Listen to your Teachers!

Would you have read your worksheets a bit more if your teacher was drawn on it? That's what we're hoping at our school!

I don't think Mr White was that impressed with my impression of him...but it's what he looks like honest!

Medical Research Council Tests

A few weeks back I pitched for a job that didn't come off, for a comic for the Medical Research Council, here's what I came up with...

The comic was to introduce a younger audience to some of the 'heroes' of medical research. The illustration above is of Sir Almroth Edward Wright, trying to convince some volunteers to test out his typhoid vaccine. It's a good job someone did!

For help around the Classroom

I have been making some poster to display around the classrooms at the School I work in, to try an encourage the students to take pride in keeping the place tidy. Let's see if it works!...

Festivals on the Lawn!

Towards the end of last year I had the pleasure to work with the folk behind an awesome one day festival called 'Lawnfest',
Lawnfest is a music and arts festival that helps raise funds for West Heath - a school in Sevenoaks that supports traumatised children.

The brief was really up my street, with lots of little groups of people up to different things, representing some of the fun things you might experience at the festival.

Here's the stage and it's band rocking out in the free world!

This magician has probably even surprised himself pulling off this trick 

As part of the festival there is an art auction, and I think this Crocodile boy feels a bit copied!

 Just Chillin!

I have seen this man many a time at many a festival

 

Little jivers all around the place and...

...a man in a tree, naturally!

Happy Little Elves

3 of my most favourite Elves.

This Little Man

6 Months ago a little dude came into my life unlike no other. His name is Bert and I like to pretend (when I can) to be his Ernie.

(This is the dude having his first Christmas dinner)

So, to commemorate the awesomeness that has been his arrival into our lives I decided to make him something equally as special.

When I was a nipper someone (possibly my mum, but I can't remember because...well because I was a mini) got me a plate with all the details of when, where, (how?!) and who I am/was when I was born. I used to be pretty fascinated with it as it hung on the wall of my Laura Ashley wallpapered room, especially the idea that our house was once a toadstool.

(8 lb 11ozs...sorry ma!)

So, I decided to make the little man one of his own to hopefully stare at on his nursery wall, and thought the Circus would be a good starting place (also perhaps because his Momma has a bit of a like for it!)

So here it is, a plate of his very own! (see he was nearly as big as I was!) 

I think the strongman is my favourite (always is) and after a few trials getting it just the right temperature in the oven I think it looks quite super on the plate.

It's really nice to see my drawings on a new surface and after another dear friend had a little baba I did one for her too

Think I might work on some more designs for baby arrivals, perhaps even on some re purposed vintage crockery, it might be quite nice to work with the patterns. Any suggestions for designs you might like are welcome and do get in contact if you'd like one for your special little new friend!

Love Aunt Sally xx

Kerching!

Batty Cat

You wanz play?

Photobooth fun

I offered to draw portraits for friends for their onwards Christmas presents this year, and as it is now after Christmas, and Santa/Sally has (hopefully) been for everyone, I can now share some of the images I drew!

The first is one for my most lovely friend Anne, for her (also lovely) brother Stefan. I visited Anne's native city of Dresden a few years back and met Stefan and we had some fun in one of the famous original B&W photobooths. The drawing is my version of this delight, do you like the faces? I had lots of fun drawing!

...and do get in contact if you'd like a portrait drawing for a loved one

Get eating your Greens!

For all those London based Guardian buyers - look out for the supplement 'Green Mag' in tomorrow's issue, there is an article about 'The Future of Food' that I did some illustrations for.

It's a really interesting read about how high food prices are becoming an unfortunate norm, and what we can do to become a more educated consumer. And I have to say, after just this week eating my very first home-grown courgette, it has made me a bit more conscious of how hard feeding the planet must be.

Happy Weekend Yall!

Marking a lot of love

Since my induction to the Leicester Print Workshop I have been really eager to develop more images to be produced with screen printing. So when my oldest poppet from back home got engaged to her wonderful man I offered to make their wedding invitations for them as my gift, and what a exciting time I had making them! Having a real project to get my teeth into has definitely spurred on my enthusiasm for the technique and the process of printing.

Kelly-Ann and Dan were a magical couple to design for as they were so open and trusting with whatever I wanted to come up with. They gave me an overview of some of the ideas and themes that will make their big day, and a colour scheme to choose from. They have a soft spot for our feathery head spinning friends, so I based the image around a couple of love owls, stood between the gates that they will exit from as man and wife.
I went for a combination of bright pink and dusty blue, highlighted with a medium grey for the sharper details.
It was a new way of working for me - to remove the black lines that I so frequently use and create an image simply through textures and blocks of colour. I really enjoyed thinking of the process I would be using during the design process, and exploring new ways of describing a setting.

On the reverse of the invitation we had 2 sets of information to print - one for the day guests and one for the night; so I printed them in the two different colours. The information is formed from a mix of 2 fonts and there are some little illustrations within the layout.

As part of the Invitation pack, I also designed a RSVP card, for the guests to return their attendance answers.

The envelopes were all addressed in the same font as from within the invites, inked on in pink calligraphy. The back of the envelopes have a hand printed return address, along with a yummy ice cream!

And to finish off the bundle I made some badges from the illustrations from within the invites along with some complimentary fabric, for the guests to wear if they should so wish!

Working on these invites has been really wonderful and has sparked a bit of a passion for helping betrothed couples capture the fun of their day. I'm planning to develop a range of lovingly hand printed designs that will be customisable and offer a range of package options.
I even see it developing into other life events, such as baby announcements and correspondence cards so do contact me if you know anyone who you think would love the service, or if you have an occasion yourself!

Inky Fingers

A couple of months ago I decided it was about time to go back to school and pick up a process I last tried at college, some 10 years ago (yikes) Screen printing.
When I moved to Northamptonshire at the start of the year I was lucky enough to come across a lovely little place called Leicester Print Workshop a mere half an hour drive down the A6, and decided to sign up to their 'Introduction to Screen Printing' course held over a weekend and ran by the lovely Gemma Wright. 

I remembered quite a bit about how to screen print but thought it was a good idea to have a proper recap and save myself making silly mistakes, so along I went with a few black and white images to see what I could produce, one of which you can see above. It's a reworking of a drawing I first used in a mural, but one I thought deserved a bit more love.

Gemma gave some helpful advice and suggestions about how you can add hand-drawn textures to your prints so I experimented by adding a background evening sky, made by painting on acrylic onto acetate and scratching it off with some sandpaper.

Getting printing again was lots of messy fun, and reminded me how much I loved it, even if you do get sore fingers and a bad back! You have to be super quick when you're printing and have lots of space to lay your prints out for them to dry, I stacked them anywhere I could.

I tried a few different colours for the back ground sky but reverted back to the clean black and white image, which I think works best.

One day these will grace a shop I'm sure.

The other image I printed that day was a new one I made special. Look, it's some kids on a merry-go-round! I really like this image and hope to use it again one day for something, it looks brills as a print but I think I'm going to use it with multiple colours next time.

I've been printing more since this adventure and am really enthused to start printing at home too.

Like old Friends

Working through all the images I have ever created took some time I tell thee, but it was a welcome task as I got to revisit some old drawings I'd almost forgotten about. My agents were particularly interested in seeing digital versions of the doodles I created from the murals I've done, but as I mainly work in a brain-to pen-to wall fashion, there was a need to recreate these images on paper.

The above image was originally etched onto the entrance hall of Bungalows and Bears, a jauntly Northern establishment in Sheffield established by the ever talented and expending 580 limited.

The original mural depicted the now-demolished Sheffield cooling towers, with local superstars The Arctic Monkeys on top of one, and *my school girl crush* Pulp on the other.

I remember on this job having to hunt down an internet cafe to google image pictures of the towers and the bands for reference. God, how much do I love having an iphone now.

The second reworked image was originally from the first in the pub mural series I did at Start the Bus, Bristol (another 580 wonder)

I remember being absolutely terrified to start to draw on this mural, probably due to be only being told the brief on the train to Bristol that morning. Also having a whole room full of people waiting to see what I was drawing was a bit unnerving. It was the first of what I've now come to know as 'Rolf Harris Syndrome' People are perplexed into silence by watching you draw and trying to work out what it's going to be. It's something I thrive off now; there is no fannying around when there's a mural to do.