Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search 2015 competition

What a surprise! I entered the Lilla Rogers' GTS and made the top 50. Really!? I'm still trying to get my head around it. I am really so thrilled to have made it so far and have just had so much fun doing these 2 assignments. Although I can't lie… it was a lot of work and swallowed up half of September's weekends. But I think it has been worth it. Definitely! As always the benefit of a deadline is amazing and Lilla's briefs are fantastic.

The first assignment was to illustrate and create a pair of trainers for a young woman called Antoinette. I decided to focus on Antoinette's love of all things horticultural and her location (Brooklyn, NY). This was my submission:

The second round of the competition was to illustrate a tin for Antoinette's shop… once again there was a very detailed brief and I ended up focusing on the unusual, vintage imagery that was mentioned. Somehow my 'brainstorm' ended up at an old fashioned magic show. I thought yes… that's what I use tins for: somewhere to store all those small, odd things that magically appear and disappear around me all the time.  Here was my submission:

So that's that! If you like what you see here please go and vote for me… there is a people's choice award but you have to be super quick because the voting closes at 5pm (UK time), Monday 21 September. All you have to do is click on this link and once on the page enter your e-mail address. Easy-peasy. And thank you!!

New work

It's been ages (years?) since I last posted anything on this completely neglected blog. But I have been rather busy (what's new). Without any further excuses here goes: I have been doing another Lilla Rogers Bootcamp for Make Art That Sells and have done 3 out of the 4 assignments so far. Here are 2 that I was really happy with. Between all this I also did an Adobe illustrator course and I have to say it's great to feel a bit more comfortable in that program now. Here is the poster I did for The Global Art Gathering. I really loved doing the hand lettering. The colour palette (given by Lilla) was also beautful. Very easy to work with and enjoy.

 

This one was for a plate design where we were asked to create a colour pattern and then overlay a dark silouette of a crustacean. I confess I got very attached to my pattern and couldn't bring myself to put anything over it. My husband suggests I just tell everyone it's on the other side of the plate :)

Blooming tea

This was my last assignment for MATS bootcamp (I will have to write another post about the experience… it was that amazing). We had to choose our favourite beverage and do a personal piece that could work as wall art. Everything about this was hard… first choosing just one drink (turns out I have hundreds) and then doing something that only I would like (really… just me?) – not easy!! In the end my calming chamomile, rooibos and honeybush tea is what gets me to the land of nod every night so I went with that. And one thing lead to another… before I knew it there was fynbos, wild flowers and honeybees all around. I love bright colours so that part was easy. I've tweaked the version I uploaded… the saucer now has some detail and I overlapped some of the flowers. To see the one I submitted and heaps of genuinely extraordinary illustration work please do check out the official gallery here…

Oh – and I still can't decide… yellow or grey stripes? It's the kind of thing that could keep me awake at night. Thank goodness for my calming chamomile…

Nautical dreams

My latest (and second last assignment) for MATS bootcamp. The theme was nautical and the end product was wall art. I ended up doing something for a child's room. Here is my dreamy airship in a bottle…

How to meditate…

Just made the deadline to upload for this months assignment – an editorial illustration for a magazine on the benefits of meditation. I really got going with this later than I should have but it's been that kind of month. Eventually (after my mom came to the rescue and took the boys to the spur for a couple of hours!) i did it…

 The MATS gallery will be up on Tuesday so you can see all the submissions there too.

Faces

A really quick little post just to show you my latest 'mini' project for MATS. I do love drawing faces – from reference or from my head. It's like people watching!

Cushion design

Been messing around with mocking up my jelly mould designs onto some cushion covers… think my favourite is the second one down. Next up – an apron (with the white version) and some notebooks (with the grey)…