Lions

To celebrate the fact that my rather talented friend Verity has just put some rather splendid Lion badges on sale I thought I'd do a wee post on Lions. Because I realised that I like a lot of lion related things and well...its not more complex than that. So first up Verity's badges. Aren't they great? Laser cut and neatly packaged these friendly fellas are a bargain at $14. Also they look a bit like biscuits.

Beatrice Alemagna writes wonderful, whimsical books with beautifully unique illustrations that provide a much needed break from the saccharine sweet fodder in most children's books. My absolute favourite is Un Lion a Paris. Which is, in every way, flawless.

And this is a Lion I drew exactly one year ago. I still rather like this one. Which is a rarity. Maybe he'll feature in some kind of story one day.

This lion lives in our flat and we love him.

Leeds

So the exhibition that was meant to be opening on Thursday 6th is now opening on Thursday 11th at Leeds College of Art on Blenheim Walk. This was mainly so that it could coincide with some other stuff opening in the college at the same time but secretly also means I can finish off the work for the show as I was a little behind. Anyway the thing is that I'm told that openings at the college are a bit hit and miss attendance wise so consider this a polite request. If you are in or around Leeds next thursday please please please come to the opening (although...actually...i dont know the exact time) and say hello. There'll be a tonne of new stuff thats totally unseen and its always nice to see drawings in the flesh isn't it? So uh...yeah...save the date etc. 11th March. Leeds. Done.
(this is not, by the way, the exhibition but my living room wall)

p.s do you live in leeds? I'm currently having a few accomodation issues...in that i have none. murderous types need not apply.

London Town

Hello again! I'm back in the north and just about recovered from a week in London with Jez. It ended up being far busier than planned but all the better for it! Highlights included taking Jez to the John Soane house (he'd never been and I knew he'd love it) and enjoying the incredible collection of ancient bric-a-brac on show there (above).

London also played host to my 23rd birthday for which Jez treated me to a trip to the apollo theatre to see Jerusalem. There are not enough superlatives to express how much we loved this play. If you get a chance to see it please do! Its incredible. And the set is ace too.

The last 'best bit' is a bit of a surreal one! On friday night I met my absolute favourite author Jonathan Safran Foer. God knows how I managed to actually go up and speak to him but I did and it was good. I dont think i was too incoherant and useless. Anyway he is a very nice man and has just released a really interesting book called 'Eating Animals' about uh...eating animals. Investigate.

OK so thats us pretty much up to date. Expect everything back on track here soon.

Thursday night things.

Love the colours on this old fortune magazine cover. More here.

Are Sandra Juto's neck worm scarves the most beautiful in the world? It really is quite possible!

My very last ever sacre couer print is available in my etsy shop now.

Kid Casting is one of my favourite tumblrs.

I'm off to London next week for work things/friend things/birthday things. I'm looking forward to it very much. If by some wonderful twist of fate you are the kind of person that might commission illustration and you wish to see me and my portfolio then do get in touch!

Ella Minnow Pea

My first post on Picture Book Report went up today. Go have a look!

Remember THIS drawing? Well I cleaned it up a bit, coloured it and generally spruced the damn thing up and now its available to buy as a tasty digital print from my shop. All my digital prints are signed and lovingly printed on a fancy digital printer on nice archive quality paper. I hope you like it!

Nobrow

Two images for the Nobrow Flickr competion that closed today. Check out the pool here....

Men from the Gulag

This is a painting I did today. Its for an exhibition that opens in Leeds (at Leeds College of Art) from March 5th. Its a bit bigger than my usual stuff which feels pretty good. Its nice to break out of the confines of a piece of A4 now and again! This is not a great photo but you get the jist. Hopefully I'll show a bit more soon!

Free things?

Oh I forgot! I'm doing a wee freebie type thing over on Etsy. Order anything from my shop between today and the 14th Feb and your order will come with a free something or other of my choosing. Maybe badges, maybe some cards or a print who knows! It'll be a surprise and more importantly totally free!

Three lovely things before bedtime...

This photo by nikolinelr is so beautiful. So cold and slow and sad and quiet.

I think these super simple totes from Millimeter/Milligram are pretty damn perfect.

Would someone please pay me a lot of money so that I can buy one of these beautiful knitted poufs by Donna Wilson for The Future Perfect? Thankyou!

Picture Book Report

I'm really excited to be involved with the unstoppable Meg Hunt's new blog project 'Picture Book Report'. You can read about it here. Mainly it means that every month I'll be posting up some new drawings based on one of my favourite books 'Ella Minnow Pea'. Before thats starts though you'll have to make do with this bookplate I did for the blog.

Ra!

The bear print that I had on sale before Christmas sold out pretty fast so I've done another edition of 50 in new colours! Hurrah! Get em while they're hot!

Bird House

From Land & Sky

Monday Night Nothing

Ridiculously simple but nonetheless rather desirable postcards from Labour and Wait.

A load of great stuff to be found on Folk Object

Nice leather jewellery from Emma Carroll etc




Nice Shirt. Even nicer cause.

Vote for me in the Poppies

Land & Sky Photos

All on flickr!

A plea from Bristol

So the show opens tomorrow. If you're in Bristol please come to the opening. Chris and I are concerned no one will come. Come! Photos and so forth sooooon!

Aargh! I'm going to Bristol at a crazy hour of the morning tomorrow to start setting up for the show at Here. I'm very excited to get some of the new work I've been sitting on for the past two months out in the open. I've gotten so used to blogging new drawings that its been weird keeping new stuff under wraps! Anyway photos shall come thick and fast once the show is up. If you're in Bristol (or indeed if you have means by which to get to Bristol) then please do go and have a look! 21st Jan-27th Feb, Here Gallery, 108 Stokes Croft. If you're able to come to the private view its Thursday 7pm-9pm, say hello!

Lets look at some lovely things....

Beautiful tote by Nina Lindgren.

I have a great deal of love for shorpy.com. Its amazing. I particularly love this photo. FLAWLESS.

I adore this rabbit and bird bunting by Janis!


The bear drawing I posted t'other day is now on sale!

Children's Portfolio

This is the cover of my new portfolio of Children's Illustration (and some stuff for older kids too) that I put together today. And, as I'm feeling pleased that I've managed to pull it all together here are a couple more new illustrations included in it.

Animal friends!

So this past week I've been fixing up my portfolios. Filling in gaps and getting rid of old work. I've split my stuff (mainly for the ease of showing it to clients) into a portfolio for editorial work (the kind of stuff on my Eastwing page) and one for children's illustration (I also have a separate folder of personal/degree work that is the kind of stuff you see on my site). Anyway I've done a tonne of new stuff for both; some of which I'll be posting over the next few days. Above are some animals for my Children's portfolio. Animals are always fun to draw.

Hello again!

Happy New Year! I'm back from the blogging wilderness! I hope everyone had a lovely festive period and that the cold and snow didnt hamper too many holiday plans! Edinburgh is currently pretty damn cold and covered in snow (rapidly becoming grey sludge after thousands of hogmanay goers have traipsed through it though). This morning there was a beautiful break from the grey when the sun came out and everything looked like this (above). Nice.


The next week or so I'll be focusing on getting stuff sorted for my show with Christopher Bettig at Here Gallery in Bristol. It opens January 21st and runs till Feb 27th so if you're in the fair city of Bristol (or indeed in the South West and have nothing better to do) then please please please go and have a look. Above is a sneak peek at a brand new piece of work for the show. Its a bear innit!?

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful festive period. See you in the New Year!

A recommendation.

My new favourite blog is Curious Pages run by the incredible Lane Smith (author of one of my favourite children's books ever 'the Happy Hocky Family'). The blog collates bizarre, unsuitable and just plain unsettling Children's books and hilariously explains what makes them so brilliant. Well worth a moment of your time.

Paper Tintypes

I've been working on stuff for the exhibition in Bristol next month and another in Leeds in March. These images are for the Leeds show called 'The Men Who Built Magnitogorsk'. These drawings are of old russian tintype photographs. The rest are on my flickr.

Winter

Finally feeling properly festive after a lovely Christmas meal with friend the other night. In two days Jez and I are flying home to South Devon (Exeter and Plymouth respectively) to spend Christmas with our families. Which I, for one, am very excited about. In the meantime I have some work to finish (more on that later), presents to wrap and packing to do! Here are some wintery looking things for a very cold day! (felt snowflake decoration by Donna Wilson)

Love this beautiful pattern by Alisha Henson.

I designed the Logo and scribblings for this rather fancy new online boutique. Be sure to stop by if you're in the UK and craving some international independent labels like Built By Wendy and Ivana Helsinki.

Eeek! Filler post!

I really want to post up some new work but I'm trying hard to keep it all under wraps for the exhibition in January (I hate going to shows and seeing a tonne of work I've seen plastered all over the internet for months!) so in the meantime here are a couple of 'What I Wore Today' drawings I knocked up for my own entertainment.

Land & Sky among other things.

Do you live in/near Bristol? Perhaps you fancy a Bristol based holiday in say...January/Febuary? If so please please please come by the Here Gallery between 22nd Jan-27th Feb to see an exhibition by myself and the marvellously talented Christopher Bettig. It's called Land & Sky (as the poster says) and will feature a load of new work from the pair of us (and maybe a few older bits too) and there'll hopefully be plenty to buy too! I'm very very excited.



If you in the US/Asia/Eastern Europe you have until tomorrow to order stuff from my shop in time for Christmas! If you're in the UK/Central Europe you have until the 16th as after that I shall be heading south for a family Christmas. I added a couple of new cards last night and there's the usual collection of prints and zines and some bags left too so best get shopping!

P.S thanks to anyone who came by Magpie Market on Sunday, especially to the rather enthusiastic girls from 1st Year at ECA...you brightened up our afternoon!

The Strangest Summer Fete

This is an image for my editorial portfolio that I did a couple of weeks back. Its about strange British events...cheese rolling, yorkshire pudding boats, poo sticks and bog snorkelling to name but a few.

Oh Deer!

This rather fine print by the talented Ms Keniger would make a rather wonderful christmas present no? A red deer? Can't get more festive than that!

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.