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

Make it in Design School - Tribal Pattern

I have been an avid fan of all things to do with surface pattern for along time and been following many artists and illustrators on blogs such as Print and Pattern and Rachel Taylor's The Art and Business of Surface Pattern.  For a while now I have fancied participating in a course but have been too busy with other commission to do so.

I have had a go at making patterns in Photoshop with the help of tutorials and YouTube so I decided to bite the bullet and signed up for the Make It In Design - Summer School.  It's been such a lovely feeling being part of this creative community and I love how everyone's designs I have seen are so different from each others.  

I missed the first tropical brief but I have just submitted my entry for the beginners second brief: Tribal.

I decided to base it around the tribal warriors and african symbols and keep it child-like rather than being more abstract and geometric.  I have used a few of my animal characters before to create a simplistic pattern so as I only started the design yesterday I decided to do something similar.  I created a couple of warrior children and used flowers and their love of white dotted face makeup as my inspiration.  I then incorporated the symbols meaning: abundance and greatness as the flower-like and radial symbols worked well with the dotty face paint.

African Symbols

I felt a bit nervous submitting my final design as I know it's not a seamless pattern and a bit random but in the end I just thought it's something slightly different to what I usually do and I feel quite proud I managed to get it done really quickly. I am going to develop the design further and make some cushion and bedding mock ups.

Work in Progress

My final submission - Little Warrior

I am so glad I have participated in this brief and look forward to the third one.  I will definitely participate in more online courses and community-based projects now I have dipped my toe into the water.  I fancy trying out Mail Me Art, The Draw and Cook and Minted.com. 

Seven Stories

I have been wanting to visit the Seven Stories - national centre for children's books in Newcastle for ages and I was lucky to be taken to see it on my last visit to see my cousins, Jane and James.

It was everything and more.  The exhibitions were like stepping into your favourite children's books and made me feel like a kid again. I even had a go a being Alice, Little Red Riding Hood and Mr Fox! It was so inspiring to see authors and illustrator's work up close and personal and I loved seeing all the sketchbooks and work in progress.

Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers

 It was great to see all the children reading the books and becoming interactive with the characters, dressing up and discovering new worlds of fancy.  One minute you are going through a rabbit hole and the next you are transformed into a borrower sitting on a giant cotton reel.

Shaun Tan - The Lost Thing

Dummy Book - Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake

   

Axel Scheffler

The Borrowers

Love mustard!!!

Quentin Blake

Lauren Child

So many dummy books!

As always I had to go into the attached bookstore and was so happy and excited to see the book I illustrated The Three little Pigs for Ladybird Books.  I have never seen it in any bookstore before so it made my day!

My book in the Seven Stories Bookstore

       Seven Stories is so inspirational for both adults and children and I would highly recommend it!!!

Yum Yum!  I LOVE BOOKS!