Misc.

Jez played this a lot the other week. You know why? Because it is ace.


I'm not a fan of fake Christmas Trees but this Possibilitree could change my mind. I usually sort of hate the fake tree that has been over stylised but this remains festive and charming and not too design-y. Nice. (via For Me For You)

I've been printing things all evening in preparation for Magpie Market this Sunday. If you're in Central Edinburgh or are willing to make a trip there I would thoroughly recommend it. Plenty of opportunities for some lovely hand made Christmas shopping.

Buildings

Illustrated Christmas on Etsy

Christmas shopping time is upon us and I thought now would be a suitable time to endorse some rather splendid etsy shops run by illustrator folk I know, all of whom would be very much deserving of your hard earned cash!

Splendidly festive card by Sophie Elm

Zines by hellojenuine

Handpainted ceramic brooch by Lindsay Grime.

Ace print by Richard Sanderson

Morning ( or maybe evening) Mr Magpie

If you're in Scotland's fair capital on December 6th come to the Lot in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh from 12 noon until 6 for the Magpie Christmas Craft Fair. I shall be setting up shop with my craft fair cohort Lindsday Grime to flog all many of things both festive and frivolous! (Rather splendid image by Lindsay over at her blog)

Jez Burrows' New Site

Excuse me for one moment whilst I shamelessly (and very proudly) endorse my other half! Not content with being King of roast potatoes and good at opening jars Jez is also a really rather wonderful graphic designer/illustrator. He's just launched his brand new website and I strongly suggest you go and take a peek. Its proper good. Also keep your eye on his blog for a giveaway in the very near future.

For your wall...

Nice print by Elisabeth Dunker of Fine Little Day (of course!)

Loving this wonderfully simple illustration from Madebyanna. You can't go wrong with a lovely muted colourscheme.

If I had some of these beautiful cards from Rifle I doubt I could bear to send them. I'd like to frame 'em up and stick them on the wall instead.

Winter Birds

The birds I posted up earlier this week are now available as a digital print from my etsy shop!

New Drawings

Forgive me if you follow me on flickr...this will be old hat to you I guess but I thought I'd post up some new work. I'm currently working towards not one but two exhibitions in the start of the new year so hopefully you'll see some more in the near future. Not all of it mind! Need to save something for the shows!

Additions to the shop

New stuff added to my shop...cards and pin badges...more stuff to be added soon!

...

Really wish I was in Portland so I could go see 'Come Darkness', an exhibition/installation curated by Maria Alexandra Vettese. The collection of items on show are all incredibly beautiful, dreamy and arranged perfectly. Wish I was the lucky person who bought Lena Corwin's amazing bleach print.

Love this piece by Ron van der Ende. He uses scrap pieces of wood to make these beautiful photoreal collages. I love how strange the angles are and the nice dusky colours (via Man Make Home)

My gosh I LOVE these Marimekko dresses. The yellow patterned one especially, really beautiful (and a perfect shape too).

WINNNERS!

After a frankly overwhelming response to my stupid giveaway I'm happy to announce the THREE winners (picked at random using random.org). I decided, as so many people entered, to tack on a 2nd and 3rd prize as well which won't be the full prize bundle but a couple of select bits and pieces. Anyway drumroll etc....the winners are.

So 3rd place (number 9) goes to Brookewooley,
2nd (number 73) goes to Rynke
and 1st (number 69) is.... Wolf Eyebrows

If the winners could please email me your postal addresses at lizzy (at) abouttoday (dot) co.uk that would be much appreciated and your spoils will be shipped out to you very very soon! Thanks to everyone else that entered. I was touched by all the lovely things you said. All the items in the giveaway can be purchased in my shop and We Are The Friction (which is due to sell out soooon) is available from Sing Statistics. As you were.

Giveaway Time!

To celebrate...uh...nothing in particular I'm going to do a little giveaway! Leave a comment on this post by Saturday 14th Nov at 6pm GMT and you might win a prize bundle that includes a house hat bear print, a copy of 'We Are The Friction' a tote bag, some greetings cards, some badges (not yet released...sssh!) a zine or two and whatever else I can find. All you need to do is leave a comment on this very post (not on any subsequent ones) and I'll select one at random on Saturday night to win! Easy. Go go go!

Sing Statistics Print Store

I should have posted this last week but better late than never I guess. We recently opened an online shop stocking prints from 'We Are The Friction'. Prints are priced at a rather reasonable £20/£35 and are digitally printed on lovely archival stock and look pretty tasty as a result. A good Christmas gift I reckon!

Untitled 004

Issue 4 of Untitled Magazine (put out by Mike Perry and Anna Wolf) is out now and features some work by uh...me! Available here.

Dress up in you

I haven't done a 'lovely clothes' post in ages but on this cold autumn evening I find myself aimlessly browsing shops that I cant afford online and thinking of cosy knitwear and other treats....Everything from Dutch store 'Humanoid' looks so simple and comfy!

There's a tonne of stuff I would love to own at Frances May but this crazily cute blouse is the winner!
argh! Dream gloves at Need Supply! (also ace necklace and great boots)

Paris (finished illustration)

Managed to forget to take screenshots as I worked through the second part of this image and now its all done. Oops! Failed abysmally there. Decided to go for a dusky evening in the French capital and I think I quite like it. Doesnt quite live up to the real thing though (got a bad case of wanderlust right now...craving a holiday!).

(click to view full size!)

Work In Progress

Thought I'd maybe try out charting the progression of a drawing on this here blog. I don't know if anyone will be interested but anyway. I started this today; a piece of editorial practice I guess...much like my edinburgh/glasgow images I did for the list I thought I'd try and rack up a few more cities to bulk out the portfolio. I began with Paris...because..well it's Paris and seems like a pretty nice place to begin (also I saw the wonderful 'An Education' the other day and sort of have Paris on the brain). So first is the pencil drawing...which is actually made up a tonne of separate drawings of buildings that are fitted together like a jigsaw on photoshop (geographic accuracy is thrown to the wind). After that I add some tasty old paper textures as a basis to colour over. I dont like things to look overwhelmingly digital so I find textures like this give a nice ephemeral quality that I really rather like. And uh...thats as far as I got today...more soon I guess (if anyone is interested).

(p.s you need to click on these and see them big for them to look even remotely alright)

A Word Of Advice

If you are anywhere near London between now and December please please please venture to Primrose Hill to visit 'The Museum of Everything'. I visited last week and it is surely the most exciting and inspiring gallery I have been to in a very long time. A beautiful, awkward and often heartbreaking selection of work by artists working on the outskirts of society is displayed the museum's rabbit warren building (an old dairy) in a way that celebrates rather than exploits the notion of 'outsider art'. The image above is from Nek Chand's collection of figures constructed out of broken ceramics and fabric bears near Chandigarh and below from (my favourite) Alexandre P Lobanov; a deaf mute from Russia whose work features endless portraits of himself as a hero of the Russian Revolution.