EMILY
I’m back! I do apologise for the hiatus; it has been so long since I’ve put a new post up, but there has been one thing after the next after the next, and I haven’t had internet for the past 2 weeks either! Except when my phone decides to let me use the mobile internet...
HOUSES EVERYWHERE
Brochures! How I miss thee. Going through previous work samples, looking at the stunning property and remembering designing and mocking these up. Really can’t beat a good solid day working on layouts. I know many who would disagree and would rather spend the day on illustrious web work, but there is something so satisfying designing...
SMOKING SKETCH
I just can’t stop!! Probably should move to using something other than the Pencil function to sketch..
TABLET ALIEN
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see that I received one of the best Christmas gifts ever!! Brought by the postman early this morning and bought by my lovely Sash. A graphics tablet!!! I have wanted one for so long, but weirdly I have never bought it. I think I always figured it was...
BEATRICE
It is getting colder and colder, and despite the weather reports that the temperature is rising.. it is still very much chilly all round! That is my excuse for not updating over the past week plus.. I’ve been busy defrosting my iced up blood in my fingers… This illustration is of my best friend, Beatrice....
CHRISTMAS DIY
The Christmas spirit has got me this year. Got me and made home inside my brain! These are a Christmas present for my mum.. it is a surprise, so ssh, don’t tell. These are made out of felt, embroidery thread, and the use of my sewing machine for the thin straight stitch. Very simple to...
THE ALBION
My boyfriend subscribes to a bunch of magazines each month, all for which makes great browsing when it’s a lazy, rainy day in. The Albion mag is one of those and I love its simple design- chock full of great photos and really interesting reads. So much so I usually finish all the articles long...
A GIRL FORLORN
A girl forlorn- something from my head that I drew today while I was sipping a Lemsip. (The flu/cold is slowly being combatted. Still lethargic but am feeling the energy slowly return to my limbs! Which is very welcome sign). I really enjoyed the sketch of this character. I always like starting with the hair,...
SKETCH OF FRIDAY
Sketch of the day. It is very cold today! I am very close to the point of hibernation.
THE CANNELLONI RAT
I got a request of drawing a cannelloni rat.. it ran brilliant through my mind and et voila I present to you an explosion of rats!!
PAPER CASTLE PRESS FALL NEWS
Bang at the end of Fall/beginning of Winter, the Paper Castle Press Fall Newsletter is out. If you don’t know what this is yet, read here! I am always happy producing these 4 times a year, the 4th to come soon before the year ends. Filled with news from PCP, inspiring quotes and breathe-easy pictures,...
ERIKA
I have a very long list on my Google Reader that I absorb everyday.. not sure if they’re all useful information to absorb, but in it goes! I enjoy stumbling upon pictures that are slightly out of the norm, especially in style blogs. Not to say that most pictures in said blogs are boring, but...
ALLISON
I will shamelessly admit.. I am a big Top Model fan! Since my teenage years, when the first season aired, I have watched every single episodes, till what is now season 17! It’s got me hooked. My favourite has always been Allison Harvard,; a quirky face, huge eyes and a natural personality in tow. And...
HAILEY
Another evening, another illustration. This is of model Hailey Clauson. Puts a smile on my face. I like the happy non-serious spontaneous burst of smile. I’ve had quite the productive 2nd half of the day! Along with drawing time, I’ve had short but good relaxed climb and stonebaked pizza and hot chocolate with lovely Mrs....
SHIMADA
Back to the drawing board..or book in my case! The Works has great cheap sketch pads, and surprisingly for their 99p price tag, the paper quality is great. Have not had one that’s had any ink or felt tip colour seep through the page and ruin the next one! Woohoo for that. Have spent the...
ROUND
My entry for this week’s Illustration Friday! I actually squealed when I saw the theme – Round. I love the shape round! Maybe it is a reflection of my face shape… I decided to continue on my line of doodling with this round squiggle. I’d love this on a sweatshirt actually.
A WEEK IN BIRMINGHAM
A week in Birmingham! A city I have never visited before, and so off I went with rucksack packed with my climbing shoes, chalk bag, camera, swimsuit (hotel with pool!) and other necessities. I had one of the most relaxing weeks.. I do enjoy a hotel stay here and there :) I like waking up,...
TATTOO ONE+THREE
Here are the pictures of tat 1 and 3! one is the purple and three are the black lines. None of these were directly planned, and i still intend on outlining the purple bits with more black. Turned out to be abit of a diamond. Still getting the hand of drawing lines and curves with...
BERMONDSEY
This week I found myself in the relatively unknown (to me) part of London called Bermondsey. Stayed there for a night while I was down for the premiere of the Art of Flight at the IMAX, which was epic in all proportions. Watching it for the 2nd time after I returned home on the tv,...
ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY
Illustration Friday! A site that I’ve been following for a few months, and now going to submit an illustration every week for. Basically topics are suggested and illustrators from all over post their drawings up relating to that topic! Something I need some practice at.. I have a tendency to go off tangent.. This week’s...
ARCTIC BIRD
Anyone not watching Attenborough’s Frozen Planet on BBC? It is amazing, and I truly wish he was my grandfather; imagine all the stories you’d get to hear. I was trying to get some stills from the show to marvel at, but ended up googling for arctic birds instead and found this little fella- the Redpoll....
AZTEC COLOUR
Inspired by yesterdays post, today I ditched the go-to pen of choice, the black felt tip, and went straight to colouring without borders. Don’t think I’ve ever done this actually; I’ve always enjoyed the boundary that black lines give me, feels like shelter. But today, having walked through the Bristol Zombie walk in the rain,...
AZTEC INSPIRED
New tattoo ideas for a friend of mine, i.e. tattoo number three.. exciting indeed, awaiting by the door for my black ink to arrive to get started. Might practice lettering on myself before anything else; get more to grips with handling the gun. Love these; I think they’d look ace medium sized, on the slight...
KATE
Who’s that girl.. the light blonde hair was abit of a tricky one to colour, as it had plenty of subtle tones to it, like blues, pinks and light light yellow, and hence it has resulted in so, which when taken in with your whole eye, does the trick nicely I think. Hello my dear...
LOVELY LU
Back to the series of drawing people I know. A random (or not so) night of picture hunting led me to this of lovely Lu and Nick. She is expecting, and looking as radiant as ever. Like an ethereal being. Hope you like, Lulu!
SWEATER GIRL
The girl with golden blonde hair and a stripey sweater (the grey pen is finished.. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my refills!). A quick draw before I pop off for a climb. Happy Tuesday!
TAT FOR THAT
So YEAAH MAAAN! What did you do last weekend? Well, I went out for dinner, hung around the house, played string with my cats, and oh yeah, gave someone a purple lightning bolt tattoo. Welcome to the new category of Photography! Not that I am at all claiming to be any sort of photographer –...
SIGN PAINTING
Hand painted bar menu for a wedding. Well, chalkpen painted roses, and with the white running out; a dry pen nib + white acrylic paint for the lettering!! Good ol’ fun, especially on half wet blackboard paint. What’s the point of anything if it’s not a challenge aye?
GIG POSTER
A late posting yes, I am aware the 20th of October has indeed passed us, but the time flew by and I forgot to pop it up here on my blog till I physically saw a printed version up and thought ‘Oh! Yes! I really liked that poster..’. The Mow wanted something primarily pink and...
TOFFEE APPLES
Awright. Had a suggestion to draw you when I was announcing to the open air my uncertainty of what/who to draw next. And so I am embarking on drawing friends, and you, Toffee, are the first one.
THE 1920s
Taking it back to some old 1920s vintage fashion photographs. Found it as a black and white photograph.. I did intend to keep it as a black and white sketch but the lines in her face and pose made me reach for the felt tips.. also because a new refill had arrived and I desperately...
SHIELDS
First attempt at someone of the opposite sex, photographer Tyler Shields. Stumbled upon his site a few days ago, found a photo that I thought might be fun to draw and here be it. Would have liked a more natural skin tone pink in my felt tip collection!
60s DREAMING
Oh how I love drawing. What a release to the brain when you start that first line, slowly seeing the image in your mind coming together and taking form on what used to be an untouched black piece of white paper, to putting the final last colour dab to it. Have ordered many more copic...
THE RISING SUN
Fei Fei Sun, a wonderful model I had the privilege seeing walk at London Fashion Week. Found a photo of her after / between shows and it was a great simple one to bosh out. Bit of a pure sketcharoo today, no colour besides the eyes.
SUPER-STYLIN
Oo yeah.. bring on the styling love. I absolutely love doing this, have I mentioned this yet? This is off a shoot I did via a course at the London College of Fashion a month or so back. Met a group of absolutely lovely girls, had so much fun learning lots and got to work...
TRES CHIC MODERN HERITAGE
I present to you.. the exciting news of what I have been working on! I have always loved fashion (could you tell??) and have been pursuing this in various different avenues. My recent venture has been styling for Tres Chic Magazine, who has returned to the UK after a successful 3 years in Marbella, Spain....
COLLISON COLLISION
Back from an impromptu Saturday camping night in Gower, Wales. Not so sure why we took a trip and drove 2+ hours further away from the sunshine instead of closer to it, but it was great fun nontheless! Trips camping by the seaside, BBQs, tent and breathing fresh countryside air always clears the brain, cleanses...
BE FREE
New Copic refills and also some brand new skin tone colours has certainly set my brain cogs going. Or it simply could be put down to the amazing weather Bristol is getting right now.. 27 degrees at the beginning of October is a wonderful thing. Here is a drawing of Charlotte Free; a model that...
LATE NIGHT SKETCHING
And I am back. A thousand apologies for having neglected this site for awhile, I have been ever so busy with exciting new ventures that in short, involves fashion week, bundles of vintage clothes and styling for a magazine… whirlwind! When I get a breather in my weeks, it always feels amazing to have time...
PAPER CASTLE PRESS’S SUMMER
An exciting 2nd seasons newsletter for the delightful Paper Castle Press. The design process was more seamless and ideas and layout thought was fluid, as the base template was already agreed and sorted with the start of the newsletter send outs in Spring 2011. I enjoy working with these html newsletters; each time I learn...
LIVE MUSIC
The brief was simple, the text was minimal – sometimes these are the briefs that are my favourite to work on. The time, ideas and space are most spent solely on the graphics, and there is room to play around without the restrictions of big blocks of text. I wanted the poster to grab attention,...
CHALK PENS
Playing with chalk pens over the past few days, finishing up their location boards. Brilliant fun with brand new chalk pens, and a big arrow in the middle of the board to fill up with patterns galore. The slightly grey and rainy day added to the fun; being snuggly in a thick jumper drawing away,...
REMEMBER THIS
Found this on another blog, and I just had to post it here. If I could have it clipped to my forehead so I read this wherever I went, every minute of my days, it would be ace. But commiting it to memory and reminding oneself of this often will more than suffice, and also...
MASTER CLASS
My first magazine purchase in absolutely years on a milk buying walk to the local McColls by the Evening Post building. I thought, well why not hey? Let’s buy the Vogue UK Sept issue. The writeups on the history of Gucci, the life of Galliano, were quite enjoyable reads. I haven’t yet got to the...
LOVE
I do love the topic of love. It’s truly interesting and encompasses the ticking on of the world. Wherever it’s created from, what side of the brain it is, what causes it to happen, this and that, tit and tat.. who cares really? All is important is that it’s real and special to all living...
LIVE, DIE
Sketch sketch sketch. I was going to post this after plenty of painting, colouring, filling in, tweaking. But on this Sunday night at 10 to eleven, I felt my brain shiver at the 3-4 hourly long process and so have decided with this. I love her stare. It is haunting enough that a little old...
DICE
What a Monday. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to do a post anytime soon due to time being well spent on the restructuring of my brain, but lovliness hit through via the post in the form of issue 39 of a motorcycle mag, Dice Magazine. It was a thoroughly different cover to the other...
WEEKENDER
The Barley Mow is having a mini festival again and this time I present to you the Dings Weekender! As usual, its a barrage of fun; weather permitting..The poster was pretty fun to do for this, I much likey doing hand-drawn work instead of using the computer.. it feels more real. More painstaking, but it’s...
DRAWING IN JUNE
I’ve seen many blogs reccently (many, many, many) due to my internship with Motel Rocks that started a few weeks ago! Some that I’ve come across have really stood out and offer something interesting and different from the crowd (and are now on my Google Reader list). ElleVictoire was one of them where I came...
LIVE ON
I tweeted this sketch ages ago, and reccently I have also cleared my desk out abit, alongside the paper stack that was compiling itself on top of my printer scanner. Live on, live on, rock and rollers. Shake the crows out of your hair, let a shout loose and strutt your wonderful self into the...
CALL HOME
A quick sketch coloured in, her alien features prompted me to give her blue hair.. no other colour seemed to suit in my felt tip collection. I like these little devilly creatures that seem to be the guardians of my drawings. I like to think there’s a big trail of them following me around in...
CHOOSE LOVE
Another day, another sketch.. well not entirely true. This was from the pile that I drew on my drawing kick yesterday, and coloured in with my felt tips this afternoon. I’m regaining usage and love for my felt tips. I have an on-off relationship with them, I will use them lots, then for 4 months...
DIFFERENT
Today particularly was somehow very condusive for my brain to pour out and draw. I am not entirely sure why, perhaps it’s the rumblings of calm excitement at the new arrival, maybe it was the sunny yet windy disposition outside, or simply the right combination of breakfast, lunch and an assortment of cups of teas.....
BASHEROO
The Barley Mow’s 3rd birthday poster! Something I should have posted before the 21st of May.. ahem. Nevertheless it was a success from what I hear, groans and all. This flyer really stood out when it was put against a surface- tables, walls, chairs, bar tops, the print job was awesome and the colours popped....
A CASTLEY LETTER
I am excited to finally be able to let you all know of a project I have been working on. I’ve had such fun designing Paper Castle Press’s first ever newsletter, and working with Castle Leader Sophie. Love how it came together – clean, simple but with a rip roaring piratey RARR, bringing to you...
WEDDING BELLS
The most talked about wedding of the year. I was requested to draw something up for the street party The Barley Mow is putting on for the celebrations. Live music, apple bobbing, cake stands, and pretty much a whole day (11am-midnight) of fun fun fun. Pop on by if you’re Bristol based, it’ll be a...
TRAINS
“A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions” (William Kingdon Clifford). Reflection pulls me back to my core thoughts, beliefs and wants. It takes my hand and walks it right back into the center of what my...
PAPPY
I’ve had a wonderful 2 weeks off. Time spent in the outdoors, biking around, climbing rocks, turning 25, running in open fields like children let loose and getting to hang out and catch up with awesome people. Time spent poring through books for inspiration, or simply to read for hours on end. Time to reflect,...
WIXSON
It certainly has been a busy week and I apologise for the lack of posting. I have been working on a fair few projects, which I am excited to show you once they are ready and out. Unfortunately sometimes when that happens, my stack of A4 drawing papers have to take a backseat! This piece...
SHY BOY
I have been building up a big urge to draw something unplanned and random to clear my brain and have some fun with my sketchpad, but have been putting it off for weeks because other more seemingly important things kept cropping up. Until a slight case of the fever hit me these past few days...
PROPSITE
There are plenty of online fashion sites around and from having about 50 that I follow on my Google Reader list, the best ones are always the most simple. They focus on the content and don’t distract your eyes with too much going-ons in the sidebars, too many columns, complicated menus and far too long...
SHROOMS
Perhaps some of you have twigged by now that I really like mushrooms.. the way they’re shaped, the way they grow, all the different species and the cuteness overload if you imagine them all in a bundle with googley eyes. I’m glad that in real life they don’t have googley eyes though, because I wouldn’t...
BOKOR
Bokor Hill Station is found in the Preah Monivong National Park in Southern Cambodia, close to a small riverside town called Kampot. It’s a bumpy ride in a pick up truck on the way up, but it’s most worth it when you arrive. The Bokor Hill Station was built by the French in 1921 as...
CYCLE
Found this little robot man in his hidey hole along the way on the Bristol-Bath railway cycle path. I suspect he’s made out of random mechanical bits that have accidentally fallen off people’s bikes..but I could be mistaken as there are a few things on there that don’t belong on a bike! The cycle ride...
VENUE
This is another, more businessey looking business ad for South West Magazine. It is one of the magazines by Venue Publishing. Which is my intro to the sad news that Venue magazine has shut down. Having been Bristol’s entertainment and listings magazine since 1982, a decline in circulation and increase in printing prices have made...
SAY IT
An ad for South West Business that I mocked up when on my Venue placement. The magazine is targeted at businesses in this region of the UK, connecting people and keeping everyone up to date with what’s going on. The advertisement is to invite industry experts to have their own regular column in the magazine...
VENUE MAG
I’ll be adding some examples of work to the site this week of some advertisements that I worked on on my placement with Venue Magazine a few weeks back. It was good fun, and made me realise that I sort of miss working in an office, having regular lunches, random short bursts of chat, and...
DELISH
When I saw pictures of the Miu Miu S/S 2010 collection, I loved the usage of the bird and cat prints on their fabrics. They reminded me of similarly printed pyjamas I wore as a kid! The ensemble the girl is in in my illustration didn’t appear on the runway, but what can go wrong...
WOOD
‘This song makes me feel as if I was lost in a deep forest’. My idea for this poster design came from that line in the movie. I used colours to capture the romance and melancholy of this story. The deep hues of pinks, yellows, blues and greens represent the exciting and glowing feelings of...
SUNRISE
This is an illustration of a friend of mine that used to be my neighbour in Malaysia. When I was living there and knew her, she was only maybe 12 years old! I was chatting to her earlier and clicking her photos and was really drawn to one that she had as her profile picture...
RAINBOWS
It’s easy to forget the simple things in life. In this day and age, our day to day activities are bombared with so many other things that sometimes it’s impossible to find your own headspace and quiet. I drew this in a brief moment when I did find that hanging moment in the day where...
MAGAZINE
I was featured in Digital Arts magazine last year. Thought I’d share it with those of you who haven’t yet had the chance to see it! A copy is sat right here on my bookshelf, collecting a fair bit of dust.. yes, internet shelving is sometimes better than in real life. Click here for a...
FINGERY
An album cover for Jimmy the Fingers. Happy electronicy juicy dancy music. You gotta love it. His new album drops sometime this year too and judging by the tracks that I’ve heard so far in their unfinished state, it’s something to look forward to.
MURRAY’S
A van graphic for a friend of mine who has his own design+build business. He was after something that had the feel of an old school mechanic shop’s sign along with a caricature of him wielding a hammer. This was to be hand painted on either side of his rust coloured van. In the end...
HOT CHILI
As March approaches, I realise the time is coming for me to turn a year older. This day is more significant to me than New Years for resolutions and thinking hard of the things that I would like to achieve in the year to come. Last year I had a chili cook-off at the apartment,...
VOUS JADORE
A letter through the door is always a delight. Unless it’s a bill of course, then it’s always opened with some trepidation. I drew this after watching the Sophia Coppola directed Marie Antoinette and fell in love with the beautiful muted pastel colours splashed all over the movie. It makes me think of cream cakes,...
