2013 Favourite bits

2013 was a really fun year, I embarked on lots of lovely illustrated adventures and projects and I'm so excited for the new year! I'm very thankful for all the opportunities and grateful to be doing something I truly love.

Here are some of my favourite things that happened last year…x

At the beginning of the year a giant egg was delivered to my door and I spent a few weeks hand illustrating it to raise money for Action for Children as part of The Lindt Big Egg Hunt. My design was shortlisted for The Association of Illustrators 2013 awards.

I worked with the lovely team at Vita V Organics to produce their first two salad dressing labels.

The Financial Times commissioned me to illustrate a feature celebrating 100 years of the Chelsea Flower Show.

I got the privilege of working with creative agency babyGrand on some illustrations for Radley. The project was commissioned to celebrate 15 years of the brand. This was one of my most enjoyable jobs, I loved the theme and brief, unfortunately the illustrations weren't used in the end but I really enjoyed the process.

I was really excited to be asked to draw for Stylist magazine - this job was a reminder of why I love being an illustrator, you never know what you may be asked to draw and illustrating a timeline of the bikini line is no exception!

I worked with Anova books on my first commission in publishing. shortly followed by…

...a book project for Rodale inc. I created over 66 illustrations of veggies & herbs and gardening projects, all to be revealed fully next year!

I'm currently working on a project with Youth Sauce - an organisation who works with young people to provide creative workshops, courses and mentorship. The project 'Walthamstow resolutions,' is based on new years resolutions of Walthamstow residents and culminates in an exhibition in Walthamstow mall in the new year. I'll post more info about the project soon. 

Does anyone have any good new years resolutions? I seem to have a few too many at the moment but i like to see them more as achievable goals rather than promises of things that will never happen :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a peek at my blog. Wishing everyone a very happy and healthy 2014!

N by Norwegian

I was recently asked to illustrate another article by Toby Young (I first illustrated a Toby Young article for Stella magazine a few years ago.) The article 'How not to do New York,' examines the reasons Toby failed to 'take' New York. It was a fun piece to illustrate with funny anecdotes that conjured up great images. I chose to illustrate Toby as a small character representing his feelings of insignificance. There are five illustrations altogether so if you're flying to Norway check them out in the flesh in N by Norwegian magazine. Special thanks to Rickard Westin for great art direction.

I'm currently finishing up a deadline on a book I've been working on for the last few months for Rodale, it's getting to the end now and it's exciting to see it all coming together. It will be out in February 2014. I've also worked on a book for Anova books which is out in March and I have some illustrations in the January and February issues of Waitrose Kitchen magazine so watch this space for new work coming soon in the new year!

  

'The Bush is back,' Stylist magazine

I had a blast working on this unusual topic for a feature for Stylist magazine with designer Laura Kenny. The brief was a timeline of pubic hair and they wanted it to look posh and pretty with quirky takes on the facts and not the obvious renders of pubic hair! It was quite challenging exploring and coming up with ideas that were visually attractive especially when you read the article and discover facts such as prostitutes in the 1700s shaved their pubic hair only to replace it with merkins (which is ...obviously... a pubic wig made of mouse fur!) I loved the challenge - hope you like what I came up with.

Vita V Organics

I'm really excited to be able to share one of my favourite projects to date that I worked on last year. I worked with the wonderful ladies Vita and Robyn to create a set of two packaging designs for their delicious (...and I can vouch for that) salad dressings Frenchie and Naked Zest. The products are truly amazing and it was inspiring to work with such passionate people. I really enjoyed having the freedom of being able to design the whole labels with the collaborative input and direction that I was given from Vita and Robyn. It was a really hands on project which made it doubly fun and I learnt a lot from it and I'm excited to see what the future has in-store for Vita V - watch this space!

Peaches

New York, New York

New illustration commissioned by American snack food company 'Drakes' as part of their brand relaunch. This illustration was part of a moving art gallery exhibited around New York City.

New York dreaming...

Devonshire Dash

This is a map and some typography I created for the lovely people at Lillingston Events for a special 50th birthday event they hosted. The brief was to create a treasure map of Devon for the event in which the group travelled across Devon in combi-vans taking part in all sorts of activities such as sand castle building, oyster shucking, sheep herding and more. I also created the logo (top right on map) that was used throughout and printed on a lovely navy blue fabric invitation box in foil.

Joe Christmas' blog

I recently worked on a fun project for Joe, a marketing executive at Penguin to create hand lettering and a background pattern for his personal blog. You can check it out here.

Joe was brilliant to work with and I loved creating the illustrations. The objects were really fun to draw each one was handpicked by Joe because they mean something to him.

Financial Times - 100 and still growing...

I was asked by The Financial Times to illustrate an article by Robin Lane Fox celebrating the centenary of The Chelsea Flower Show. It also marks 125 years of FT and Fox's personal demi-centenary, his 50th year of visiting the show.

Paris dreaming...

A little map of Paris I've just finished. I really enjoyed combining intricate details with bold areas of colour, hope you like it. I'm daydreaming about my next trip to Paris, here are some photo's from the last time I was there..

View from Montmarte 

The Louvre

Window pane inside Sacre-Coeur

A paris gallery window

Amazing vertical garden in Paris

Paris Street Art

The Lindt Big Egg Hunt Auction

The Lindt Big Egg Hunt has been extended and the eggs will be exhibited in covent Garden until Sunday 7th April.

There is only 5 days left to place a bid on my egg in the online auction here.

If you would like a giant egg shaped piece of art in your home or workplace or know someone who might please join in the auction to raise vital funds for Action for Children.

New custom portrait

Latest custom portrait designed for a special birthday gift. If you're interested in commissioning your very own bespoke portrait please email me here.

Five ways with Gin

A recent image I created as an experiment to play around with colour and type. 

New book cover set

I've been working on these book jackets for my portfolio.

I really enjoyed playing around with the bright colours and exploring new colour combinations. Hope you like them!

The artworks 2013/2014 Wall Calendar

This year The Artworks decided to design a unique two sided A2 wall calendar with every one of the twelve branches on each tree illustrated by a different one of their artists, representing the different months of the year. I was given February to illustrate and here it is. I think the calendar is a fab way to show the range & diversity of the work produced by the artists that The Artworks represent and is a fun way to see how all the different illustrative styles can work together in one image.

Eggs on tour, first stop - Covent Garden!

Today was the launch of The Lindt Big Egg Hunt in covent Garden. The 101 eggs remain there until Sunday when they travel to their next destination - Birmingham! To find out how to take part in the hunt visit The Lindt Big Egg Hunt website.

There's lots of beautiful eggs to see, competitions galore and it's a great event for families to take part in to raise vital funds for Action for Children.

The Lindt Big Egg Hunt launch

The Lindt Big Egg Hunt launches next week on Tuesday 12th Feb in Covent Garden. My illustrated egg will be exhibited alongside other artist designs. Come along to show your support for Action for Children!

You can find the Lindt Big Egg Hunt online at:

- Facebook
- Twitter 
- YouTube

Here's a sneaky peek from the Big Egg Hunt's facebook page of some of the eggs making their way to the launch location! More info coming soon!

My favourite things #2

This week for my 'favourite things' project the image I created represents my favourite past time ever - Drawing!

My favourite things #1

My latest project, my favourite things looks at... you guessed it my favourite things!

First up... Nacho's. My friends and family are well aware of my unhealthy addiction to these tasty chips, they're just so delicious.

Here's a little picture to whet your appetite. Stay tuned as every Wednesday I'll be posting an illustration from 'my favourite things,' project.

Have a great week x

The Lindt Big Egg Hunt 2013

Well it's official my time illustrating for The Lindt Big Egg Hunt is over. It's been an intense two weeks of drawing, drawing and a bit more drawing! I've really enjoyed the process of stripping everything back and working in a very traditional way - there's no option to use photoshop when you're illustrating an egg sculpture! I'm really excited about the launch of the eggs on Shrove Tuesday in Covent Garden, can't wait to see all the others eggs and their designs.

Thanks for following some of my progress here on this blog,

Bye for now x