little giveaway

a slightly delayed giveaway (i'd hoped to tie it in with my shop's birthday) but a giveaway nonetheless. to enter, just leave a comment saying hello, & i'll pick a winner at random on the evening of sunday 26 september. the winner will receive a life is good print, one of my new notebooks & three hello cards, so you can send the fun onto friends.

just to share a little more, i've finally finished making my notebooks! it's available in a range of colours, & is hand printed & hand bound. check out the listing for more information. they were quite therapeutic to make, i'll be making more in future.

update, 26 september: thanks for all the entires, comments are closed & winners will be announced tomorrow!

fabriano

beautiful gift from italy from a dear friend: a fabriano postcard sketchbook & double-ended pencil.

foxes

it's getting scarily close to december (i.e. christmas), so i'm attempting to come up with a card design. i really like my cards from last year, so it's going to be a challenge to make something i like equally as much time around! i want to use an animal again, & have gone for a fox so far, which also means i get to use the colour orange. will keep you updated.

ps. hello mum. x

deciding

sb in dc

i skimmed through the flickr uploads of art house co-op yesterday, curious to see whether i'd see mine or alan's sketchbook submissions among the hundreds on display. & whadyaknow! i found mine nestled in a pile in washington dc! 

regarding yesterday's post, thank you to everyone who submitted feedback & their interpretations via various sites. it's a close call, but i think the people have spoken, & - in the context of the project anyway - i think it'll work best.

january

january, & in turn 2009, has been pretty smashing so far. i've been extremely busy, working & playing. i've been taking part in various illustrative projects, one of which is above: the sketchbook project by art house co-op. there are others, but they'll be revealed with time. i finally got around to gocco-ing my thank you cards today & despite my bad feeling about how it was going to go, it went swimmingly again. when i've not been arting, i've been having fun in other ways. january has brought illustration reunions, & we managed to get eleven of my class together for a night, an excellent feat. not only have i seen my illustrative friends, but others too (arty or otherwise), & yesterday evening was spent celebrating burns night with yummy vegetarian haggis, hilarious pictionary & brilliant company.

as for the near future, more drawing, a trip home, a trip to edinburgh, a trip to the dentist (boo), a week off work (hooray!), & a zombie night in aid of this years fourth year illustration class. 2009 is ace.

acorn

whilst thinking about projects earlier, i started thinking about acorns. i know that acorns - much like trees, garden birds, woodland animals & other nature-esque things that are beautiful - may currently be considered overly trite & twee, but i really couldn't care less. acorns are ace. i have an age-old memory linked to acorns that makes me smile, & the word itself! like many fellow vocables including 'milk', 'apple' & 'hello', it's one that appeals greatly to my eyes & ears. i got this beautiful little thing from my parents at christmas. acorns are a symbol of patience & of the rewards of hard labour. carrying them in your pocket brings good luck in some places. when next autumn rolls around, i'm going to find out where there are oak trees locally, & make some of these.

04

when all else fails, draw a house. i spent most of the day working on christmas cards, which i'm going to post once they're finished, so i quickly whipped up this little dwelling before i have to get ready for work (which i have to go do now).

beck - already dead

03

not my usual style, but i was working with a brush pen already & felt like drawing a portrait. my friend alan had the balls to ask me to draw him a couple of days ago, so i did. i admire anyone who can draw with a brush, especially portraits. the brush is a little too thick for me, hence why i don't use it that often (plus it's a nightmare to clean). a fun change.

ps. no-one else may have the balls to ask for a portrait! haha.

boards of canada - visual drone 12

01

today's drawing is simply a work doodle, because i spent over eleven & half hours of my day either getting there, being there, or getting back. but that's okay. i have plenty of time to make up for it tomorrow.

ps. happy one hundred posts, little blog.

train sketch

fifteen & twenty two

i found across this meme a while ago, & decided i'd have shot sometime. the idea is to draw yourself as a teenager next to your present day self, with any difference in style, haircuts etc shown side-by-side. i chose my fifteen year old self, seen next to the current twenty two year old me. the thing that is pretty obvious from the comparison is that i've cut down on my daily allowance of colour & pattern (namely stripes). at fifteen i didn't own a pair of plain socks, & didn't for a while. to the extent that one day as i was helping put up the school christmas tree, a PE teacher nearby - mid-conversation - asked me to pull my trouser leg up, revealing that days over-the-knee rainbow choice when i responded, to which she said to her colleague, "see?"

i think you can read my (messily written) notes if you click the above image. if you do have a go, the originator can be found compiling a list of everyone who's submitted their drawings here.

the postal service - such great heights

oh deer

i don't know whether to be relieved or scared that i'm back to drawing again after a slight break due to lack of motivation: relieved because i'm drawing, or scared because the drawings are christmas related, & it's only october.

i think i'll stick with relieved, & just pretend that i'm super organised.

seabear - sailors blue

small build

you can find a curious selection of outhouses, sheds, & small abandoned buildings on a train journey. all peeling paint, loose tiles, & broken windows. what's their purpose? who built them? how did they come up with the final design, especially regarding the quirky ones? they're so small & in the middle of nowhere you wonder if perhaps they were someone's little get-away, where they went to make model planes in peace or read books undisturbed. or they could just be sheds, where tools & the like are kept. but that's not quite as exciting.

my favourite is the one with the especially sloped roof.

tegan & sara - call it off

busy

i've been too busy to post, even though i've no idea what it is thats taken up time instead. probably work, walks in the sunshine, walks in the rain, tea with friends, drinks with friends, & drawing in between. & a healthy dose of sleep.

ray lamontagne - hannah

tasks

tomorrow's (well, today's) plan is to do some of the small jobs on my ever growing list, in the hope that i will feel accomplished, & have the satisfying joy of scoring something out. then i'll make a start on the bigger things, & be one step closer to ticking them off too. above is a drawing that brings me closer to classing two little tasks as completed. & not only does it do that, but it was just nice to sit & draw for a bit as well.

biffy clyro - wave upon wave upon wave