In my Sketchbook: 30/09/15

Its been another busy few weeks filled with lots of drawing in my sketchbooks.

I've worked on new products for the shop (new notebooks and prints will be added in the next couple of weeks!), Illustration Friday and my Fjord inspired series. (I've also been drawing a few Christmas related things but I'll save those for next time)

You can keep up with my sketchbook work by following me on social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) and following the Instagram hashtag #emmamargaretsketch.

Crafty Fox Markets

Just a little heads up that this Sunday (4th October) I'll be selling at Crafty fox Market in the Dogstar, Brixton from 11am til 5pm.

I'll be launching a new range of notebooks and art prints, as well as my existing cards, colouring books, postcards and badge. And some items will be on special offer too!

And I'll be back at Crafty Fox Markets again on October 11th at the Bussey Building in Peckham!

Postcards from Norway

I've been mentioning this for ages, but today I'm finally sharing the series of illustrations inspired by my trip to Norway!

The series has ended up containing more illustrations than I originally thought, as I had so many wonderful photos to work from! And of course they involve lots of mountains, trees, waterfalls and wooden huts! I've also stuck to a colour palette throughout these illustrations to make sure they work as a series.

These illustrations are all based on my own photographs from Stavanger, Skjolden, Geiranger and Bergen.

I've really enjoyed drawing these and could have carried on going for ages (which is still a possibility, I still have plenty of photos to draw from!)

This has also inspired me to try and do something similar every time I go on holiday. I'm headed to Belgium and Germany at New Year, and on a cruise to the Baltics next summer, so I'll be making sure I take plenty of photos again in order to produce more illustrations inspired by my travels.

Illustration Friday: Mermaid

This week's Illustration Friday topic was 'Mermaid'.

I struggled to come up with a way of relating this to a fairytale, other than the obvious connections to The Little Mermaid. So I decided to do something quite simple this week, focusing on the colours and patterns in the work rather than relating it directly to a fairytale.

I haven't worked with an underwater theme before so this one was quite different for me.

Custom Illustrations

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the lovely Estelle from estellosaurus.com to ask me if I'm available for custom work. Of course my answer was yes!

Estelle wanted a portrait of her and her husband, as well as an illustration of her five cats.

We discussed a few ideas and Estelle sent me some reference photos, and we decided on a portrait in front of a lighthouse/seascape scene, and the cats sat in their favourite place - on the bookshelf. We also included a few personal details such as Estelle's tattoos and the coffee cup.

I've now added an option for custom illustrations to my Etsy shop.

I can do portraits, pet portraits, house portraits, or anything else you might have an idea for! All illustrations will be made completely personal to you based on your ideas and reference photos, and final images will be provided as PDFs for you to print as you wish.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything before purchasing then get in touch at info@emmamargaretillustration.co.uk

New Illustration: Enchanted Forest

I've been catching up with Once Upon a Time while I'm working this week, which inspired me (along with my general love for anything fairytale related) to illustrate an 'Enchanted Forest'.

Imagine a swarm of fairies hiding amongst the leaves and big bad wolf hiding behind the trees...

Wise Words: Eat, Sleep, Create, Repeat

Earlier in the week I drew a pot of drawing tools in my sketchbook, and it seemed to go down quite well on Instagram so I decided to use a similar idea in a new wise words illustration for all creative types.

"Eat, Sleep, Create, Repeat"

I'm looking in to getting some new prints done soon in time for craft fairs, and I'll definitely be including this one in my selection! (Any suggestions for which other illustrations I should get printed would be appreciated!)

Illustration Friday: Villain

I actually had quite a few ideas for this week's Illustration Friday prompt, 'Villain'. Any good fairytale always involves a villain so there were plenty to choose from! I picked the witch from Hansel and Gretel, as I've wanted to use that story in one of my illustrations for a while but hadn't had the opportunity. 

I've illustrated Hansel and Gretel peering through the window of the gingerbread house (of course complete with one of my favourite sweets, snowies, and my favourite biscuits, chocolate bourbons!) to see the witch cooking up a spell in her cauldron.

I've got plenty of new work to share over the next few weeks as well as another look inside my sketchbook pages very soon.

And of course I'll be back next week with another Illustration Friday piece to show you.

New Illustration: Midnight Mountains

Mountains have featured in a few of my illustrations of the last couple of months, especially now that I'm working on some illustrations inspired by the Fjords!

They're back again today in this night-time scene of a moonlit forest and mountain-scape. I've been using a lot of pinks and greens in my work lately so I've given this one quite a different colour palette to make a change.

I've also included a few close-ups to show some more details.

This illustration is available to buy on a few products in my Art Rookie store.

I'm also looking into getting some art prints done for my Etsy shop in the next few weeks so this may be available on there soon too!

New Illustrations: Flora

 A little while ago I shared an illustration of some flowers from a photo taken on my recent trip to Norway. I really enjoyed creating that illustration so I thought I'd make a few more. These ones aren't inspired by photos form the trip, they're just drawn from imagination.

I've used the same simple colour palette in all three so that they work together as a collection.

I'll be adding these to my Art Rookie store next week.

Snap snap: 11/09/15

The last few weeks in photos.

- New postcards in the shop.

- I'm (very slowly) putting together an illustration inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Its taken a bit of  a back seat at the moment as lots of other things have come up, but I still plan on finishing it soon.

- The bake off is back on TV which means I'm constantly tempted to get baking! I did give in on biscuit week and made some gingerbread biscuits (with sprinkles, of course)

- Being a huge fan of anything unicorn related I clearly couldn't resist the new range at Paperchase and had to treat myself to a diary and some stickers!

- I went on a fantastic trip to Norway last month and have been using my photos as inspiration for a new series of drawings.

- I spent a couple of evenings reading through my favourite Illustration books looking for inspiration.

- The Positive Thoughts colouring books have been really popular the last few weeks! They've now sold out for the second time and are back on pre-order in the shop.

- I'm also working on a range of notebooks and have been trying to decide which of my postcard designs to use on the covers.

In my sketchbook: 10/09/15

Lately my sketchbooks have been filled with scenery and landscapes for a variety of projects (mainly illustrations inspired by the Fjords)

Some of these have already become illustrations which I've shared here on the blog, others will be ready to share very soon.

I've been feeling a bit unwell this week and trying to juggle quite a few projects so I'm missing out on Illustration Friday this time. But I hope to get back on track with it next week.

New Illustration: Sleepy Cats

I have another new illustration to share today.

This idea started as just a cat sitting on an armchair. However during the process I ended up with a page full of sleepy cats in my sketchbook, so I decided to include them all and grew the image to be more of a living room scene. 

I've got quite a few more new illustrations to share with you over the next few weeks, and I'm also working on a few private commissions. As always I'll be sharing some little sneak peeks of everything I'm working on over on instagram (@emmamargaretillustration)

(PS. if you are on Instagram, don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a selection of products from my shop!)

Illustration Friday: Work

I'm nearly back on track after my holiday! I came back to a little flurry of orders in my Etsy shop which has taken up a bit of my time this week, but I'm slowly getting on top of things now.

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is 'Work'. I was a bit stuck with this one to begin with, as work isn't something thats mentioned much in fairytales! The two ideas I cam up with were the seven dwarfs and "whistle while you work" from Disney's version of Snow White, and the woodsman chopping up trees in Little Red Riding Hood.

I went with the Little Red Riding Hood idea but including a little bird with musical notes as a nod to the "whistle while you work" idea.