Collage

This week I started Mati Rose's on line course on collage. How could I resist! A whole 5 weeks of hopefully learning some new tips and being inspired by other people. So this is how it started, normally I collage icons and scan them in too create an image, so it was much more of a challenge to do the image without the use of photoshop! Anyway this is how it went!

Colour!

Today has been all about colour......and a little black and white!

New Craft Market!

A friend of mine is helping to set up an Arts and crafts Market with the first one being in Guildford, Surrey, so if anyone is interested please check out this link. It sounds like it is going to be a great event.

Blooms of Nigeria

Joining in with this project to try and keep it in the forefront of everyones minds.

By now you must have heard of the plight of the abducted Nigerian School Girls. Fellow illustrator Janna Morton and I have created a tumblr “BloomsofNigeria” to draw attention to the individuals lost and make the issue more visible, in our own way as women artists. We would love for you to join us in making a picture of a single flower and writing the name of one of the 180 known missing girls, in dedication and hope. Please let me know if you are interested and I will send you one of the names we have, for you to personalize. We hope to get this flower garden out into the world. Thank you in anticipation! ---------------------------http://bloomsofnigeria.tumblr.com "But though the stark numbers are powerful, it’s important to remember that each of these girls is an individual, with a family, friends, dreams — and a name. "
http://feministing.com/members/maya/

Bootcamp Gallery

Somewhere in a sea of meditation is my image, some amazing illustrations so worth a look at May Bootcamp Gallery

Meditate!

My week has been taken up with so many chores and other stuff that I have really had no time, and now half term is here and we are off to see inlaws in Germany for a few days.
Anyway this was my contribution to the Bootcamp course this month!

Blue part 2!

Carrying on with the blue theme, some things from around our home and garden!

BLUE!

This weeks inspiration for our Bootcamp assignment is blue, couldn't resist taking some photo's to compliment the colour!

Uppercase Colour!

A lovely feature on the Uppercase Newsletter from by far my most favourite magazine! How exciting thank you Janine.

Screen/Print explores the dichotomy of creating a print magazine in a digital world. In UPPERCASE magazine, we encourage you to get your hands dirty with inks and paints. To become intimately involved in the act of making. To experiment with a new medium or craft. To look at the world from a different perspective and perhaps to think and dream a little more freely. Through our readers’ submissions, I’m a gatherer of these experiences. My inbox is full of images of amazing craft, wonderful messes, beautiful products and smart designs made by UPPERCASE readers. I love going through all the submissions and getting to know you. Alas, my only regret is that this requires an awful lot of screen time and is actually quite an intensive mental sorting exercise. The majority of the creative process for putting together an issue of UPPERCASE magazine is a digital one. Today, I’m working on the page layout for the summer issue and sorting through readers’ submissions for the open call “What does colour mean to you?” These images are by illustrator Tracey English. "I live in London which everyone imagines is always grey, but really it is filled with colours—you just need to look.” One need not look farther than Tracey’s own desktop that is covered with inks, paints and a spectrum of tissue paper bits. "I have always loved colour; it brightens up even a dull day. I try to find it all around me.”

Feeling disconnected from her creativity, Tracey tried approaching her work with a fresh perspective and new technique. "I was stuck in a rut after looking after my family for many years, and somehow I needed to bring new life into my work and do something different.” Through experiments and trial and error, she started working with tissue paper collage. “Now I am hooked!” Tracey exclaims. "I work with inks and liquid acrylics, they give luminous colours and lovely textures, either mono printing them on to the tissue paper or painting directly with brushes. I love the rainbow coloured papers that you can create, everyone is slightly different. I then have the inspiration to create an image, which I do by cutting and collaging.” Once she is satisfied with the collage, she tidies up the image and assembles the design in Photoshop. Tracey’s is just one of many excellent submissions that I look forward to sharing with you in the summer issue. And I can’t wait to reveal the cover! I’m putting the final touches on it and will share it soon…

Funny Faces!

The next MATS project is up and running and the theme is Dolls! We don't know the final project yet so there has been lots of studies of dolls and faces, took a few photo's of dolls around our home too!