New - Portrait Illustrations

Back again! I've made a promise to myself that I'll definitely keep on top of my blogging and illustrating this year, so expect to see a lot more of me!

These two illustrations, showing sales managers stood in front of important local landmarks, were produced for a London Estate Agents last spring. They were used on flyers and in shop windows to help advertise the company in the local area. 

I love likeness commissions so this was a bit of a dream job! (I also really enjoyed the building side to this brief). What do you think?

I'll be back soon with some new work. And as I haven't said it already, I hope you're having a fantastic start to the year!

New Illustrations - Horses & Boats!

I'm very late to the party but... Happy New Year you wonderful lot!

I'm finally getting around to sharing these illustrations I finished for an advertising campaign early last year. The two illustrations were completely out of my comfort zone (no detailed fashion or portraits in sight!) and took many painstaking and stressful hours of work. I absolutely loved the challenge though. I definitely gained a lot from the experience and can proudly say the prospect of drawing crowds no longer fills me with fear - I had no idea where to start and when I finally realised how I could make it work, the feeling was amazing (such relief!)

The client was a London Estate Agents who, using happenings in the property market, predicted that March (last year) would be the prime time to put a house on the market. They wanted to use large-scale, famous events in March (Cheltenham Races & The Boat Race) to help steer their campaign. The first event was Cheltenham Race Festival, for which a tagline "put your house on the market, it'll be a one horse race..." was to be used.

It was great to have the opportunity to work on such an unusual (for me anyway!) brief. 

I had quite a lot of freedom in the initial stages, drawing up a number of roughs and working with the in-house designer to finalise a rough to take to colour. Even the colour took me away from the illustration work I've become accustom to. The hardest part for me was being unable to use the detail I work into my portraits with the crowd. It would have been completely unfeasible so this meant forcing myself to work almost in the opposite way, using as little detail as possible but, at the same time, maintaining my own personal style.

(Below are some of the rough workings I drew out before we decided upon the final imagery).

The second poster was for The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Again with this piece, I needed the context to be true to life (both of these events take place at the same places every year so needed to be somewhat recognisable). This meant researching the course and trying to produce imagery that wasn't going to be a million miles away from what we would see in person. 

I loved illustrating the houses and incorporating texture - I think that was definitely my favourite part of this illustration. It was the boat and the crowd again that I found the hardest to get my head around.

I was really happy with the way both the illustrations turned out - I hope you like them too! Tomorrow I will be sharing two portrait illustrations I completed for the same company so check back to see them. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post - I hope you like what you see, but please let me know what you think...

Arise Magazine - Portrait Illustration

Hello everybody! It's been some time since I posted, so Happy New Year! I've been quite busy over the last couple of months so haven't had much time for blogging. I just wanted to pop in to share some of my latest work to be published. I produced this illustration of Ugandan fashion designer, Gloria Wavamunno, to accompany an article on one of her favourite places, Buganda Road Craft Market in Kampala.

I illustrated this some time ago now, so it's quite nice to look back at it and share it with you now it's been published. You can find out more about Arise Magazine and it's content here.

I'm busy working on an exciting new project at the moment and I cannot wait to share more information with you. I'll be working on this until March so it may be a slightly long wait! In the meantime i'm working hard on the Mr Nicolini blog as well. I'll be launching this on his birthday, February 5th, so keep your eyes peeled! :)

Rare Bird Interning

 Well my time at Rare Bird has come to an end. It's been such a wonderful experience, seeing behind the scenes and learning what goes on day to day in an illustration agency. The second week consisted of blogging, organising and uploading images, making homepage amendments, portfolio building and creating PDF pages.

I loved my time here and would return in an instance. I think working part time in an agency would be the perfect sideline as an illustrator. Not only was I surrounded by incredible illustration that has inspired me to produce some self initiated portraits, but interning here has given me real insight into how an agency works. Maybe I will be back soon... Here is some of my work from the week (including front page editing and blogging)

I really enjoyed (yes, I'm sad...) cropping and organising images to go on the front page and be used as thumbnails throughout the illustrators' pages. I guess attention to detail is an important part of life as an illustrator!

 

I absolutely love the above image from illustrator Paul X. Johnson. Working at Rare Bird has allowed me to familiarise myself with the other illustrators' work and Paul is a definite favourite. His work is both striking and inspiring. I especially love this cover for Little White Lies.

Blogging about my own new work was a little bizarre, but it was great to get my hands on a copy of the recently published magazine. Below is a post about the promotional work we undertook in the previous week.

What do you think of my illustration in context? (Below) It's one of the most exciting parts of a commission, seeing the work published and owning a copy!

Well, as I quickly mentioned earlier, next week I will be working on a new project. It will be portraits based on some familiar faces. I'm excited & can't wait to share them with you! Have a lovely weekend, we're hoping to make a spontaneous camping trip. Yay!

Midwives Magazine Cover

I'm really excited to be able to share my latest piece of work, a commercial commission brought to me by my agent, Rare Bird. I was asked to illustrate the front cover (yes, front cover!) of the latest issue of Midwives Magazine, the magazine for The Royal College of Midwives. The illustration was based on an article looking at the issue of women not being able to give birth in the way they chose and feeling "locked out" of natural home births. I loved the brief, creating a beautiful home birth scene of a new family. It was a little scary, but perfect for my style. I was helped greatly and given great freedom with the piece. I hope you like my illustration!

I started with the central illustration but loved bringing it all together with the door and detailed features, such as the screws. I wanted to add colour to the illustration, so decided to do this using the baby's blanket. I found the most perfect blanket on Little Woollie's blog. This beautifully crocheted blanket was the inspiration for my illustrated version. I love the colour and patterns and really enjoyed reading about the process and seeing the initial sketches too. Thank you Julie for allowing me to use your blanket in my work!

And below is how the piece looks in context. I should be receiving my own copy soon, so I'll take some pictures when that arrives. I still can't quite believe that my illustration is on the cover of a magazine for all to see. I love that it's being used for such an important topic too. Midwives do such an amazing job, I'm so proud to be in this magazine!

I'll be back with more work soon. Enjoy the rest of your week in the meantime! :)

Rare Bird London

Well, as you may know, I have been with my new illustration agency, Rare Bird, for a few months now. Kelly Fysh, an illustration agent with 11 years experience, started up the agency on her own and so far I am very happy to be involved in her new venture. She's wonderful to work with and my first job was fantastic. (It isn't live yet, but I will blog about it when it is!) 

I've been very lucky to intern with Kelly this week and have loved seeing behind the scenes. So far I've helped with the first big postal promotion campaign, sending out limited edition postcard and magazine packs to editorial, advertising and marketing agencies and compiling the artist portfolios. It's been great seeing how it all works and especially wonderful to see so much beautiful artwork and hear about ongoing projects. I will be back fro a second week the week after next, this time I will be working on the website, blog, newsletters and more portfolio work. Exciting! I will also take some more photographs that we can share on Rare Bird's twitter feed.

Here's some photos form the week...

Magazine cover illustration by Bożka.

And I just want to share some of my favourite illustrations from some of the other illustrators also on Rare Birds' books. I think you'll like them too!

The first (above) llustration is by Melbs. I love the energy and colour in his work.

The two illustrations above are by Ellie Tzoni. I love the subtlety, colour and shape in her work.

 I love the humour and character in Clayton Junior's illustrations, as well as his bold use of colour.

 I really like the use of colour in this piece by Imeus. I love the range of illustrations in his portfolio. Beautiful work!

I'm sure you'll agree Laura Oakes' work is absolutely stunning. I love the colour and line work. Amazing!

Gal Shkedi's work is full of humour and beautiful character work. I especially love this piece!

Love this illustration by Miss Swanne. Colourful, bold and fun!

Beautiful floral and decorative illustrations by Bożka. She has a really unique style which I love.

I love how dark and striking Paul X. Johnson's illustrations are. They create such a dramatic, powerful mood which fascinates and draws in the viewer.

The final illustration is by Patrick O'Leary. His work is bright, exciting, colourful and fun. I love it!

Definitely go and take a look at the Rare Bird London website. It's full of inspirational illustrators and exciting and beautiful illustrations. I'll let you know how the second week goes and bring you more work updates soon!

Hello!

Hello all! Sorry I've been a little quiet on the blogging front - I've just returned from a weeks holiday in Cornwall. I'll come back to that in a moment!

I'll be blogging about some new work soon, I'm really excited to share it with you! I received the commission through my agent a few weeks ago. It will be published (a little clue for you!) soon and then I can share it with you. I wasn't sure how having an agent would work out, but so far, so very good! It's given me such a confidence boost in my work too. I'm feeling very positive and looking forward to a new working week! (Although that isn't stopping me wishing i was still on holiday!) I've also got a new personal commission to share soon too.

So back to the holiday! We stayed at a really beautiful and friendly campsite close to the beautiful fishing village of Mevagissey (in mid Cornwall). I used to come here with my family as a child and couldn't wait to come back and show Mat too. We had a great time. The weather was a little disappointing with rain and wind, however most days were cloudy but calm and we did manage to go swimming in the outdoor pool most days and even got sun burnt one day! So, we were lucky compared to the constant rain recently! While we were in Cornwall, we visited other areas too, including Lands End (got to once, i guess) and St Ives. St Ives is truly beautiful and one we'll definitely be going back to soon! Most of our holiday was spend eating cream teas, ice creams and fish shop chips! Lots of reading, relaxing and playing cards as well, the perfect week away just the two of us. It was actually our fist proper holiday just with us. Before we've gone with friends or just for weekends away. This was wonderful! And on the way back we visited my Grandad in Devon who Mat had never met. It was the perfect end the to the week.

On Saturday, it was our six year anniversary!! It was partly this reason that we decided to go away last week, the perfect build up and celebration to our anniversary. We had so much wonderful quality time and I find that with work, we don't get to really talk properly at home, so all this time with just us, all day was amazing. I love him so much and a little more each day. And, if all goes to plan, we will be married this time in two years! Exciting :) I got a Megan Claire sentiments card to give to Mat. I love it! Means nothing to others, but the world to us! Thank you Megan, he loved it!

I'll be back soon with my new work! Have a lovely week and enjoy this beautiful warm weather!

Work in Progress...

I just wanted to bring you a little update on the flower illustration I'm working on. I'm very happy with how it's coming along but work has halted due to an exciting commercial illustration I have just been commissioned to do this week. I'll let you know about that when it's done and published! I love the subject though, it's just the direction I'm enjoying at the moment :)

 I would love to hear your thoughts on this illustration. It will be ready shortly and as soon as it is, it will be available as a limited edition print. There are other prints available in my Etsy shop at the moment. Or Folksy, if you prefer!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but I am now signed to Rare Bird, an illustration and design agency. There are some amazing people on there and I am very excited and happy to be a part of it! :)