Stickers

Been readying things for Christmas, decided to make some little stickers to put on things, or to seal little packages of books and gifts for people.

Greece

One place I have travelled to many times is Greece. The Greek Islands to be precise. The first time I went, was in 1987, the hottest summer in years, a massive heatwave with temperatures not dropping lower than 30 degrees even at night. Hundreds of people died across Greece and I was really ill with sunstroke and had blistered shoulders. But I remember that visit to Corfu, with the half sunk ships in Corfu Town harbour, and renting a boat and almost making it to Albania before being warned off back to Corfu. First encounter with snorkelling and fish <—-THIS—-> big. A few trips to Kefalos Harbour in Kos, a trip to Kefalonia and many trips to Skiathos Island, Skopelos, Alonisos, Tsougria and Arcos Island, and I have collected many images both on my camera and in my memory of the most beautiful back streets and old buildings I have ever seen.

Travels in Mexico

I have been drawing small images for a long time, but as lovely as they are to draw, they never really turn into anything. Deciding that everything really should matter and be a part of something, I decided to print out these pages of little squares (well, almost squares) and started to fill them in. I was looking at houses in the desert in Mexico for a project I did in university about 3 years ago, and something about them stuck with me. After looking through the sketchbooks of the incredible talented and simple illustrations of Tom Gauld (see my links for his website) I decided to create these images. I didn’t get to fill a whole page but have posted them as individual images on my Flickr page, I can’t wait to get up in the morning and finish the page, I have so many more ideas. And a huge thank you of course to Tom for his inspirations. I have been following his work each week in the Guardian newspaper. Great stuff. The plan is to turn these into a little book for the upcoming artists book fair in Manchester.

 

Halloween 2009

Oooh pumpkin time. Not wanting to get too carried away this year, I just went out and bought one pumpkin. There is the best grocers just a couple of minutes from our house, run by this amazing Iranian man. He always has boxes and boxes of Medjool Dates and will always let you sneak a few while you’re walking around his shop. I bought the biggest, tallest and most incredible pumpkin ever. It had a long twisted stalk on top and weighed quite a bit, although I didn’t weigh it this year. Rather than carving an image right out of the pumpkin, I used my lino cutting tools to take the skin out in the pattern of a witch for Kitty.

So once I had finished with the witch, I thought it might be a good time to create my addition to the wonderful blog curated by Jonathan Edwards, Draw Serge. Draw Serge is a blog filled with contributions from artists and illustrators each creating an image of Serge Gainsbourg. I made mine in the other side of the pumpkin. Not sure my daughter or the other kids around on halloween actually got it, but it made me smile. And it was added to the hallowed walls of the Draw Serge blog!! http://drawserge.blogspot.com/

Book Birds

Just this idea for Book Birds, my book making side of things. Kind of a play on a few things, being from Liverpool, thinking about the Liverbirds, and making books.
There is the colour version and the rubber stamp, keeps the logo idea but changes it enough for different applications.

Business cards

Ok so not the most interesting title for a blog post, but I have been tormenting myself for a long time about creating something a bit “different” to give to people when they ask for my card. I currently have 3 styles of cards, one quite illustrative, one a bit more design oriented, and the other just a bit of collaged fun. To be different I have made these little week planners. They basically fold up to be a little tiny card sized book and have my contact details quite small on the back, but big enough to be useful, and something to encourage people to doodle or write on them. Something a bit more fun and interesting than your standard card. Maybe I am investing too much time and energy into something that should be simple, but then thats just me.

Tweeters

Recently the BBC have shown their latest nature program. Gone are the usual style programs with Sir David Attenborough is his blue shirt and beige chinos, and welcome the exciting ‘real’ expeditions of excitable entomologists and explorers from all over the world. These top class wildlife film makers venturing deep into the heart of the remote tropical islands of New Guinea to explore a giant extinct volcano -Mount Bosavi has had myself and my family glued to the television. In episode 2 of 3 they were watching the antics of the rare birds of paradise and I was completely amazed by these incredibly beautiful birds. I have seen them portrayed in other wildlife programs but this one made me feel like I was actually there. I didn’t realise how many doodles I had drawn when watching this, which prompted me to create these illustrations. Only 4 so far, but the rest will be done in time and I will create a set of mini-books out of them.

Noodle day!

The zine is published!! At last, it feels like it took so long….no wait a sec….it DID take so long. But today it is going to the Artists Book Fair at the A Foundation in Liverpool and people will be able to buy it. I am so excited. Really hope that people enjoy it. It can be bought for the wonderful price of £12 and it comes in a lovely hand screen printed cotton bag. It will also be available from my Etsy shop before the end of the weekend.

Aquarium

Ok, now I have mentioned about getting hung up on a theme or idea. Well I did some more of these little fishy guys this morning. I much prefer the darker coloured ones, the intense colours really works with the white. The paler ones are a bit washed out and flat. Anyway hopefully I will get enough of these together, will try and use some animation skills to create a little aquarium.

Fish

I was asked to help put a personalised menu together this week for a good friend of mine. She is having a celebration dinner at a local seafood restaurant and I made some little fish to decorate her menu with. I came up with four little fish to chose from, two of them created with hand carved rubber stamps, and the other two were watercoloured. Both types used white acrylic ink over the top for detail. The final menu is being printed on heavy textured ivory card. Quite pleased to have finished another job. Even though it was a small one. I must admit the text of the menu wouldn’t have been my first choice, but sometimes when you are asked to do something, you have to please the client, even if they are a friend you don’t always have the final say. But It is a learning curve and learning I certainly am doing at the moment. I did carve the stamps for the title though ‘MENU’.