'tis the season to... STEAL PRESENTS!

...if you're Victoria Stitch!

Unlike Santa who flies around giving presents, Victoria Stitch follows in his trail stealing them! What a naughty, greedy Queen!  And as she goes she sings (to the tune of 'Deck the Halls) :

'Tis the season to steal presents! Mua ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!'

She gets her special winter sleigh out for this occasion.  Normally Victoria Stitch would ride in a black sleigh but at Christmas time she makes an exception and switches to a silver one.  Can you see Pink Rabbit's ears sticking out of the boot? He's getting quite squashed by all the presents!

Originally I did give Victoria Stitch a black sleigh in this picture (I even drove out to the craft shop for an emergency black glitter run late at night!) but it didn't show up enough against the dark background so changed it to silver.  I am planning to re-photograph this image at some point with my star filter to see if i can get the glitter to sparkle more... For now though I am pleased with how it looks!

As usual I created this image by making everything in 3d out of paper and then photographing it. 

X

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Christmas preparations  are well underway here. Celestine has been helping to do all sort of things like decorate the tree (ahem swing on the baubles)

As you can see she has got her Christmas quilt out for the festive season too! I made this quilt for her a little while back out of fabrics and scraps from my material box.  It is lined with green fleece and is very cosy. I also made the little red dress with fur around it and matching Santa coat (Celestine likes to be in season with her clothing.) I think it contrasts quite nicely against the snow.

On Tuesday (I think) last week we woke up to snow outside! Celestine immediately wanted to go and play in it. She would have made a snowman but it wasn't the right kind of snow- it was too thin and already beginning to melt. It was already dripping out of the trees.  Still, maybe next time!

I have been working on some Victoria Stitch pictures which I will post about shortly.  I have been racing to get them done as I will probably be taking on a project with a very short deadline in the next day or so which is going to be very time consuming.  Nothing like a deadline to get you motivated! haha.

Anyway, I hope you are also enjoying this Christmassy season.  I am hoping to make (well, decorate) a gingerbread house this evening. Also Celestine wants to decorate her own miniature tree so we will see about that too... Better get to it!

X

A miniature advent calendar and a snowy scene

I finally managed to finish making Celestine's advent calender- two days late but better than never!

Celestine is very pleased with it:

As you can see she is in the festive spirit. She has put tinsel in her hair!

Here's what the calendar will look like when all the doors are opened: (I made two- one of them was a tester to make sure it would work properly)

I have to admit that all the pictures behind the doors are pictures I found on google.  (There's even a picture of the Grinch there and little Cindy-Lou) BUT I did paint the main image myself!

I began by painting Santa (he looks like a very small Santa but never mind) and his reindeer flying across the sky as a spot illustration.  The original reason I painted this picture was for my grandmother who likes me to paint a Christmassy thing every year for the front of her church carol service programme.  See last years here. Ideally it would have been religious themed but after about seven or so years of drawing nativity scenes I had run out of ideas and so went with reindeer instead.  Also I really wanted to draw some reindeer. They always become my favourite animal come December!

ANYWAY so I drew the reindeer and Santa and then thought 'hmm, this could be a good image for an advent calendar if only it had a background...'

And so then I drew a background (thinking it was also a good excuse to practice drawing a snowy village scene from above seeing as I had never drawn one before) and then put it underneath the reindeer picture on Photoshop and voila!

here's the template/design I used to make my calendar. I thought I would upload it here in case you wanted to make one too- even though it is already the 4th!

Unfortunately i had to draw the outline and all the little boxes by hand because I can't work out how to draw a box in Photoshop.  I know it looks messy here but once it's made it looks fine.

You need this template too (below) to place exactly over the front part so that you can cut the boxes (with a scalpel) in the right place. I hope that makes sense...

I also put a bit of silver glitter on the front of mine when it was finished. I added a bit of sparkle to the trees and snow.  Not sure it really shows up in the photos though... maybe a tiny bit.  Gotta love a bit of glitter- especially at Christmas time.

And you know what, I realised I don't actually have an advent calendar of my own to open this December! I will just have to share Celestines....

Have you been doing anything to get into the Christmas Spirit yet this season?

X

This and That (including Celestine goes to an exhibition)

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been a bit MIA lately, I've been really really busy these last couple of weeks.  I kept really wanting to update but with no chance. So here's an extra long post where I just smoosh everything in together!

Yesterday I went to London to see some friends and an exhibition at Foyles bookshop gallery. It was called 'The Enchanted Forest' exhibition.  All the illustrations were on a fairy tale theme which I liked very much. There was a lot of talent there.  It was interesting to see because a lot of the artists are artists who's blogs I follow so it was nice to view their illustrations in the flesh!

Anyway, Celestine of course wanted to come too.  She is also an artist you see, so she enjoys exhibitions as much as the rest of us.  She's also only every been to London once before and that time she had to stay inside my bag the whole time because I had meetings.

Celestine in her favourite coat (she wears it ALL the time!) and stripy french dress.

Which one to look at first?

Adam and Anna peruse...

Celestine in front of Sleeping Beauty by Yelena Bryksenkova

There were some books for sale on the table...

Celestine reads her own book for a while (she has a short attention span for looking at paintings)

Celestine sitting on Adam's shoulder.

So that was fun! And it was nice to catch up with uni friends too.

Today I helped out at a school Christmas fair, making snowflake fairies, soldiers and baubles with the children.  It was 'make your own Christmas decoration,'  I designed the decorations myself and the children could decorate them however they liked. I bought tons of glitter and sequins so they had a great time turning the table into a complete glitter bomb site- not that I am complaining, I LOVE glitter.  The fairies went down an absolute storm- the little girls really loved them. I showed them how to make paper snowflake skirts and wings for them.  Then we attached some string to the top of each decoration so they could hang them on the tree. I was crazy busy the entire time- I barely had time to eat lunch!

Here I am with my example decorations- fairy, bauble and soldier- before the fair started.

I was most pleased with the snowflake fairy I made.  She is so sparkly.  I am planning to make a few more before Christmas and put them on my tree.  I thought I would upload the pattern I drew and some instructions on how to make her in case you wanted to make one too!

Here's the pattern (below)  Hopefully it will come up full size if you click on it and then you can download it to your computer to print.

1- print the fairy onto some card

2- cut her out

3- decorate her however you like!  I coloured my one with black hair and then gave her a strapless glittery silver bodysuit. I also put spots of glitter in her hair and gave her a silver tiara.

4- make a paper doily- preferably looking like a snowflake.  Decorate it if you wish. I put snowflake sequins on mine to go with the theme.

5- cut a slit halfway into the doily and slide it onto the fairy's waist. Secure it with some glue or tape.

6- cut two wing shapes from tracing paper and glitter them up if you want to. Stick them onto the fairy's back and bend outwards so they look like they are sticking away from the body a little. 

7- attach a loop of string to the head.

8- hang her up and enjoy!

I was very pleased to be able to do a crafting session with the kids as I will be starting an after school craft club (at a different school) in January so it gave me some practice!  On Monday I had to prepare a 15 minute powerpoint for a school assembly to promote my new club. It was scary!  But also good to do. It made me realise that I still can get up in front of a room full of people and talk if I need to.

I have also recently: celebrated thanksgiving with some of my closest friends (I know we're not American but any excuse to get together and eat food is fine in my book!)  been hard at work on a character design for a publisher in the hope of getting a potential commission, got an agent!, watched Lord of the Rings for the first time (why have I not seen it before? It's so good!), welcomed my sister back home from being an air hostess in Dubai for a year and a half, been awarded Sharon's Sunbeam Award (thank you!), won a giveaway from Jennifer at Plushpussycat which I was absolutely thrilled about, got some fairies in the post which I will write about some time soon, made extremely chocolatey cookies which I discovered on Pinterest (I actually love Pinterest so much it's silly- so much inspiration on there!) and been desperately trying to find enough time to make Celestine a miniature advent calender before December the first! I obviously have failed at this last task but I m still planning to make it as soon as I can! In fact maybe I should go and do that now...

Hope you've had a good Saturday and listened to at least one Christmas song as it's officially allowed now. I know I have!

X

Olivia and the Fairy Princesses

This book (by Ian Falconer) is hilarious. Olivia is such a precocious little piglet! I actually laughed out loud a couple of times whilst reading this book.  Whilst it appeals to the child audience it is most certainly aimed at adults too .I loved it!

And why is Olivia depressed? Well, she is having an identity crisis of all things!  She just can not understand why all the other little girls want to be princesses.  At Pippa's birthday party everyone was dressed as a fairy princess- even some of the boys!  Olivia however 'chose a simple French sailor shirt, matador trousers, black flats, a strand of pearls, sunglasses, a red bag, and her gardening hat.'  

What a stylish little pig!

Olivia's style is one of the things I love about the Olivia books.  She makes me laugh because she always wears such sophisticated outfits for one so young!  She definitely has some airs and graces about her.  I especially love her striped towel and turban combo in this picture:

Olivia spends the course of the book wondering why all the others want to be the same and wondering what she should be that is different.  Her mother reminds her that it wasn't too long ago that she (Olivia) wanted to be a fairy princess too.  

'That was when I was little' replies Olivia. 'I am trying to develop a more stark, modern style.'

This is my favourite page in the whole book! A double page spread (I have scanned only a section of it here) of Olivia posing about in a black sheet like thing.

So funny!

Anyway, Olivia does eventually decide what she wants to become at the end of the book after going through a number of different career choices:  a nurse, an adopter of orphans, a reporter...  I won't spoil the surprise for you but I will say that what she decides to become is very Olivia. 

Also I should probably say something about the illustrations too. I love the way Ian Falconer uses a limited palette in the Olivia books. It enables the reader to really focus on the central character (which is what I am sure Olivia would want!) so she becomes very much centre stage.  It fits perfectly with her personality. I also really like the way that there is the occasional black and white photo incorporated into the pictures.  It gives them a bit more of an interesting and dare I say 'arty' feel which I think Olivia would approve of, being a very cultured pig and all.  

Have you read any of the Olivia books? Which is your favourite one?

Victoria Stitch makes paper snowflakes

Hi everyone! Firstly thanks so much for your kind comments and messages about my last post! They did make me feel a lot better. I am very lucky to be able to do the job I love and it has reminded me of that. Also it has shown me that I am not alone- that many people work in solitude too  Even so, I am planning to eventually have some kind of part time job that gets me out and involved with people.  For me I think that's the best way forward.

Secondly: You may or may not notice that I have changed my blog header. You'd be forgiven for not noticing as I think the difference is quite subtle.  I was getting tired of my old Victoria Stitch one and since she (and my drawing style) has evolved a bit since I made the last one I decided to update it!

This one definitely has a Christmassy theme running through it. there are glittery baubles, snowmen and snowflakes.  As you can see, Victoria Stitch is busy making silver paper snowflakes and pink Rabbit is writing a letter to Santa.

I made this image using my preferred method of creating a scene in 3d out of paper and then photographing it.  I like being able to put extra little elements in there like the glass bottle and the round glittery baubles (beads)

I absolutely love working with glitter. It just makes me so happy.  I love that I can always incorporate glitter into my Victoria Stitch illustrations. 

What do you think? I have been missing Victoria Stitch a bit lately and felt it was time to take her to the drawing board again.  She is after all my original and most important baby!

For your interest, this was the last header so you can compare. I am not sure which one I prefer overall but I think that Victoria Stitch has a nicer face in the new one:

a jumble of things...

The other night I said to Henry 'Why did I choose to be an illustrator? It's such a lonely profession.'  He replied 'you didn't choose it. It's a vocation.'

This is true.  I didn't really think about it that way before.  I can't actually imagine myself doing anything else or at least being as good at anything else.  And after five and a half years of university it would be silly to not use the skills i have developed.  But even so I've been struggling a bit lately with 'being an illustrator.'

The two main things I find difficult are: working from home and working alone.  Its so haaard! I find myself so jealous of people who get to leave the house and go to an office to work! However I am looking into a few little side jobs that will get me out of the house but they are taking a while to get started...

Anyway I didn't want this to be a rant or anything I just wondered if there were any illustrators out there who feel the same? And what do you do to balance out your home/work/social life without becoming a crazy hermit? I guess I'm still quite new to this full time illustrator thing...

Anyway enough about that. Here's a drawing I did the other day at the drawing class I go to on a Tuesday morning:

And here's some pictures of where I went in London the other day.  Mainly of Fortnum and Masons. I absolutely love that shop! I think it's my favourite shop ever! The carpet is so plushy, the air smells so nice, the things to buy are all so nicely displayed and packaged. it is a shop of luxury! I can just walk around there gazing at everything.  I love the chocolate counters and the posh desserts all displayed behind their glass cabinets. I especially love it at Christmastime when there are baskets full of glittering baubles and trees covered in fairy lights at every twist and turn.  Those red crackers I took a photo of below were 500 pounds!!!

I love it!

And now (I did say this was a bit of a jumble) here are some photos I meant to post a while back of the fabrics and amazing tiny buttons  I got in Derby the other weekend.  Too cute not to share!

I look forward to using it all. I'm sure all those scrap fabrics will be very useful in my future 3d illustrations. or maybe for Celestine. Who knows!

And here's Celestine (channeling some French vibes!) sitting on top of some salt and pepper pots yesterday. I took a little trip to visit my friend and we went to this nice little cafe place for lunch. They had some really nice food there- sweet potato gratin, chocolate truffle tart  (yum) lamb wrap with hummus etc... it's making me hungry thinking about it all.  I was lovely to see my friend and we had an interesting conversation about being passionate about stuff but that's a topic for another post!

And now finally I just want to mention that today marks the day of mine and Henry's three year anniversary-  and it's been such a wonderful three years together.  I look forward to many more! :)  Tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate (which reminds me I need to go and get ready!) So I'd better stop writing and go!  Bye for now!