Dream Home

I have a bit of a Russian fixation. This is a fact. I am liable to romanticise anything eastern european excessively and elaborately. This building pretty much encapsulates everything I want Russia to be in my head and more.
Thirteen floors of ramshackle carpentry leading to an unfinished tower from which the builder, Nikolai Sutyagin, can admire his handiwork. Sutyagin began this as a two floor house but, realising that the local authorities probably weren't paying much attention, he decided to add a few more. Which is great. The child in me wants to climb it and hide in it and construct a complex pulley system for getting water to the top. The illustrator in me wants to draw it and write stories about it. Either way its sort of a dream come true.

More pictures HERE

If this is the sort of thing you like then have a peek at these photos of an abandoned Russian village, these drawings of Russian luxury houses and these astounding wooden constructions (again in Russia)

Travels

(photo from mischy eva)

We're off to Stockholm on Monday to fill up on nice design and furniture and green places and baked goods. I am very excited (not least because after Stockholm we're off to Paris! Yes!) but a bit lost as to where best to go. If anyone has any recommendations at all then they would be greatly appreciated.

Etsy Treats

My mum has just opened a wee etsy shop to sell her jewellery. She made me this cloud necklace for my birthday this year and I get compliments on it everytime I wear it. There's one similar in her shop. Go go go!


Speaking of Etsy here are some nice things that I haven't bought but wish that I could...

Beautiful Beautiful prints in Caroline Gaedechens' shop NuitBlanche

Opal necklace by Neawear

Felix The Bird By Alison Tauber

Sawdust & Diamonds

Lets get some tasty illustration up in here...


Drew Beckmeyer can paint. I've always been quite taken with his work but this poster for a show with Devotchka and Basia Bulat (who are both great by the way) is really lovely. More posters should be painted I think. Also cupcakes should be this huge.
I used to lust after Mathilde Aubier's artwork on deviantart many many years ago. She has some super collage skills and a really nice palette of colours at her disposal.


Finally one of my favourite blogs Fine Little Day featured a link to some really inspiring American folkart from the early 1900s. Loads of strange and intriguing characters, really amazing patterns and some colour combinations that I'm definitely going to be plundering for future work.



Done!

(today I am listening to Joanna Newsom)

Pikaland

The lovely Amy at Pikaland has just posted a little interview with me. I think thats my first official interview in illustrator capacity so please excuse the fact that I have no idea how to answer a question constructively BUT you should definitely head over to the site as Amy has an eye for great work and the Pikapackage project is a great idea.
(also great banner for the blog by Gemma Correll)

Frames & Floorboards

I am a nosey person especially when it comes to people's homes (flathunting holds secret pleasure for me) so peering through all the photos on The Selby is perfect guilt free nosiness. I love all the nice floorboards in restaurant owners Jean & Sam's home in Brooklyn. I'm a floorboard freak. And apparently unashamed to admit it.





Sycamore Street Press' etsy shop is full of all manner of letterpressed goodness including the above baroque frames (love that red and blue together...you could sell me anything in that red and blue) and the super vague 'great job' card which I want to buy for..uh..everyone.

Oh dear. I have ideas stewing for a winter version of the Village Fete that I did back in March. I almost certainly can't afford to do it but oh! it would be amazing. Mulled Wine! And Craft!

The Dirt & The Roots

I finally got round to watching 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' last night having had it sat on my side for at least a month. Firstly I am sad that I never made it to the cinema to see it and second I am feeling guilty that a friend of mine (Will from the wonderful Picture Books In Winter) had been on at me for ages to watch it and I ignored him (because I sort of enjoy disagree with him. On everything) Anyway it was completely enthralling and the cinematography was astounding. Every shot was flawless and full of hazy nostalgia and quiet foreboding and the rural Missouri backdrop was a perfect mix of inviting and bleak. Of course every performance was as impeccable as can be expected of such a great cast. Hmm yes. Definitely worth a watch. (I am not a film reviewer. This is plain to see.)


I did a drawing for a poster today. Its a house. Its always a house. I need to expand my repetoire.


I love the work of James P Morse.
You can now buy I Am The Friction from Analogue Books. I cant wait to get back to Edinburgh and see our silly little book on their shelves!

True Affection

These little polar bears were made by Tamar Mogendorff, I love them so much I don't know what to do with myself. All I can do is sit here and fawn over the photos. Bears!

I used to wear t shirts all the time. I had quite a line in threadless, kill rock stars and decemberists shirts but then I sort of gave up on them a bit. Fail. I feel that now the hour may be upon me to restore my faith in the humble tee. Look! Its got a tiger on it! Amazing (mainly as it reminds me from the grinning tiger in 'The Tiger That Came To Tea'. Anyway its great and you can get one from Gama-Go.



Crotcheted lamp. I love lamp! from Roost at Velocity.

Nice! there are loads more here.

Thanks to grain edit, hey susy and formfiftyfive for posting I Am the Friction this week. Too kind.

My Children Be Joyful

There is now an excerpt and image (actually the above image. So i've sort of ruined it) from 'I Am The Friction' up on our site. Check it! I haven't really spoken a lot about the project as I think when you look through the book it sort of explains itself. Maybe. But I will say that its well worth reading Jez's writing as he's pretty damn good at it. Now he's going to frown at me and tell me to be quite. But I refuse. He's great. Aha!

Oh my gosh! Russian Winnie the Pooh (Vinnu Puh) is incredible! I definitely prefer it to the golden disney version (but not to A A Milne, that would be wrong). Its all folky and slightly menacing and the hundren achre woods looks awesome. Go watch.
(thanks to Grain Edit)

Finally. Mr Ray Fenwick. Who I have an enormous amount of admiration for. Anyway I meant to post these ages and ages and ages ago because..well its obvious and I forgot. Then, when I was on the plan back from Barcelona, I was sat behind a girl making a friendship bracelet and it reminded me. Totally totally reggae!




today I am listening to Rock Plaza Central.

Big cats and birdside tables

I adore this image by Anke Weckmann which is available to buy here. How nice are those colours?



Also this birdhouse bedside table is lovely. Available from Heals on Tottenham Court Road it is designed by Alex Hellum. I love the way a book sits so nicely as the roof.

Thanks to the amazingly lovely Smosch and those crazy kids at Tiny Showcase for giving me and friction a mention.

Posters

I love a good gig poster and there are some great ones over on FloraFaunas profile on GigPosters.com I especially love this one for Fleet Foxes and of course the AMAZING bear on the Midlake poster. Nice work.

Returned

Back from Barcelona as pale and english looking as when I left. Alas. I had a wonderful time though despite not speaking a word of spanish (to my shame) and not really being able to function effectively in thirty degree heat. Maybe some photos soon.



While I was away the ever awesome Meighan over at My Love For You Is A Stampede of Horses was nice enough to dedicate not one but two posts to my work. Which was a bit amazing. The first was about my worky work and the second was about I Am The Friction; a book that I've been working (for a wee while) with Jez that has FINALLY gone on sale (pick up a copy HERE). The book is split in two with one half being made up of short stories (written by Jez) inspired by my illustrations and the second half being illustrations inspired by stories. Its pretty great. If I do say so myself.

Ollidays

(photo from Flickr, I forget who. Oops)

I'm off to Barcelona with my sister tomorrow morning till the end of the week so I shall be blog free for a bit (I think I need a bit of healthy separation) hopefully the weather will be a bit nicer than the rainy onslaught currently attacking the south west. I should pack.

There's a bit of new work on my site. And there's more to come soon.

Stripes on Sunday

I got me some Stuart Kolakovic badges! These are made of solid gold awesome. Fact. Also a(nother) striped top inspired by the recent travelling shirt project by the Vintage Society.



As promised here are some truly awful photos of my two double spreads in Anorak Magazine (the happy mag for kids!). I managed to travel five hundred miles across the country and left my camera cable in edinburgh. So its slightly skewed photobooth photos till I go back in August to fetch it.

Quiet

Since I've been home I've been a bit quiet on the blog front. Oops. So to resume proceedings...a lovely bowl!


I'm a bit housewares mental at the moment and I love these bowls at Rare Device (its not just the bowls. I love everything in that store!)

This is easily the most lomo-like lomo photo I've ever taken. More on my flickr.

FINALLY check out BIFFblog (short for the lame yet strangely appropriate Best Illustration Friends Forever). Which is the brand new blog for the (almost) fourth year illustration gang. As yet its pretty sparce but soon it shall be awash with illustrative treats from all 17 of us as well as photos, anecdotes and general chats courtesy of the coolest kids in college (ok. maybe we're not the coolest. sculpture is pretty cool. we're kind of awkward.)

Sled Island

Were you in Calgary, Canada this week you might well have attended the Sled Island Festival. If so you may have seen the truly astounding Grizzly Bear playing with Kris Ellestad and our supercool friends Woodpigeon. If so you may ALSO have seen the poster for that show which we did a little while back. Its nice to see it all screen printed up and on display as we just sent over a photoshop file without ever having seeing it on paper. Its looks quite nice in print. Victory to Sing Statistics.

we keep our veins tangled like a pair of mic cables

Its my final night in Brighton (ever in fact as Jez is moving to Edinburgh and thus there will be no need to visit) and we just went to see Why? play at audio. Why? are amazing. Elephant Eyelash is easily one of my favourite ever records (I realise I am one of those people who throws that kind of phrase around but this time it is totally true) and their most recent album Alopecia is pretty special too. Sadly the evening was slightly marred by three guys who thought they'd throw themselves around really violently during the last three tracks making is impossible for everyone else to watch without getting battered by a flailing limb but otherwise agreat show.