a tea party with alice

here's my most recently completed commission, a sidebar portrait for the lovely alice over at teapartywithalice.com. i've included some snaps of my illustrative process (i mainly post these on my instagram) as it's something i've never really done before, and i must say that i really have had so much fun playing around with gouache and i think it's finally become a staple part of my portrait style. 

i'm still open for commissions, so if you would like one for yourself (or maybe even as a gift to another!), please feel free to drop me an email at robynmakesthings@gmail.com to discuss my working methods and pricing :)

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recent work: dulcie

with my main project for this term being over and me having gotten my relief out of my system (by going out four times in one week, oops,) i finally got around to sitting down and finishing off a few of the outstanding illustrations i'd promised people a couple of weeks ago.

above is an illustration i did for dulcie over at la-dulcie-vita as a thank you for the post she recently featured on her blog which featured a short interview with me and displayed some of my work. it was so flattering to have dulcie approach me and ask if i'd be happy for her to feature my work, it's really incredible to think that so many people have laid eyes on my work and that a percentage of those people are actually interested enough in my work to approach me about it! so once again, a big thank you to you, dulcie! if you'd like to read said post, you can find it here.

some of you more observant followers may have noticed a slight difference in the texture of this illustration compared to previous ones, and that's because i've finally ran out of watercolour paper and am now working using coloured pencils in a sketchbook that really won't take watercolour (the pages just tear apart, boo); in future i'll know to not buy a sketchbook just because it's cheap! it's been quite refreshing reverting back to using coloured pencils, i find shading to be a lot more enjoyable, however, the whole process just takes so much longer! a punishment for being cheap, i imagine!

what do you think of my pencil illustrations? do you prefer this texture to watercolour?

poster draft #2

just a quick update to show you what i've been working on today! in my feedback session i realised that from afar the white title text sunk into the green background so it wasn't really legible, and also the monkey sunk into the floor because the two colours were too similar. other feedback was that the monkey and the table looked too 'static' and that the image and text had equal prominence on the page and perhaps one needed to take dominance over the other.

so, in response to my feedback, i've worked on the title text and composed a text arrangement which i think is more effective than the previous one, changed up the colours that were sinking into one another and i've given the monkey and the table a slightly more dynamic angle. i don't think i've quite tackled the image/text hierarchy issue yet, but i'm still unsure about which i want to take precedence.

that's all for now!

recent work: roselovelybones

due to how quiet my blog's been this week, i'd thought i'd nip by just to give you all a quick update on what i've been up to this week and how next week's shaping up for me!

between my time spent this week travelling to and from uni to receive feedback on my work and collaging for hours on end, the lovely emma over at roselovelybones contacted me about illustrating for her, so i leaped at the chance to finally take a break from drawing monkeys and cutting and sticking.


all in all, i'm pretty pleased with how both of these illustrations turned out and was glad to hear that both emma and her boyfriend liked them, too. after emma blogged about my illustrations, i had a mad flow of emails entering my inbox and i now have quite a long list of requests to be getting on with, so i'd just like to take a moment to thank emma for her interest in my work and her support!

in other news, my draft poster seemed to receive positive overall feedback; of course, there are tweaks to be made such as hierarchy decisions and colour choices, but overall my tutors seemed to think my ideas and visuals seemed to work well together, so i'll be making tweaks to the existing poster and (hopefully) finishing my set of three this week!

other than that, i'm just hanging on in there and trying to create the best visuals i can before the deadline arrives and i'm stood up presenting my campaign to my tutors and peers!

poster draft #1

i began working today around 11.30am, and didn't stop until around 8pm, and this is what i have to show for it! i slaved over scraps of card, paper, magazine cuttings and various tools such as paints, markers and pencils to achieve an illustrative monkey style that i was finally happy with (the amount of hand drawn and collaged monkeys in my sketchbook is something of a joke), then moved onto assembling a background (and i've still to try out a digital style just to see how i feel about it) before finally attempting to tackle the type on my poster.

type's something i don't really get along too well with. there are a handful of fonts that i'm comfortable with because they're just good all rounders, however, when it comes to combining fonts with my illustrations i feel as though the two just don't mix. recently i made a set of font brushes from my own handwriting, and when i've needed to include text on any of my illustrations, i've used those as the style fits in with my illustrative style. the text on my poster was no exception to this rule; i feel as though my font's somewhat childlike and playful, as is the imagery on my poster, so i tried the two together and i think they work pretty well! of course, i'll mention in my sketchbook that i made the font brushes for the purpose of this project, but that'll be our little secret.

the basic idea behind my poster is to promote cycling safety by subtly enforcing the idea that helmets, high vis jackets and waterbottles (there will be three posters in total) are essential items to take with you when cycling, depending upon the conditions, while also getting my audience involved with the poster by directly addressing them and asking them to interact with the poster, keeping it entertaining for them while also educating them.

tomorrow we're having a feedback session at uni so i can get some advice on where to go next with my design as it's obvious it's not quite as strong as it could be, but if any of you had any suggestions, i'd love to hear from you!

sunday doings

sundays for me are largely very unproductive; i've gotten into the habit of going to bed around 2/3am and getting up at 11am during my weekends and it leaves me with very little time and very little motivation - working on my sleeping pattern is something i intend to do over the next couple of weeks!

however, this week i was contacted by natalie over at simplyjustnatalie about creating an illustration for her blog, and after my inbox had been pretty quiet for the last couple of weeks, i was more than happy to get started on her illustration!

i opted for a slightly more realistic look with this illustration and focused on making it look soft and feminine as i felt that would mean the illustration would fit in well with the rest of natalie's blog, and overall, i'm pretty happy with the outcome!

i've had a couple more messages waiting for me in my inbox this week, so hopefully i'll have some more illustrations to post up on here very soon! the deadline for my digital communication module at uni is past approaching too and i have some posters to start designing (i have become far too good at procrastinating since starting uni,) so hopefully i'll be able to share my university work with you all soon as well! 

also, there are still six cards up for grabs in my valentines cards giveaway!