My Christmas

Christmas card I made for my boyfriend

Fabulous Lea Stein brooch he gave me

Russian Dolls from Dad

My pressies from everyone 

Russian Dolls, Art of looking sideways, Mark Ryden book, Vintage Bobby Pins, Singing farm animals, Jon Burgerman Posca pens, Poodle brooch, Moleskin diary, Sixties Design

Christmas Vegetable Nativity

Yummy mince pies baked by Joe, mmmm

Christmas birds

Merry Pin ups

I did these a little while ago but completely forgot about them.... upon opening my sketch book I remembered them, so here they are. I think I'm going to carry on this style for a while.

Esty shop reopened

Hello, 

I have reopened my Etsy shop just in time for Christmas, get your prints while you can! :-) I will be adding new prints too so keep chacking back!

Matrioshka Russian dolls for Vogue Russia

A bunch of top end designers have designed these gorgeous Russian dolls for Vogue Russia's up coming Birthday.

I adore Russian dolls, I have thought about painting my own set before, I also wanted to do this with Kokeshi dolls, maybe I should....

Here are some of my faves:

Emilio Pucci
























Dolce and Gabbanna























Marni

Whimsical Favourites

1. did I dream it?, 2. Coming Up Roses, Harper's Bazaar by Solve Sundsbo, 3. Untitled, 4. dance of the flower, 5. Showgirl Clowns, 6. Tim Walker - Tales of the Unexpected, 7. german cutie on piano, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled

The Incredibly Talented Klaus Haapaniemi

I discovered Klaus Haapaniemi's Illustrations via the British Vogue December Issue as I mentioned in the previous post. I thought I'd post some of his illustrations for your viewing pleasure, including the Vogue Story time. To view more of his work go here.

Fantastic Vogue

To be honest I'm not a regular buyer of Vogue, occasionally I get it if it has some pretty photo shoots to inspire my drawing but this month I was really blown away. It was actually whilst sipping my Marshmellow topped Mocha visiting the boyfriends family in Ramsgate that I picked up Decembers copy of British Vogue and began to flick through the pages.

Adorning the front cover was a gorgeous shot of Kate Moss in a silk tulle dress that took up the space of 3 pages, also the typography is adorable, the word 'Fantastic' is made up of Circus tents, wings and puppet hands. This issue of Vogue is forgetting It bags, serviceable coats, investment buys and instead embracing how extraordinary things can be. My favourite spread has to be the Tim Walker photo shoot ' Tales of the Unexpected' which inspiration is drawn from the magical world of Roald Dahl, as you may know I'm already a big fan. I also love the Story Time spread which features 4 short stories illustrated by the extremely talented Klaus Haapaniemi.

If Vogue was like this every month I may even consider a subscription!

Quinny

Heather and Ellie

I don't know much about Heather and Ellie other than they create beautiful pictures and were winners in the Irregular Choice photo competition.

On there flickr page it says' We are two girls who love to create pretty pictures. Our favourite things are bows and cakes and subversive perversion.'

I hope you enjoy these pic's as much as me!

Shrinkles

I bought some Shrinkle plastic a while back, you know the plastic sheets which you draw upon, place in the oven it shrinks to half the size et voila you have a a shrinkle! I used to love it when I was a kid and I still do! I finally got round to trying it out and was very pleased with the results. One problem I bought the clear version which is good for hanging up say by a window but if you want to make a brooch for example the drawing kind of disappears against the background, so I thinks I'm gonna get the white version and a whole punch and start making some jewellery.

The idea's for the illustrations actually came from Top of the Pops 2, which I was watching whilst off sick from work, there was this amazing singer called Noosha Fox. I actually want to do my hair and make up like her now, oddly enough I think she's the spitting image of Alison Goldfrapp, dress sense and look, weird huh or maybe not so weird I wouldn't be surprised if Alison knew about Noosha too.

My little Gamma Ray

I am totally addicted to Becks new single Gamma Ray, I think I have listened to it about 30 times on repeat already :-) The video is amazing too, it features Chloe Sevigny dancing in a fringe dress and the most amazing illustrated tatoos and clown make up amongst a psychedelic backdrop of cutesy illustrations, I'm inspired. I've already spent the morning looking for a fringe dress on etsy, I think I've found one too, yay. I'll be dancing away to my little gamma ray in a little fringe dress very soon

Dover Books- Classic childrens illustration

I just love Dover books as many designers and illustrator's do. They are an endless source of inspiration, I usually look upon them for ideas as opposed to directly using the imagery although I do love to incorporate the beautiful florishes of times gone by into my work.

Every week I recieve a sampler from dover which contains a few free images, often some hidden jems that you wouldn't normally think to use or that would be copyright free. This week one of the books included was 'Classic Children's Book Illustrations Clip Art' which includes pictures from Alice in Wonderland and Beatrix Potter. How gorgeous they are I am very tempted to purchase this book!

Flickr Favourites

1. Räv, 2. fifi wears karen walker, 3. Dog & Pony Show, 4. Ring Of Notes, 5. no-fly-zone, 6. wearing_shoes, 7. lineas12, 8. secrets, 9. Sisters or Sometimes a Momma Kitty- pinkytoast 2

Illustration Friday - Sail

I like Brown paper and Posca pens

Tim Walker – Pictures

I finally got round to visiting the Tim Walker - Pictures exhibition at the Design Museum featuring over 100 of his photo's. I loved it, so inspiring, so magical, I especially loved the intro monologue to the exhibition. This was displayed as a letter from him, describing how he loved to visit a fancy dress shop in Hammersmith near where he lived when he was a boy. He describes the shop as being owned by Turkish sisters and having rail upon rail of fantastical costumes that enter you into a dream world. Suddenly it all makes sense! Often I find artists inspiration and sketch books and so on just as interesting if not more than the final product. This exhibition really gives you an insight into the world of Tim Walker. The cabinets of his sketch books were my favourite:

The exhibition also featured some of the giant props he uses and a video featuring a photo shoot with the ethereal Karen Elson. How I would love to spend a day on one of his shoots, the whole operation just looks amazing, so many beautiful clothes, props, sets, it's almost incomprehensible, I would love someone to make a documentary on him.

And finally the Photo's, wanted to buy a print but the pics they had were my least favourite boo hoo... none the less I left feeling very inspired and as if I was leaving magical world full of toy's, giants, clowns and princesses!