Gemma Crombleholme Illustration

What Shall I Draw...?

2011-09-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to allow myself some leisurely scribble time, so asked myself "what shall I draw?". First thing that came to mind - "a girl riding a polar bear and taking an apple". No, really. So here's today's drawing.

Owl Sketch

2011-09-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

A quick owl sketch in keeping with yesterdays birds.
I PROMISE I'll work some proper ones up soon.

Biro Birds

2011-09-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Little bird scribbles, just because I find birds in flight inspiring.

rargh

2011-08-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Got my tea brewed, had my sketchbook open to a fresh, white page and my pencils at the ready. I was all set to work on designs for my picture book idea: I spent time researching bears and various illustrations, making sketches and playing with colour.

BUT,
it turned into one of those times where you set out with one idea and end up with nothing but a scribble so COMPLETELY different to what you intended.

SO,
here's a brown bear.

He goes "rargh"

Caracal Painting

2011-08-20T03:50:00.000-07:00

So I've been painting wildlife to practise working with paints again. This is the second proper painting I've done in about 15 years!!
Not great, but I'll get there.

Caracal - Acrylic on canvas board

More Wildlife Art

2011-08-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Derwent terracotta coloured pencil

Acrylic on canvas board

The Lion Portrait was drawn to raffle off at the Warrington neo-natal and children's ward charity ball, to raise money for this awesome cause.

The Puffin I painted was done simply for my mum's birthday. She likes Puffins.

Husky Portrait

2011-08-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

A Husky portrait for my boyfriends mum as a birthday gift.
She loves dogs and has always wanted a Husky, so I drew her this.

As Rough As A Bears...

2011-08-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Just a few more very rough spreads for my bear story.

I haven't actually finalised the wording yet, but I know the story and know what I'm after, so I'm just having fun scribbling little scenarios at the moment.

Some rough bears

2011-08-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Some rough bear characters.

I like bears.

Going back to Nature

2011-07-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post a little something, as I haven't in a while, just to let you know that I am still drawing away merrily.

The natural world is still continuing to amaze and inspire me, so I've decided to give 'human' characters a break for the time being, to concentrate on making characters based on other animals instead. With this in mind, I've got a sweet idea for a picture book based on an animal I'm particularly fond of. It explores the origins of one creature and how it evolved from one to another, so is educational whilst at the same time should look really beautiful.

Hooray for inspiring documentaries!

I really am quite excited about this one!

I've already created some quick character ideas and a colour palette to work with, so over the next week or so, I should have some little sketches to share with you all, give you a taste of what I'm working on.

Hope all is well with you lovely folk!

Oh deer, I've been scribbling (blue) tits

2011-07-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Another couple of sketchbook scribbles

Had a WHALE of a time designing this

2011-07-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

I was asked to design a tattoo for somebody, of a humpback whale with a Polynesian style.

So I researched patterns in Polynesian tattoos, humpback whale shapes, added some smoother curves to reflect waves and the gentle nature of the humpback whale, and put this together.

I have to admit that it was a joy to work on too, as it brought together my passion for animals, interest in culture and my love of detailed patterns.

But what's important at the end of the day, is the clients opinion, as he's the one who'll be living with the image for the rest of his life......Luckily he's rather made up with it, so I guess it's a job well done!

The Rough Wildlife

2011-06-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Some ProMarker fun

Splashing out for dinner

2011-06-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

Another rough painting. Here's Heron catching his dinner.

Who-Whooooo?

2011-06-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Another rough painting, this time it's our feathered friend, the Tawny Owl.

A Rabbits Life

2011-06-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

A rough piece for an idea I had to paint little snippets of wildlife in my area, giving people an idea of the amazing creatures and plants they too could find. I'm hoping that these images, when exhibited, will encourage adults and children to get outside, explore the life we have here and hopefully look after our environment a little better.

Can A Rabbit Really Be Blue?

2011-05-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Rabbits have been today's local wildlife focus.
Here're more sketchbook scribbles

There's A Pattern Here...

2011-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

These patterns

are based on plants I found whilst out walking in Halton.

Nature is the best artist

2011-05-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook - Pretty Leaf Shapes

Sketchbook - Funny Grass

Sketchbook - Male Mallard

The woodland and general green areas in Halton (my home), are currently being tended to and somewhat improved, with money from the government, council workers and volunteer help.

This has inspired me to get involved in my own creative way and so I'm now working on a project exploring the natural life in these areas. Not only for my own pleasure as a nature lover, but also to show people what a diverse and fascinating bunch of plants and animals we have here!

So, I've been getting out and about (and rather mucky!) making sketches, collecting things and taking photographs of the life around me and I'm currently filling a sketchbook with scribbles, paintings and collages.
I realise that a lot of this probably sounds real boring, haha, but don't worry, I'm not just gonna do watercolour paintings of birds or anything. No, I'll be creating fun characters from creatures, producing pretty patterns from plants and maybe even coming up with some hybrid creatures of my own.
It's really gonna be a whole big smush up of different things.

Keeping it Real

2011-05-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

I found myself in one of those moods today, where you just want to scribble away, but without having to put much thought into it. For me, that means realistic drawing.

Why the elephant??

Because I quite like 'em :)

RrraAArRRggGHhh!!!

2011-05-16T03:56:00.000-07:00

Some little dinosaur characters I drew a couple of months ago, after a conversation about dinosaurs and picture books with my mister.

I decided they deserved to be coloured in, today.

New characters

2011-05-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

Experimenting with characters. It's fun!

I put together a rough spread for a story I'm re-working. Paper, pencil and ProMarkers.

Mr Koi

2011-05-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is Mr Koi.

He came about after a silly conversation with a friend, about a fish who brought us tea.

He does have a purpose, but for now, here he is just looking pretty.

Watch this space for more from Mr Koi!

Worldly Patterns

2011-04-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

A series of illustrations I've done, just for me.

Drawing and painting detailed patterns is so relaxing, I just couldn't stop after doing one!

All 4 are hand drawn and painted with watercolour and ink

Oddly enough, all the images are of places I want to visit. That wasn't intentional though, just happened that way :)

She has no name

2011-04-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

When I get bored, I doodle little oriental girls. Odd, I know.

This little cutie is hopefully the one I'm sending to an animator friend in Canadia, who's going to use her skills to turn it into a 3D digital model :)

Can't wait to see the results!

Just another update

2011-04-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm in so much pain with my jaw right now, that I can't concentrate on drawing. SO, I've decided to update this here blog instead.

I've been doing bits and bobs on that Cafe wall over the past couple of weeks, but we decided not to go with anything 'big', just texts and simple illustrations. It is a small place after all, and hey, it's all money and exposure, right?

What else... Oh! I've got a few orders for my 'A-Z of animals' book, so am currently in the process of finding a printers that'll produce great quality books, for a reasonable price. If you know of any, please let me know! One girl (who is following my work on facebook) whilst out last night, was looking at my book, and said she felt really privileged just to be holding the book and can't wait to own one. Haha, she made my night.

I know some of you have seen the little elephant picture I did, inspired by the disgusting story of Anne the circus elephant and the awful mistreatment she endured whilst under 'care' of Bobby Roberts Super Circus. Well that went down really well with elephant protection organisations and animal lovers alike. It brought a fair bit of attention to the issue and got people thinking, and it's things like that, that push me to carry on.

So now, we come to the end of these ramblings. Should really get some drawing done whilst I think the painkillers are kicking in. I've gotta get the second spread designed for this picture book collaboration! I'll upload each spread as they're done, with roughs and test pieces so you can see the progression. But overall, it's gonna take months to complete. Still haven't finalised the darned jellyfish! But I'm determined not to rush this one, soooo I'm afraid there will be no finished book until summertime...maybe? We'll see.

Peace out x

Attempt 2

2011-03-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

Another go at the first spread of the book

Same again, with my signature

2011-03-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Signed

Elephant Voice

2011-03-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

In light of the disgusting video of how 'Bobby Roberts Super Circus', treat their remaining elephant, I did this.

If only they could ask :(

Casual Scribbles

2011-03-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Just a couple more expression scribbles

My animal project is now in book form

2011-03-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Just a few
snapshots
of my A-Z
of animals
book,
being
enjoyed by
myself and
my man :)

I'm really
pleased
with the
print
quality!

Coloured pencil character

2011-03-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

Some pencil crayon character concepts

Smile? Laugh? Cry? Or Scream?!

2011-03-11T13:55:00.000-08:00

Just playing about with some facial expressions for a kid character.

I'm starting a new personal project, which is a picture book written by a friend, so it made sense to get a bit of practise in with faces!

These were only quick doodles, with 5 minute rough, digital colouring.

Have't decided how I'm going to approach the illustrations yet....I'll get back to you on that one ;)

What am I doing

2011-03-07T10:52:00.000-08:00

You know what's frustrating?

Not being able to get stuff done because of a lack of pennies.

I have so much work I need to get printed, and business cards too, but have to wait until I have the money. Money I will have, once pictures are printed and away to the relevant buyers. Annoying much.

So for now, I'm busying myself with getting my website sorted, getting contacts and coming up with new ideas for my portfolio.

I've got a couple of writer friends working on some short verse and poems for me to work with. Just a little something to get me illustrating text more. Maybe get them all printed in a little anthology of sorts? We'll see.

I think tomorrow I'm going to occupy my day working on a self portrait though. Painted, not 'blue pencil' stylee, haha. Man, I haven't done a self portrait since the second year of high school! It's gonna be weird....

Yep. So that's where I'm up to.

Hopefully have some new stuff up soon.

Peace out

Animal edits

2011-02-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

Brown bear edit

Dragonfly edit

Fin Whale edit

Hedgehog edit

Jellyfish edit

Koala edit

Nautilus edit

Pangolin edit

Toucan edit

Wolf to Zebra Finch and END!

2011-02-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

What's he doing?

Where's he going?

And why?

X-ray fish.

Xtra inky detail.

As he's xtra see through

Yak!

Though I quite like him.

Your opinions?

Ze final picture!

Zebra Finch!

Zzzzzzzz....

Today's desk diary picture

2011-02-24T07:13:00.000-08:00

Oooh, I am enjoying this personal project!

So many fun animals to draw and paint!

I've decided that I'm going to make all the images in this collection, watercolour and ink, so I'm redoing the collage pictures, as well as finishing the set.

I've just spent the past 2 hours drawing out the collaged images again, drawing the final 4 images, and painting them all, ready for inking :)

12 pictures drawn and painted in just under 2 hours! Hooray for speed painting ;p

I'll get on with some inking this afternoon, so I should have something new to show, later today....After my home made veggie stew! :D

Very grumpy Vervet

2011-02-23T10:42:00.001-08:00

Ah, my Vervet.

Virtually the grumpiest looking of them all!

Very fun to watch though.

U R on my work, cat

2011-02-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

Urgh, Kay!! Off my work :/

Ummm....yeah.

Uromastyx.

Toucan, or not Toucan

2011-02-23T10:38:00.000-08:00

Mr Toucan and his tremendously coloured bill.

Sir Sailfish of the Seas!

2011-02-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

'Sup.

Swim, Sailfish. SWIM!!

Such a stunning sail

Raikens!

2011-02-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

Really, Iroh? Again?!

Raiken!

Well, Raccoon really.

Quick! Look!

2011-02-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

Quick Quail.

Quite colourful ...

And a little quirky too.

Pardon the Pangolin mess

2011-02-20T10:42:00.000-08:00

Preparing the Pangolin!

Pretty little Pangolin.

Pottering about.

Precisely how many scales?

I don't know.

2011-02-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

Oh dear :/

Offer Mr Orangutan some sympathy.

Obviously he wasn't blessed with 'cute' looks.

Scary :/

NO kitty! Nautilus's desk

2011-02-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

Naughty cat :p

Nifty little Nautilus.

Not an easy one to collage.

Nice shell though!

Moose, loose aboot this hoose

2011-02-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Mr Moose!

Mooching around in the bushes.

'Mazing.

Le Mur

2011-02-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

Painty paint and crunchy crisps

Lovely Lemur and his long, lush tail.

Love Lemurs, I do.

Leaving him alone now.

K, it's a Koala

2011-02-16T13:34:00.000-08:00

Kwik Koala bear.

Kind of suspect he'll be re-drawn!

'K?

Jelly fishing

2011-02-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

How to make a jelly

Jolly good fun, making a Jelly.

No sting.

Just a lot of sticky mess

Ibex Illustration

2011-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

Imagine an Ibex, sitting at a rock.

If you can't -

it looks a bit like this.

Hedgehog! Hi!

2011-02-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

A prickly, sticky mess today.

Hello Hedgehog!

What lovely spikes you have.

I didn't stab myself at all, during your creation.

Honest.

G-raffe

2011-02-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

Gem's Giraffe here.

Definitely male....

FIN(ished) Whale

2011-02-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Whales can make quite a mess of your desk!

My finished Fin Whale.

He's shy.

So I drew him from behind.

'E MUst be easier than an elephant? Oh dear...

2011-02-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

Emu desk

'Ello Emu.

You should have been an Elephant.

But I forgot how to draw them.

Ideas are (dragon)flying

2011-02-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

I like my cups stained with tea....

Da da daaaaa!

It's Dragonfly!

Flying about in his own little world.

C my Chameleon?

2011-02-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

Todays desk mess :)

Here's my colourful chameleon.

He gave me a headache and we fell out.

But it's ok, I like him again now.

'Bear' in mind, I haven't used collage in a while...

2011-02-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

The calm before the storm, with my collage adventure.

It's been a while.

Ok, so I got TWO illustrations done today. I can't help my productivity!

Meet brown bear.

He likes to roll about.

Aye spy something beginning with A

2011-02-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

This is my aye-aye.

He's the start of a personal project I'm working on.

Hopefully, I'll get a new illustration done each day, before putting together the final thing :)

Kung Hei Fat Choi

2011-02-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

Another quick photoshop image, to mark the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.

I know all the pictures I've posted recently, have been super quick doodles. It's purely due to my working on the stuff for the Cafe.

I'm not losing it :p.

I simply haven't had the time to work on any good projects as of late.

Booooo

That said, I am going to try and set myself a new project that I can really work at, and hopefully add to my portfolio (it REALLY needs updating, haha).

Any suggestions would be welcomed!

Anyway, I hope the year of the rabbit brings you all much peace and happiness :)

Make you smile?

2011-01-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

Pencil sketch, then quickly messed up digitally.

A VERY quick, rough portrait for a friend.

She suggested we do portraits of one another, but I'm a bit busy right now, so figured I'd through a speedy one together, just to show that I haven't forgotten ;)

I do still FULLY intend to do a proper one, messy paints and all. It's just gonna take a few more days, as I start work on the Cafe tomorrow.

Just before I close my laptop...

2011-01-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

10 minutes playin about in photoshop, and she has an enviroment to play in :p
Well, it might make a nice greetings card, haha.

Oriental and Naked women!

2011-01-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

The pretty lady on the left, is just a quick doodle I did today, after working hard on Cafe designs.

I might do something with her properly, when I next have some free time. But for now, she can stand alone.

Oriental figures seem to be a favourite scribble subject when I have a few spare minutes. Saying that, according to a BBC quiz thing, I'm more into Japanese art, than any other type! Go figure.

And then there's a few pages from my life drawing sketchbook, thrown
together for all to see.

What else...
Well I'm still working on illustrations for the Cafe, only I'm focusing on pictures for the outside at the moment, to help grab peoples attention.
Should HOPEFULLY have agreed on final images by the end of the week, which means I can FINALLY start work on the place :)
In the meantime, all the meetings I'm attending there, are resulting in much yummy waffle eating...I'm gonna be huuuuge! Haha.

A 20 minute doodle and I'm calm

2011-01-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

Decided to take a break from the Cafe work, and doodled some jellyfish, having a swim...well, float.

Whatever :)

I wish I could just drift along, in the ocean. It gets too hectic here.

........

But I sure would miss tea!

Maybe my ocean can be an ocean of tea.

Yep :)

Life (drawing), it feels good!

2011-01-18T03:39:00.000-08:00

Aww man. I went to a life drawing class last night, for the first time in about 2 years, and it was totally awesome!

Met my friend who'd told me about the class, and we plonked ourselves down, ready for a good 2 hour, nakey drawing sesh.

And MY GOD, it felt great to be away from my desk, and drawing without the pressure of other peoples opinions. I was there solely for my own pleasure :)

Scribbling away, and totally zoning out is the best. And then wandering around during breaks, looking at what other people have done...well it's just immensely inspiring.

I'm REALLY looking forward to getting a lot more observational stuff done, and have every intention of filling a sketchbook or 2, with life drawings from this class. They always come in handy for reference ;)

Roll on next week! :D

Pretty Bored

2011-01-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

Boredom completely took over me today, which isn't like me.

This painting is the result of my epic boredom.

I resorted to painting a picture, for no other reason than to have something 'pretty' on my wall.

AND it's one of those that I'll look at in a few days and think 'What the HECK was I thinking?!'.

Bad, eh?

But at least I had fun painting, and working with a bit of collage again.

So....I GUESS....there's the reason! :)

Now to settle down and try and finish reading '127 Hours'. It's just getting to the grim bit ;)

Hope you've all had a more productive day than me!

Toodles

What's in my head?

2011-01-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

I rarely get to scribble just for fun any more, so I decided to take 30 minutes, to just mindlessly doodle away to my hearts content, and this is the result.

Just various things that went through my head, over the course of half an hour.

Of course, these are just scribbles, but I figured it'd be fun to give you an insight into my world :p

A cheery little chimp, having a dance

2011-01-14T08:07:00.000-08:00

My mum has been asking me to do a little sketch of a chimp, wearing a top hat and welly boots, for a while now.

So here it is.

Only a 5 minute job, but it makes folk smile :)

Coffee so good, even bears drink it

2011-01-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

Above is a rough of what I'm painting onto the Cafe wall.
It's a polar bear.
A polar bear who drinks coffee.
A FRENCH polar bear!
Nah, he's not really.
He just visited France on his coffee tasting travels.

Obviously the stairs and floor etc, are gonna be real, and not painted on by me, haha.
But you get the idea.

The polar bear idea came about as a joke I made.
I told my client that if he leaves it all to me, he'll end up with a polar bear drinking tea on his wall...but he actually liked this, so it's stuck!
Glad I didn't have a chance to over think this one, really :)

So I'm totally looking forward to getting this drawn and painted. It's going to be a fun few days!....Though I'm also super nervous about how it'll turn out. If you hear nothing more about it, it went wrong :p

Ooh, I've also been asked to paint something for the front of the Cafe too!

So I'm slowly taking over this place with my scribbly ways!
Next step: THE WORLD!
(but again, not really. As I don't want the world. That IS too much responsibility)

Poorly, Poo and Projects

2011-01-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

*cough cough splutter* Yep. That's why I was up before 6am today. I try to give myself Fridays off from working too...but I know I'll give in as soon as I'm done typing.

I have been feeling a tad lost with my work lately, not understanding where I'm going, and therefore, why I'm doing it. But I was quickly snapped out of it, with the offer of more paid work and an hour spent drawing with an inspiring little boy (note- don't inform a young child that 'poo' also begins with 'P'. He'll laugh as he scrawls it across the page in front of his parents. Oops!)

Yesterday, I had a meeting with the owner of a new little Café in town, and he wants me to paint something 'eye-catching' on the walls. It's a nice, white, blank canvas at the moment....actually, it's a little intimidating, but it should be fun....right?

Eeep.

Hope I can create something he likes!

I was also reminded of a little project I'm collaborating on, with an animator friend, when I bumped into her on the way to my meeting. She has a degree in model animation, and expressed interest in turning one of my stories, into a short animation, and has already made a darn cute clay model of one of my characters.

So there'll be more on that, as we get on with it.

Exciting stuff!

Nearly finished, honest!

2011-01-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

I WAS working on characters, but I got distracted by this painting, looking at me, begging to be worked on some more :p

It's still unfinished, but I promise, one day, it shall be complete!

NOW, I'll get on with at least one decent character, having been inspired by 'Memoirs of a Geisha' once more :)

Oh, how I love character design

2011-01-05T01:59:00.001-08:00

Well, I was supposed to be going for a lovely walk at a lake today, making some sketches and taking photos (I've been getting reeeally into my nature photography lately), but the good old British weather says otherwise :(

SO, how else can I satisfy my creative hunger today?

CHARACTER WORK!! :D

I totally find creating characters to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of Illustration. And doing it with a young audience in mind, makes it all the more fun! That said, I think it takes a super duper intelligent mind, to create a decent children's character...so we'll see how we go :p

I'm thinking a good few A3 sheets of human and animal characters should do the trick :)

So that's my day. Gonna stick some documentaries on, make some tea, and get scribbling.

Sketches to come, so watch this space :)

Thanks rain :p

Happy New Year and a happy new painting

2011-01-03T02:56:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everybody!!

I've been full of flu over the festive period, so haven't had much to do, other than get on with some personal work. So I've decided to rework a page of an old story I wrote, and this is my work in progress :)

Colouring books are fun!!

2010-11-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a story/colouring book that I was asked to illustrate by a local(ish) writers collective. I've created 9 line drawings, ready for the kiddies to colour, and finished the picture for the cover.

Above is a sample of the cover, though I still need to edit the text and layout :)

Today's stuff

2010-11-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Both fairly self explanatory, I guess :p

Animals, books and an old lady

2010-11-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

A test page for a book I'm toying with. Note: hedgehogs are actually rather hard to draw.... :/

A CHIMP!! :)

An old woman, drawn just for fun :)

Work for others

2010-11-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

Above: A portrait of a friends child. He wanted it doing for his mum as a christmas present :)

The picture above was inspired by talks I had with a lady, about soldiers and their kids :)

A picture for a book I worked on, written by a student children's fiction writer

Bits and pieces

2010-11-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did this. Had a LOT going on over the past few months, some of it good, some not so good, but drawing has been my one constant :)

I thought I'd upload some sketchbook/rough work for you to take a peek at. More stuff being uploaded too :)

Tea in China

2010-06-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

Another 'tea' picture to pass the time :)

Drawing keeping me sane once more :)

2010-06-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

Well, later today I have my degree show. After that, uni is officially over. Sad and scary times!!

To avoid dealing with the reality of this change, I've kept myself busy with personal work. Some maybe, along the theme of tea? :p

This picture was done for friends of mine, more specifically, their baby Bee :)

Jungle colour spreads

2010-04-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Three spreads from my book. Trying out coloured pencil.

Whilst I was colouring these, I remembered that all my GCSE art work was coloured pencil haha. I've gone full cirlce it seems.

A Watercolour Challenge...

2010-03-11T10:08:00.000-08:00

As I'm lay here in bed, dying of 'man flu' (figured if guys can get it 'that' bad, why can't I?), I decided I might as well update this thing, as I rarely do :p

So I'm in the process of finalising page layouts for my latest children's book, and threw a bit of watercolour into the mix, to see how it worked. Personally I quite like it, it's a lot more subtle than my previous stuff. This was only a rough trial, but I may keep going with it, see how it works out :)

Anyway, that's it for now. Back to the Yerba Mate for me. Toodles

Blog blog blah

2010-02-18T12:57:00.001-08:00

So it's been a while since I posted on this here blog...been too busy really with uni work. Finally got round to uploading a few images from my last project (see previous post) and am currently working on a new children's book that I intend to enter to Macmillan.

This time, the story is about an girl living in a village on the edge of an indian jungle. She's friend with an elephant and...well, an adventure ensues, I'll tell more as I upload the work :)

For now, here's a couple of quick character sketches for Sumita, the main character.

A bit of culture

2010-02-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

Some pages from a book I did about chinese culture. It all folds out and the pages along the back make up a long chinese new year scene.

Learnt from my mistakes on this one, and know how to make my next one better :)

Messy Fish!

2009-08-13T10:44:00.001-07:00

Messy fish blows bubbles!!!

Messy owl, messy desk

2009-08-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Messy owl seems to be a recurring character for me now. These images are so much fun to do, I don't want to stop! :D

The only problem is, messy owl leads to messy desk :/

yaaaawn

2009-08-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

I was feeling sleepy today...coincidentally, so was messy owl :p

More fun with ink and handmade papers :)

Messy owl

2009-08-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

This is messy owl.

Messy owl goes 'woooooo'

Just making a mess with papers and ink :p

The circus is in town!

2009-08-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

I created this simply to pass the day and make me smile, which it did :)

There's more ink on me than on my paper...

2009-07-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Scribbles from my sketchbook.I've just been making mess over summer, having a bit of fun :p

I was talking with a friend about childhood memories recently, and I remembered drawing my dream house in primary school when I was about 6. Obviously it had rose bushes, apple trees, a big pond and flowers as tall as the house :D

So anyway, I decided to do a quick, generic, child-like sketch of my dream house now, aged 24

Tea Boy

2009-07-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

This is just a character I've been drawing whilst trying to think of a story to use him in. Figured I'd combine things I love: Tea, China and children's books. Not boys though, boys are smelly :p

If anyone can think of a story for him, let me know. All suggestions welcome :)

Iroh the Cat

2009-06-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

This is a quick character drawing of the two main characters for a little story I'm writing about Iroh the cat. It's just some fun as I'm getting a little ginger kitten and naming him Iroh hehe ^-^

'The Nightingale' page 2

2009-05-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

The second page for 'The Nightingale' story I'm playing with :) Again I'll fix it up when all pages are complete :)

This is so enjoyable! :D

'The Nightingale'

2009-05-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

This is the first page of a story I'm illustrating for fun, just to keep me busy over the summer break. It's called 'The Nightingale' and is just a simple childrens story I picked out from a book.

Playing with watercolours and collage, making lots of mess haha :)

Characters and Lemurs

2009-04-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

These are some rough character ideas that I've done for a uni brief which is to create characters using the letters of my surname (don't ask what it is :p) Again, a pleasant, fun project :D So these are what I have so far...some watercolour, some collage and some digital, figured I'd mix it up a bit :p

I've been to the zoo today (a birthday treat from my friend :D) and returned all smiles and inspired. The sun was out all day, so all the animals were playing out with us, and I had a great time socialising with the ring tailed lemur. We sat sunbathing with them (in an open space where they roam free) and I fed daisies to a group who sat less than a foot away from us hehe. They took them from me so gently it was amazing :) Anyway, as cute and fun as they were, I couldn't help but picture them with little bowler hats, so now I'm gonna go draw up some characters based on them, just for me :D

Rintin complete...

2009-03-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

Page 1

Page 2

Page 4

Page 9

These are my final double spreads for my childrens book. I decided to go downt he collage route, instead of the digital one to breathe a little life into the pages. I think it works better, more textures and such :)

So...I think I'm all done with uni work now for the summer! Got my portfolio sorted and all work is completed INCLUDING this damned flash animation :p I think I can finally relax

*breathes a sigh of relief*

Rintin poem...

2009-03-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

So inbetween re-working my childrens book illustrations for the MacMillan competition, I figured I might aswell put up the story/poem that I wrote to illustrate, that way the images I put up might make more sense :p

Rintin always plays alone.

No one's on her side.

She tries to play with other kids,

But they just run and hide.

She sits on swings, but no one pushes,

This makes Rintin cry.

Why won't the other children play?

She often wonders why.

Rintin looks quite different see,
She hasn’t any clothes.
No floppy hair, no freckled face,
Not even got a nose.

Rintin is a special child,
With a key that she must twirl.
The truth about small Rintin is…
She is a clockwork girl.

Then one day things quickly changed.
Someone was approaching!
A smiling girl with golden hair,
A friendship in the making.

The girl held out her dainty hand,
And offered her some sweets.
She stared a while and then she smiled,
And jumped straight to her feet.

The two they wandered off together,
Talking all the while.
About nothing and everything,
It did make Rintin smile.

They ran along the concrete streets
Hand in hand, still smiling.
Rintin now felt happiness,
She’d even stopped her crying!

Next they came to a big, old house,
Such a fantastic place!
Covered in cogs and springs and things,
And a shiny, giant clock face.

The mum and dad were nice to her,
They offered her some tea.
They let her stay there all the time.
They liked Rintin you see.

So here is where Rintin remained,
With the key that she must twirl.
Family, friend, cogs and all,
One happy, clockwork girl.

Rintin the Clockwork Girl

2009-03-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

These are a few pages for a childrens book I wrote about a little clockwork girl named Rintin. She has no friends *awwww*, but then a girl befriends her, and all is well. The story is a tad more detailed than that...but it is aimed at 5 year olds :p

I'll more than likely re-work these anyway, and I'd like to finish the whole book rather than just the 4 illustrations required for my brief :)

Some uni work to get me started

2009-03-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Yet more robots :p This was a project where we had to buy an item for 1 pound and re-design the packaging to make it worth 2 pounds.

I got a small robot eraser, who by the way was uber fun to play with :p, and this is his new home :)

Ok, so I have a slight obsession with robots, but who doesn't!?! This was just a real quick doodle of a robot who wanted to love...bless him.

We were told to pick an article and illustrate it, so this is a quick editorial piece I did for an article about birds in uk overseas territories not getting the same rights as the birds on the mainland.

I like the birdy :D

This is an A1 poster I did to illustrate a designated section of the library. I got given 'landscape gardening', but luckily found a book on japanese gardening hidden amongst all 5 of the other books in my section :p

And so we begin...

2009-03-03T13:03:00.000-08:00

So I figured I'd get one of these things up and running...seems to be the 'in thing' :p

I'm an illustration student, so I'll just be uploading works that I do as part of my course, with the occasional bit of personal work thrown in whenever I get the time to do any :)