Ghost label...finally

Self portraits....take ages to get right!

We were asked to bring in a photo of ourselves for self portraits.
I havent done a self portrait since I was 17, its a lot easier to draw other people!

When it came to drawing myself, I found it very difficult I had to restart three times before I was even happy with a starting point.

My final outcome took me about an hour and a half maybe a bit more as i finished it at home.

Im pretty pleased with it although I can see that the proportions are not quite right.

Illustration cafe 30/11/11

An array of different toys, all arranged with our best friend Shelly the Skeleton.

I really enjoyed this session, sometimes its just nice to do some observational drawings :)

Christmas time...Christmas cards

 After discovering flock and foil and how fun and easy it was I wanted to make some christmas cards.

Here are my designs which have been closely cut  and will be mounted onto festive paper and then cards.

Fun, easy, cheap and a lot more personal than any old Hallmark card.

Merry christmas!

A view from my window ~ images for Lino and dry point

I wish i'd taken some more interesting photo's, however my street is pretty boring so that would have been difficult.

Our cats have ideas of grandeur and fame and wouldn't leave me alone so they appeared in a few of my pictures.

After a discussion with Maria about the fireside book I either left the kitties out or made them more stylised.

This was a sketch for my Lino design, I ended up removing this pesky kitty from my final lino cut.

Lino cut and ready to print.

Lino print in blue, I like the simplicity of this print, although I wish I had thought about the colours and maybe worked into it more.

This is the drypoint print, if I were to do it again I would use less extender with the ink to give it a darker print, although this works well also.

Second design for lino cutting.

After my first lino cut, I wanted to try double or triple colours, it proved tricky trying to figure out which bits were going to stay certain colours and which bits to cut out next etc.. overall I like the outcome but would like to try some different colours next time.

Ghost Labels ~ Romance is dead

These are my initial sketches which led up to my finished label, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to scan my actual label so will have to update it with a picture later on :) but you'll get the gist.

Initial sketch and idea, the gentleman Romance.

This was my actual stencil, as you can see covered in spray paint....took ages to dry!

More of a 'ghostly' effect, using spray paint and black card.

Found this TED talk and just had to share it :)

Ursus Wehrli 'Tidies up art'