2016 and the Death of Idols

Personally, this year has been really intense and a steep learning curve. Here's a handy little list of some of the stuff that's gone down for me: I quit working in retail, something I'd been doing on-and-off for 4/5 years and absolutely hated.  I got a new job working in a college, then got an identical job at another college a few months later.  I read 16 books I signed a lease to move...

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Christmas Gift Tags & 2017 Art Plans

I'm out of my market/studio space next week and into a new flat by January so the next few weeks will be quiet as I relocate everything and set up my new space to work from home. My art to-do list for personal projects in 2017 currently consists of:  development for Terminal (my graphic novel project)  gallons of original prints/fanart (I want to start selling at local conventions and...

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Felting Friday (backlog) - Badgers, fox, humpback whale & orca

I've been so busy with everything lately, I'm sorry to anyone that likes to dip into this blog, I really am. You can absolutely expect more from me in 2017. Here's what you missed over the last couple of months. Needlefelt badger, merino wool Needlefelt fox, merino wool, acrylic eyes & wire Needlefelt humpback whale, merino wool Needlefelt orca, merino wool I've been selling...

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Pet portraits and a new vulture painting

Bear with me, it's been a while. The market has been keeping me really busy, along with looking for a new place to live, working at college and picking up a slew of commissions. I'm not complaining, I love it, it's great to be busy doing what you love.  First off, I finished off a new watercolour piece. It's an A3 piece, so the biggest watercolour painting I've ever done and definitely the...

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New studio & market residency

I've got a new studio space on the first floor of Co-Lab in Broadmead, Bristol! This is my first attempt at selling my work outside of private commissions for clients as the space opens up as a market twice a week. I'm here with a handful of other great, more experienced artists, so I'm picking up tips as I go and improving my space and techniques every day. To be honest, above everything it's...

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Endangered Terrariums

Anybody following me on social media recently (I've really been trying to figure Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr out, it completely goes against my style) will have seen WIPs of this series scattered around over the last couple of weeks. I'm so happy to have them all done, guys! I've never done a series like this before so, as with everything I'm doing these days, it was a learning experience.  These...

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Divide

Phew, it's been a while! Fear not, I've been incredibly busy. I've been doing a lot of work away from scanners and tablets, as well as setting up different projects and getting settled into my day job.  Here's a little something I started a month or so ago. After I inked it I spent a lot of time looking at it wondering what I could do with it. I thought about using it as Adobe Illustrator...

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Toadrobin! Robintoad!

I promised myself I wouldn't do anymore fun free art for people.. That didn't work out.  Toadrobin, A5, colour pencil Robintoad! Toadrobin! Whatever you want to call it.&nb...

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Felting Friday - the Lammergeier!

First off, I revamped my website a little bit. I'm a complete sucker for teal and turquoise shades, and I eventually intend to match it up with some soft pinks when I get some time to fiddle with it more and make some pretty buttons and whatnot. I think I'll aim for needle felting something every friday for the foreseeable future. Seems like a good pace alongside other stuff for the moment, though...

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Lord of the Deadwood - Finished!

Two posts in one day! I suppose that makes up for a couple of sleepy weeks, right? This is just to show off the finished version of an old WIP I had lying around. As usual, as unsure as I am about the finished product I'm content with the fact that I learnt a lot through the process. And most of this was churned out in twenty four hours, which I feel was a huge achievement for me. I'm still picking...

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The Pokemon revival

I know everyone is shooting out Pokemon related stuff because of the recent (and probably, by now, waning?) success of Pokemon Go. And the new 3DS games due out in November.  While a lot of people have used Go as a gateway back into those games, I've been a constant resident of the bandwagon since childhood. I mean I've bought at least one of every generation of games. Don't get me wrong, I...

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Felting Friday - the Red Stag

I love needlefelting.  I've decided to work my way through these big bags of wool I've amassed. It's really addictive. I find it even more satisfying than sculpting at the moment in the way that it's so tactile and you can see results really quickly. If I can balance this with my illustration and design work, as well as with my day job, I'll be a very happy lady. Here's my project from the...

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Scotland photo collections

I can't recommend Scotland enough if you ever want to escape the city for a few days. It doesn't take long to feel like you could be absolutely anywhere but in the UK. There were moments where the highlands were channeling a very Scandanavian vibe. At times I could have been exploring New Zealand, Iceland or Canada, made even stranger by the fact that I hadn't been on a plane, that I was on the same...

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Felting Friday - the Cockapoo!

Today I threw together some wool and made a quick little felt figure of my mum's dog Maia. She's a cockapoo, but not a 'pure' one, so she's essentially a cocker spaniel that occasionally gets this massive wooly fluff around her legs.  A gorgeous dog, but an absolute monster. Needlefelted cockapoo, merino wool & wire I used a wire frame for this one to handle the extra...

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Scotland paintings

Sorry folks! Unfortunately I fell in love with Scotland too hard to get around to doing much art. I DID manage to sit myself down by a river and on a hillside and have a go at a couple of watercolour paintings, but I mostly had the camera out shooting reference photos. So I'll be rummaging through them, grouping them and using them for inspiration in the future.  We did quite a lot of forest...

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Watercolour practice pt.2

I've been at the watercolour paints again! I'm intentionally trying to get some practice in with waterbrushes and working with minimal equipment ready for my trip to Scotland next week. We'll be staying around Cairngorms National Park for a few days, zipping around the highlands in the car, so I want to try and capture as much as I can while carrying as little as possible. The Pagan Vixen,...

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Felting Fridays - the Pigeon!

Over the last few weeks I've acquired enough wool to build my own life-size rainbow-coloured sheep, so I put it to some use and had a little needle felting session.  Here's the little rock dove I made for my boyfriend. If you can't tell already from the content of this blog, I've got a bit of an obsession with pigeons. Well, birds in general, but I have so much time and love for these little...

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Lord of the Deadwood - a work-in-progress

In the interests of building up a catalogue of references I went wandering 'round Arnos Vale last week and took some pretty interesting photographs of trees and old, mossy tombstones. Everything's really ancient and overgrown, and the elegance in design of the architecture and sculpture is something that you just don't find anywhere else nowadays. It's an incredibly peaceful place, almost ethereal...

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Tiny watercolour practice

I've seen a lot of nice illustrated prints of different subspecies lately, so I thought I'd try my hand at it a bit too. It's a good excuse to get some watercolour practice in.  Although I've done a lot of digital watercolouring recently on SAI, I have a habit of dipping in and out of traditional watercolour before I get a chance to get a good method going. I'm using a (roughly) 5x3inch...

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