Better late than never!

Recently I've been working on my portfolio and trying to show a good spread of skills so I figured it was about time I learn to use Illustrator properly. I thought I best start out by familiarising myself with the basics. Here's a quick peek at a work in progress...

That's right, moles like ice cream too!

Just a little illustration I did last night...

Christmas wrapping paper!

This evening I decided to make use of the packaging paper that came with my recent online Christmas orders as well as the alphabet stamps I made years ago, in particular the 'v' and 'o'. I've been busy printing some wrapping paper...

Drawstring bags

Since losing my little studio space I haven't done much screen printing at all but hopefully that is going to change! This evening I did some screen printing at home and managed to keep our furniture ink free! I've been busy printing some little drawstring bags which are looking pretty cute. It's good to know I can print from home so I can make a resolution for the new year to be a more productive printer!

Latest commission...

I was recently asked if I could do an illustration inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It was really nice to do because the brief was very loose and, as long as the illustration included Alice, I could take any aspects of the book I fancied! Here's the finished piece...

New York

So it's been a little while since I got back from New York. Things were a bit hectic at work trying to catch up with everything so I didn't have much of a chance to just sit down, catch my breath back and write a post.

New York was incredible, the view from the Empire State Building, seeing the skyline at night, dog spotting in Central Park, in fact I want to go back again already!

I got to see some awesome classic paintings that blow you away when you see them for real. Colours vary so much from print to print that you never really know the real colours of a painting until you actually see the real deal, it can make such a difference!

Here are a few of my MOMA sketches...

While we were there we also visited The Sketchbook Project. It's the genius idea of having a library of sketchbooks and the best bit is ANYONE can take part. You buy your sketchbook which comes with it's own barcode, fill it up, post it back and it becomes part of the library. I can't wait to get cracking on mine!

Autumn Moon Festival

The Autumn Moon Festival finally came around so after all the organisation we finally got to party together. Paul certainly pulled it off with a lot of help from his dedicated and hard working family, particularly Josie. We had such a good time, especially on the Saturday night when Gentlemen Duke and The Cajun Dawgs played awesome sets. Jen's jive workshop and the puppet show went down a treat too! The whole weekend had such a friendly atmosphere it was so lovely, we have to do it again! And it was so awesome to see the logo I designed all over the place, even on the cupcakes! The hoodies sold really well and they were so useful in the evenings when the temperature started to drop! Here are a few pictures of my wolf around the festival...