Animal Farm Research.

Last week I went to Holly Farm in Garstang. It's free to enter and you can stroke all the farm animals and hold the baby chicks and rabbits.

This is just a small amount of images that I collected as part of my research for my Honours project, where I am going to illustrate George Orwell's Animal Farm. I have so many ideas...I can't wait to get stuck in.

Think i'll go to a few more petting zoos/farms so that i'll have a large collection of reference material...any excuse to go to a farm and stroke animals!

Macmillan continued...

Bath Time double page spread:


Dirty water jars...











The double page spread in all its glory. Needs a few details adding to the face, but apart from that i'm happy with it.

More to come soon!

Pigs and Dogs...

I am currently working on my external project: carrying on with my Macmillan project from last semester. Today I was shown how to use InDesign and how to stretch paper...rather excited as i've nearly completed my work now...just have to do my neat pencil spreads and dummy book and 16 coulour double page spreads!

I have also decided on my Honours project! Huzzah! I'm really excited to get it started! I'm going to redesign and illustrate George Orwell's Animal Farm.



I've been admiring Ralph Steadman's work as of late, as he did an illustrated version of Animal Farm. His use of line and colour is amazing...



This is the cover of the version of the book I have. It was designed by Shepard Fairey. I love this cover, the colours are beautiful and the bold use of silhouette and Russian-esque lines.

I intend on going to a petting zoo tomorrow to get the ball rolling and take some photos and draw some pigs. Pictures to come soon!

The Return.

I have returned to uni.

Didn't get as good a grade I wanted but that just makes me work harder and worry more about my future.

Currently planning out what colours to use for my book spreads, as I am carrying on my Dirty Dog story. I'm going to illustrate every page and will hopefully have a complete and proper hard back book to enter into the competition...

I bought a bunch of children's books to keep me inspired...any excuse to buy children's books!

Here's to 2011 and the start of my descent into madness.

Moleskine.

Snow on a house across the street.


Errol sat in his cage.

This is just a small amount of what i've drawn over Christmas. I sometimes feel like what i'm drawing is boring due to seeing it around my house everyday...

On another note, it's not long till I return to Uni! I can't wait to get my sketchbooks back! I have missed them so! Also, getting back into the swing of things and sitting at my nice big desk rather than leaning on my knees...i'll be a hunchback one of these days due to lack of desk space at home!

Projects to come: External (competition) and Honours...which can be anything we want it to be. For my external I will be continuing my Dirty Dog story and making it the best I can so I can send it off...and for my Honours...well,hm...I may do another children's story, a sequel to Dirty Dog maybe? It's hard to decide! I'd love to do some kind of instillation or something to do with paper puppets. It's hard writing your own brief.

Winter Wonderland.

My snow Bird.


I love birds.


This is a beautiful farm house on Gough Lane covered in snow. I'd love to live in one of them...sometimes when I walk past I can smell the wood fire and i'm sure it smelt of baked potato once...*sigh*


My little Florence in the snow. All my dogs love snow, they shove their noses into it like shovels and eat it all!

Christmas Exhibition...

Our Christmas Exhibition poster, designed by Hannah Wallace.



My exhibition space: 3 final pieces on my board, 3 sketchbooks,self promotional pack and dummy book.


My work close up.



Leigh and her wonderful work.


My amazing friends...such posers!

Once I got all my work up I could finally relax, with a can of cider in my hands. It was nice to wander about the studio and see everyone's amazing work.

More photos to follow...

Not Long Now.

This is Cruddy Cat. In my story he knocks over a bin full of nasty fish heads onto Jess the dog. This is my final drawing of the cat...or so I hope.

I'm currently trying to do everything at once: My double page spreads, detailed bits for my dummy book...artist's statement and promotional pack...and I only have 4 days and 2 hours to get it done. Then we get to exhibit all our work in the Studio.

Must get back to work...!

So little days left.

It's been a while since I posted anything...I do apologise!

This is just a short note to tell you I will be going mad trying to get everything finished in time for the Christmas Exhibition. I'm starting to panic about my Children's book as I can't seem to think of how it's going to look...plus I have to rearrange my animation, meaning I have to scan my dogs again...pfft..takes a while to do.

Today i'm going to bake a lemon drizzle cake (for the Christmas stall)and sortout my animation and get my bum in gear with my Children's book.

So much to do...

I did some fun experiments last night with tea and flour and ink...messy but fun.

Shall post some pictures soon when I have any time!

Dirty Dog Sneak peek.

Here is one of the many sketches/ideas for my children's book. At this point the dog( Jess) has found her way into a sweet shop bin and has been covered in sweet wrappers!

Dirty Dog.

I know it has been a while. I still need to upload my animation, but as usual the internet keeps playing up. It still needs editing so when it's sorted you shall see my masterpiece!

I just wanted to show you all the fish heads I painted yesterday. I'm really proud of the outcome. It was so much fun to paint them. I was excited all morning yesterday to get them started and here they are!


The fish heads are going to be in a children's story i'm writing about a dirty dog. This is the dog of inspiration for this story. Her name is Jess. I will upload more sketches and photos when I can.

I won something I did!

About a month or so ago I entered the Up and Down competition. All I had to do was say why I loved the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers...and I was so happy and suprised to find that my entry won! I was one of the lucky 15!

Today was the day that me and James drove down to London. We got to HarperCollins a bit early and we had a sitdown in the reception area. It's very white inside the building with books and pictures about the place. I'd love to work there. We then got taken to the room to meet Oliver! We all sat down and was introduced and then we were recorded saying: "UP AND DOWN!!!" whilst holding the new book...I got to stand next to Oliver!:D He then signed the book for us and was so nice and asked about me doing illustration and wished me luck.



After being cheeky and getting him to sign a few other books I got to have a photo with him...well...yeah...^ Ignore my horrible face! Ha!

Then each of us went up to the top floor and read the new book whilst being recorded. I of course went red and made a few mistakes but Laura and the camera woman (feel bad for not remembering her name!:/)were really nice. We also got given a goody bag! It contained Oliver Jeffers books, print, poster, height chart, postcards and activity sheets!weee...and some other books: Paddington Bear, Mog, Tobias and the Super Spooky Ghost Book and A year in Bramley Hedge books.

It was so nice seeing a small part of London and going to such a well known publishers. Everyone was really nice and I feel really inspired...so I must get some beauty sleep to dream up some wonderful ideas!

Fuzzy little things...

This first week back at uni has been really fantastic. I've been currently working on a starter brief, "Firsts". Basically, we have to create a small poster of something that was first made in the UK, inspires people and instills national pride. As you can imagine, it was rather hard work. I contemplated the telephone, trains...scones!but have decided to work on the television. It was made be John Logie Baird in the 1920's. The images were made using 30 lines and were in black and white though he did create colour television too.



This is my sort-of finished piece though i'm really not happy with it so shall work on it some more when I get the time.

I've also been working on my Personal Project. My project is going to be an animation for the RSPCA competition. I'm going to use my dog, Florence as my inspiration as she has sad eyes...which I thought would be useful for this project. Plus she's so cute!

What fell through the cracks...

As of late i've been quite busy with summer projects and just life in general. I thought it best to upload my LEP illustrations which i'd forgotten to upload. So here they are...



This image was not used, unfortunatley. Due to some confusion...as it wasn't actually a reader's story. Nevermind though, as I enjoyed drawing it. The image title is "Taste" basically talking about the sophistication of food and wine.



The story that I illustrated this for was called, "Undercover Gran". My lovely boyfriend helped to come up with the Bond-eque style.



A christmas story. Quite a sad story talking about how thinking about people at christmas time. The people around you are more important than shopping.



"Bar One"...here you see a mysterious man in a pub.


This illustration was for a story called, "Accidentally on Purpose". In this image you can see two children looking on into the kitchen to see the chair next to the cooker, where previously their mother had tried to kill herself using gas.



" Another train of thought".



" Extract from the Compostela Key".

A little bit of me...

I have mentioned my summer projects quite a few times and thought that since it's all done and dusted...(well...except for a few bits that need finishing)I can upload a few of my favourite pieces...so here they are...


My front cover.



Me with fox ears and my favourite colour.


Errol's feet and one of his feathers.



Gary Numan and Lady Gaga. Just a small bit of music I like.



My beautiful birthday present!



An old friend...



My lovely mummy.



Hobbies.



Favourite shoes.

The first day of the Last year.

Yesterday was my first day back at uni. We've been moved back into the room we had in first year. We're to be in pretty much every day! So much more work to do...it's scary!


This is my wonderful desk...my board is soon to be covered in inpirational images!

Once we were given an introduction into our third year we set up our exhibition, " Me, Me, Me" and then we had a wander round the room and here is just smidgen of the talent...


This is Leigh B looking through my Me Me Me book.


This is my best friend Rachel setting up her work.


This is Tom...


...this is his board with his work on. I love his use of colour!


This is Hannah's awesome mirror with her hair and smile drawn on. So cool.



I thought this was souch a sweet idea. This pretty box of personal information was created by Imogen.


I thought this was such a clever way to portray yourself. Helen is really in to fashion/stitching. Clever lass.

It was a very tiring and rather shocking day but i'm so excited to get into the deep and scary mess that this year is going to be! Wish me luck!