Stargazer

I've been working on lots of new illustrations this week, and today I have a completed one to share with you.

The idea for this one came from lots of places. I've been trying to include more people and portraits and my work, and I've seen lots of lovely illustrations of constellations lately and wanted to include some in my own work. And of course I'm always a fan of having trees and forests in my illustrations.

I'm also trying to experiment with my work a little bit, using white lines and coloured shapes in the sky part of the image rather than just the brown outline I normally use. I love how this has turned out so I'll be using it in some future illustrations too.

Here's a few images from sketchbook showing all 4 layers of this illustration:

Look out for a new series of 3 'Flower Girl' illustrations coming next week!

Ginnie the Giraffe

Last week I shared an illustration of Priscilla the Peacock, and mentioned I'd probably be creating a new series of animal portraits in the same style.

Of course it wouldn't be right not to include my favourite animal in that series, so here's Ginnie the Giraffe!

Next up will be a bear, and a deer. Any other animals you;d like to see from me?

#the100dayproject Catch Up

I'm now over a month in to #the100dayproject so I thought it was about time I shared an update here on the blog.

So far I've stuck to it pretty well, and only been one day late on two occasions! I've been trying to create a variety of characters both human and animal (and a few that don't fall into either of those categories too!), either completely made up or taken from classic stories and fairytales.

Here's 12 of my favourites from the project so far:

 In 2 weeks time I'm going away on holiday so I'll be pausing the project at day 46 and continuing once I return on June 19th.

To keep up with the project you can follow the hashtag #emi100characters over on Instagram.

The Boy and the Wolves

Its been quite a few weeks since I illustrated one of the stories from my Fairytales from around the World book! Today I've created an illustration for The Boy and the Wolves. This is a pretty short and not too cheery tale of a boy who is abandoned by his siblings after his father's death, left to live in the woods and slowly turns into a wolf as a result! ( I did say it wasn't very cheery!)

So I've illustrated the boy becoming a wolf and becoming a part of the forests surrounding him:

I've got a few more fairytale illustrations lined up so hopefully it won't be as long this time until the next one!

Queen of Hearts

For day 24 of #the100dayproject I illustrated a character design for the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.

Rather than leave her in my sketchbook I thought I'd scan her in, give her some colour, and turn her in to a playing card design!

You can keep up to date with the project over on Instagram with the tag #emi100characters

And see another character I developed in to a finished illustration here.

Priscilla the Peacock

Last week I hit a bit of a creative block between projects and couldn't decide what to do next. So I decided to just draw the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be a peacock!

I'd been really pleased with the how the character design for my A Little Princess series had worked out, with the faint pattern in the background instead of just white. So I've used a similar style here and I love how its turned out.

I think I'll be using this style to create a new series of animal portraits (this might possibly tie in with my #the100dayproject drawings too) so look out for those soon!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

As one of the images for my #the100dayproject I recently drew an illustration of Rapunzel. Its one of my favourites from the project so far so I thought I'd scan her in and add a few extra details and give her some colour.

If the rest of this project goes well I'm thinking of adding colour to more of the drawings and possibly even turning them into a zine (which I'm also still considering for the language of flowers series)

You can follow along with this project by following the hashtag #emi100characters on Instagram.

Over & over: Wedding Florals

Its been a while since I created a new repeat pattern design, so this week I've designed done inspired by upcoming wedding!

I've used the colour palette and floral motifs that have featured on my wedding stationery so far (Bridesmaid cards and Save the Dates, below). Although I made the colours a little lighter as the pattern is quite busy and it was looking a little dark.

I've got big plans for the rest of the wedding stationery too, including invitations, a map of the venue, order of the day, table plans and menus, and lots more! The venue also has some display cabinets in the room we're getting married in, and I'm going to be creating some illustrations to go in those too (and then I hope to put them up on our walls when we buy a house!) so expect a few posts about those in the next few months.

Wise Words: Khal Drogo

I've mentioned a couple of times over on Instagram that we recently started watching Game of Thrones (and have been frantically trying to catch up for the new season!)

Now we're all caught up I'm planning on creating a series of illustrations of all the castles and kingdoms (I didn't want to see any spoilers searching for reference images so I've been waiting until we're all up to date!)

But in the mean time, I thought I'd create an illustration inspired a quote from Khal Drogo:

"You are the moon of my life. That is all I know and all I need to know. And if this is a dream I will kill the man that tries to wake me."

(I love how romantic this is and yet still manages to mention how easily he could kill someone if he wanted to!)

I created two slightly different versions, one in full colour and one as a silhouette style, and I'm not sure which I prefer so I'm sharing both with you!

Which do you prefer?

Do you watch Game of Thrones?

The Language of Flowers

Well over a year ago I read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and have been planning a series of illustrations inspired by it ever since. A few months ago I finally got around to starting the drawings and I've slowly been making progress between other projects. This week I finally finished them!

The series consists of 9 illustrations based on the meanings of various flowers (taken from Victoria's Dictionary of Flowers at the back of the book). Here they all are:

Queen Anne's Lace - Fantasy

Acacia, Dogwood, Fuchsia, Linden Tree, Myrtle, Pinks, Red Rose - Love

Red Rose, Saxifraga - Love & Affection

Angelica, Lupine - Imagination & Inspiration

Stephanotis - Happiness in Marriage

(Featuring our engagement rings. I'm thinking of using this one somehow in the wedding decor)

Primrose - Childhood

Freesia - Everlasting Friendship

Pear Blossom - Comfort

Agapanthus - Love Letter

I may add a few of these as prints to my Etsy shop soon, or possibly turn them into a little zine.

What do you think?

Heidi

These illustrations have taken a little longer than I hoped due to a few issues with my computer last week. But thats all sorted now and the Heidi inspired series in now finished.

I've created a set of six illustrations, including 2 book cover designs, all inspired by the scenery and characters in the story of Heidi:

Next up on my list of illustrations to finish off is The Language of Flowers series. Hopefully I'll get those finished and share them here some time next week.