London Living

It's been a while again, hasn't it?

Since moving to London, I have to say that my interest in keeping up with my social media accounts has plummeted dramatically (well, all bar Instagram which is the only one that I consistently update.) I've no idea why, and I can't see anything igniting a passion within me any time soon that may spur me on to update this blog as frequently as I once used to. That said, I thought I'd drop by again briefly to talk a little about what's been going on over the last 3 months.

Hello, it's me again

Hello blog, my old friend! Since my move to London at the beginning of January the internet on a laptop hasn't really existed for me, hence a lot of Instagram activity but very little activity anywhere else, such as my Twitter, Tumblr or this blog. I've only been here a little over two weeks now but it feels like I've lived in London for a lifetime, so I thought I'd pop by and just share a little update on my experience so far.

2015 in Illustrations

2015 is creeping quietly but quickly to an end, and with that in mind I thought I'd take a moment to trawl through my work archive of the year and have a look at – and reflect on – what I've gotten up to creatively over the last 12 months. 

That's the spirit

It's easy, isn't it? Easy to doodle up a few snug looking critters in hats and scarves, painting smiles on their faces in an attempt to partake in the regular glee-ridden festivities throughout December, but, honestly, I'm struggling this year to feel even a little bit festive, or happy, excited or positive about Christmas at all. 

I finally graduated! ...and, er, got a job?!

Last Friday I made my last journey back up to Middlesbrough for my graduation, and besides a lot wind and a little bit of rain, it was a bloody good day. It was amazing to be back with the people I'd spent the last three years of my life with, and it was great to meet with our tutors and chat about what's been happening since our departure from university back in July. It was a day full of high emotions; elation to be together celebrating the fact that we'd all made it through the three years together, and a bit of sadness knowing that we'd probably never be back in Middlesbrough together again, but for me there was an overarching sense of nervousness because I was waiting for a phone call to find out if I'd been successful at a job interview or not.

A *Little* Bit of News

If you're a frequent reader of my blog you'll know that it's been a few months now since I was first contacted to ask if agency representation was something I'd be interested in, and I'm delighted to now announce that I'm represented by the lovely people at Advocate Art!

While my portfolio on their website is currently incomplete and is still being updated with all the illustrations that I've sent over to them, I was asked to create an illustration to feature in their calendar that they send out every year to their offices all around the world. The illustration could be of absolutely anything that I wanted, and seeing as I've had a thing for doodling bears as of late I cooked up an idea based around one. Because my last process post seemed to prove pretty popular, I thought I'd again document my process while creating this illo. 

Green Gold #colour_collective

I reverted back to what I know best for this week's colour collective and doodled up a couple of sloths just taking life in their stride. I've said it before but I'm REALLY enjoying colour collective now I'm well and truly stuck in with it! I feel like I've finally fallen into a work/work balance and am really making the most of my days off to try and broaden my portfolio and push my illustrative skills, which feels fantastic. Let's hope I can keep this ball of productivity rolling!

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Apricot #Colour_Collective

I was pretty on the ball with my CC piece last week and had it doodled up early in the week, so later in the week when I saw someone share some similar doodles of a cat in a pumpkin suit I felt a little nervous about later sharing my own pug in a pumpkin suit. The idea initially sprung from a Christmas Pugging I shared last year as part of the #illo_advent challenge of a pug in a christmas pudding costume, so while I knew that this person's doodles hadn't inspired my own, I couldn't help but feel that that was how others would interpret it.

Happy Halloween!

Have a spooktacular day!

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Dark Sky Blue #Colour_Collective

I feel like all I post on my blog nowadays are my colour collective pieces, but better something than nothing, eh?

Tag: My Creative Journey

Lauren recently created a 'My Creative Journey' blog tag and kindly tagged me to take part too, so I thought I'd take a little time out of my evening to sit down and have a think about my own creative journey as of late. And so the questions go... 

Indian Red #Colour_Collective

This week's colour collective was Indian Red, so I decided to have a go at illustrating an indian elephant as elephants aren't something I draw often! This illustration comes at a time where the world is once again outraged at the barbaric acts humans will pay to partake in, as an african elephant was sadly hunted earlier in the week at a price of almost £40,000. I can't express the pain and anger stories like this bring me, and I can only hope that one day people will open their eyes to the sadism that is so clearly evident in the individuals that partake in such barbaric activities, and will see the banning of hunting for sport on a worldwide level, with appropriate punishments put in place for any perpetrators. There's just no need for all these innocent lives to keep being taken. 

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#Colour_Collective Catch Up

With my brief blog hiatus I neglected to post my 2 most recent Colour_Collective pieces, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to do so now.

Ends & Beginnings

Firstly, please pardon my blogging absence.

Secondly, Autumn. Everyone and their dog seems to love Autumn, but for me, Autumn generally signifies the end of things; the end of summer, relationships, and more recently, lives. If you've read my blog for a while you'll be no stranger to the fact that I struggle throughout the Autumn and Winter months, and on the 1st of October this year, Autumn did as it always does and took with it something from me that I love, and this time it was my Nannan. 

Duck Egg Green #colour_collective

This week's #colour_collective was Duck Egg Green, and as lovely as the colour is, it just didn't muster up any vivid scenes in my mind when I sat and thought about what my piece for the colour was going to be! Because of that, I defaulted back to dino mode and opted for something simple and to the point that wasn't going to take too long to perfect as I only had a day to finalise it before posting. My strategy worked, and I ended up with a simple image with a muted colour palette that I think I'm pretty happy with overall.

Bunny Friendly Beauty Tag

After seeing this tag on Morag's blog I thought it'd make for a nice little post on my own blog as my two year cruelty free cosmetics anniversary is coming up in October – yippee!

Phthalo Blue #colour_collective: Process

I recently received a blog comment suggesting that I should share my colouring process of sketches, so I bared that in mind while digitally colouring my offering for this week's #colour_collective and documented as much of the process as I remembered to; I coloured the image over 2 days, so as you'd expect I neglected to take screen grabs towards the end of colouring the piece – sorry!

Rob Ryan at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Yesterday, on an extremely dreary Tuesday, me and my friend Jenny (check out her Instagram, she's a fab artist) headed out to Yorkshire Sculpture Park to check out Rob Ryan's current exhibition, made up of various paper cut, laser cut and screenprinted pieces.

Tea Rose #colour_collective

#colour_collective kicked off right at the beginning of the year on Twitter right after #illo_advent finished, and in all those months I never participated – not even once! – right up until yesterday, when I joined in for the Tea Rose colour. If you're not aware, #colour_collective is a weekly drawing prompt where illustrators are given a colour to work with, and on Friday evening at 7.30pm GMT everyone posts together and Twitter goes blummin' mental. 

(A Weary) Hello, September

We're 2 days into September and already I feel bogged under by all the 'Hello September/Autumn' posts – what is wrong with all you folk seemingly being so glad to see the back of summer?! For me, September's a sad time because it marks the end of summer, and the beginning of what feels like a lifetime of dark mornings and cold, rainy days.