T is for tootsies....

Ten little tootsies!

Ten little tootsies all bright and brushed shiny clean! For the letter T i've done another illustration thats a little silly! When my children were small Ialways referred to their toes as tootsies and scrubbing them in the bath was like brushing your teeth! So I thought I would incorporate this into the illustration , I hope you like it?

Iphoned the photocopiers today regarding my printed business cards... going in Tuesday to check the proofs and if all ok will run off a couple of Hundred! Hehe ! to whom shall I give them all to ??? I wonder. Fancy me being a business woman ! Who that reminds me The Apprentice starts this week, Now thats a show full of T for Tossers !!!! He he......

S is for Sausages!.......

Sausage Sniffer

Soooooo! S is for a sausage dog sniffing well ? you guessed it another sausage dog! Thats what my dog does constantly! Imagine all  us humans went around sniffing each other? Mind you we probably do in a roundabout way!

My dog loves sauasages! They are his favourite , I think he would eat them all day long! I like this illustration . It's cheeky and fun! I think I might frame it for the exhibition? Im waiting until ive completed them all before I definately choose. 



R is for Rocket Racing Rabbit.....

RRRRRRRRRRRabbit............!

The character you see above is a real life rabbit, who goes by the name of "The Wabbit". He commissioned me to create his portrait along with his partner the lovely "Lapinette". The Wabbit is an incredibly brave and adventurous rabbit akin to James Bond. He has given lots of support and encouragement throughout my final project, so it is only fitting that he takes a starring role within my blog. A link to the Wabbit's blog and adventures are below

http://followthewabbit.blogspot.com/



The letter R naturally had to involve a rabbit, My favourite kind of friend! I had a house rabbit named Rudy but he died two years ago. He was such a character, always getting into scrapes and very confident, so much so he went in and out the house and around the neighbourhood like a cat. He would sit on the mat of the doorstep when we pulled up in the car to be let in and eat his favourite meal of greens and wait for it???...... Chocolate covered weetos cereal! yes you heard right!

He did chew through the house though, sofas , skirting boards, washing machine wires!To such a point that we just let him out to get rid of all that energy he had. I miss him. He loved us to pieces too. He would sleep on the end of the bed and hop through the house leaving small circular formed little poop packages for us ...which our dog duly scooped up and ate! Eeeeek! call it the food chain of life? But it was quite handy!

Rudy rabbit and Wilf the hoover dog









The Hambledon

Inside The Hambledon

http://www.thehambledon.com/welcome.php

The Hambledon in Winchester is one of my favourite haunts for wonderful vintage finds and ecclectic art and furnishings. I go there quite often to see posters and hand printed cards and childrens books. I love it. I will be seeing if they would be interested in stocking and selling some of my hand made printed cards and badges when I've finished my final work.

Above are some photographs Itook in the shop.I think you will agree it's just heavenly and there's always a turn over of new designs and products coming through the shop so it never gets dull.











Ilustrators that influence my Work.....

Sara Fanelli Illustrater
http://www.sarafanelli.com/

Lane Smith Illustrator

http://www.lanesmithbooks.com/LaneSmithBooks/Lane_Smith_Books.html

There are many childrens Illustrators who I enjoy and really influence me. Out of all of them I think Sara Fanelli is my favourite. My tutors and my student peers seem to think we work in a similar way. I suppose its the collage and the obvious childrens material. I do find myself naturally working in a similar way and wonder if being the same age and me having studied at the same time as Sara we were perhaps both influenced by the same things. My work has'nt changed for over 20 years when I did printed textiles in fact I still use some of the same imagery and pattern and colours I did back then.

Another Illustrator above Lane Smith produced work for the above book ,a take on traditional fairy tales The stinky cheese man I bought for my son when he was younger and we used to fall about laughing at the fun titillating stories.









Quackers!!....

"Quote this"

Q for driving me Quackers!!! I have struggled with this one actually. I did'nt really want to do an illustration with the Queen as the main image, not for any reason than it's been done so many times. I felt the need to make something slightly different.

So iv'emade a "Queen Ducky"......wearing a lovely crown ! The final image is more or less the top one I think? Not sure yet.









Thing to inspire...

Photographing out and about

I love taking photographs here' there and everywhere' It's so inspiring for my work when I come across new things. Most of the inspiration comes from colour and quirky finds that I can use in my collages. Im looking forward to being out and about this summer as I've been cooped up inside working on my images for some considerable time.