Autumnal characters and Old Artwork

Autumn marks the end of summer and out with the old fading flowers and greenery and in with the rich coloured, falling leaves and berries. It also marks a transition for me as an artist as I will be entering the real, face to face art world rather than sitting in my little tower painting away.  I am sat facing some beautiful white berries hanging over from my neighbour's garden.  I wonder what they are?

I have been looking through all my old work and having a big sort out.... An autumnal clean.

It's very strange to look at old work as it triggers a variety of emotions... mainly OMG!!!! Did I really paint like that? I have obviously developed my style as I used to be a lot more looser with big paint strokes and I had the goggly one eye bigger than the other stage. 

Old painted artwork alongside new sketches

Looking through I found lots of old character ideas that I never fully developed and my mind has been filled with more ideas.  I definitely need a big board in my studio to organise this mind of mine as it never stops these days!   I would love one of them magnetic glass ones which you can write on too :-) I have found some great board organisers on Pinterest so I might actually make one!

I found these little gems I had painted (above) and decided to do some new and improved characters based on my old idea.

Ready to be painted!!! Check out the chewed pencil and eraser courtesy of Alice the chihuahua!

So as I am sat here on a bleak, drizzly day with a brewing cold I decided to brighten up my day and upcycle some old characters and there is a picture book magically forming in my head with cute characters set in an autumnal scene of rich colours.  The little characters are based on the natural forms of plants and already have names.

I'm looking forward to painting the little cuties this afternoon!

Happy Autumn to you all

Inspiration - Design Seeds

As I was looking for some new blogs to add to my list I cam across a beautiful yet simple blog that I know will be a great inspiration for me.  The blog is called Design Seeds created by designer Jessica Colaluca.  She posts colour palettes and combinations based on photographs of every day life.   Jessica's gorgeous photographs are works of art and I will definitely be using her colour combinations as a starting point for my illustrations.  As an illustrator I tend to get comfortable using the same colour combos so it will be great to step away from my colourful security blanket.

I will let you know how I get on and post again with a finished piece relating to one of Design Seed's palettes.

Photo created by Jessica Colaluca

A big thank you to Jessica for creating such an inspirational blog