Emma Cowley Illustration

2011 - a year in pictures

2012-01-24T00:40:00.000Z

Greetings everyone, welcome to the first post of 2012! I know, I know, we're already three weeks into 2012 so as "new year" themed blog posts go, this is tardy as hell. What can I say, I am rubbish at updating when I'm busy with other things! When I'm working on a time-consuming project I tend to get tunnel vision - the only thing I can focus on is the deadline in front of me. Project completed, I emerge to find that the routines of domestic life have fallen apart: the fridge empty, the flat a complete tip and a mountain of angst-inducing, tedious little tasks awaiting me. I often imagine how much I could get done if I had a robot servant to deal with all that crap - I would love to have a perfect, clean, neatly organised home but have no patience for domestic drudgery when there are more important (and infinitely more interesting) things to be doing.

Anyway, down to business. This post sums up the best bits of my 2011: partly as a nice way to round off one year and start another, and also for myself to reflect on the year that's passed. It seems to me that one cannot move forward without learning lessons from what has been. So, I want to understand what I did well last year and the things I would like to improve on or do more of, in my professional as well as personal life. And plus, if I set goals and talk about them on here, the threat of public embarrassment/ failure will hopefully be adequate motivation to ensure that I achieve them! And even though this post isn't in time for western new year, it does coincide with the Chinese new year at least. Hung hei fat choy, everyone!

JANUARY

Christmas is the season of giving, so it seems appropriate that I finished the festive season last year by donating one of my digital prints to How Bazaar Charity Auction, which was in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. The auction, along with other events, raised over £6,800 for the charity. Admittedly the part I played in this success was fairly small, but I am sill enormously proud to have been a part of this worthwhile cause.

FEBRUARY

At this point in the year I was finishing off a piece for a private commission, but I managed to justify an evening off and headed along to the launch of the first Flamingo Magazine at the Fashion Exchange on Brick Lane. This was also in support of my buddy June Sees, who had work on show at the launch.

MARCH

The privately commissioned piece that I had been working on for several months on and off was finally completed! I was very pleased with how this cute pair of owls turned out.

APRIL

By April, my schedule was starting to get really busy - there were lots of projects to complete, as well as the upcoming SORTED London exhibition that needed to be organised and supplied with fresh new work to entice the punters with. Nonetheless, I found the time to take part in the Travelling Sketchbook Project, creating this spread featuring a pair of Song Thrushes perched in Cherry Blossom.

This is a piece previously unseen on this blog, as at the time of making it I was far too busy to write! Which is a great pity, as it was a really challenging and interesting commission to work on. I was asked to create a picture for the Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group at Leicester University, showing a large, jupiter-like planet accompanied by a moon with eruptions on its surface. The piece also needed to show other features, such as a magnetic field and auroral rings. This was a bit of a departure from the usual subjects that I draw, but was very rewarding project to be part of.

MAY

After many months of hard work, my pieces for SORTED London were finally complete. This picture, featuring a Wren with Dog Rose, may just be my very favourite piece!

JUNE

Most of June was spent hanging, framing and otherwise making arrangements for SORTED London, which opened in the middle of June and was a big success for everyone that took part.

JULY

July was a pretty busy month! After meeting Flash Bristow at SORTED London, I completed a piece of work for her, featuring a Siskin sitting in a Birch tree. While dropping it off I had a tour around the Leytonstone Arts Trail, a varied and exuberant local festival featuring sculptures, paintings, performances and community art projects.

I also squeezed in making this Greyhound for Jo Cheung's We Draw Dogs blog, he loves to run!

And finally for july, my picture of a Gallic rooster was featured on the Chicken and Pig Book blog.

AUGUST

After the hectic schedule of the last four months, I needed to take a little off to chill out and recharge my creative batteries. So, I hopped on a train up to Edinburgh to stay with my brother and his missus for a few days, taking the opportunity to sample the delights of the Comedy Festival and soak up the city's historic atmosphere.

SEPTEMBER

Once home it was nose to the grindstone again. I have a long-standing love of otters, which is reflected in this drawing.

OCTOBER

These two pieces were created for Ten Paces and Draw, who regularly post themed drawing challenges on their blog.

This creepy Mermaid was featured in Issue 7 of Peculiar Bliss Magazine, which had 'creatures' as its theme.

NOVEMBER

In November I finished work on my two Christmas card designs, which had an autumnal theme this year. The shy Dunnock and the splendid Waxwing were my favoured subjects, with their rich, warm colours.

DECEMBER

December was an incredibly hectic month! Along with the usual preparations for Christmas to be made, there were also lots of creative projects that I was involved in. This cute little Hummingbird was created for (you guessed it!) Hummingbird Magazine.

I also created these three festive French Hens for Minirice Graphic Design and Illustration.

The last event of 2011 is a bit of a blast from the past - featuring my Yorkshire Christmas Pie picture (remember that one? It's a piece from my last year of university!) Clearly there is a dearth of images of heritage pies on the internet, because this picture was featured alongside an article about festive pies on the Josephine County Historical Society blog.

Well that just about rounds up all the major happenings of 2011, join me next time when I will be looking forward and making plans for the new year. I hope you will join me!

Drawing of a beautiful hummingbird

2011-12-16T10:50:00.001Z

A new picture of mine, despite all the Christmas preparations I'm still managing to cram in drawing work where I am able! Hope you enjoy, thanks for reading.

Emma x

Brand-spanking new work

2011-11-21T16:50:00.001Z

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been a bit quiet online lately - I've been working away diligently behind the scenes, despite the lethargy and general aversion to early mornings that I suffer from in winter. It's something I struggle with year after year, and I tend to find that my productiveness declines hugely towards Christmas, much to my annoyance. I don't think of myself as a lazy person (far from it!) and not having a project to work on makes me feel miserable. So, I've been doing my best to push through it this year, with the help of good company and a lengthy walk at the top of the day to help me catch as many rays as is available this time of year.

So it is with huge pleasure that I present to you my two newest pictures - which will also be the designs on my Christmas cards this year. I had a bit of an inspiration visit to the various Christmas stores available in London (most have been open since september or even august - we like to get started early round here!) and found that as well as the usual holly and mistletoe, there were lots of autumnal subjects beginning to seep into the Christmas theme - items such as toadstools, acorns and turning leaves were repeatedly featured as ornaments. I love the warm colours of autumn, with the rich reds and oranges coupled with gold and mossy green, so decided to have an autumn theme in my cards this year.

A Dunnock (formerly known as the Hedge Sparrow) rootling about in the leaf litter under a hawthorn bush. I featured this rather unremarkable bird on my cards in honour of the little Dunnock I often see creeping about my patio and under the bench in my garden!

One of our most splendid winter visitors - Waxwings love to feed on the hips (fruit) of roses.

It was a wonderful subject to work on and there were a lot of ideas that I liked, but in the end I decided that the strongest compositions were the two above. I could have made lots more card designs, but alas, there are other projects that require my attention! I am hoping to design more cards next year, so that it can be a collection that is added to and updated regularly with new work. At any rate, I hope you enjoy these two, the cards should be available to purchase in my Etsy shop by the end of the week.

As always, thanks so much for reading!

Emma x

Waxwing sketches

2011-11-05T20:21:00.001Z

Evening all! I've been hard at work the last few days working on a couple of new pictures. I've been going for a bit of an autumnal theme... they aren't quite ready to share yet, so for now, here's some waxwings. I hope you enjoy them!

Winter is coming... autumn photographs

2011-10-28T15:41:00.000+01:00

Hello folks! I think I mentioned online that last week I was off for a few days visiting family, which took me up to Leicestershire and Derbyshire. It was lovely to get out of the big smoke for a little while and enjoy some idyllic countryside, which I thought that I would share with you all.

It was a good opportunity for some quality mother-and-daughter time, so me and my mum took ourselves off for a day trip to Kedlestone Hall in Derbyshire, where we enjoyed the sumptuous interior as well as the extensive grounds (and of course, stopped off for a spot of lunch!)

On another day we headed off to Wistow Rural Centre for a spot of shopping and some lunch (though the cafe there was full to capacity - we ended up hitting the pub instead). I picked up a couple of Christmas presents and also enjoyed having a nose around the Wistow Farm Shop.

After that we headed off for a walk down by the canal and across some fields, a perfect way to spend a sunny autumn afternoon.

I have a feeling that I'll come back to look at these photos a few times as winter continues to take hold, goodbye for now to the sunshine and fine weather! I'm looking forward to spring already...

My mermaid features in Peculiar Bliss magazine!

2011-10-22T22:28:00.004+01:00

I have some lovely news to share with you all! A picture of mine - the lovely (yet slightly creepy) mermaid you see below - is appearing in the latest issue of Peculiar Bliss Magazine. Themed around 'Creatures', it is the seventh issue of the magazine which features lots of stunning and innovative work. Get your copy here!

I'm really excited to be in the issue, many thanks to everyone who has supported me.

Finished otter drawing

2011-10-16T22:08:00.001+01:00

Good evening, hope you've all been enjoying the weekend!

I just realised that I almost forgot to share this with you - my otter drawing, finished at last! I was quite pleased with it, and would definitely like to return to otters as a theme again to do a full colour piece. While they are rather charming on land, I think I would like to capture their grace underwater next time!

Ten Paces and Draw pictures

2011-10-10T11:02:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Sorry I was rather quiet last week, it was a very busy one for me as I was taking part in the Ten Paces and Draw challenge! Here's what went down...

Step one: you draw a sketch based on a theme. The theme in this case was plants, flowers and flora. I drew this sketch of a lonely autumn scene.

Step two: send your sketch off! The ladies at Ten Paces then mix them up and send them back out. I received this lovely drawing from Brittany Brown.

Step three: make a final piece of work based on the sketch you received. I loved Brittany's drawing so didn't want to change it too much, but just made it my own.

It was great fun taking part! You can see all the pieces of work including my own over here.

Some otterly cute drawings

2011-09-30T13:41:00.003+01:00

This week I've been working on a new piece, featuring a welcome return to British waters - that of the European Otter, which is at last coming back to our rivers and streams after a long absence. I have admired otters from an early age, but due to their scarcity always assumed that I would never see one in person. With their numbers on the increase, I now have a little hope that I might one day see one! And with all the doom and gloom in the papers lately, some good news (however small) is much needed indeed.

As always when making a new piece, I did a lot of preparatory drawing in my sketchbook, to gather some idea of how the animal behaves and moves. Though they look cute and cuddly on land, otters transform completely underwater; executing graceful, fluid manoeuvres.

An otter wolfs down a tasty fish supper

Sketches from a video of two otters playing in long grass

Otters swimming gracefully

A comatose otter sleeps in his holt

I hope you've enjoyed my drawings, and the lovely weather outside. Peace!

Sketchbook self-portraits

2011-09-25T22:49:00.003+01:00

Hola folks! Sorry I've been quiet for the last few days, I have been hard at work making pictures but can't share them until the time is right. So to whet your appetite, here are some previously unseen doodlings from my sketchbook. These are actually self-portraits, though I'm not sure if you can tell...! I hope you enjoy them.

A good cup of tea always helps.

Me in my costume at a pirate-themed party.

More tea! Along with cakes, bunting and strawberries.

I also notice that I finally made the 100 mark on this blog, huzzah! Thanks so much for your continued support everyone, I really appreciate it.

Weekend adventures - films, art, burgers and more!

2011-09-15T15:11:00.002+01:00

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely week so far! This weekend just gone I went on a bit of an adventure about town with Jo Cheung and June Chanpoomidole, catching a couple of shows before they closed. The first was the Watch Me Move exhibition at the Barbican, which was a very expansive and broad-reaching exhibition of animation. It covered not only animations in different mediums and from different countries/cultures, but began with reels of some of the very first animations ever recorded. I'd seen bits and pieces of some of the most famous ones (including Gertie the Dinosaur, Little Nemo and animations by the Fleischer brothers) so it was very interesting to see these early works in full. If you watched everything all the way through I reckon you could literally spend hours in there! As it was, we got too hungry to manage that and decided to go hit up a Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Yummy!

Afterwards Jo and I ventured further north to Walthamstow to catch an exhibition by Carne Griffiths at a lovely, cosy little pub called The Castle. Having exhibited alongside Carne at Sorted London I knew his work would be excellent (which it indeed was) though for these works he'd taken a more sinister route, exploring the dualism of beauty and brutality in nature. The artist himself was there celebrating the final night of the show, and we discovered that his exhibition at the pub was part of a wider network of events in the E17 Art Trail. We actually hadn't heard of this particular trail before (though apparently it is the largest of a number of such events springing up all over the East end of London) so we were very excited to hear that there were so many creative things going on. I await to next year's trail with much anticipation!

Heading back we noticed these blue plaques in the windows of the homes lining the street, all of which commemorated people that lived there in the 19th century. Rather than celebrating famous writers, poets, and so on as the 'official' blue plaques usually do, these ones instead mentioned everyone from neck-tie makers to teachers and, as captured here, 'commercial artists'! This was another artwork on the E17 Art Trail, devised by Danny Cope. I imagine that for the local residents, discovering who used to live in your home before you must have been fascinating. If we all started looking into the social history of our homes and neighbourhoods, I wonder what we might discover...?

That's all for now this time folks, I hope you've enjoyed reading. Thank you!

Red, yellow, orange and brown - the colours of autumn.

2011-09-07T19:48:00.001+01:00

I've been doing a lot of drawing in my sketchbook lately, especially as the season is now shifting from summer into autumn. I tend to find that my work is very much reflective of what's going on outside, so as the weather gets colder I'm drawn to orange, red, brown and yellow - the warm colours of turning leaves, berries, nuts, rosehips and setting suns.

I started drawing this really cute little girl in Trafalgar Square, just a few moments before she and her mum wandered off! So I had to make a lot of her up, which I think shows sadly. I quite like the building in the background though.

Drawing of a dove.

Pairs of doves in different poses.

A mistle thrush and mistletoe, which is growing on an oak tree. The bird gets its name because the mistletoe berries are one of its favourite foods.

Well known evergreen plants - holly, ivy, mistletoe, yew and conifers.

Christmas foods - nuts and seasonal or preserved fruits are a recurring theme.

Autumnal foliage - deciduous leaves, berries, conkers, rosehips, acorns, nuts and mushrooms.

Flamingo Arts Project #1 launch night

2011-09-01T17:26:00.003+01:00

Hello folks! Just another quick blog post to share a couple of pictures from the launch night of the first Flamingo Arts Project. My pal Jo took part in the project, so the Westminster gang headed along to show our support (and for a celebratory meal... since food always seems to feature heavily when we get together!)

Jo Cheung's illustration in pride of place

Sorry there aren't very many photos of the interior, it was pretty full in there so taking decent pictures was rather difficult. It was a great show with work by some very talented people. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the folks at Flamingo get up to next!

Until next time!

A happy greyhound and fond farewells

2011-09-01T00:57:00.003+01:00

Hello folks! Sorry I've been rather quiet for the last week or so, it's been all busy, busy. busy, this end. I have a couple of exciting little projects I've been working on (one of which allowed me to justify visiting the Selfridges Christmas shop for inspiration - happy times!) There have also been a lot of social engagements, including family gatherings. The latter especially as my oldest brother will be leaving this country on friday to begin a new life with his long-term girlfriend in Australia. It didn't hit me until a couple of days ago that he is really going - and now I suddenly realise that I don't know when I will see him again. I truly hope that he enjoys his life out there, even though I'm only just grasping how much I'm going to miss him!

Like me, my brother is a big fan of dogs. So, without further ado I present my finished greyhound illustration, which was first published on We Draw Dogs blog. The canine-focused project is still ongoing, so be sure to check back there for more doggy pictures. Or, if you too are handy with a brush and/or pen... why not send them a picture of your own!

I hope that this week you're all as happy as this dog looks. Peace!

Edinburgh - a week in pictures (Saturday)

2011-08-16T11:33:00.002+01:00

So here we are, the last set of photos from my week away. On my last day we had a poke around the National Gallery of Scotland (spotting an early Titian, a couple of Cranachs and a Goya) and then went walking, shopping and drinking.

The ever-present Scott monument

The excellent and very historic World's End tavern, so called because it marks where the limits of the old city walls used to be. We stopped off here for haggis, neeps and tatties. Very tasty with a couple of oat biscuits. Thanks to Chrissy for recommending it to me!

One last view before it was time to head off to pack... what a shame! Well I suppose all good things must come to an end.

Edinburgh - a week in pictures (Friday)

2011-08-16T11:27:00.005+01:00

By the end of the week we had been doing so much running about that we decided to have a more relaxed day. So, after a nice lie-in we headed to the Botanic Gardens for a gentle stroll.

While there we encountered the memorial gardens for the Queen Mother, including this little summer house. It's ceiling is decorated with pine cones.

And the walls are decorated with all different types of shells!

A view out over the rock garden, I loved all the different textures, shapes and colours.

Edinburgh - a week in pictures (Thursday)

2011-08-16T11:24:00.005+01:00

Rather less pictures for this one, as by this point I had a stinking cold so was managing to stagger round one or two things before collapsing in a pub. This day we headed over to Ocean Terminal, which is basically a shopping centre... with a friggin' big boat on the side!

Thar she blows - The Royal Yacht Britannia

The royal speed-boat, pimpin'! You can just imagine Charles and Diana having a romantic afternoon on this during their honeymoon, which they spent on the yacht (no wait, don't)

Edinburgh - a week in pictures (Wednesday)

2011-08-16T11:19:00.006+01:00

On day three we tackled the mighty Edinburgh Castle.

After being rained on for about 45 minutes straight, we finally got up to the castle where we could enjoy stunning views out over the town (despite our wet feet). This is the view out to Calton Hill, where you can see the Nelson Monument and National Monument.

This is a cemetery for the soldier's and officer's pet dogs

The altar inside St. Margaret's chapel

One of the great halls inside the castle

On the way back to town we popped into The Red Door Gallery, which was kindly recommended to me by Cut Copy Create on twitter. It had lots of beautiful goodies to please illustration and design fans everywhere. Hannah Zakari also looked amazing, though sadly at the time we were passing we didn't have the time to stop and have a good look. Next time!

Edinburgh - a week in pictures (Tuesday)

2011-08-16T10:44:00.008+01:00

On my second day we decided to head out of the city to lovely Queensferry, so named because it was the site of a ferry crossing across the Firth of Forth. There is still a ferry crossing somewhere in the area but these days most cross the Forth via the railway or road bridges.

We had a walk down to the beach

And then went for a walk on a footpath beside the coast

We had a rest at this little secluded beach, then headed back the way we came

The railway bridge going across the Forth

Edinburgh - a week in pictures (Monday)

2011-08-15T20:12:00.008+01:00

Hello everyone! Well I'm finally back and busy getting my life in order post-holiday. I had a fantastic time hanging out with my big brother and his lovely missus (whose pad I was crashing at) and seeing all the sights and sounds of the glorious city. I can really see why people fall in love with Scotland, it was a beautiful place and I was made to feel very at-home.

I was going to publish all the pictures in one post, then realised that there are far too many. So instead, they will be split into a series of six posts that I will be putting up throughout the day.

So without further ado, here's last monday in pictures...

First, a tour around the Old Town

The Edinburgh cityscape and Scott Monument

A little walk around Greyfriars Church graveyard

The famed Greyfriars Bobby

The High Kirk of St. Giles

A stroll through Princes Street Gardens

Edinburgh Castle viewed from the Gardens

The impressive interior of the Dome

Fortunately they didn't mind us poking our heads in to take photos!

And away I go!

2011-08-07T10:40:00.002+01:00

Morning folks!

Just a quick little post to let y'all know that I'm heading off on holiday! I'm going up to Edinburgh to visit my big bro and his missus. I've not been to the city before so I'm really excited to see all the sights and lots of shows at the fringe. I'm going to take tons of pictures while I'm away, so I'll be sure to share some here when I return.

Hope you have a great week too. Peace!

Emma xxx

Sketchbook drawings - go go greyhounds!

2011-08-03T11:07:00.003+01:00

Hello, hello and welcome! Blimey it's hot, innit? Everyone was wondering where the summer went and it seems to have now returned with a vengeance. When I've not been outside enjoying the fine weather I've been working on a fun little project, a picture for the We Draw Dogs blog, which was organised by my pal Jo Cheung. The final piece will be (hopefully) finished and sent off today, but for now here's some pages from my sketchbook - I settled on doing a greyhound in the end, it's a breed I really adore for its calm and affectionate nature.

Mentions on Creative Crafting News, UK Art and Creative Daily and the Chicken and Pig Book blog. A wonderful week!

2011-07-26T21:02:00.010+01:00

Hello to all of you, the good people of the internet! This week I've been working on some new projects, as well as getting some domestic bits and bobs in order. Its been a very wonderful week for me online, with my work being featured in some lovely places. I am enormously grateful to everyone who was kind enough to feature or mention my work.

Earlier in the week Steve Clement-Large was kind enough to feature my blog on his website UK Art and Creative Daily.

Then today my blog was featured again, on Creative Crafting News.

Finally, my picture of a Gallic Cockerel was included on the Chicken and Pig Book blog earlier this evening.

Update - I almost forgot that the lovely people at Creature Mag were also kind enough to feature my work on their twitter and paper.li. They're doing some really exciting work, so go check them out...

Phew, so much excitement!

Hope you're all having a great week too, more photos and illustrations to come very soon! As always, thanks for reading.

Emma x

Hello Mr. Siskin!

2011-07-19T19:27:00.004+01:00

You may remember my Siskin sketches of a couple of blog posts back, and also that in the last post I mentioned visiting the Leytonstone Arts Trail. Well, the trip to Leytonstone wasn't for pleasure alone, as the other purpose of my visit was to present the finished Siskin painting to it's new owner, Arts Trail organiser Flash Bristow. Siskins are her mother's favourite bird, and Flash commissioned the piece to give to her dear mum as a birthday gift. I really hope she enjoys it for many years to come!

Photos from Leytonstone Arts Trail

2011-07-17T16:38:00.007+01:00

It's been a very busy week! It started off with a visit to Leytonstone Arts Trail, in east London. It actually finishes today, so if you want to go see it there are only a scant few hours in which to do so! I do recommend it if you have the time, there were a great variety of different artists and disciplines in evidence. However if you can't make this year, don't despair! You can always catch it next year (or perhaps even get involved...?)

Paintings by Mary Anne Day at Meze Patisserie

Meze Patisserie, 13 Church Lane

Rosy Oddy at Leytonstone Library

Prints by Steve Murray

Photography by Steve Murray

Ian McNulty

Open Studios at 66 Norlington Road

Tanya Bulychova

Sculpture outside Leytonstone bus station

The Eatery, 7 Church Lane.

A collection of square foot works by local young people, organised by 100 square foot.

Giant postcards, by Flash Bristow

This one is Flash's personal favourite!

More work and pictures to come very soon, hope to see you then. Thanks for reading!

I went to the zoo and I saw...

2011-07-12T20:32:00.005+01:00

I went to one of London Zoo's late evenings, where you can see the animals, drink, eat and dance at an hour when the zoo is usually shut. At the zoo I saw...

some bearded pigs,

a gorilla,

a coati,

more coatis,

a kestrel, and many more!

I think the vulture wants me to go away and let him sleep now...

Sketches of Siskins

2011-06-29T22:26:00.002+01:00

Hi there folks! This week I'm working on a picture of a Siskin for a private commission. I think I can already reject the last sketch, he looks a bit too angry! Now to choose between the other three, hmmm... better get back to work - no rest for the wicked.

Thanks for reading, hope to see you soon x

Photos of SORTED London at east Gallery

2011-06-20T21:39:00.005+01:00

Hello folks! Yes, I know these should have been up on Saturday. However there were unforeseen circumstances... namely that I fell asleep when I should have been doing this blog post. I've had a cold lately which has been giving me a lot of disturbed nights, so I seem to be napping at all hours. Anyway, some commemorative photos if you missed the show - enjoy!

The birds are enormously grateful!

2011-06-16T22:20:00.006+01:00

Hello hello! Well it's been a log week but SORTED London finally came to an close. It was a rather emotional finish, and we all procrastinated hugely when it came to taking our work down because we just didn't want the fun to end. The show was hugely successful, more so than any of us exhibitors anticipated. And that success was down to YOU! You lovely people, who travelled across London and the whole of Great Britain to come show your support for all of us. So to you, an enormous and very humble thank-you! However, I do understand that not everyone who wanted to come was able to make it. So, without further ado, I present the internet debut of my pieces for the show at last. Enjoy!

Wren and Dog-Rose

Redstart and Bluebells

Greenfinch, Primroses and Fritillaries

Starling and Hawthorn

The Nightingales

I'll be sure to post my photos of the show on saturday... after I've been swimming. I've not been in ages, excited!

Until then, peace people.

My pieces for SORTED London - ooh you tease!

2011-06-07T23:11:00.006+01:00

Only two more sleeps to go until SORTED London opens its doors to flood the East end with colourful illustrative goodness! I've made five completely new pieces for the show, all of which will be gracing the pages of this blog very shortly... however, I didn't want to give too much away too soon. So for the time being, here's a little teaser of each piece for you to enjoy!

After all, I don't wanna give the game away before you've had a chance to visit the show, do I? But if you don't have a chance to visit the show due to not being in the same city/country, or simply being too busy, don't worry! I will post up the complete pieces eventually, as well as photos of the show and private view for you to enjoy. For those of you that can make the show, I look forward to seeing you there!

SORTED London - illustration show June 2011

2011-05-30T14:54:00.007+01:00

Hello hello! Sorry I've been absent for so long, the illustration exhibition I'm taking part in is just a week and a half away so I have been frantically busy! However, I am finally starting to see the light at the end of my incredibly long to-do list. Artwork is finished, invites sent out, frames bought and everyone is now getting ready for that final push before the show...

The fun starts on Thursday 9th June when SORTED opens its doors for the private view, which runs from 6pm - 9pm. It will then run until Wednesday 15th June. As well as showing work there will be prints for sale and even some lovely free goodies for you to take home with you. Not bad, eh? You can read more about it on the SORTED London website or facebook page.

Hope to see you there!

Emma x

A week in photos - flowers, markets and more flowers!

2011-04-26T22:10:00.007+01:00

Hello hello! My apologies that I didn't post at all last week, I've had my head down busily working away on some brand spanking new work. At times like that I can't help but think 'argh I don't have time to blog, I need to work!', though I know that's probably not the right attitude to have...

The pieces aren't quite ready to reveal yet, so in the meantime, here's some photos from my week up in Leicestershire.

Tuesday - continental market. These are pretty common in the UK nowadays but the one visiting on this occasion was particularly varied and well presented. Gotta love those gorgeous Dutch flowers!

Greek market selling everything from feta cheese topped flatbreads to different varieties of parika.

Disco disco dicso... crepes?

Friday - what's mum been growing in the garden while I've been gone? Well many things, including forget-me-nots, daffodils, violets, primroses... as well as this snake's head fritillary, which despite it's exotic looks is a rarely-seen British wildflower. I was so pleased to see them for real that I decided to include some in one of my new pieces!

Sunday - time to go home... well almost! First let's squash in a trip to the nearby arboretum and another rare find, this time a horsehair. It's an odd plant that looks a bit like a stick of asparagus growing out of the ground (perhaps its related to asparagus? I don't even know if the horsehair is technically a plant, actually! Research needed...) And, a cherry tree that I simply couldn't resist. I don't think I've ever seen one so heavily loaded with blossoms!

Hope you all have fun this friday and for those of you that just don't want to know... good luck with shutting it all out (I promise I won't say the W-word!) Thanks for reading, as always xxx

Time To Fly

2011-04-16T17:13:00.004+01:00

Greetings everyone! Well my time in the midlands is drawing to a close and tomorrow I will be heading back to London. I'm sad to be saying goodbye to my family, especially as the reason we've all gotten together is because my oldest brother is going to be moving to Australia later this year... so we don't know when we will all be together again. However I am looking forward to rejoining my other half, who has been on his own in our flat all week, poor thing!

But before I start packing I'll share some exciting news with you - you may remember that I had a private commission for a painting of a pair of owls, which I am pleased to report is now complete! I was really happy with how the picture turned out, especially as I put a lot of work into drawing all the feathers and patterning them beautifully. The recipients were very pleased too so it was a win-win situation! It's also inspired me to create more large-scale pieces in future, and with a show I'm involved in coming up this summer, I certainly have a good opportunity to do so... but more on that another time!

Thanks for reading folks, hope to see you next time!

Cute song thrushes in wild cherry blossoms - illustration for travelling sketchbook project

2011-04-13T21:03:00.005+01:00

Hello hello! Just dropping in to share this with you, it's an illustration for a travelling sketchbook project I've taken part in recently, you can read more about it here. There are some excellent artists taking part, and at the end the sketchbook will be auctioned or sold with the proceeds going toward a good cause (said cause is as of yet, undetermined, but I'm sure it will be very worthy!) Spring was in the air as I was making this, so I celebrated the fine weather with song-thrushes and wild cherry blossoms.

Today sees me back in Leicestershire enjoying the hospitality of my parents for a week - I am feeling much more rested and relaxed already (I've tried to talk them into letting me help with chores but nooooooo..!) However, a trip to the doctor's this morning revealed that I have infected tonsils. It's a bit uncomfortable but on the upside they will clear up by themselves within a week (I hope). The doctor hasn't prescribed me anything but advised that if they're sore I can eat ice-cream to soothe them. Oh doctor, as IF I ever needed an excuse to have ice-cream! Like music to my ears...

Hope the weather is fine where you are, thanks for reading!

River Thames Competition entry

2011-04-06T16:21:00.004+01:00

My goodness what a busy few days I've had, been rushing about all over the place! The to-do list is finally starting to shorten, so that's rather gratifying. I think in future I need to pace myself a bit better though, monday finished with me crashing from exhaustion at about 7.30 pm and not stirring 'til morning! When your body really needs rest, it find ways of forcing you to do so (i.e., it completely ceases to function, ha-ha). Anyhow I allowed myself an evening off to recuperate and am feeling much perkier today... the lovely sunshine helped too!

Speaking of days spent outside... this is my entry for the River Thames Competition. It was a pretty tight deadline and I had to practically chain myself to my desk three days straight to get it done (and even then I only had 10 minutes to spare!) I'm pretty happy with what I achieved in such a short space of time, although of course there are loads of improvements I would have liked to have made... still, I think it shows the energy and activity of the river well. It was a challenge to draw people (they are not my usual subjects) but I think it's something need to get more confident at doing. I'll have to go pay the river a visit this summer. Although, I won't promise to go kayaking on it!

Hope you have all been well, thanks for reading!

Donation to How Bazaar! illustration auction

2011-04-03T11:30:00.004+01:00

I posted this off yesterday to the lovely ladies at How Bazaar! as a donation to their illustration auction. All the proceeds are going towards Large Ride Down to help raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. It's an excellent cause, and they are still accepting donations of artwork until the 1st May! If you want to get involved or just know more about the event, have a gander at their facebook page.

As you can see, it's a high-quality print of my Yorkshire Christmas Pie piece, in an acrylic Muji frame (courtesy of my lovely fiance!)

It's all ready to go... d'you think I used enough Sellotape?

My favourite pieces from Pick Me Up Graphic Art Fair, 2011

2011-03-23T23:39:00.009Z

Greetings all! It's been a hectic couple of weeks over here, and there's lots to share. Firstly, the owl painting that I was making for my two good friends is complete! I'll be sharing that very soon, but first I need to find a scanner big enough to fit it on... I am pleased with how it turned out, and more importantly so are the soon-to-be-owners. I have also been working on an entry for the AOI and TFL River Thames Competition, which (thank god) has had the deadline extended to Tuesday 29th March. It's still a pretty tight schedule but nonetheless I'm hopeful that I can submit a good piece in time to get a pop at that £2000 first prize. Wish me luck!

With all this hard work going on, there has not been nearly enough socialising in my life lately. So me and a gang of my fellow students from Westminster Illustration (Jo Cheung, June Chanpoomidole, Emily Bakes, Chrissy Wallace, and VybeInk) teamed up with illustrators Rachel Clare Price, Emma Block and Rachel Lewis for a fun afternoon out at Pick Me Up graphic art fair. It was lovely being out in the fresh air and sunshine, despite my journey in being blighted by weekend tube works! Here is a round up of some of my favourite artists from the show.

Seiko Kato

(How could I resist so many bird-stuffed collages... even including owls, my favourite!)

Victo Ngai

(Beautiful, whimsical and dreamy with a gorgeous colour palette.)

Gwenola Carrere

(Colourful, bold work, with a strong folk-art vibe.)

Hope you enjoyed this post, and the sunshine! Thanks for reading, as always.

Om nom in my tum

2011-03-10T19:04:00.004Z

I baked this last week and it was well tasty... makes me think I need to do some more baking this weekend! Maybe I'll do cupcakes this time...

Flamingo mag launch night

2011-03-07T20:23:00.005Z

Greetings all! Just dropping in quickly to share some piccies with you all from the Flamingo Magazine launch night which my buddy June Chanpoomidole was involved with - her piece of work is the one directly below. It was a fun night and I thoroughly enjoyed sipping some Swedish (or was it Norwegian?!) cider and sampling a shot of Agwa de Coca with a slice of lime. Just a quick note... I was stupid enough to forget to note down the names of the people the other pieces belong to - get in touch if it's yours or you know who did it, I'd like to add the artists to my networks online :3

Frog shaped eggcups - more random stuff from my life

2011-03-02T18:22:00.004Z

Welcome to March people! Spring is officially in the air - snowdrops and crocuses are popping up all over the place, my garden is chock full of birds and there seems to be a friend with a birthday almost every week. I've been enjoying the small amount of sunshine we've been getting, and cracking on with the owl painting I mentioned a couple of instalments ago, which is almost ready for me to start putting colour on it (excitement!)

Last May I visited a friend in Ireland, who took me to Giddy Studios, where you choose pottery pieces that you then paint! Since we didn't have any eggcups yet, I decided to get these cute little frog ones and make 'his and hers' souvenirs for me and the fiance. Since the pottery has to be fired after the glaze is applied, I needed to wait a while before I got to see them (and they've spent the best part of a year waiting for me to come and pick them up from another friend's house!) However, when I finally clapped eyes on them this Saturday I was very pleased. Mine is a Ziggy Stardust themed one (I'm a bit of a Bowie fan) and Chris' is a gaming related one. Boiled eggs for breakfast I think!

Ruination and regeneration

2011-02-19T14:05:00.006Z

Hello folks! Hope y'all had a good Valentine's Day - unfortunately me and my chap spent most of ours nursing colds, which unfortunately we are still suffering with. It's amazing how much illness can slow you down, so I'm really looking forward to getting my energy back. For the time being, here's some photos from one of my trips up north which seem to reflect my thoughts at this moment - of endings and new beginnings.

IHeart... My Favourite Place zine available now!

2011-02-05T16:29:00.003Z

Hello everyone, just a quick post while I'm on holiday to share some exciting news with y'all - the zine I'm in is all finished and available for purchase right now! The theme is 'my favourite place', and it's a little bit special because as well as having supplying images, we illustrators also recorded sounds which you can listen to online whilst viewing the pictures. It's an interactive experience!

Hope you're all having a fab week, even with the miserable weather!

Owl good is that?!

2011-01-29T18:13:00.005Z

I noticed the other day that this blog has been a tad devoid of illustration work recently, mainly because I let myself have a long break over Christmas to wind down and get my mojo back. I don't know about you lot but I'm starting to understand why adults sometimes dread Christmas; the pressure of finding appropriate gifts for everyone and making the big day 'special' can be exhausting.

The last couple of weeks I have been getting myself back into gear with a really lovely project - a painting for a couple I know, who wanted a pair of beautiful owls to christen their first proper home together. We've gone through the stages of roughs and developed sketches so this week I've been able to gather some fresh materials, stretch the paper and start work on the final picture at last! There's still some work to do, but the owls are starting to take shape nicely and I'm really excited to see the finished painting.

Roughs

Development

Start of final piece

A big soup cookathon

2011-01-24T18:33:00.004Z

Today I have been mostly... cooking! Just lately I've gotten bored of sandwiches for lunch, and finding a shop bought one to eat on my break at work is surprisingly tricky if you want to find something a) not too expensive b) without loads of fat c) preferably vegetarian (I'm not a veggie, but I try to avoid eating meat every day... call me a part-timer). I want to make a special effort in the new year to eat well, and decided that the best way for a busy person to make sure that they have something lovely for lunch is to cook it up yourself at home and freeze in batches to have when you want. I trialed it last week and found that it was pretty tasty, and kept me full until dinner time. And the best thing about soup is that you can endlessly vary the flavours! The varieties I made today were: courgette, green lentil, celery, pea and lettuce (with herbs and lemon zest thrown in for good measure); and the second was mushroom, leek, parsley and borlotti beans. I like my soup smooth so unfortunately it looks like greenish sludge when I'm done but still tastes good.

A gorgeous underwater garden

2011-01-18T10:59:00.005Z

I had a look through the photos on my camera after getting back from leicester last week and realised that I had forgotten all about these beauties! My brother is a big animal fan like me, with a particular penchant for fish (he studied marine biology for his degree) and still has a tank with a few fishes in that, for the time being, still live at mum and dad's place. He wanted a replacement catfish for the tank after the last one died, so we headed out to track one down. I'm a pet shop owners worst nightmare really, I don't have the space to keep any animals so I'm not going to buy anything, but I'm damn well going to stay there and enjoy looking for as long as possible! The owners of the shop we visited were kind enough to let me take some photos - though without flash on so apologies for the quality (I had it turned off so the fish weren't startled - I don't really think you can call yourself an animal fan unless you're willing to show them some consideration, even at a detriment to yourself). I've never seen so many unusual sea creatures in a shop before, and was particularly stunned at how the sea anemones and corals make gorgeous, ghostly underwater gardens.

Pictures taken at Ocean Commotion, Leicester, with thanks to the staff.

Feature on Creature Mag blog

2011-01-11T22:55:00.003Z

Hi everyone!

Just a very quick post to share a lovely bit of news with you all. Creature Mag has been doing a series of articles lately about illustrators who use twitter and other social media, and I was fortunate to be one of the featured artists! The series has included some fabulous talent thus far so I am very pleased to be alongside them. You can check out the blog post here.

Not a bad start to the new year methinks! Thanks for reading, I hope 2011 is going well for all of you too :)

Happy new year with markets and barn owls

2011-01-05T20:18:00.004Z

Hello and welcome to 2011! I can hardly believe how quickly the last year has flown by. 2010 taught me many valuable lessons, and I thank that this year is the time to start putting all the things I've learned into practice. Nonetheless, I am beginning the new year by having a well-earned rest and some quality time with the family out of London. Here are a few photos of my (relaxed) exploits so far.

We also popped by Leicester pub The Old Horse for a convivial pint (as well as our first - and probably last - sampling of pork scratchings). Down in the beer garden there was a surprise - an enclosure with a pair of barn owls! I've drawn and painted barn owls many times but always from photographs because they are such elusive animals. So seeing them up close and in person was a real treat.

Thanks for reading, let's hope 2011 is a great year for all of us!

Where I have been doing my Christmas shopping - etsy shopping special!

2010-12-06T17:13:00.014Z

Hello all! Hope you've been enjoying the snow - or at least, coping well with the difficult weather. When the wind blows cold and the rain falls, venturing outside for Christmas shopping can seem like a real chore, especially in the big cities where the streets can get insanely busy with shoppers.

So, this year I decided to take the big Christmas present hunt online. I've saved myself from shopping stress, and also supported some great independent businesses - it's a double win!

Read on to find out where I've been spending my cash this festive season...

Polly Danger Notions

Wonderful collection of sewing supplies and crafty goodies. I was especially impressed with their selection of patterns and crafting kits! Great if you have a mate who loves a bit of gingham granny-chic.

Lickety Cut

Great selection of laser-cut jewellery, at very reasonable prices. These three little piggies are so cute!

Lesley Barnes

This talented illustrator and animator hardly needs any introduction on this blog. Her etsy shop sells only bookmarks - but what a selection of beautiful bookmarks! Practically everyone reads, and there is bound to be a bookmark here for just about anyone.

Jade's Jewels

This seller has the most amazing collection of vintage jewellery! Brooches, bangles, pendants... they have it all. The brooches in particular are gorgeous, with heaps of choice. The best part is that their pieces start from as little as $3.21 - not that you can tell by looking at them!

Gemma Correll

I'm sure that the work of the illustrious Gemma Correll is already familiar to many of you! Nevertheless, her shop deserves a mention because it's such a fab place to find gifts. It's full of great finds for fashion conscious pet-lovers everywhere. I have to admit that the above pocket-mirror was a little gift to myself this year!

BoyGirlParty

Another illustrator/maker, Susie Ghahremani is already well-known throughout the creative community. Owls are a speciality of hers, so I was pretty much bound to like her work! Her shop has a really extensive collection of different items, including notepads, stickers, badges and this cute t-shirt above. Great shop for main presents, or for little stocking fillers!

Creative Accidents

Some really cute pieces of jewellery, and at reasonable prices. They have a great selection of little studs - these snowflake ones are a real festive find!

Hope you've all enjoyed reading this post, hope you visit again soon!

A peek in a pika package

2010-10-25T19:30:00.003+01:00

Can't believe I still haven't got round to this, but I realised just yesterday that I never shared what I received in my pika package! It landed on my doorstep just before I left for a holiday in the lake district at the end of the summer, and by the time I returned there was so much going on that it completely slipped my mind. I was really pleased to receive such a lovely parcel! Thanks to all of the artists in mine for providing such a wonderful collection of goodies, and to Amy at pikaland for organising the whole thing!

A lovely little card and fold-out illustration by Chum McLeod.

Travel journal/notebook by Little Clouds.

A journal about Emilie Boudet's travels in India.

A woodblock print and collection of little goodies from Silver Tree Art.

Thanks for reading everyone, until next time!

It's autumn and the leaves are turning...

2010-10-18T00:19:00.008+01:00

I realised it's been a while since I actually posted any of my own work on here! So today is some more work from my sketchbook as of yet unseen. I added a quick bit of watercolour to them as well just to brighten the drawings up.

The lovely Natsuki Otani has been kind enough to feature my work on her blog, so head on over there to check out that and her own gorgeous work (which was also featured here last week, if you remember.)

Hope you've all had a lovely Sunday!

More snail mail surprises!

2010-10-08T18:29:00.005+01:00

Hello all! Sorry it's been over a week since the last post. I had been hoping I could try to cram in more than one a week... must try harder.

The reason on this occasion was that I needed to keep away from distractions while I did a complete overhaul of my portfolio. I booked myself an appointment with the AOI for their expert to look over my stuff and give me some advice. That was supposed to be this Monday just gone, but with the tube strike... so, next Monday it is. On the downside I have another week to get nervous about it. However, it was the 1st anniversary of my getting engaged last Saturday so on the upside I could just enjoy the day instead of working!

I got another lovely parcel through the post today that I thought I'd share. These are from the fabulous Natsuki Otani; who, as well as making beautiful, whimsical and colourful illustrations, also runs the Illustration Rally blog (and I am very proud to say that yours truly is the featured artist there right now!) So a big thank you to Nat for gracing me with both her lovely work, and a feature alongside all the talented people on her blog.

Thanks for reading everyone, hope you're well!

Beautiful goodies from Lesley Barnes

2010-09-26T18:41:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I received a beautiful little pack of goodies from the lovely Lesley Barnes. Her work makes me feel at once inspired and envious! Great stuff!

Many thanks also to Miss Pearl Grey, Sandra Dieckmann and Jo Cheung, all of whom were so kind as to write a blog post about the goodies I sent to them. I'm glad they've been so well received! If anyone else writes a post about their giveaway package or my work, do let me know so I can give the shout-out you deserve here :)

Last week I did some playing around on my website, updating and altering. It's the first in a long line of improvements, so keep your eyes peeled!

It's been a good couple of weeks!

2010-09-19T21:35:00.005+01:00

It really has! First off there was the excitement surrounding the AOI Images show, and also finding out that my piece had been selected for the national tour. Then, last week I had news that my collaboration with Harry Walsh Foreman for the Half and Half Project had also been selected for their show. Throw in an awesomely generous response to the blog giveaway (thankyoooooooou!) and I am a very happy bunny indeed.

Speaking of which, I never got round to showing everyone what the finished Half and Half picture looks like. To recap, the project was conceived to encourage artists to collaborate with each other, and the collaboration could take any form be it sculpture, installation... or a straightforward picture, as in our case. The pieces were then submitted to the Half and Half team, who selected the most successful to be part of an exhibition, which will be at the The Vineyard Bar in Cork City, Ireland. The private view is on the 15th October, and I'm assuming it will be open for a bit afterward though the dates haven't yet been confirmed. I'll keep you posted once I know.

As I mentioned, the response to the blog giveaway far exceeded all my expectations. So many have been enthusiastic and given such kind comments, so a very big THANK YOU to all of you. Everyone's parcels should be arriving around now, and I have had confirmation from a few people that they have turned up okay. The one exception is the parcel for Handmade By Emily, which will be a little late. This is because, despite me having very clearly labelled where the parcel should be sent to and the return address, I opened the door on Friday last week to the postman trying to hand it back to me. I pointed out the mistake and the guy promised to take it back and send it again... clearly someone at the Post Office had not had their Weetabix that morning! But don't worry Emily, it should be turning up very soon anyway... and if not, I'll head down there and give 'em what for!

Hope all of you are having a good time too. Thanks for reading!

AOI Images 34 private view

2010-09-13T01:41:00.008+01:00

To kick off the week (as a lot of people probably won't read this until the morning) some pictures from the Association of Illustrators Images show private view. It seemed strange to finally be there after such a long wait (I entered the competition around this time last year!) but I was very pleased and honoured to take part.

If you haven't made it along yet, the show is on until the 14th September at the London College of Communication, 10am - 5pm. There's only a couple more days left, so you'll have to hurry if you want to catch it!

I had further good news earlier this week that my work has been selected to go in the Images show national tour, so it will be part of an exhibition that travels the country for a year. The tour dates are as follows:

Beverly Art Gallery, Yorkshire Oct 18th 2010 - Nov 28th 2010

Nottingham Trent University Nov 29th 2010 - Jan 6th 2011

Blackpool and Fylde College Jan 24th 2011 - Mar 6th 2011

TBC Mar 28th 2011 - June 19th 2011

TBC June 27th 2011 - July 31st 2011

Clitheroe Castle Museum Aug 8th 2011 - Oct 9th 2011

The TBC dates will be confirmed later on the AOI site, and you can read more info about the show there too.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you're all having a good week too! xxx

You're.... a WINNER!

2010-09-09T21:46:00.006+01:00

Announcing the results of my massive blog giveaway! Last night I dug out my magical picking hat, and with the help of my lovely assistant drew the names of the three lucky people who would get the top prizes of the giveaway. And the winners are...

Happyfox, Cheism, and Sandra! Congratulations you three, you have each won one of my lovely A3 prints. And I am also happy to say that there are plenty of goodies to go around, so all of the entrants will receive a parcel of things to enjoy! Happy times :D

There is but one fly in the ointment... two of the entrants had no email address on their blogger profile that I can contact them by! That includes first prize winner Happyfox, and an entrant named only as Joe (so the chances of me googling you and finding the correct person are um... nil!) It would be a real shame if either of you missed out on your prizes so, do get in touch as soon as you can.

In other news...

I have been away on holiday in the gorgeous lake district, and returned home just in time for the AOI Images 34 show, which my work is featured in. Yay! Photos and more information about that coming next time.

Thanks for reading!

The Go Travel Pika Package!

2010-08-12T22:22:00.008+01:00

Hello, hello all! The Go Travel Pika Package has now launched and is available for purchase, with work from yours truly and a host of other talented folks from across the globe. You can get yours from the Pikaland website, or by clicking the handy little link now installed on the right hand side of this blog ------------------>

Below are the travel inspired pieces of work I created for the project, a series of four national birds and five national dishes. It was a challenge to get all the work finished and sent off in time, but they were a lot of fun to make!

Half and Half Competition

2010-07-30T14:36:00.011+01:00

Wowza, it's been a busy last couple of weeks! No sooner had I posted off my goods to the lovely Amy for her latest pika package (which a little bird tells me will be available from the website VERY SOON!) than I was hard at work with Harry Walsh creating our entry to the Half and Half competition.

In case you don't know, the project was devised to encourage all different kinds of artists to collaborate and make pieces of work together, from a painting, to an installation, or piece of performance art. The best pieces will be shown in the Vineyard Bar in Cork City. We decided to go for a straightforward illustration themed around tropical birds, with one half completed by myself, and the other by Harry. Perhaps not quite as avant-garde as a performance but... let's see how good old fashioned drawing talent fares! Wish us luck!

As I don't do this very often, I thought it might be fun for once to give my readers a glimpse into my working process, and let you see the work from thumbnail doodle to finished piece. We begin with three quick thumbnail sketches, different ideas for the composition:

It's decided that the middle composition would look cool and be easily split between us. Next, to sketch some birds and decide which ones might be included in my half of the piece. For me it was all about the colourful avians: peacocks, parrots, toucans, birds-of-paradise...

Twelve Wired Birds-of-Paradise

King of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise, Arfak Astrapia, Wallace's Standardwing

And last but not least, the classic macaw!

Next, the pencil work for the final piece with the selected birds drawn in position.

Time to put some colour on those birds... beautiful plumage!

Fill in the tree branches plus background and voila! One half finished!

So, for now all there is for me to do is sit back and await Harry's half... I will be sure to post the results here when it's all done. The competition deadline is 30th August so if you fancy getting down and collaborative... there is still time!

One last thing, my MASSIVE GIVEAWAY is still on, and has been extended! As of next week I'll be away on holiday catching up with friends, family and the in-laws, and it seems unlikely that I'll get round to sending off all those delicious goodies before I go... so the giveaway will now be going on until the end of August. I would love lots of lovely posts to read upon my return, so get commenting!

As always, thanks for reading. See you next time!

MASSIVE GIVE AWAY!

2010-07-09T14:49:00.006+01:00

Cue the fanfare, because I am very pleased to announce my massive summer giveaway! As mentioned last time, this is ostensibly to celebrate my birthday, but in fact I have been meaning to do a give away for some time. This was in order to celebrate reaching over 400 followers on twitter, as well as having over 150 fans on my facebook page!

There is a lovely collection of goodies to give away, including packs of stickers and postcards, single cards, A5 prints and A3 prints. Many of these are items that I won't be making any more, so get them while you can! Below is just a small sample of what is on offer.

How do I enter?

Just follow this blog, and post a comment below. The winners will be picked by random out of a hat in a couple of weeks time. Make sure that you have your current email address available on your blogger profile page because that is how I will be contacting the winners!

Will I win just one item?

In short, nope! Each winner will get a varied collection of lovely goodies to enjoy.

How many winners will there be?

As many as possible! There are no set number of winners, I will simply keep choosing people until there are no more prizes to give away. So, you have an excellent chance of winning something. All the more reason to enter!

So.... get posting! And have an awesome time in the sun!

Shark sketches. Something smells fishy...

2010-06-29T17:33:00.005+01:00

Hidy hi folks! Dropping in today to share with you some sketches I did for my buddy Jessica Dahn, who is just graduating from her masters in Art and Media Practice. For her final project she decided to make a children's game about sharks and other sea creatures. Below are the three concept sketches of Charlie the shark used in her presentation.

Charlie is caught in a fishing net!

Charlie rescued and recovering

Charlie chilling out with her new buddies (yes in reality they would probably try to eat each other but the kids don't necessarily know that...)

I also dropped in on her final exhibition over at The Rag Factory in Brick Lane, which included some amazing underwater photography.

One last thing: as some of you may know, it was my birthday yesterday (woo!) and I had a fabulous day out in town eating sushi and getting cake from China town (see below). In celebration of my birthday, sunshine and all good things I will be organising a big giveaway on my blog next week... so keep your eyes peeled!

Illustration for If I Was You project

2010-06-16T16:03:00.006+01:00

Hello all! Just dropping by to share with you some of my latest work, an illustration for the If I Was You project, organised by the lovely Sandra Dieckmann! My subject was awesome Russian illustrator Irina Popvova, and what I would do if I were her. The answer? Join a circus with my troupe of performing cats!

You can see the image in situ If I Was You Project.com, as well as a mini-interview with yours truly! Lots of lovely work by talented people there, so be sure to check it out.

In other news, I am currently hard at work on some items for the upcoming pika package, which is a travel themed one. It's in for next week so nose to grindstone time for me! I look forward to sharing the fruits of my labour with all of you in due course. Until next time!

Poster for East London Craft Guerilla

2010-06-01T20:26:00.005+01:00

Hidy hi, lovely weather today, innit? (Well, actually no, it's miserable outside. But anyway!)

Hopefully the weather will be better on Saturday 26th, when the lovely people at East London Craft Guerrilla will be arranging another of their grand monthly craft fairs. And yours truly had the privilege of designing the poster! You can keep up to date with all the latest developments as well as their other projects over on their blog.

Hope y'all had an awesome bank holiday, until next time!

A peek in my sketchbook

2010-05-26T19:30:00.005+01:00

So I have almost come to end of my well-travelled and much beloved sketchbook. It now has a mere 4 pages left, and as I noticed this I also realised how many drawings had been lurking in there without being shown to the world. So this post I decided to share with you some of my favourite sketches from the book, with more to follow later. As it's been so beautifully sunny this week, we begin with sketches of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures, thanks once again for reading!

St. George's Day post!

2010-04-23T11:44:00.012+01:00

Hello hello! I'm currently working on a few long term projects that aren't quite ready to share just yet, and as it is St. George's Day I decided to share some photos from my gallivanting about the UK. These celebrate the lovely Bradgate park in Leicestershire, former home of Lady Jane Grey (and current home of a herd of deer).

See that tower way off in the distance? That's Old John, and trekking up to it is something of a rite of passage for a lot of Leicesterites. Having only been to the park once before I had never done it, but this day I finally decided to make the journey.

Most of the way is just a pleasant trot over a couple of fields, but that last part of the ascent is surprisingly steep!

And at last the summit is reached! The traveller is rewarded with stunning views of the surrounding park, countryside and even the city way off in the distance. It's at times like this that I wish I had a camera that could do it all justice.

That's the view back the way we came. It's quite a way!

After the descent we come to the remains of Bradgate House where Lady Jane once lived. When I see red brick buildings I'm always tempted to assume it's from the Victorian era, but this was once a fine old Tudor pile (though the intact buildings are in such good shape you wouldn't necessarily know).

They've made this tower into a dovecote, with wooden shuttered entrances and everything.

And a far-off glimpse of the famous deer.

Kids playing in what I'm assuming is the River Lin. Fishing nets, paddling and picnics, a day out worthy of an Enid Blyton book (except the girls weren't left at home baking this time).

And so concludes this special Brit-themed post! Take the time this weekend to hit up one of the many national parks dotted all round the country, you'd be surprised at how much green space there is, even near the large cities. They're national treasures folks, so make the most of them!

An Extra Long Super-deluxe Bumper Special Edition Post!

2010-04-12T21:59:00.018+01:00

Greetings all, happy Easter!

You may have noticed that I've been rather absent from the internet for the last week or so. As I mentioned in the previous post, this was due in part to work load, but also because there were various family engagements to attend over Easter. Both of my parents and my mother in-law have teaching jobs, so the Easter break is a great opportunity to spend some quality time with them. So, barely had I returned to London from visiting my fiancé's family in County Durham than I was on the road again, this time to visit my parents in Leicestershire, where I am currently. In the last week and a half I have spent a grand total of two and half days in my own flat! Living out of a rucksack can be a bit draining but it's been wonderful to get out of the city and see what's going on in the rest of the UK. Mostly it's business as usual, although I have noticed the alarming number of shops that have closed down, doors shut and windows boarded up. It's a sad state of affairs, but life carries on.

Anyhow, now that I finally have some time to just sit and type, I'm making this post an extra-long, super-deluxe bumper special edition, featuring not one but TWO new pictures for your edification (unless you think they're utter crap... though I hope that's not the case, that would be deeply embarrassing).

The first I mentioned last post, an illustration of the letter L (below) for the lovely Natsuki Otani over at Illustration Rally. After much deliberating I decided to do something uplifting, and chose L for Love (also, doves are such gorgeous birds!) It's up now on their blog so do pop along and have a gander at all the other lovely illustrations. All the pictures in the alphabet thus far are also up on Society 6, so if you like what you see, be sure to promote it!

The second piece was made as part of an art-exchange, where you send off some of your work in the mail and receive work by others in return. It's a lovely way to make your day more exciting as you await the mail, to see other people's work and hopefully make some great contacts. I can't wait to get home and see if there's anything on the doormat! For this one I did another of my favourite birds: the wren. I'm really enjoying doing these more stylised, decorative bird pictures so I'm thinking it might be fun to do a whole series of different birds. So many different things I want to do, but where to start? Decisions, decisions.

As a final little treat, here's a few pictures from my garden, which I have recently been working on. This was spurred on in part by the warm weather we've been enjoying recently, and also because my aunt wanted to come and see my flat. She is a wonderful woman, about as far removed from the formidable Aunt Agatha of Jeeves and Wooster fame as it is possible to be. However, she is always very elegant and neatly dressed, and I didn't want her to see the tip that my living space had become over the last couple of weeks! A panicked frenzy of cleaning ensued, which was handy because I really need motivation when it comes to things like that. If I have the option of relaxing or cleaning, I tend to find that I'd much rather sit and draw, or read a book.

Anyway, the garden looks much better for some sweeping and tidying, so the next thing on the agenda is to do some weeding, and get a bath and some food to entice more birds to visit. So much of the outside space in Britain is made up of people's back gardens, so it's really important for them to be as wildlife friendly as possible. And it also makes looking out the window much more interesting!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time!

Art Nouveau Barn Owl

2010-04-01T23:00:00.004+01:00

Hello folks!

Just a quick little post today to share my latest illustration with you. I do love writing longer ones that are a bit more informative, but sadly it isn't possible at the moment. I'm having one of those seasons where the minute you finish a piece of work, you immediately have to start working on the next thing. The picture below was made as a submission for Cheapzine's upcoming book about art nouveau, which shared its deadline for entries with the Working Class Awards, both of which I managed to enter on time, just. No sooner had I finished the picture than I had to start working on a piece for an art-exchange, and an illustration of the letter L for Illustration Rally. Phew, I see a long day of drawing and painting ahead of me tomorrow! I'll be sure to put the results up here when I'm done. Wish me luck all!

Oh and just in case you were wondering, it's another barn owl. I seem to be a bit obsessed with them of late. And the flowers on the wallpaper are cornflowers and corn marigolds. Cheers for reading, as always!

A collection of middleclass food

2010-03-23T16:40:00.007Z

It's Tuesday again and time for my weekly blog update! As promised, this week there are some photos from the Horniman museum of their more interesting specimens, though not the sketches yet as I haven't had the time to tidy and scan them. Rest assured, they will be making an appearance at a later date.

Instead, I was busy working on this new illustration, entitled 'A Collection of Middleclass Food'. There wasn't enough space to fit on all of the culinary candidates (a friend already pointed out that it is missing hummus... along with taramasalata, pate, etc...) but I think there's a pretty good selection here nonetheless. It was a fun picture to make, and a development of my other food-oriented work. I hope that y'all like it.

Next, I present some photos of the mad specimens at the Horniman museum. Like I said before, they have a huge collection of stuffed animals (which are much easier to draw than live ones!) though they are antiques so they show their age somewhat. The second one down with the massive gob is my absolute favourite, though they all have loads of character. I especially like the way that the animals are arranged as though they are interacting with each other, or in such a way that suggests its personality. A wonderful example of Victorian whimsy.

Travel themed Artist's Trading Card

2010-03-16T17:08:00.005Z

Ah, the start of another week already! Although I have been busy with one thing and another I still don't quite know where the time has gone.

The week started with a trip to the Horniman museum with my friend Jo Cheung to draw and take photos. If you're ever in the Forest Hill area or want to do some observational drawing the museum holds a vast array of interesting exhibits, and the staff are always wonderfully friendly and accommodating. For example, while we were there ostensibly for the collection of stuffed animals, we also ended up visiting the garden, the aquarium in the basement and learning that it has one of the largest musical instrument collections in Europe. Is there anything this place doesn't have? It's like Toys R Us, but with dead things and antiques rather than plastic toys.

Anyway, about this here picture. Crafter, designer and illustrator Sarah Hurley mentioned on twitter that she was arranging a swap of Artist's Trading Cards. And what are they? Little cards of 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, hand made by the artist, that you send off in return for a different artist's card. It seemed a lovely idea, so I decided to get involved. The theme was travel, so mine focusses on sea travel. The swallow is a link to sailors, who would be tattooed with one as a symbol that no matter how far they travelled, they would always return home. Fitting a composition into such a small space was quite a challenge but I think it turned out okay, especially for a first attempt. Anyway, I hope whoever receives my card enjoys it.

I'll be putting up the Horniman museum drawings/photos later in the week. My apologies for the slight delay on this post, my sore ear was giving me sleepless nights and as a result this weekend was very unproductive. However, I am now refreshed and ready to rejoin the real world! Thanks for reading, hope to see you next time!

Spring day in Regent's park

2010-03-08T18:39:00.008Z

Who says London is all grey buildings and dirty streets? I have been fortunate enough to see some of the finest green spaces in the capital that one can find anywhere. Regent's park has been one of my favourite green city spots since I spent my birthday there last June. At that time the park was really magical, all the wildfowl had ducklings, cygnets or chicks in tow, and the vast collection of roses in Queen Mary's garden were in full bloom. At this time of the year the rose plants are just bare stubs, but there was still much spring promise in the air. The sun was warm enough to venture out sans-coat, and consequently the joggers were also out in full force. All in all, a fine day to find a cafe and sit at a lakeside pier. And as an added plus, the park has one of the largest heronries of any city in Europe, and you can tell the birds are used to people since they are quite happy to stand right next to the path. A great treat if, like me, you are used to being only able to admire these shy birds from afar.

Some much delayed sketchbook drawings

2010-03-04T13:25:00.010Z

Happy Thursday everyone! My internet was sabotaged last week (someone opened the box at the front of the house and pulled the cable out, for some bizarre reason) and it unfortunately only came on again right before I was about to go visiting friends for the weekend. I am not normally one for vigilante justice but if anyone else attempts to disconnect me from facebook, blogger, twitter and iplayer by cutting off my digital umbilical chord they WILL experience the discomfort of having my foot firmly embedded in their face. However, I am now back in London after a refreshing few days and ready to share with you the things that have been happening in my sketchbook of late.

First, you may remember my entry for the Nobrow competition and the little orchid flower people in it. Below are the preparatory sketches of the flowers, I did quite a few and then picked the best three. If you compare them to the real flowers, you can see that I had to change very little to create the characters, all they needed were some eyes and human poses; the rest was there already. The flowers are respectively: Man orchid, Pyramidal orchid, Burnt orchid, Frog orchid, Bird's Nest orchid and Fragrant orchid. Apparently these are all native British flowers, but I don't think I have seen any of them before in the flesh. Perhaps when I have the time I will go on a trip to track some down. Any nature lovers know where I might find some?

The burnt orchid man has been coloured in with watercolour, but I didn't like the effect as it disguised a lot of my pencil shading. However, I feel the need for some colour on them and may work with the wee flower people again on a series of drawings or perhaps a short story.

There has been a definite barn owl trend in my sketchbook recently. This is mostly because I read that owls start their courtship displays and begin pairing around this time of year, and the fact that they also have heart-shaped faces makes them a perfect candidate for Valentine's or romantically themed work. I very almost released a Valentine's card, but decided that first I should really do some improvements and build the profile of my etsy shop before hurriedly releasing a lot of very seasonal work that I can't sell during the rest of the year, thus wasting time, money and resources. I will learn from my mistakes, even if it is less fun. And at least I have some very pretty owl pictures to show for it!

And last but not least, some totally random doodles. The hamster one looks totally out of place among all these birds, I guess I fancied drawing something cute and furry. I am really hankering after a pet rodent of some kind, so I suppose the desire manifested itself on paper rather than in my flat. This is probably a good thing as it costs less, smells less and takes up considerably less space and time. However, I still really want a pet. Damn my sensibleness (and yes, that is a word because the built-in spell checker didn't underline it in red. Hah!)

Oh and I almost forgot, I've been adding my portfolio and lot of new photos to my flickr page this week, so do pop along and have a look-see. See you at the next update this weekend. Keep well until then, and thanks for reading this (absurdly long) post!

A lovely gift and my retro kitchen

2010-02-21T18:11:00.005Z

As promised, a lovely desktop wallpaper by Jen, proudly displayed in my matching (genuine!) retro kitchen. They suit each other beautifully!

This post is a couple of days later than I would have liked, but this has been quite a busy week what with one thing and another. The most time consuming activity has been making my facebook fan page, since prepping, uploading and organising my image gallery took most of a day by itself. It's pretty much finished now, all that's left to do is get some discussions going and twiddle with a couple of other things. If you have the time then please have a look and leave some comments, positive or negative I always love to know what people think!

As mentioned last post, this is hardly the way I would choose to decorate a kitchen... but when you're renting, beggars cannot be choosers. Also, this flat was a lot more generously proportioned than a lot of places I viewed while flat-hunting. In truth, it's quite alarming what will even pass for a home in London, and the conditions some people are forced to live in. I bet the estate agents would rent a broom cupboard if the law let them.

The colour scheme is a tad *ahem* overwhelming but over time it's grown on me, and looks more cozy as various bits and pieces were moved in (like my windowsill ornaments, including a polarbear mug from Paper Owl (aka Isobel Blake). Anyhow, if you're going to do bad decor, why do the usual dull, drab magnolia? Going all-out awful is way much more fun. And after all, there is a point where something is just so bad... it is almost good!

Nobrow competition entry

2010-02-16T22:14:00.006Z

I've spent most of this week avoiding my laptop, and more specifically, avoiding the internet. The trouble with the internet is that everything is only one click away. You only need to click to be transported to another new page of interesting factoids that you can use as a valid excuse for procrastination. Twitter is the worst for providing distraction. Typically I have only just got stuck into what I'm doing and then, with a gentle pinging sound Vice UK tweets it's Do's and Don'ts of the day. Bye bye, rest of the morning. If there is anyone out there who can look at just one, you clearly have more willpower than me, because I can tell you, clicking that link is suicide for any work I intend to get done.

The reason for this isolation was that the entry deadline for the Nobrow flickr competition was only a scant week away, so I could ill afford the distractions of the internet if I wanted to submit my work on time. The brief for the competition was to create two images, one of a person I had never met, and another of a conversation I've never had. Rather than treat each image separately, I decided to have them as a kind of mini-narrative, where the viewer sees a little character (based upon the flower of the aptly named man-orchid, a native British plant that looks a lot like, you guessed it... a wee man) disappearing into the undergrowth, follows them, and finds themselves in a grove surrounded by the more of the beasties. I guess it's a bit like a Victorian fairy painting, except these 'faeries' are anthropomorphized flowers instead of creepy fat kids with wings.

Anyway, it's been entered, so all that's left now is to sit back and see how it does. After looking at the other submissions, I realised that my entry is a quite a lot different to most of the others. For one thing, it's one of perhaps a handful of black and white entries, and depicts an entire scene where most of the other entries are a lot more minimal. I am not sure yet whether this will work in my favour or not. It may be so different as to be refreshing, or it may be too different and not be at all what the people at Nobrow were looking for.

Either way, I am satisfied with the resulting pieces of work. It has been a long time since I have worked in this way, and it may be an avenue that I explore further. I think it would be nice to make work that is a little less 'flat' and minimalistic than my previous stuff, and now seems as good a time as any to really test the limits of what I can do. Let me know what you reckon of this direction, I would really appreciate hearing people's thoughts on the matter.

In other news, the lovely Jen Pringle very kindly sent a really beautiful Valentines wallpaper for my laptop, so many many thanks to her! I promised that I would provide pictures of it in-situ in my retro kitchen (not me having an ironic taste in home appliances, our landlord just hasn't ever redecorated it) but unfortunately I have run out of time for this evening. Another post to look forward to later in the week!

Many thanks for reading, until next time!

My inspiration wall

2010-02-05T20:01:00.003Z

As promised to Mr. Yen, I present my inspiration wall! Most of these business cards and post cards were picked up at degree shows last year so I decided to devote a little time to decorating my workspace with them (I know, ages ago but in the grand scheme of getting things sorted in a new flat, organising post cards comes near the bottom of the list.) Some of them are by my illustration buddies that I graduated with, and most of the rest I picked up at D&AD. There wasn't any particular criteria, I just chose stuff I liked or that I thought had interesting themes. I intend to keep checking on what people are up to, I'll be interested to see where everyone goes in the next few years. And I expect I'll drop in on the D&AD and other shows again this summer to add more to the collection.... the project continues.

Over and out!

Dreaming of spring...

2010-02-03T20:19:00.007Z

Lately it has gotten infinitesimally warmer in the British Isles (read: it isn't snowing) and the daylight hours are getting longer. If it isn't my imagination, I would even dare to say that a couple of days have been somewhat sunny, of late. All this gets me thinking about the oncoming of spring, one of my favourite times of the year. Winter is so bleak and depressing this side of Christmas, so I am greatly looking forward to seeing the first daffodils, snowdrops, tulips and crocuses coming up.

With all the promise of the outdoors my studio suddenly seemed small and stuffy, and London just too crowded. So I teamed up with fellow illustrator Jo Cheung to head out on a day trip to visit June (you guessed, another illustration buddy) in her home town of Kingston-upon-Thames for some quality together time. We had a really wonderful day, strolling around town and taking lots of pictures on the bank of the Thames. And June was even kind enough to take us to the beautiful little chocolate shop where she works so we could pinch all the free samples and have the most amazing hot chocolates ever known to mankind.

We rounded off the day in style with a meal out. We went to a beautiful little Thai restaurant in the nearby village of Cheam, which is owned and run by June's parents. I have only ever eaten Thai food in a resaturant once before so it was lovely to sample some really authentic Thai cuisine. Thanks guys for a fantastic day out!

In other news, you'll notice that I've changed the layout and look of this blog quite a bit. I have been working on the new banner on-and-off for the last week or so, and it took quite a bit of twiddling in the final stages to get it like it is currently. I'm satisfied with it for now, though it's probably only a matter of time before I get bored and change it again! At any rate, this will be 'the new look' of my online territories, so I'll be giving my website, flickr, etsy and twitter all a makeover soon (not to mention an update).

And in case you were wondering where the drawings have been in the last few posts, I would like to reassure you that yes, I am still doing lots of drawings (and even some painting last week, woo!) The pictures will be on here as soon as they have been scanned and cleaned, I'm aiming for late this week/early next week to have them up on here. Look forward to seeing you again then!

Emma x

New Year, new look!

2010-02-02T17:51:00.002Z

I decided that my blog and online stuff could do with a wee makeover, so I devoted a little time to making a new banner/logo and changing the layout of this blog. I think it looks rather better, though there are still things I'd like to twiddle with. Let me know what you think and if there are any things you reckon might improve it further.

Sorry about the short post, there will be a later one tomorrow afternoon so I can show you what I've been up to lately...

Ciao for now!

Do digital drawing tools improve our sketching skills?

2010-01-21T00:41:00.000Z

Just over a week ago, I read an interesting little post on Jen Pringle's blog about the Brushes app for the iphone, in which she expresses her reservations about the quality of images produced using this and similar programs (you can read the original post here.)

It got me thinking a lot, especially when she confessed to feeling like an 'aging technophobe'. It's certainly true that people who criticize technology often risk looking like backwards fogies who are perturbed by unfamiliar new developments. However, I think that Jen's post raises some valid (and important) concerns about artwork made using drawing programs. It got me thinking so much that what started out as a short reply suddenly turned into a small essay... and as the thing was practically typed already, I thought I would share it with you all and see what you thought!

Though I can certainly see the merit and convenience of having a digital sketchbook wherever you go, for me it will never have the same range of expression and mark-making as good old pencil and paper. It seems to me that digital drawing and painting eliminates the gesture and physicality of the artist or illustrator. For instance, the author of non-digital work can often be identified because the subtleties of their drawing style are recognised, ‘their hand’ is literally present in the piece. However, when you draw with (for example) the brush tool in illustrator, the quality of the line produced is the same for whoever is wielding it. That is not to say that such tools do not offer the artist choice, but that the choices that they represent are limited by the application's programming; a drawing made in real life presents literally limitless possibilities. Furthermore, over time, artists develop a relationship with their medium and thus have a unique way of using it. My concern is that this crucial relationship between artist and material may be lost if people resort to using these programs too much.

It would be easy for one to react by condemning all digital work as un-artistic, and eschew all but the purely handmade. But this would be a grave mistake, especially given that even ‘handmade’ images are often require digital manipulation at some point in their inception. Furthermore, there exist illustrators like Dave McKean, who seamlessly blends handmade drawings and digital imagery with stunning results. For me, this kind of work brings together the best of both worlds: beautiful hand drawn images with all the possibilities that software offers.

That does not mean that purely digital work is without merit, however, as the identity of the artist can be expressed through means other than medium. Certainly, other factors such as the content of the work and the ideas of the author are always important as expressions of identity. And as technology becomes more advanced and sensitive to human interaction, it seems only a matter of time until a drawing mat is developed that can respond in as many diverse manners as can paint and pencil. But one cannot deny that the traditional method of drawing is a useful and beneficial tool for all artists, even those that choose to make their work digitally. As for me, I will be sticking with my trusty sketchbook and pen for the time being.

If I've not totally bored you into giving up reading by this point then I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this post! I am really interested to see people's reactions and ideas about this, so let me know what you think. Take care folks and have a good night!

Return from the north!

2010-01-09T22:24:00.000Z

As promised, the fruits of my travels up in the frozen north! It was an amazing trip, if you've been enjoying snowy London then you'd love it here. The snow came up way past my ankles and with so much open space you could really appreciate its dramatic and magical effect. Also, my future-husband's parents own Jess, the cutest dog ever, who makes playing in the snow even more fun with her boundless enthusiasm.

It was a great time for taking lots of photos and doing sketches. This is my favourite, the view out over the fields at the bottom of the garden.

I also decided while I was there that I would make a little something for the cut click mail art exhibition. Hence the birth of this little chap, hiding in his envelope waiting to deliver the message in his beak. He's a continuation of the Christmas cards I made some time ago (remember those?) where the robin came to be used as an emblem of the postal service. Happily, the lovely people at cut click liked him so much they decided to include him the exhibition, which pleased me enormously.

Because I think it's important to know about what you are drawing, I did some observational studies of robins first (and I always find them fun to draw too, one of my favourite avian subjects!)

And last but not least, a small selection of photos from my travels. The snowy skyline is so dramatic with all the heavy clouds, and there were lots of sheep, horses and donkeys about to snap. You can see the full collection over at my recently created flickr page. Hope you've enjoyed my pictures, more to come soon!