Exercise books

Some exercise books I made recently. These will be put in packs along with other stationery items.
Two of the books are just plain paper and the other two are lined.

RAWR!

Some pencil toppers I've just made out of modelling clay! Left to right, J.R, Reg and Merle. Really fun to make but very fiddly. These will be included in some stationery packs I'm putting together.

Colouring Book!

Colouring Book I've just made. Makes a handy tent for my handmade Munkey plush. Out of 34 photos, this was the best one. I do not have a steady hand :/

A Lion, a tiger no bears! Oh my!

Without lines

Wanted to see what the animals looked like without an outline as that's how they'll probably be on the walls. They'll probably end up a bit different to this plan anyway as I'm assuming the room has a window and a door so I need to allow for those!

A few ideas

An idea of how some of the walls of my wall mural commission may look.

Some goodies!

Some goodies that may or may not be involved in this 'stall business' :)

What you see are some rubber coasters, some magnets and a round plastic coaster. I'm also going to be selling various keyrings, some bigger magnets, my activity book, a colouring book, some stationery items and some paintings!

On a different note, a wonderful artist called Sarah Coggrave is giving away free stuff over on her blog, check it out here!

Exciting news!

It would seem that the possibilty of getting a stall seems to actually be happening! This is exciting and makes me nervous all at the same time! It's something I've never done before and something that terrifies me. What if I don't sell anything? What if people just aren't interested? And the self doubt creeps in......

Look what I made!

This is my first ever attempt at a plush toy. I also haven't done any sewing since school which was many years ago. He's a little lopsided but he has character. I wanted to basically do a test one so he's only about 4 and a half inches tall. He's filled with some really nice stuffing so he feels 'spongey'. Even though he's not perfect it was still a fun little project.

Hmm...

It would appear that my website is popular in Russia! Either that or it's a lot of robots lurking around the internet.

On a different note, I've purchased a few things to sell on my online shop. Some more keyrings, bigger keyrings, some coasters and some magnets! Looking forward to seeing how the magnets turn out. There is also the possibility of acquiring a stall for a day and selling some of my stuff. Haven't heard anything back just yet but I'm excited about reaching more people. Which is why I'm racking my brain trying to think of things people would like to buy! I'm even going to have a go at making some simple plush toys......I'll post updates of how that turns out!

The Green Bean

Lately I've been swamped with work, this is a good thing of course but it's not always this way. There has been many times I've lacked motivation and inspiration and it's times like those I turn to the internet. Many Illustrators inspire me, some more than others. One person in particular who I only found very recently is Katie Bean.
After looking through her website and blog, also stalking her work on her Facebook page and Twitter.
I came across her zine - The Green Bean, to be really honest I bought the first issue because I love her illustrations.

I didn't actually think that what seemed to be in it would interest me in the slightest. Let me tell you now I was completely wrong.


The zine is made in such a way that I found myself wanting to make the stripy bunny or have a go at the recipe for chocolate pots! And as I'm generally quite a nosy person, it was such a delight to read about what Katie got up to, what she wore to what she reads. I love the whole look of the zine and as the whole thing is hand drawn you can see how much time, effort and most of all talent as gone into creating each issue. Again because I'm nosy I began to read past posts on her blog (stuff I've missed) and I came across a section called 'how I got here' and after reading it my reaction was 'wow'. As well as being inspired by other artists it also makes me look at my own work and doubt myself a little. Then I strive to improve! I look at illustrators like Katie and I think to myself, someone with so much talent surely never doubts themselves in any way. But after reading about how Katie got to where she is now, it goes to show that this is never the case. Now I won't feel so bad and maybe not doubt myself as much! I pretty much thought I was the only person that did that. And that anyone with real talent never doubted themselves!

It also has inspired me to have a go at producing a zine of my own with help from a friend. Although I don't believe for one moment it will ever compare to The Green Bean. I'm now eagerly awaiting for the second issue to arrive in the post!

Final wall mural characters (I think!)

This is how the final characters are going to look. You'll notice that the elephant and monkeys look different from the other re-design. I'm a lot happier with how they look. I actually like quite a few of the animals! I wanted to make the animals be doing something as most wall mural characters are just really static. Enjoy!

Activity Books for sale!

I'm finally selling the Activity Book on my online shop! Go take a look here!

Character re-design

So although my first characters were liked I was asked to produce something that could basically be on the walls until the child is 5. So I decided that meant something more grown up and less cute, baby nursery.

So here are the new characters a bit more grown up looking, they are more detailed than the first characters I did but are still quite simple. The background is just as flat and simple as the reference images I was shown.

I'm trying not to be like 'ARGH, it's so flat and simple'. But if you imagine this on a wall and the whole room done in a similar style....