SKETCHBOOK

My Little Pink Book

Im using my little pink moleskine to document as many species of argyll bird as i can. I want to fill it with information about the birds, where in argyll you can see them and where i have seen them myself. The text will be accompanied by a quick sketch of the bird that shows it's basic characteristics and appearance.

Drawing & Writing Collaboration

This is the illustration i have done for a collaboration project with Edinburgh University creative writing. At the end of our project we'll be making a book of all the collaborators and having a exhibition.

It's beginning to feel a lot like christmas...

well done to my friend miss kate holiday from sunlight on closed lids for designing these beautiful festive cards! my favourite's the post box one. i may just have to buy some! get in contact with sunlight on closed lids and see the rest of their amazing collection at www.sunlightonclosedlids.co.uk

RESEARCH No.2

Greenland Falcon

one of his many measured drawings that he did in his studio at home where he

usually drew from stuffed birds or most commonly, dead birds that he had

found or people had brought to him to use.

For my personal project ( Birds of Argyll & The Islands) i've been doing a shed load of research. One person i have fallen completely in love with is the late Charles Tunnicliffe. He devoted most of his life to the study of birds, which he drew hundreds of precise and measured drawings of from both Cheshire meres and Anglesey where he lived until his death .

peregrine falcon. Wood Engraving, 1947.

He was most well known for his amazing skill for etching and wood-engraving. I think the reason i love his work so much is partly because of the type of man he was. He was raised on a small farm and was described as a warm hearted, down-to-earth countryman. I share his fascination with the countryside and all it's colours and wildlife having spent a lot of my childhood looking after animals, playing outdoors and helping in the allotment.

watercolour thumbnails Tunnicliffe did in his sketchbook before the finished painting

Looking at Tunnicliffe's work, i would like to try etching for some of my illustrations this year. I like how every line is picked up and every mark you make has to be kept, it gives the work a lot of energy.

RESEARCH No.1

I've been looking a lot at vintage bird illustrations for my 4th year personal project. I came across this beautiful book called 'woodland birds' which is full of vintage coloured plates. I'm definately going to try and find my own copy of this! I want to frame every page in it!

I love the pattern on the cover, the colours are definetly my cuppa tea and i think it would make beautiful stationery, especially envelopes.

The top two spreads are from the woodland birds book, and the bottom pages are from a book called 'garden birds' which i got from the library, which also is full of very romantic vintage illustrations. And they smell all old like libraries which makes them even more amazing!!

INSPIRATION

Vice magazine are holding a competition to create something to go on a wall in a public space in London. I'd love to submit a design if i have time and i thought these murals by os gemeos and elbow toe were very fitting to inspire anyone who's thinking of entering.

These two images are of the new mural in New York painted by Os Gemeos (twin brothers from Sao Paulo). I saw the article on arrested motion, i love all of os gemeos work with their creepy but cute bird heads on human bodies. but i've never seen anything like this, it's so colourful and intense with so much to look at, i wish i could go to New York and look at it all day long! It's so beautiful

This is my favourite new piece of work by elbow-toe (Brian Adam Douglas) that he's just done in London. His work never fails to impress me, as with all super detailed woodcuts, i'm in awe of people with this much talent in this particular printing method. He draws from photos of people he knows, taking lots from all different angles around the model. This drawing is then cut into wood and hand painted by him then printed onto paper which he then pastes up around the city.

I love wallpaper

i love this wallpaper by Malin Bjorklund which she was commissioned to do for a private home in Stockholm.

this paper's vintage from hausen. It was designed by Fanja Ralison.

i love this vintage alice in wonderland wallpaper. It's so pretty, i love the walrus in the suit.

this is a printed wallpaper design by lizzie allen. i love the british theme. it would be so cute in a kids room.

APAK

Every now and then i come across someone who's work makes me go "woah, i wish i could do that". I've seen the greeting cards by APAK before and thought they were so adorable. Now i have looked on their website and seen their paintings and i really do get that jealous feeling because their work is so good. Everything is just so goddamn cute! APAK is the husband-and-wife team, Aaron Piland and Ayumi Kajikawa Piland. They say that they hope their art sparkles your eyes and gives you a smile. Well it certainly does to me, and i hope you like it too, here are a few of my favourites. All images from www.apakstudio.com

SUNNY SCOTLAND

These are a few snapshots of my summer holiday with my family in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. We had beautiful weather while we were there so i got some great photos. We went to a pebble beach and i found the flattest most amazing skimming rock in the world!

Brighton Graduates

Shown above, work by graphic design graduate Lauren Duly. If you cannot read the text in the corner it says... Felipendulous

suspended by, or strung upon,

a single thread

This is an illustration done by a friend of mine Emily Cross, who has just graduated from Brighton. You can see more of her work at emilymaude.com

Above is some work by Nicolas Cranch who has just graduated from Brighton studying Graphic Design. I don't know how he made this image or what it is, but it is beautiful.


This is some illustration work from a brighton graduate called Sophie Alda. I love the pastel colour scheme, it brings an innocence to her strange characters.

BARRY MCGEE

I've recently been looking at the work of american artist Barry Mcgee. His work is inspired by mexican mural artists and grafitti of the 70's and 80's. I love his characters he draws from his imagination and his use of flat colour with black line. I also really like how he exhibits his work. He nails all of his frames really close together so they overwhelm each other and in some cases hang on top of one another. It makes for a really intense installation to look at. A picture i've also featured is his work on glass bottles. I like to illustrate on different materials and i have screen printed onto glass before. Seeing Barry's work inspires me to push that further for my fourth and final year of college. I'd like to work on glass, porcelain, wood and paper too of course.

BOTANICS

I went on a trip to the royal botanic garden here in edinburgh. I've been many a time before but i took some photos this time and had the best scone i've ever had there!! 

ALPHABET SHOPPERS

I love the alphabet and now I love these alphabet shoppers! I want to make my own designs to do with the alphabet that i could screen print and also stitch into...watch this space

A-Z BIRDS

i have now completed all 26 of my bird illustrations which originally i planned to screen print but in the end i coloured digitally. i drew the original drawings in black dip pen and ink and scanned them in and changed them to the colour palette i'd selected which is a combination of my two favourite colours, chocolate brown and a chartreuse/lime green. The next step with these illustrations is to make a concertina book from them but for now i am displaying them in this lovely vintage index drawer....