Missouri

Had a quick visit to st Louis.. Arrived yesterday evening and went for a (pretty quick) walk to find dinner. We went to the address that we had for a jazz bar, but found a members only restaurant in its place. Luckily, they let us stay and had such a delicious meal.
The place was called blood and sand.
We were so tired so pretty much got back to the hotel and fell asleep.

We left St. Louis this morning and headed to Meramec caverns. Apparently they are the oldest and biggest in the world. They are so stunning. We had a private tour of the caverns which was pretty nice.

They also had a zip line where we zip lines through the trees and over the river. Pretty scary but pretty awesome to do. :)

We are in Springfield in Missouri now.
The drive here was really nice. Really green and full of trees. :)

We had the roof down in the car for most for the trip today... So worth getting a convertible!!!

On route to St Louis

Some rather windswept barns

St Louis

Giant cupcakes and inflatable men. What more do you want from an antiques store?

On the road.

Driving to Meramec Caverns.

Inside the caverns. Amazing.

Zip lining. Horrendous photo, but need to prove I did it!

our car :)

Jesus.

Cozy dog drive in. They were... interesting. The place was pretty cool though.

Chicago

So this is my first post about our American road trip of route 66 (with extra bits)

We have started in Chicago. We arrived on Sunday 22nd April. Yesterday we had a great full day in this VERY windy city.
We went to the field museum, shedd aquarium and the sky deck.
Then we went to watch some baseball. Cubs v cardinals. Cubs won!!!! Was such a good game.

Chicago :)

This is Sue. The most complete skeleton of a t-rex ever found. 

Baluga Whales at the Shedd Aquarium :)

Cloud Gate 

Inside Cloud Gate looking up. Its like a kaleidoscope. 

Me and Chris in Chicago

Looking down over Chicago from the Sky deck.

Chicago cubs winning the game at Wrigley field. 

Leaving a momento on the wall at Ginos East. They have THE MOST AMAZING pizza ever there.

If you are ever in Chicago, go there.

Only order a small pizza though...they are pretty filling.

Superficial digital flexor tendon

That's what my horse has damaged... Nope, stretched in her leg. Not good. She has been in her stable for 8 weeks now 24/7. Vet came today to check her and ( I think) he is happy with her progress. He is however, concerned that the damaged tissues in her leg might start to fuse together if she doesn't start moving around, so she finally allowed out of her stable for only about half an hour at the moment to go have some grass and move around a little bit. :) I am happy that she can start being a horse again. I hate it when they have to stay cooped up in their stables all day.

Anyway!!! So with this good news, I can finally start looking forward to my holiday .... Which starts on SUNDAY!
Pepper is being left in the care of my mum. I hate leaving her, especially with a poorly leg, but I am really looking forward to this trip

Basically we are driving route 66 ( with some extra bits)
From Chicago to San Diego, in 18 days.
I get to see my aunts and cousins who live in Texas along the way so that is exciting!!

I think I am going to try and keep this blog updated with what we are up to and where we are and photos etc.

So I had better start packing! (and washing the clothes that need to be packed) I'm so unorganised.

1973 Grafika Collaboration

A few weeks ago now 1973 sent a call out for collage artists to collaborate with them for a project to promote their lovely new paper collection : Grafika. This sounded right up my street so jumped at the chance. We were allowed to create anything we want with the collection of papers they sent in the post (what a lovely parcel that was!)


I got them straight up on my wall and just gazed at them for a couple of days. Then I realised that some of the papers reminded me of the patterns and colours you find in nature and on animals skin/fur....


The scales on a crocodile:

The lines and creases and armour like skin of a rhino:

The spots and colours of a giraffes fur:

And the bright colours found in plants and flowers:

I brought all my animals and flower together to create this sweet little scene.

I really enjoyed this project as I LOVE working with papers and patterns! 

What I also love about this project was the variety of different ideas and end results people came up with even though we all had the same paper collection. Just shows how you shouldn't and cant really compare yourself to other artists and illustrators, because we all work in different ways and come up with completely different ideas. 

Inspiration: Andrea D'Aquino.

I have just stumbled upon the work of Andrea D'Aquino. I feel like I should have known about her work before now?

Anyway, I love how she works. Her process is similar to mine, in the fact that she uses lots of found paper and different textures and then cuts it up and arranges it into a layout. Her work is brilliant though, and this is because she pushed a lot further than I do. 

My work is always better when I take risks and push things a bit further than I find comfortable. Of course, a lot of the time this creates something which is quickly rearranged or forgotten about completely, but sometimes it ends up as something I'm proud of. 

I think coming across Andreas work has inspired me to push myself further and take more risks within my work.

I also love her use of colour. I love the muted browns and creams with the deep reds and greens, and occasional bright highlight. 

website and branding re-design

Recently, I have been working through a Dreamweaver classroom in a book, to try and help me understand Dreamweaver and a bit of coding, so that I can update my website and keep it up to date from now on.
I am still working through the book (it is getting more and more complicated, so takes a little while to get through it) but I think I am getting the hang of it (I hope!) Once I have got some basic knowledge, then I will start to completely re-design my website.
At the moment, it is pretty bare, as the last time I tried to change it, I got so muddled.
Also, it is not really reflecting my style at the moment, so isn't doing a very good job at being my website.


I am starting to work on some new headers for it and for this blog.
For some reason I struggle with headers and I can never quite get them to look how I want, so I will probably be asking for some help and opinions soon!


All this while still keeping my work going. phew!


I cant wait until my website is all done and looking great.


Anyway, for now I have done a little illustration of a drawing hand. 

Elizabeth Lau Illustration for Amelia's Magazine

Last week I contributed an illustration to Amelia's Magazine to accompany an interview with fashion designer Elizabeth Lau and her new range. I am not really into fashion, but I like to keep an eye on trends which might influence other things as well as fashion. That might be colours, patterns or themes. 
I haven't done much fashion illustration at all so thought I would challenge myself. 
I do really like this collection though. I think the clothes are fun and look like things I would like to wear.


I enjoyed making this image in my usual collage style, and seeing how a style which normally can be a bit messy and 'chunky'(?) , could also be dainty and tidy! 


Anyway, here it is and here is the interview.

Paper paper paper

I really love how versatile paper can be. I am jealous of people who can manipulate it to create amazing sculptures and illustrations. I tend to make more of a mess than a masterpiece. I love working with found papers and patterns and textures though to create my pictures. 


These paper cuts by Peter Callesen are pretty immense.

 They look beautifully simple, but they are so delicate and tiny, so I can only imagine they were not simple to make.




I have just received a package of papers from 1973 who have decided to collaborate with some different paper sculpture and collage artists to experiment and create something with their new range of paper. It is a completely open brief and the papers are beeeeaautiful so I am excited to get going with it. At the moment they are pinned on my wall so I can look at them and have a think what I am going to do with them. I have a few little ideas.

Polar Bear Cub

I have done a little illustration of a polar bear baby.

I am thinking of getting some pocket mirrors made up with my designs on for my etsy shop and craft fairs this year. Just thinking which designs to use for them. I might use this little guy. 

New Christmas Cards

Here are some new Christmas cards that I have designed and am awaiting my order of them from Moo. 

Cant wait to see them and start sending them and selling them. 

I'm starting to feel a bit christmassy now, which is odd for me as I normally hold the christmassy feelings back until after my birthday. Ah well!!