Life: Updates

Hi everyone!

I haven't been posting much lately as my Final Major Project at Uni has been taking up most of my time, but I thought I'd stop by quickly to share a bit about what I've been up to.

These are a few snapshots of how my project is looking:

I've just completed page 1 and moved on to finish the rest of the pages (putting all the elements together, adding colour & texture etc). As you can see in the trees in the above images, its autumn in fairytale land on page one, but by page four the leaves will be bright pink and green and spring comes around. In my fairytale land, the seasons change from autumn, to winter, spring and summer all in one day.

I have lots of plans for updates to my shop and website once this project is over (think colouring books and paper dolls) and thats going to mean a little sale of some of my current stock. I'll be reducing the price of some items on Etsy, and selling some of my older stock and samples on Instagram and Facebook so look out for that at the beginning of June!

I did take a day off from my own work yesterday to help Jamie make a website for his TV & Film editing work. If you fancy taking a look, its jamiewebbeditor.com (made using moonfruit.com).

Hopefully I'll be back to regular posting soon, but in the mean time you can keep up with what I'm doing over on Instagram.

Snap snap: 26/04/14

My last 3 weeks in photos.

- Drawing tree-houses for the final book images

- Hansel & Gretel sketches

- More character drawings (there were over 200 in total!)

- Making patterns

- Preparing stock for a little craft fair

- Pretty flowers on my desk

- Designing logos for my CV

- All set up at the Vintage Parade in Winchester on Easter Sunday

- Made myself a Coffee Vanilla Frappe

- We visited my family for a couple of days. When she's not staring out the window, Beabea likes to watch the television

- <3

- A little walk around Leybourne Lakes with Jamie, Mum, Dad and Beabea.

In my sketchbook: 10/04/14

I've spent the majority of the past week working on all the illustrations of the characters for my final book. There are 12 double-pages in the book, and around 25 characters that all appear in each image, so that equals a LOT of characters illustrations! Its been a long few days and my brain and hand need a bit of rest today, but I've got them all done and I'm now ready to start putting everything together and working with colour, which is the part I've been looking forward to.

Here's a little snippet of what I've been drawing:

To see more head over to my other blog, documenting the entire process of my project.

4 Etsy shops I'm loving right now...

I'm back again this week another 4 lovely Etsy shops to share with you!

1Canoe2

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1Canoe2 is a great shop selling letterpress cards, prints and other stationery items. Amongst their huge range of products, they've got some great art prints featuring some lovely inspirational quotes such as "I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship". Inspired by the owners' rural lives, all of their items have a lovely natural feel, and I love the loose lettering that they use in their designs. 

Appa Loosa

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Run by artist Emma Louthan, Appa Loosa sells some lovely fun and bright stationery items such as cards, prints and the odd comic book. There's a strong colour scheme in this shop of corals, turquoise and navy blue, which all work beautifully together with her pretty illustrations.

Emily Taylor

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I discovered Emily Taylor's work through her Instagram account where she shares work in progress shots of her beautiful patterns illustrations. I spent quite a while looking through her feed and getting really inspired by all the close-up shots of the hand-painted line work and patterns details in her illustrations. In her Etsy shop she sells a lovely range of products featuring her artwork, including a great Wallflower Girls colouring book.

Pai & Pear

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I really struggled to pick just 4 items form this shop, as there's such a wide range of beautifully illustrated goods available. Isabel Reyes Feeney has put her colourful illustrations onto all sorts of products such as brooches, stickers, cushions, postcards and zines. I love the pretty pastel colours she uses in her work and the cute animal characters such as that reading fox. Definitely go and have a browse through the pages of Isabel's shop as there's a whole lot more to see.

Snap Snap: 04/04/14

Today's instalment of "Snap snap" covers the last 2 weeks, as my uni work has been pretty much taking over everything so I haven't had a whole lot to photograph!

I did have a lovely day last sunday though when mum, dad and Beabea came for a visit for mother's day:

- This is probably my new favourite picture of me and beabea.

- There are so many pretty flowers in the park at the moment

- I made a few little cakes for Mother's day, including mum's favourite: lemon drizzle.

- Beabea had fun on her walk in the park.

Apart from that though I've mainly been working hard on my uni project, drawing lots of buildings, birds and trees at the moment. I'm getting to the point now where I'm starting to see more of a finished thing, and today I'm making a start on the final images of the characters.

- Doodling butterflies

- Drawing all the cross-sections of the castle

- I used my Granddad's old Dymo label maker to get all my sketchbooks organised (there's a lot of them for this project!)

- My desk during the castle drawing part of the project.