The Big One!

Big News Today!!

I'm now selling on Etsy!!




It's been a long time coming with a lot of hard work and hurdles to jump but I am so happy to say that I have finally got there!
I'm on a slight buzz from this now as it's not something I expected to manage so early on this year. I'm feeling very very overwhelmed and exhausted from the sheer amount of work and heart I've put in to all of this.

I've also been working super hard creating a rat behaviour zine. It's in no way serious but a little fun book on the wacky behaviour of our awesome little ratty friends! These include the pancake and the ratty bounce! To be fair, anything rats do is utterly adorable!

Below are the finished sketches for the zine!

I've been planning this zine for a long time now but it's always been put on hold due to random other projects that get in the way. It has been wonderful using my pencils and paper again rather than just making paperwork and boring forms to fill in. I've gone back to the reason I started this in the first place.

So I'm now very busy and... a little bit overwhelmed but also so excited at the same time as I'm another step closer! 

Thanks to everyone who has supported me on this journey! The best is yet to come!

100!!

Wow, this will be my 100th post on here! What a great way to start 2016 off! I have taken to calling this year the Big Bang year as I plan to create lots of fireworks!

I'm not quite back to work just yet, insomnia/rough night mixed with a very stressful thing to do today has left me feeling like I should actually keep things nice, steady and chill today so instead of throwing myself in to things... I'm spending the morning plotting what's going to happen this year! Or more to the point this month and this week.
I'm actually feeling fairly excited about it... Even the self employment paperwork :P

The big thing this month is finally getting my etsy shop up and running. I've been trying to get this to happen for so long now that it's become one of those annoying challenges. It feels like I keep hitting a mental block with it all but now it's all or nothing.
The worst/best thing right now is how many ideas I have buzzing around my mind, designs, products, projects you name it!
I have one idea that's quite huge, it was extremely intimidating and I was unsure whether I should put so much in to what I guess could be classed as a gamble but after talking to my OH about it he motivated me to just go for it. Hearing someone say you should do it can make all the difference to how you feel so now I really do have a huge project happening.
I have absolutely no idea how long it's going to take me either! But I will be keeping quiet until it actually starts happening or I'll burn out all of my motivation talking about it.

I'm also hoping to attend some art fairs this year if I'm lucky. It seems fairly tough to get in to some places and you have to impress before being accepted so that could be interesting.

There's also the joint project with my OH featuring our fur babies... It will now be a kind of tribute as our ratty people have sadly now passed on but we will never forget our mischiefs and so the mischief book/zine will be born! Basically a fun little book about pet rats and the mischief they cause!

I will also still be taking pet commissions! I'm hoping to expand on this over the course of this year as I really enjoyed working on the commissions I got during 2015. It's always fun drawing people's pets and I love working with the ink and watercolour medium I use.

I must also get organised this year, one of the biggest lessons I learnt in 2015 was how unorganised I am and how much stress that can cause when it comes to work. Commissions were always fine and any work for other people was done on time but when it came to the festive season I left it too late and ended up spending a lot of November and December stressed beyond belief.
So 2016 will also be the year where I don't leave things until the last mintute... Maybe ;)

So it's going to be a big year! Also expect my Redbubble to be updated more often this year, another outlet I need to keep organised. It's slightly daunting to see everything I've plotted but at the same time it's wonderfully invigorating. It's always good to have things planned out so perfectly that you know exactly what needs to be done and when. Being self employed/freelance can make that side of things difficult as you never really know what's coming next so actually having this is like having stable ground to walk on for the first time in months.

So hello 2016! The year of big things and sparkles! Adventures and fun! Of taking chances and being spontaneous! I tend to think way too much about things and plan them out perfectly and sure that does work but sometimes it can also be a disaster when it doesn't go how you plan and you have to wing it. I don't want to over think things this year. It's going to be a very big adventure indeed!

I wish you all a fantastic 2016 and hope the first Monday of the year isn't too horrific.

Early Festivities!

Well Autumn has finally arrived, it's now the time of year for jumpers, hot chocolate, snuggly winter boots, cosy evenings and in my case, motivation time.
With the colder darker days my motivation grows and I get millions of ideas and unlike most of the year I actually create them!

Tonight I uploaded designs to redbubble. These included a few festive designs that are originally designed as Christmas cards. So if you're looking for some festive greetings go here!

These are designs I created and used myself last year and decided to share them this year along with more designs that are currently in the making.
I've also added some non festive illustrations including a cat and Spike the adorable hedgehog!

The to do list as usual is ever growing and I have some secret projects I can't show which is actually annoying me because I'm super excited over them.

Although next on the list I will be bringing my finches to life and they will become some cute badges that should be available soon!

As always commissions are open and originals are available, leave a comment if you're interested and I will get back to you!

Catching up.

I've had this arm length to do list for a few months now... all I seemed to be doing was adding to it and this week I've finally managed to tackle it.

My bird nerd self has also been released on the world once more and they have taken over my creative life. Firstly I've been desperately trying to develop a looser style to doodle ideas with. I tend to work fast but with a lot of detail, at times this can end with what looks extremely scruffy. Of course doodles are scruffy but I wanted it to feel better and not leave me cringing every time I flicked through a sketch book. This is what happened.

A chat with my OH lead to the idea of taken a traditional scene of a blue tit on a milk bottle and replacing the bottle with a coke bottle. It was very quick and not perfect and... glass bottles are not a simple task! But I'm really pleased with the style I managed and have been keeping the feel throughout my work this week.

I also got captured by finches (one of my favourite types of bird!) It all started with the idea of making a repeat pattern involving colourful finches... that then started me off drawing many many finches... I'm now creating a flock of over 30 finches!

The first image shows the draft idea sketches I made, they ended up working so well I've had lots of trouble recreating them!

The finches featured include the zebra finch, owl finch, gouldian finch, bullfinch, goldfinch, star finch, java finch and strawberry finch, in case anyone was interested and nerdy like myself!

This is where things got tricky... I started transferring designs to watercolour paper to try painting them... I really didn't like how they were turning out and got quite grumpy at them for not following in the footsteps of there predecessors :P
So instead I got out my bristol board and began making more lineart for more finches, this time I plan to colour them with coloured pencil like the original idea.

As you can see here I have around 20 finches to colour! And the added flying rat with balloons... you know, because who wouldn't?

It's been an extremely hectic week with lots of the boring paperwork involved but I've also managed to get two new designs up on redbubble!!

First design is a remake of my British garden birds, I took a lot of time arranging them so they would work as a repeat design and I'm really happy with the finished design and love how it looks on all the products, this is just one of them.

You can get this design here!

The second design is something I've been playing with for a while now but I kept making them too detailed so today I decided to sit down and simplify the design and this is what happened, the moment I added the lovely purple the design came alive! Here is just one product showing the design, it's definitely a favourite of mine now.

You can get your paws on this design here!

My redbubble store gets updated monthly so please check out my designs here

To keep up to date on my creative endeavors or just the crazy life I lead check out my instagram, link to the right --->

COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN CONTACT ME HERE

ALL MY DESIGNS ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE THROUGH MY REDBUBBLE SHOP

Thanks for reading and for the wonderful support I recieve! I'm now off on a well needed holiday for a week (I'm still available to contact)

So have a wonderful end to your August and may the birds sing loudly for you!

BYE!!

To whom it may concern.

I have been inundated with troll messages through my contact page over on my website. They started out vaguely innocent but have recently become quite vile.

I just find it amazing how people can get so grumpy and full of hate over nothing.

Or from the messages I got if you ignore the absolutely disgusting language it all boils down to jealousy.

I'm not going to go in to my opinions on that subject although I will say being jealous is only going to make you feel like shit, it's not going to affect anyone else. Is it truly worth it in the end? Honestly?

I just want to make it clear that I personally don't care what is said to me because I am happy and I am content with what I do and who I am. If you want to be jealous and down right rude... go ahead, I delete these emails the moment I get them.
Do I dwell on them... Nope.
Are they going to stop me from smiling? Nope.
Are they going to stop me from being an artist? Hell no!

I have been bullied and resented most of my life, it means absolutely nothing to me. I just want to explain what a waste of time it is and let anyone else who suffers this way know that they're not alone and that you don't need to listen to anything that's typed or yelled at you.
The people who throw around hate and grump aren't worth it, they're only out to make people as miserable as themselves so just let them be.

A tiger doesn't lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.

I can't express how much I love that saying.

So continue to be vile and disgusting, continue to be jealous and bratty, do whatever makes you feel better but just know now that I will still be happy, I will still be kind, I will still be talented and I will still be loved up and in love with my little world.

Remember be yourself, be happy with who you are and what you do, surround yourself with positive people who raise you up and just have fun and don't be afraid to enjoy it and tell people you're happy. Too many people are quick to scream about being miserable, scream about how happy you are!

Live your life and don't let little voices ruin you.

Be yourself and own it! 

And to the jealous grumps... maybe you should try and focus on your own happy instead of being jealous of what someone else has.

Mega Post

Well I haven't posted for a while and a lot has been created so as I was deciding what to include here the list grew longer and longer so I thought I'd just throw it all together. It's going to be a long post but there are lots of pictures, that makes it much more fun than just words! 

If you follow my instagram (link to the right!) You may have seen many of these, if not but you want to keep up with my creatings instagram is my most up to date social media so go check it out!

A while ago I decided that I wanted to have a go at lino printing. Something I'd never actually done myself but seen other people doing it over the years and every time I'd want to give it a go. So I bought myself a starter kit and got cutting. This was actually done on the small test piece of soft lino and came out quite good. I like my little Felix rat.

Lino cutting is something that takes a lot of thought, you not only have to cut out a negative design but you also have to do a mirror image of what you want as the final design. I can definitely recommend it though as it was lots of fun and I hope to spend some time working on more, larger designs soon.

Most of the time though I have been stuck with my normal medium of... watercolours. I'm still addicted and can't really see that changing any time soon!

This included animals I've never drawn before (the raccoon) ratty designs and a velociraptor all of which were lots of fun!

I feel like my brain is torn in two with the two styles I've currently adopted, I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing right now but it's giving me a huge portfolio to work with, something I can't complain about at all. I'm also seeing my work improve lately, I'm not only experimenting more but I'm also being more fluid with my brush strokes.

The ratty designs are also available to buy from my Redbubble shop (link at top of page)

I also tried to play with a silhouette. Of course the galaxy theme had to return for such a thing, I could call this Corvus 2. Silhouettes are not as easy as they seem and keeping a nice crisp line with watercolours can be fun... either that or I'm just too much of a fidget... that wouldn't really surprise me seeing as my workplace lately has been my bed leaning over the paper, wet brush in hand ready to cause chaos. I enjoy working on the crow and he currently sits beside my desk so I like him enough to leave him on show but not sure if it's a style I want to play more with... I prefer to draw eyes...

And then for something completely different... a T-rex skull... on black paper. This was actually a quick sketch whilst I was waiting for my OH to turn up so I didn't spend too much time on it and the effort was lacking as my mind was on other things but it was interesting. I don't think I'd ever appreciated all the holes and textures in skulls before now so that was fun to study for a bit. 

I'm still working on my dinosaur related project so there will be lots more studies like this happening over the next few months... hopefully if I can spare the time!

And then the watercolours returned and the bird nerd got excited. This all happened this week, starting with a list of birds I wanted to paint, I got through half the list because I got so excited.

I doubt I'll ever be able to explain my love of birds and of painting them... it's strange but they are just a delight to look at or interact with.

So as you can imagine, I had a lot of fun working on these! First is the Moorhen with her chicks which I like to call bumble bees, they are ridiculously tiny!!

I also started a quail and a background for another image I had planned which I'm not posting here.

The Californian Quail, now affectionately known as Mr Quail was tough, I was also suffering from a nasty headache that lasted 24 hours so had fun concentrating on him as you can imagine. I know he's not perfect but I have a soft spot for him already. His face and head plumage was fun to work on, I probably spent a good 3 hours on that area to get him how I wanted.

And then today I got challenged to work on Rainbow Lorikeets. These are Australian parrots that wreak havoc but are absolutely awesome. It's also the first time I've used watercolours to paint leaves and flowers... I struggled and it shows which just means I need to practice lots!

I'm very happy with them though and they complete my week of birds. 

The first image is the final piece, the second shows the progress shots I took on the journey through.

A lot of people get the impression that I can just draw the final image instantly like waving a magic wand, this isn't so as the picture shows, my work goes through many stages, some ugly stages before it reaches the end.

The trick to art like anything is to keep going!

So that ends the mega post of creativity... I'm hoping to be a bit more active again. I hit a wall when I failed to hit targets and deadlines and having a few things fall through knocked my confidence, that along with other experiences knocked me for six and I needed a break. I've had that and am now back in business and taking on the world in my usual eccentric ways ;)

If you managed to get through all of this well done, you deserve a cookie! ;) Thanks for reading!

On a final note we got a new housemate for the week whilst her dad is away on holiday. She's a leopard gecko and is quite stunning with her gorgeous markings and those stunning cunning eyes... the mealworms don't stand a chance!

She also has the best reptilian smile I've ever seen :)

Have a Great Day :)

COMMISSIONS - OPEN

Originals of the featured work available, leave a comment if interested.

The rambling post

I am in a good mood. I am in a slightly hyper mood. I just had a very unexpected awesome weekend. It has left me giggly and silly.
I like feeling giggly and silly, it gives you a feeling of joy and fun like nothing else.

The addition of my first coffee in three months has helped too... lots of giggles!!

So this post is more words than pictures.
I've been keeping so much stuff quiet lately and finally I feel able to speak as it's rolling on and ready!

I have mentioned taking a big step forward with my work recently with the Etsy store and now I can confidently announce that I will be running a store by the 26th of June!!
Yes. This coming Friday!
Can you guess how excited I am?? Or maybe that's still the happy/coffee buzz...
So I now have a week of final preparations and finally I can go live! This is a huge step and I'm so so excited to be in this position right now. It's been just over a year since I started this big adventure and I'm now hitting one of the biggest goals on the list, or at least the first big goal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm also terrified and there are a lot of possible negative thoughts involved here but who needs those rain clouds when there are so many rainbows?
One thing I have learnt over the past year is to not think and to just do. The more you think the more negatives you'll find, trust me this works in all areas of life. If we dig deep enough we can find darkness which has a tendency to hide the light. Human brains are funny little things.

So, lots and lots of preparations and organisation will be happening over the next five days and I couldn't be happier!
When you put this much work and effort in to something and rush learn important things it's so nice to actually get somewhere. There have been moments in the past six months where I have been desperate to give up because it can be so life draining and depressing at times but thankfully I have some supportive people in my life who give me a good poke before I can go hide. I could not be more grateful for all the help and support I get from them.

Aside from the whole starting an online shop I also have a lot more projects on the go! This is going to be a busy time and I'm just hoping I can balance everything out. It's a plus and downside to being self employed, you get to choose your hours but those hours can also be insane!

I'm continuing the prehistoric/dino project I have going, this is a personal project for now as I currently have no idea where it's heading.

I'm also hoping to attend some art markets in the future to sell work...
This involves me making a lot more work... everything does so I'm hoping I can balance the making and business sides out better, at the moment they see-saw all over the place!

Even this week with everything else going on I have a few designs to get done that are currently floating ideas in my mind. It's so good to finally get my muse back after those dodgy months!

Basically everything is coming together in a nice tidy cluster of colour and will hopefully continue like this for a short while at least!
And I'm finally balancing out my work life with my non work life :P Even reading again, something I lost time and motivation for down to there being too much going on, it also helps when your other half is a writer and book fiend. We're a creative pair ;)

So here's to a productive week and a big firework explosion for the end of the month!

Jurassic Madness

So, the dinosaur nerd got to see Jurassic World on Friday.

I am very excited ;)

I enjoyed it so much I am desperate to see it again!

And it's also brought back the dinosaur projecty thing I've been working on and off on for the last six months or so. This is probably a good thing.

Apart from it's a project that has no end... I'm not sure where it's going at all or what it's going to become which is both brilliant and annoying as it's a wing it project of just doing fun little bits that are all coming together to create something bigger... I just don't know what that bigger thing is right now.

On other things I'm currently sitting in the calm before the storm. My big thing that I've been working on is happening by the end of this month. Yes. This month.

It's scary, a good kind of scary and I'm eager to tackle it head on but as with most things... you have to be patient. I have at least another week but then... the fun begins.

I'm feeling eager but at the same time there is that sense of joy and calm because I've done this myself I know exactly what's going on and when so for the first time I feel like I can just chill out and enjoy myself at times without the major, MUSTGETTHATDONE!!! 

Although I am a weirdo who sometimes enjoys that panic rush... 

But anyway, big news will be coming next week!!

My redbubble shop has also been completely updated with new designs and new products!! 

Go here and check it all out! I promise colours and animals everywhere ;)

Including the Dino design featured at the top of this post!

So if you're considering seeing Jurassic World, you really need to do it! :P

Have a great week!!

If we could walk with the animals, talk with the animals...

Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals.

There's nothing wrong with a dose of Dr. Doolittle ;)

So this weekend my amazing OH and I went to a Wildlife Park and got to get up close to some very amazing animals.

I can't get enough of animals, ever since I was a kid I was completely obsessed. Everything I did involved an animal, school projects, games, drawings! Always animals.

And nothing has really changed apart from I'm more nerdy with it and know more than your average freelance illustrator normally would. Of course this is helped by the animal care studies I've done because illustration is not my only passion in this life of mine!

Anyway!

Just a small handful of the moments I managed to capture. I was super excited to get so close to these animals and watch them move and behave naturally. Seeing pictures is one thing, you get an idea of colour, shape and sometimes size although size can be deceiving in images and film so as an artist who wants to draw these animals, seeing them in person is the best possible way to go.

So now, I have no excuse for an art block! Actually this weekend has left me feeling a lot more creative and ready to go crazy! 

I'm hoping to mix things up with my style and have some fun with the fauna!

Commissions are still open, head here and get in touch!

Products are also in the making right now and a slight revamp is planned over the next few weeks, so much going on, so many big things and it's super duper exciting!! Can't wait to see this project come to life at long last!!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and wishing you a fab week ahead!

So, holiday slightly interrupted

I know, I said I would be away for a week... that was before a wonderful parcel arrived.

After finding out I'd uploaded designs to redbubble my mum couldn't wait to dive in and get her paws on some cushion covers. She nags me to do designs for her or to get things printed and I'm a bit rubbish and never get around to it... oops! So she decided to do it herself and ordered these babies.

I'm not quite sure who was more excited when we opened up the parcel! Pure excitement was just flooding through me as I saw the ratty people design.
I am really impressed by the quality of the material and the print itself, it's perfect!

And of course the model had to pose beside his new pillow... unfortunately he was sleepy and really didn't want to pose much :D

And here's a closer look at the ratty people design. I have to admit this is probably my favourite of these three designs just because they came out so damn well and well, it's perfect :P The real rats are not allowed to pose with their cushion though due to the odd piddle that would not go down well!

My mum also surprised me with a late birthday present. You may remember the corvus constellation piece I made a few weeks back, I fell in love with the crow... So she got him printed on to a tote bag and again I am in awe of the print! 

I am also taking this moment to say that my poor poor printer/scanner did an absolutely amazing job... Anyone who knows me knows that I have a love hate relationship with my little printer... I expect way too much from it and tend to grumble about it a lot at any opportunity I get. It's gotten to the point where any time I need to use the machine I start to either rant at it or beg it with all I'm worth to work!

But I have forgiven it... for now. I love the design on the bag, it fits well to the shape and size and I love the softness the watercolours have.

As you can see in the second picture I've added the original artwork to give a size comparison. This is the reason I am back on good terms with my Pixma! 

Can you tell how excited I am by these designs/products?

So there we have a sorta quick update! 

If anyone is interested in buying from redbubble, my designs or otherwise, I can definitely recommend them on service and quality. They're fab!

And if you're an artist who wants to get there work available without the hassle of producing it yourself, again I can highly recommend them. 

Now! Back to my so called break!

Mondays...

Today has not been the most productive, nor the most creative or exciting... I'm blaming this on a busy weekend which has left me feeling extremely knackered!
I'm not complaining, it was an awesome weekend, I'm just using it as a bad excuse for my sorry lack of work.

I have however played around with this sleeping beauty and he's now uploaded to my redbubble shop!

You may recognise him from last year when I entered him in to the Ohh Deer cushion competition. He needed a small bit o tweaking and I made him a more foxy red than he was before and am now much happier with him. He's currently available on everything.

I've spent so much of today starting sketches before tearing the pages out of my sketchbooks in pure frustration. I get an idea, try and go with it and then don't even get past the ugly sketchy stage, my heart really isn't in it today. I've been more in to working on previous works and getting them right.

It's really frustrating when you just can't muster the motivation to get ideas on to paper, they're not give up days they're just... blank days. 

They're annoying but they don't last forever and with all the work I've been churning out lately I have nothing to feel bad about. I just need to take things slow and actually enjoy a day where I'm not run off my feet... or more to the point there isn't steam coming out of my fingers! :P

Looking back over the past month I've realised that I'm slowly developing a style that's very focussed on nature and colour. It's the first time a theme has really begun to show itself and the whole traditional lineart followed by digital colouring makes life so much easier and is actually lots of fun.

I'm hoping to focus more on birds over the next few weeks, I'd taken a break from them and I'm really starting to miss the feathers! So I'm hoping to update this kinda thing...

A made this a while back for the background for this blog, gosh that was a while ago now! I'm really happy with the designs but I'd prefer the sketchy pencil outlines I'm doing now rather than the clean digital inking I've used here. I'm also loving doing repeat patterns so these will be another thing to focus on!

And then the reappearance of this baby...

I also made this a while ago, back when I was better at backgrounds that foregrounds. I absolutely love this piece, it's probably one of my favourites from the past few years but and there is a but, I'm not completely happy with the buzzards so I'm hoping to go back and recreate these beauties and actually make them more interesting. If this goes to plan I will be offering prints! 

Gosh I've rambled so much today! That just shows how with it I am not!

Hopefully my mind will be back to it's normal motivated, butt kicking self soon and I can churn out even more work!

Have a great week!

Just a quick post!

The "Sunnies" designs are now complete and ready to buy if you're interested!

Just go

HERE!

I will also be offering A5 and A4 prints of these guys during May with a few limited edition prints being made that may or may not include sparkles... ;)

Stay cool and have a smashing weekend!

I'm going to go and spend it doing no work at all! :P

Smile!

The sun is shining, the birds are singing!

And we went to the woods. It's a very rare occasion when I get to take my big flump of a pup to the woods which is awful given how much he loves it. No matter how bad you feel, seeing your dog light up with pure joy is one of the best feelings! 

So we took to the road and found his favorite woods and had a good long walk surrounded by nature and laughs. Trust me, when you spend time with my dog you realise that life is for laughing at!

So after the most refreshing walk and flumps splash around in a pond it was time for home and work!

Well, at least work for me... the flump got to be lazy and sunbathe for the rest of the day when he wasn't clambering on to my lap for hugs and kisses. I love it when he comes to distract me :P Who could resist the huge teddy bear! 

Anyway! 

I had the idea for a sunny summer idea for a set of three designs. I had the first idea of a bear as I seem to be having a bit of a bear moment lately and then added a wolf to the mix... the OH then convinced me that a mountain lion would be an amusing addition to the mix!

So of course, I wanted to draw these guys wearing sun glasses... cos who wouldn't want a grinning wolf in sunnies?

The original plan was to have the three linearts completed by Friday... what happened was I sat down at my desk for a good few productive hours and now as the picture below explains have all three linearts completed!

This is obviously a huge bonus to me and means that I can have them digitised and coloured by the end of the week instead which then in turn lightens my mega work load!

Seriously the to-do list is constantly growing and never shrinking (I secretly love this)

I'm also very glad that I was convinced to do the mountain lion, she may be my favorite of the bunch... although the grinning wolf is close...

I just had to do something cheerful and bright, the constellation series is of course colourful but lacks the brightness I'm after so this is an extra addition.

Once these are scanned and coloured they will have a whole new life and I can't wait, it's taking all of my will power not to pull an all nighter to do it! 

Just have to remember, sleep is good... Family will also kill me if I burn out :P

The sunnies designs will be available through my redbubble shop by the end of the week and during May something big will be happening.

I'm going to be expanding and if all goes to plan will be offering signed prints of my work so if you're interested keep an eye out!

I am also considering some limited addition prints with something extra... all shall be revealed soon!

So if you want to get your paws on my designs keep a look out in May when shiny sparkly things will be happening!

Have a beautiful week and make your own happy! :)