35mm

Annual new year's discount tiiime: get 15% off your order with coupon code HELLO2014 in my shop until Thu 7 January - I'm also giving away my Cabin screen-print with all orders over £6/$10 (before shipping) throughout January (whilst stock lasts). Hurrah!

26 things

i'm blogging this a little later than usual, but i've been trying to whittle this list down & i think i'm there now. since 2009 i've come up with to-do lists that coincide with the age i'll turn that year; some things on the list are big, some are smaller. i managed to complete just over half of 2011's list, which is what i did the previous two years, so here's to 2012 being the year i do everything.

1. train to run 5k 2. get used to having tinnitus 3. reach 700 sales on etsy 4. do taxes quarterly 5. make a minimum of ten things on my sewing machine 6. including a dress 7. including a tie for alan 8. find a dentist & doctors in glasgow 9. start flossing again 10. join the library 11. make a recipe box/book 12. make at least two out of three of my workday lunches a week 13. organise and manage my freelance days 14. learn a new knitting stitch 15. start blogging more regularly 16. escape the city at least once a month 17. read thirty books 18. host dinner for some friends 19. experiment with limited colour pallets 20. get my wardrobe down to 200 items (clear out/manage over time) 21. take a life drawing class 22. take up yoga again 23. finish my needlefelt fox 24. learn to love (or at least like) cooking 25. get some plants for the flat & become greenfingered 26. get better at coding

i've made a start on several things already, & you can help me nudge goal three in the right direction - there's just a couple of days left of my etsy sale - enter coupon code 'hello2012' at checkout to get 20% off your order.

shades of grey

one of the items on my list of things to do this year was experiment with colour pallets; specifically, to exercise a little more restraint when it comes to how i work with colour. i always feel a small degree of awe when i visit the websites of people who constantly work with the same limited pallet. when i'm working, i'm more like a child in a sweet shop, grabbing whatever treat feels right/is closest.

i found this beautiful image by adrienne adams via pinterest the other day. i found myself coming up with a snapshot of a narrative in my head, following the torch light through the bushes to that tiny, hidden snake on the ground. lately, i've wanted to spend some time illustrating some sort of narrative, something more than just a snapshot. adams' image reminded me of a short story i wrote when i was twelve (which, due to an overwhelming and elaborate use of adjectives in an attempt to set the scene, i'll spare you of), where i was lost in the huge public park in my hometown at night, afraid of every rustle of bushes & strange shadow (fear not, i found my way out). after spending today wandering around the forest of our new-to-us local country park, & feeling reminded of reading wildwood earlier this year, i came up with this image.

it might not seem much of an experiment, but there were a few changes in direction for me (using only one colour! drawing the outlines last! a hint of a background!). it feels good to try something new.

peek

apologies for blog silence. i can assure you i've been hard at work, but everything i'm producing at the moment is either for clients or an exhibition. above is a peek at something i finished today; a little triptych of a secret cabin in the mountains. i'll post the full piece next month.

shop update: cat notebooks

it's been a little while since i've had something new to add to my shop, but i've been busy making some items over the past little while & i'm finally putting them up for sale. over the next week or so i'm going to add one new item every day, starting with one of my favourite things i've created.

this is definitely one for cat fans; a notebook adorned by lots of feline faces. these notebooks feature an original illustration, & are screen-printed & bound by myself. they're pretty therapeutic to make, not to mention the feeling of accomplishment when you have a pile of freshly trimmed books ready to go. they're £7/$11 each; find out a little more about them in the shop.

have decided to take part in fun a day dundee this year - i'm going to draw a girl throwing shapes every day in january. here are the first three.

dribbblin'

contrary to what this blog might portray, i've been pretty busy recently, but since everything is mid-way to complete there's not been much to share over here. thankfully there's a little site called dribbble, which lets you share snippets of what you're working on. a pretty neat way to let people know what you're up to without giving the game away.

yurt

when my boyfriend & i got our car last year, i figured we'd probably head out on lots of little trips, go camping & spend a little more time in the great outdoors. i'm not sure how i confused 'getting a car' with 'magically having more free time' because, of course, that's not quite how it's panned out.

however, we made good use of our automobile at the weekend & headed out to stay in a yurt at loch tay, a sweet present from my mum & dad for my birthday earlier in the year. this was one of the things on my 25 things to do when i'm 25 list, & it's so nice to finally tick it off (especially since it rolled over from 24 things to do when i'm 24). the yurt was lovely; full of killim rugs & pillows & - most importantly - a wood-burning stove (we'd timed our visit to miss the high-season & catch the last of summer whilst not being too warm for a fire). the first night we chatted by candle & fire light, fuelled by a couple of bottles of red wine, before falling asleep to the sound of rain bouncing off the canvas. the next morning we sat on the yurt's small deck in the sun, watching the fog over the loch & feeling grateful that we had no hangovers (a miracle!). the day was spent feeding ducks & a short car trip to nearby village, killin, before another night in our cosy little hut, quietly enjoying some downtime & keeping the stove going.

the next morning it was time to return home & to work. just a short little escape, but a nice reminder to take time out every so often. hopefully we'll go camping on the west coast soon.

i'll post my piece for this soon.

The Garden of Earthly Delights

An exhibition of original work by 20 illustrators and artists from across the globe, showing at the Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis, MN, USA.

The show is curated by fellow illustrators Tuesday Bassen and Pete Gamlen. 

The show opens Friday June 15th and is open to the public until July 13th.

Links to the 20 Illustrators and Artists participating in the show below…

Brittany Burton, Gemma Correll, Giulia Sagramola, Hattie Newman, Jean De Wet, Jen Collins, Jing Wei, Kaye Blegvad, Laurie Rollitt, Leah Reena Goren, Lizzy Stewart, Mary Kate McDevitt, Olimpia Zagnoli, Paul Layzell, Peter Gamlen, Sarah McNeil, Stacey Rozich, Tim Lahan, Tuesday Bassen, Umberto Mischi and Yeji Yeti Yun