Aladdin's Ring

A while ago I did some drawings as part of a collaboration with a Canadian friend of mine who writes (and who has also just started a rad new cookery blog, followable here); the story, titled Aladdin's Ring, which will hopefully soon be featured in a Canadian indie magazine called Highbrau, is a short and poetic exploration of objects that excite emotion in us or engage our memories. I had limited time to work on these, but I really identified with the themes in the piece so I had fun with it. :)

Sheep update!

Remember a post or two back, when I was drawing sheep and other adorable yarn-bearing creatures? The book they were for has very recently been released, complete with said animal illustrations by myself. Hurrah!

(thanks to Old Maiden Aunt Yarns for the pic!)

The book in question is Socktopus by Alice Yu. Alice is a big part of the craft/yarn/knitting scene in London, so although I could never knit to save my life, the rest of the book has been crafted by an expert. :) It is published by GMC and if you are a knitting or crafty person you can buy it here: [Click!] or here: [click click!] or here: [clickity click!]

The Little Mermaid

Lately I've been digging into one of my favourite old books living on my shelf, which is a copy of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales that I bought at an antique fair in Edinburgh. There's no publisher date on it, but the first gift inscription is 1928 (with a subsequent one, curiously enough, to an Alastair Campbell in 1970!).

Lovely and nostalgic though Disney's animated version is, nothing quite matches the original story, "Set forth in simple words for Young Children" though it may be! I decided to do a couple of drawings based on it. I may or may not carry on and make my own little book adaptation out of it.

(click for larger images)

(Part 3: Miscellaneous!)

The final pair of drawings from the book commission! I love alpacas - they're so fluffy and have so much character. The silkworms were certainly a challenge, especially making them look cute and appealing, but I think I got there in the end...!

#5. Alpaca

#6. Silkworms

One thing I always like about illustration projects is how it makes you research things you might not have known very much about. Although I've always liked drawing animals, I'm sure that in doing this job I've learned a little something about every one of these creatures that I didn't know before. :)

(Part 2: Goats)

Here's the next two illustrations from my latest commission. You'd think all six of the creatures I'd be drawing would be sheep, wouldn't you? In fact, only two were. These two chaps are goats. :)

#3. Cashmere

#4. Angora

These guys were fun to draw. <3

Commission: Sock Yarn Sources! (Part 1: Sheep)

Was thrilled to get another yarn-related commission after my work earlier in the year for Old Maiden Aunt. :) An author got in touch with me, saying she needed six illustrations for a book she was writing on sock yarns! They'll feature in a few pages about sources of the most commonly used fibres when knitting socks.

#1: Merino

#2. Blue-Faced Leicester

Recent 4-5 hour train journeys up to Scotland provided some good inspiration for these...

New things

Okay, so I've a couple of events coming up at the end of May - MADE fair in Tunbridge Wells on Sunday the 29th, and hopefully MCM London Expo on Saturday 28th too - so I've got extra incentive to work on creating something new! I hope to have one or two new things to take there, but here's a glimpse of what I'm doing just now.

I confess: the subject matter of this one is dreams, a self-indulgent topic if ever there was one! But it's simple and gives me the opportunity to be a little playful. I'm having fun with it so far.