Back on Track!

Lovely birthday treats from Tuesday. From top AMAZING chopstick holders by Lola Goldstein from Lama. Yes! Middle left cushion (made by my mum) in lovely fabric by Angie Lewin for St Judes. Middle right A TRIP TO KRAKOW (photo from flickr) on thursday! Argh. I am so excited. Jez is the best! And finally necklace from Urban Outfitters. Lovely stuff!

Love the colours in the Marc by Marc Jacobs Autumn 2009 collection. Niiice.


And finally here is the first page from the children's book I started while back. Its super simple (lots of white space!) but at the moment its going quite well. More soon I'm sure!

Nice post about artist Simon Evans on Black Eiffel.

Urgh.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a lovely day filled with all sorts of wonderful things. I shall share them soon I'm sure but for now our internet connection is so slow that I can't upload pictures and its no fun without is it?

Internet back on track! Hurrah!

There are a few new sketchbook photos on Flickr. I'm really enjoying keeping a sketchbook properly again. Since I was about 13 I've always had one on the go but in the past couple of years they ended up being more like notebooks than drawing books so I'm so glad that I've managed to rekindle my ability to draw mindlessly for no reason at all.



Tom Gauld is definitely one of the reasons I'm studying illustration. My flatmate and I went to the opening of his joint show with Simone Lia in Analogue back in my first year in Edinburgh and it was at that point that I finally decided to switch from my fine art course to illustration. Thank goodness. Tom has just added a load of his amazing illustrations for the Guardian's letters page to flickr and they're well worth a look.

ALSO

Design Sponge's sneak peek into the beautiful home of Tonje Holand is wonderful!

ARGH! This is too much! I am in love.

Its my birthday tomorrow! I'm remarkably (and uncharacteristically) excited. Not least because its the first time in three years that Jez and I have been in the same country for it! At last!

Nices

Evert Nijland makes some beautifully, surreal dreamlike jewellery. (via the always impeccable for me for you)


Wayne Pate has some lovely, simple prints in his shop. Including these letterpress postcards.

Stops and Starts

Urgh. Our internet connection has been playing up this week. Initially it would work for about three minutes and then not work for ten and now it's just about working but painfully slowly. It's practically steam powered! So blogging has been put on hold because the sheer frustration of trying to upload an image on our crappy connection is too much.

Thankfully right now it seems to be working OK so I'm squeezing in a quick blog fix while I can....



First up Sophie Elm! Sophie graduated from ECA last summer with a fairly spectacular collection of painted ceramics and textiley things alongside her lovely illustrations. She's just finished some lovely egg cups and hearts that are for sale if you contact her through her blog.



I've always liked Cornelia O Donovan's work. It's always so lively and fun. And her colour choices are pretty special too. I especially love these new stuffed animals as seen on her flickr


Harry Potter Redesigned

Monday Night Nothing

On Saturday I headed down to the RSA New Contemporaries show while Jez ploughed on with his motherload of work (this is going to look particularly special when he's all done). Its a great show, if you're in Scotland then I thoroughly recommend it. One of the things that most stood out to me was Bridget Steed's 'A Collection of Whale's Teeth' (and her map drawings too) which saw her put fine, naive style line drawings onto found whale's teeth as shown above.
Alongside Steed's work there was plenty of other great stuff (including a wall of about forty wonderfully coloured canvases by someone's whose name I've forgotten)


Thanks to Lindsay for the heads up on the incredibly beautiful work of Valerio Vivaldi. I've had one of his images in my archive for ages so its nice to put a name to the illustration.


We've got a bit of a bizarre project on the go with the third year graphic designers. We have to design our self promotion in collaboration with one of the designers so today I gathered up all my tat and took a photo for my postcard (which has to be a two colour litho print) and this is it.

Valentimes!

Happy Valentine's Day!
(from the beautiful 'Hooves' by Bowerbirds)

FridayFridayFriday!

Thanks for all your handy inspirational tips! I'm gradually slipping out of my week long rut so hopefully next week I'll be a hive of productivity once again!

In the meantime here are some nice colourful things...

I love the translucency of the colours in this painting by Maya Hayuk.

I like these door drawings by Liz Hazle.

Ray Fenwick continues to be amazing.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to a 'colour bash' themed party so its time to ransack my wardrobe to find something that isn't grey or navy!

Help me!

This is my desk in the studio. It could probably do with a bit of a clean. My paint palette certainly could! I'm not entirely sure what the drawing is about either. I guess I was feeling flowery.

Its turning into one of those weeks where I just can't get anything done. Having been feeling pretty pleased with myself for finishing two of my major projects (yay!) I seem to have hit something of a slump. Oops. I've been rooting around in books and films and songs in a desperate attempt to find something that makes me really want to work but to no avail. I'm blaming February. February is worse than January I think. In January I usually feel I have to work mega hard to escape January blues but February well...it all kind of slows down. Oh dear.

Any ideas? What do you do when you want to come up with ideas? What never fails to inspire you?

Illustrative Crush #95

Chris Silas Neal is someone I've had bookmarked for a while although I had never really properly explored his site. A recent visit and I realised that I really love his work. Really love it. How amazingly lovely are these animals? I want this image HUGE on my wall please.

That is all.

When You're Done Here You Get To Go Home

This image from Brandi Strickland's most recent series 'Dark Crystals' is too nice. See more at on her site or FOR REAL at the 'Dark Crystals' group show at the Mahan Gallery in Columbus, Ohio.




If I was going to do some (slightly expensive) Etsy shopping right now I might be tempted to buy this dress (or maybe this, or maybe something from the wonderful thrush!). Alas as money is tight in the months leading up to my degree show so I guess its not to be (who knew framing and printing was so bloody expensive..ok I knew but I didn't want to admit it).

P.S Lindsay Grime, a fellow eca fourth year, has just got her website done. And lovely it is too! Be sure to swing by and take a peek at her enchanting illustrations!

Walk

I went for a bit of walk yesterday on the quest for some inspiration for a new project. Sadly I didnt come up with any groundbreaking ideas but I did managed to see a couple of exhibitions and take a few photos. Including one of a nice coloured cabbage in a garden at the end of our street.


Today I am listening to a reading of 'Under Milk Wood'. It is one of the nicest things to listen to. Especially the introduction.

Travels in Eighteenth Century Russia, among other things

I've been drawing aimlessly this week and thoroughly enjoying it. I was a bit tired of all the project led work and I just wanted to get back to drawing for myself a bit. Above is a drawing of 'an ostiak of the obe' based on an etching in a book about Russia in the 18th century. You can more (a fair bit more) on flickr.

Yu, who's blog AAA is one of my regular visits, was in Edinburgh yesterday to check out ECA and she gave me a box of very tasty tea! Wonderful!


Nicholas Saunders has got some skills! His illustration and prints are full of nice retro charm and interesting texture. AND he recently worked as a graphic designer on the set of the new Harry Potter film. That is far too cool for my geeky, childish self to handle.

Snow Stress

Today it snowed again. It was nice. For about five minutes. Then it became far too cold and our windown frame began to leak all over the place. There is pretty much one leak per centimetre. Fantastic. I guess this is what happen when you live on the top floor of an eighty year old building.

When I wasn't battling the elements I did manage to get some drawing done. Albeit totally directionless and without any particular purpose. I like the flower in her hair though.

I like these photos by Rune Guneriussun.

Ella Minnow Pea

I have this plan to do a one day book cover project every sunday for as long as I can keep it up. Last week I did Jane Eyre (which wasn't so great to be honest) but this week I think I've been more succesful (though its not perfect, not by a long shot). I want to practice design and layout and also working efficiently and instinctively and this seems like a fun way of doing it as I also get to revisit some of my favourite books. Ella Minnow Pea is a lovely story by the way, if you haven't come across it I really recommend you track it down.