feminine

These are my final entries that I posted to the Tigerprint  feminine photography competition last week. Unfortunately I didn't win (I don't think my images were pink enough perhaps!) and so I thought I would share them with you here. They are running another competition at the moment to call for floral photos. Taking photos of flowers is something I tend to do quite a lot for some reason so I hope I'm in with a better chance for the next one!

Seeing as I think I'll be kind of bored/lonely over the next few months I am also going to be working on some more personal projects and hopefully working on getting some freelance illustration work. Gotta keep entering those competitions though!

teatime

Today I was working on a photoshoot for a competition brief based on femininity that I found through twitter. I had a few ideas for different shoots, and these photos are the ones that didn't make the cut (I'll share the ones that did once the competition closes!). The idea behind these was a 1950s retro feminine feel, through the cups and saucers and my mother's newly acquired 1957 Kenwood Chef mixer - oh is she proud of it! I really enjoyed doing this shoot today, I've always enjoyed still life photography and it kind of made me want to join a props department! Enjoy the photos, shall upload more soon.

playtime

Here's a bit of fun I have been working on partly to entertain myself and partly to send to the hand drawn typography rally at the Illustration Rally blog. I went ahead and sent it over but now I'm not sure I should have right away, hoping they don't think I am presumptuous! Anyway, I had a bit of time to work on this as I lost out on the job I was hoping to get last week (sad). But, I have found a few competitions and open submissions I can enter so it's looking pretty good. Enjoy the playtime lettering!

play

A small sample from the project I'm currently working on. More to come!

Lanhydrock

So it's been a little busy recently - have been up and down and across the country on trips to Ogmore-by-sea, Falmouth and Brighton so it's been rather quiet on the illustration front. I recently uploaded some old photos from my camera that I forgot about (whoops) so this blog will contain a few of those instead.

British bluebells coating Lanhydrock's grounds

The bluebells covering the forest floor

A wider view of the grounds

One of my favourite National Trust houses here in the UK is Lanhydrock, a stunning house with a rich history. It's particularly stunning in Spring, as many of its acres are bathed in bluebells at this time, which is what inspired me to take these photos when I was there in April of this year. I highly recommend a visit to this property, especially during the Spring and Summer months.

A short blog this time as I have a few projects lined up, but in the hope of not jinxing them I shall update when I have more certain news.

Potter

Just a quick post to share these new images! I assume most of you know about that little phenomenon Harry Potter that has taken over the world this past week. In the spirit of creating some new illuminated letters I decided to create some Harry Potter themed images, each letter representing the Hogwarts house - each letter includes the house animal, colours and the associated item. Hope you enjoy!

Type

So I managed to get some more of my illuminated letters of Fairytales done this weekend, and I focused on Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood. I thought I would present them in a slightly different way, so here they are - hope you like them. I think Rapunzel is my favourite, due to the big sun behind her! I will be working on the Harry Potter themed ones soon, as this week is looking rather busy! Hoping to update my website some time in the future as well if I can sort out my hosting.

happy

So I have a few things to share today! Firstly, on Wednesday I went to the amazing New Designers show in Angel, London. My work was (and still is until tomorrow night) on show at the University College Falmouth stands (VC9+10) among some of the best new graduate work in the UK. It was a fantastic experience to meet other new graduates and interesting people in the industry, in particular illustrators who have been working already for a year and have become successful. The show is open until the end of tomorrow so if you are in Angel you should definitely go and have a look!

At the show I also spoke to the person behind the unique website ArtsThread, a place for new graduates to put up a small selection of their portfolio in order to connect with commissioning business and people in the industry. It was a great chat and the site is a fantastic opportunity, you can view my ArtsThread portfolio here.

The image above is something I prepared for the ArtsThread portfolio to showcase my typographic skills, something which I will be posting about again soon hopefully! I've nearly finished sorting my life out back home now, so I will definitely be getting some new work on the blog. I may also be embarking on the Tigerprints Gifted competition which launched at New Designers this week - keep your eye out!

100

So welcome to my 100th blog post, how exciting. I moved back to the midlands on Thursday and it's been a seriously hectic few days. Just posting to show a few chalkboard menus I designed for some events we recently had at home, firstly for a French themed party and secondly for a meal at my mum's self initiated ladies' club, Fluff.

Hoping my French was accurate enough!