all made for the most amazing party I could imagine. It was certainly one I will not be forgetting anytime soon! 

I will share my illustrations once they have been published on Amelia's Magazine :) i'm very happy with them! Here are a couple of photos from the next day, as well as a picture of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration in the Tate next to one of my favourite books: Print and Pattern.