The Best of 2011

Well this year has been rather wonderful - the launch of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration, an illustration for the V&A, final show, graduation, mural work, brother's wedding, winning Company's High Street Edit fashion illustration competition, Shipshape Studio opening and stocking my work, first issue of Lionheart Magazine out (and amazing), Digital Arts tutorial, the arrival baby Crayonette and ahh. I'm really excited for the year ahead and my one resolution is to get myself more organised. This means I need to purchase an inspiring diary, too. Win! I hope your year has been wonderful and here's hoping the next will be amazing.

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!

Digital Arts Tutorial

Well, as promised, I have taken photographs of my tutorial for you to see! I've also taken a few of other images in the issue that grabbed my attention :)

Love this illustration by Minni Havas on the opening page! Also, nice to see Neil is still using my illustration of him for his editor's picture.

Contributor's page - Where do you draw the line?

Love this illustration by Rob Shields, another masterclass from this issue. His work is stunning and truly fascinating. It's great to read his tutorial.

I was commissioned to write a tutorial outlining the way I compose an illustration rather than the technical tools I use. I was asked to cover compositional elements, colour, placement of the character etc. Hopefully I achieved this and I hope their readers will enjoy reading about the decisions I make when putting together one of my illustrations - in the case one of the illustrations I produced for Company. You can buy yourself a copy in most newsagents (or WHSmiths!)

Digital Arts - Tutorial

Just a quick post to tell you that I have written a tutorial for Digital Arts and it is out today!! I felt very honoured to be asked to do this for them - writing a tutorial, wow, I'm a real illustrator! (I never thought I would get to this point!)

The guys at Digital Arts have been very supportive of me from the beginning of my career - I can't thank them enough!

I will blog with photos from the tutorial tomorrow. For now, here is a little about this issue and the illustration below gives a clue to the tutorial subject! ;)

Unleashed: The Best in the North

Hello everyone! I have just returned from London after going along with my uni to New Blood. As well as meeting some great people at the private view and catching up with Neil Bennett, editor of Digital Arts, I also had the privilege of having a portfolio session with two lovely ladies from The Artworks Illustration Agency. They were incredibly complimentary about my work (one said my fashion illustrations were the best she'd seen! Wow) and gave me that extra boost I needed to help me make my dream become a reality. I feel confident again, which is just what I need as I'm about to move miles away from home and be thrown out of my comfort zone (I'm moving to just outside of London in about two weeks!). I will post some New Blood photographs soon!

 

I am also delighted to share that this illustration has been one of 22 shortlisted for Unleashed: The Best in the North competition! 'Open to all the Northern Art Schools. This competition is designed to showcase the talents of the best emerging illustrators.' You can read more about it here. I feel so happy about it, and I'm looking forward to the awards night and auction. 

I can't imagine not doing illustration, I love it and I am passionate about it. I'm looking forward to doing some promotional pieces, entering competitions and being highly pro-active in my mission to have a career doing this! 

Digital Arts

I have some exciting news for you this evening!

My work can be found in the showcase section of the latest edition of Digital Art Magazine and I am so proud to see my interview and work in print in the beautiful magazine. Get yourself a copy if you can, the cover feels amazing, it is full of great artists, tutorials and much more! I met the editor and art editor whilst at the launch of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration. They were lovely and I'm very thankful to them for this opportunity! 

Here are my illustrations of Neil Bennett (editor) and Johann Chan (art editor) from the launch of ACOFI.