The Commute

Since 2012 I’ve been commuting loads for work and I actually really enjoy it ! 🚂✨ I value the distance between work and home, I enjoy knowing two cities really well and getting involved with both and I find travelling by train quite romantic ~ the scenery, the time you get to listen to an album all the way through, time to read, write, draw, knit (or sleep!) I also definitely have one of those faces that people want to talk to, and like it or not I’ve met some right characters on my commute. Some joyful, some obnoxious, some silly, some friends even ! I started to draw the characters on and off during my long commutes south and back up north again - not a face mask in sight, unlike today. I have complied them into an illustrated 28 page zine printed by the awesome Ex Why Zed ✨ 

My plan was to pop some of them randomly back out on my commute - I liked the idea of some of them travelling around on their own journeys maybe brightening up a lonely journey for someone or cutting through the monotony of the everyday ~ but that’s unlikely now ! Who knows when we’ll be able to travel in the same way... Here are a few pages - see more here 

Plaques

Last year I used the laser cutter to play with bringing some of my characters to life on wood. At the same time I was really into collecting lots of different hooks to make an eclectic wall in a hallway in my home to hand coats and scarves. The odder the better really, I wanted each hook to be flamboyant and different.... and then, as I usually do - I think : let's make my own, and then, as it usually does, it became a mini project / production line in my studio, helped by my lovely boyfriend who enjoys a bit of woodwork and was keen to get involved. As well as creating to add to our wall at home, we produced runs of these chicken, zebra and dog plaques. All are completely hand-made, painted and varnished! You can see more and purchase your own here. 

Collaboration with Earthy Roots

Here are a selection of prints I illustrated for Earthy Roots. Bees are in decline and I wanted to create something where 50% of the profits go towards helping a sustainable company, like Earthy Roots nourish the bees, through their bee keeping on various sites in Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. 50% of all sales will go directly to them which will help them to expand their apiary's and sustainable business. Check them out here. You can find my prints here. 

New Stockists

At the start of 2019, I made a New Years resolution to try and get five new stockists for my work - to most be brave and put myself out there more! I'm really happy to announce my new stockists in Leeds, Wakefield, Hull, Loughborough and Huddersfield - you can check them out here on my website. In each I have a selected of prints, some homewares and postcards. 

All these - and more can be found at Hey Form in Hull, The Bowery in Leeds, Modern Painters New Decorators in Loughborough, The West Yorkshire Print Workshop in Mirfield in Huddersfield. 

At the Art Shop in The Art House in Wakefield, I currently have a limited edition (of ten) four colour screen print chickens available. These are only available here and 50% of the sale of each of those prints go directly back to The Art House to help buy new equipment in their print studios for everyone to enjoy and access! (I have another vacation in my etsy shop - just in time for Easter!) 

MATS : tealeaves

I keep forgetting to share these on my blog! But - here is a design I made for MATS - to design a journal cover based on reading tealeaves. This was the first design that I created on my iPad Pro - I've printed a batch and have made them into handmade notebooks which I will be selling at the Hull Print Fair tomorrow! 

Slowdown Studio

For the past two July's the wonderful Slowdown Studio (I love their throws, mixtapes and vibe) run a competition over on instagram, where you can submit a design which they might select and make into a throw! What a dream. The winners were announced in early August on their instagram, and they are all lovely. Here are my submissions: 

My designs weren't selected, but I really like them anyway (I'd certainly have these as throws!) so I am going to try and rework them over the next few weeks!

MATS - BOOTCAMP 2018

Back at the start of the year I set myself a few creative challenges. To kick start, in January I did a painting a day which you can read and see here. I also challenged myself to make an individual new make every week - so I should have at least 52 new items or illustrations by the end of the year - which I'll showcase then. Usually, I say to myself - make a zine a month or make a new collection based on a theme, but I have come to realise that I like and respond well to a variety - a variety of work, a variety of projects on the go and having a big variety in my life. When I would set myself one thing to do I would usually not stick to it and instead of saying that I've failed at sticking to it, I think it's much better to realise why I haven't achieved it, what does it say about how I work and what I respond to. Since working that out, I have found it so much more achievable (dare I say easy?!) to make something new every week - from a new zine, to a product, a screen-print to an illustration or a character design to be printed on to fabric. Touch wood I will be able to keep it up! It's always a worry when you say something out loud and aren't quietly working on it that it comes unravelled, but I'm finding working in this way super motivating and I've been really productive in making lots of new (I think cool!) items!

Also I have been taking the MATS Bootcamp 2018 assignments, as they help me to think about subjects out of my own mind and experience and push me to create something different. They also count towards a new make a week too! I thought I would show them off as one downside to my self set creative challenge is that I was planning on sharing everything at the end of the year - but - then I realised that I am neglecting my blog! oops. This assignment was based on an inspirational women, which we had to make a book cover for. We had to research an allocated person. Mine was Maira Kalman. WHO IS AMAZING. If you don't know her, treat yourself to watching a TED talk or reading an interview. I found her to be a feisty, funny, inspirational lady, super creative with a fabulous outlook on life. 

We had to imagine what she would have in her bag and design a cover based on this. Here is my response:

I painted envelopes of moss (which she says she likes to collect from all over the world), a mug of coffee, with an 'M' for Maria, painted in the Bodoni type face (which she loves and has named her daughter after), ink and brush, a Russian doll (her Mother is Russian), a block of Cheddar (she says good Cheddar is good for ideas) and lots of photographs of dogs - which she says she takes and keeps. They are my favourite part of the illustration, you know me, I love making characters:     

MATS: Wall Art

The latest Make Art That Sells assignment that I completed was called 'Wall Art' and, to be honest, I found it really challenging! We were assigned two colours - mine being red and purple which we were only allowed to use (alongside neutrals - so black, while, greys) in our work. I embraced this part of the assignment because I feel that I do need to restrict myself more with colour palettes. I think I am definitely better at using colour than when I was a student - often overwhelmed by every variation of every shade and tint available on photoshop - which I think is common when you are starting out. I also LOVE colour and have in the past, just not known when to stop, wanting to use all the combinations I can - at the same time. Even when I dress myself, I have always gone for the boldest brightest and often, most unfashionable colours that may not compliment. As I'm typing this, I'm reliving a lime green dress that I thought was amazing back when I was an early teen and wore it to every school-hall disco and ice staking night out I could, much to my friends (very vocal) horror. 

What I'm trying to say is, that I am aware that I need to keep working on my use of colour - keep refining, keep playing. But that's like anything - everything - isn't it? I suppose it's also about feeling confident in your own choices, when with lots of conflicting opinion it can be hard to be sure that something is working. Maybe I actually need to channel the spirit of young and brave teenage Jenna in the lime green dress, who really didn't care if anyone else thought she looked cool or not... 

Back to the assignment...  The first task was to create or collect as many items, patterns, papers, objects with the colours on. I spent a day painting, printing and drawing lines, shapes, textures and patterns. Which I scanned in to my computer. 

Then the second part was to combine this into a piece of wall art, with a quote and florals that could be sold at Anthropologique. So like a dream brief really... this was the challenging part for me, I started to think about what is for sale at Anthropologique at the moment - which I absolutely love anyway and began to feel a bit overwhelmed - how can I work honestly but try and fit the audience of Anthropologique? So I stumbled and overthought for a while really focused on the floral requirement of the brief, which derailed me... but then I reflected on what I am good at illustrating, what do I enjoy illustrating? Lila Rogers always says that people relate to your joy and if you are creating what gives you joy, it will shine through in your work and people will connect with it.

I think that I am good at making endearing characters with funny but charming personalities and I love creating them! They make me smile the most... so I thought I would add some critters and characters in my piece, which started to make me feel more comfortable....but what kind of creatures? Why would they be there? The piece needed to have a quote, so what kind of quote would hold it all together? 

I thought about what I believe in - things like 'turn off the TV', 'go on an adventure', 'being brave', 'just go for it' that 'making makes ideas'.... I looked through some old note books where I often record overheard conversations, inspirational quotes from films - or even sometimes scrawled on the back of toilet doors in clubs and pubs. One stood out which, I think, I wrote down when watching a film about graffiti artists called 'Beautiful Losers'. Someone on the film had said something about how we all have the right to be us, and I loved it. 'You have the right to be you undiluted and true' fitted well with strange little characters too. I thought about just making up random characters from my own imagination but I wanted it to be more meaningful than that, so I looked through a hefty illustrated animal encyclopedia and sketched animals that aren't familiar to me - or here in the UK at least - such as okapis, lion tamarin monkeys (which later became other objects and characters you can check them out here),  some unusual rats and deers too.

Then I added them all together, using the hand-painted samples I had made right at the beginning added them to the piece and lots of handmade textures. The final is a mixture of hand painted, handmade patterns and textures, hand-drawn and digitally coloured. The brief was to make the image a square size. Overall, even though it took a long time to get to where I wanted it to be - I really enjoyed the process and the final outcome. I would have never of made something like this, but I still feel that it is true to my own voice and hand. I have recently had some printed at 41cm x 41cm they are available as prints in my etsy shop!

Just the two of us: bear and cat.

Here is a recent one off commission I made. A lovely man got in touch after seeing my ‘Just the two of us’ greetings cards I made around Valentines Day last year, based on my Staffordshire Pottery paintings. He wanted a little one off for his fiancée, so I obliged: 

Meow

I've been thinking that maybeeee I need to stop drawing cats. But then they are great to draw and paint and I do love them. Just afraid of becoming a bit of a one trick pony. I just get commissioned for a lot of cats!! Here’s some printed on to fabric and made into make up pouches / large bags, purses and pillows. They are inside my etsy shop now.