Fleur De Lys - Rococo Inspired Design

I realised that although I’ve shared the visualisation boards I created for my last BA submission, I haven’t actually shared many of the designs here. This one was inspired by a popular highly ornamental trend of the 18th and 19th centuries; Rococo. I adore all those swirls and elaborate embellishments and I imagine I’ll be creating more inspired by the same theme. You can view this one in the ‘Pattern’ gallery on my homepage.

I experimented with this design using various processes in the textile print room at college. I’ll share more of those in a future post.

Business Cards, Greetings Cards & Magnets

African Animals in historical clothes original artists cards

Original Artists Paintings Greetings Cards

Original Art on Bottle Opener Magnets

Small Magnets with Unique and Original Artwork

Susie Batsfords Business Cards with Original Art

Well, it’s finally here, this evening is the Opening Night of our exhibition ‘Metamorphosis’. I remember watching in awe as all the student work went up on the walls this time last year, and thinking that I could never imagine being ready to exhibit anything. If I’m totally honest, I still don’t feel ready but I wonder how many artists really do when they are at this stage of their career.

 So, with the exhibition hung, I began to turn my attention to promotional material and here is what I’ve designed fresh from the printers today… just in time. Blank greetings cards, small round magnets, bottle opener magnets and of course my double sided business cards from https://www.moo.com/uk/

 When the magnets arrived I popped them into little bags and attached a cardboard label I’ve also designed and printed, there’s a matching logo design on the back of my greetings cards. You might recognise the icons from my previous post http://www.illustratorsimaginarium.co.uk/the-emperors-new-crown/

I’ve also just begun another course in photography with the Makelight community, this time I'm studying 'Makelight Essentials' which teaches some basics in photography:  https://makelight.com

So hopefully, I’ll start getting to grips with my new birthday camera. Photographs of tonight’s exhibition will follow so for now… wish me luck!

The tale of the birthday tea...

Anthropomorphic Fox in Regency Clothes Looking at Cottage in Woods

Anthropomorphic Mouse in Shabby Chic Cottage Kitchen with Aga Watercolour Painting

Anthropomorphic Woodland Animals dressed in Regency Clothes in Cottage Gouache & Watercolour Painting

Anthropomorphic Mouse Dressed in Shabby Chic Cottage Kitchen Gouache & Watercolour Painting

Anthropomorphic Woodland Animals in Regency Clothing Gouache & Watercolour Painting

The brazen fox had slipped away, but for his crimes he'd have to pay.

For this time he'd been caught red handed.  A sneaky thief he was now branded.

He knew that he could not remain, and no-one saw that Fox again... ...

Sometimes, a project I'm working on becomes a journey of artistic challenges and discovery.  Ventures like these seem to require an endless amount of motivation and determination to complete.  This has been one of those projects; it has pushed my boundaries and challenged me to confront feelings of self doubt, while working on six images at once for the first time, has been intense.  It has also been a labour of love and given me great joy.  Would I do it differently if I started all over again?  Yes definitely!  But, I am happy to finally put my paint brushes down (for now at least), even with all my perceived imperfections.  So here after more than a month in the making is my Woodland Animal Series.  You can see how these paintings developed here: http://www.illustratorsimaginarium.co.uk/woodland-animal-paintings-experiments-in-colour-palettes/

Sketchbook Drawings of Jane Austen Style Shoes

While I'm waiting for some new paint to arrive, before I can finish my 'Woodland Animal' series, I thought I'd begin work on my next project.  It's all beginning in my sketch book, with a collection of twelve Georgian Shoes.  Come back soon to see how things develop.

Woodland Animal Paintings & Experiments in Colour Palettes

Historical Regency Costume, Animals in Clothes, Georgian Clothes, Mixed Media

Historical Regency Costume, Animals in Clothes, Georgian Clothes, Mixed Media

Watercolour Paint for Childrens Book Illustration of Forest Creatures

Having finished my essay… at last, I can start to concentrate on getting creative again. Only a few weeks to go now, until our 2nd Year degree exhibition, slight panic! I started developing my anthropomorphic ‘Woodland Animal’ series, by just tentatively trying out colour palettes. There are six all together and I’ve just got some finishing touches and the characters to paint now. Hopefully they will come together once I’ve finished, but I guess it’s been an amazing learning curve whatever the end result. I’ll be posting the finished paintings here, hopefully very soon.

1920’s Flapper Girls and Colouring Books

Vintage Fashion Glamour Girl Portrait in Watercolour Paint

Vintage Fashion Glamour Girl Portrait in Watercolour Paint

Vintage Fashion Glamour Girl Portrait in Watercolour Paint

Vintage Fashion Glamour Girl Portrait in Watercolour

Hello Everybody and Happy March, I'm so glad spring is finally here.  I've been busy preparing for an end of year exhibition sometime in June, although we haven't decided on the exact date of it yet. It’s the final module in my FdA in Illustration and there's plenty to keep me busy. I've also started an online class with Art Agent Lilla Rogers called MATS Bootcamp.  There's one preparation mini which leads into the main assignment each month.  This is my work towards our first assignment which is  to design a colouring book cover using 1920’s iconography and portraiture.  I've decided to use it towards my FdA exhibition, the top sketch is a rough draft of my colouring book cover, I must admit it's been a lot of fun.  I'll post the finished design in the coming weeks, but meanwhile you check out some information about the course here: http://makeartthatsells.com