Cakes with Character!

Today I baked these for our Easter bake sale tomorrow! We are holding it at uni in aid of The British heart Foundation.

I enjoy baking but only when it goes right, I am a bit hit and miss!

These are an indulgent chocolate cake decorated with chocolate buttons and mini eggs and lemon drizzle muffins, which have allot of character, as you can see!

Last double page

Magpie preview

Uni and everything has been so busy so i am lacking in personal illustration projects, very glad that this project involved being creative!

Twweet!

I am currently working on a University project where I have planned to develop a magazine spread combining illustration and photography.

This is one of the birds (well, half of) that I have developed, allot of my original works have those little squiggles in the corner where I test my pen, my images always go via Photoshop anyway so they are easy to remove.

Science Fiction portrait for Portrait rally 2

This is not a style I usually go for but as its sci fi image comic book style was fitting

Dedicated to my man friend

Nicola's birthday gift

Nicola

Nicola and I

Illustration I developed as a gift for my friend Nicola, these were scanned in before they were finalized, I added more ink to the final piece and mounted it in a frame. I specifically wanted to draw from an older picture of us as we have been friends for a long time now and lots have changed since, this is us before our school prom.

Last 365 days

This post idea is stolen from my friend Fiona

(http://fionahun.blogspot.com/)

"Last 365 days in great detail"

It's my friend Nicola's Birthday very soon, hers is the first birthday of the year between my friends back home and when it comes around you know that we are into a new year! That got me thinking about whats happened since.

So Ive had a look back and here is a collection of images which shows some of what I have done and achieved over the last 365 days!

-Nicolas 21st Birthday shindig, thats us in our old flat in Edinburgh with close friends before heading out.

-My zombie impression for the Glasgow Zombie walk on Halloween which I did with my Uncle John and my Dad! That was a great day!

-I moved to Galashiels! (for uni) This particular image is of the huge snow last year which trapped me in the town, but you have to admit it was very pretty.

-My final illustration exhibition for collage which was held at the Dovecot Gallery.

-Dressed in the horrendous 'Hearty' outfit for a charity calendar.

-My good friends Kimberley and Gary got hitched! Still cant believe it!

-Blink 182 at the SECC which was amazing!

-Our Bring Home Fashion show in Edinburgh which was just recently.

-Some of the new friends I have made on my uni course!

Lucky me!! :)

Illustration rally

My Illustration featured on the Illustration rally's blog today for their 'ideal dinner party guests' alongside some other great illustrators! I love how diverse illustration can be and this post shows just a small selection of different styles.

http://illustrationrally.blogspot.com/

(Illustration rally links to the other contributers web pages)

In development inc matchbox and blu tack

Playing around with this idea of combining illustration and photography. Here is a hummingbird drinking from a floral ring. There are two ways that I have tested this out, using Photoshop to bring the photography together with the illustration or photograph them both together from cutting the image out. This was the latter, unfortunately my wall is textured and my light was rubbish but this shows me that that this is the best approach!

I usually adore Photoshop but this time the camera won! (of course it will be edited and text added with the program)

New Uni Project

After the fashion show and multiple group work projects a very welcome personal creative assignment has come our way!

We can choose from various promotional methods which relate to any theme that we dealt with during our fashion show including the charity, the up cycled fashion and healthy living.

Of coarse I will start research and development through what I know best, illustration.

Catherine Campbell came to my mind immediately as I adore her work, (I even have some of her signed prints on my wall.) These particular images are very inspiring!

|Illustration for Frankie Magazine by Catherine Campbell

http://www.catherinecampbell.net

The magazine which I am in love with at the moment is Oh Comely! Which showcases raw creativity which is very inspirational so I have decided to research and gear my work towards this magazine...

http://www.ohcomely.co.uk/

Just for pretend... for now

Cropped version of the illustration I submitted to Illustration rally

Her Face vector style

I have decided to exploit some more of my scanners dodgy scan work. I am unsure why it does this, I think it thinks its being clever!

This is the original drawing of a new illustration that I am going to submit to a feature website, It is to be a portrait of someone,,, any guesses? (I always feel nervous when it is meant to look like someone, hopefully I at least show their personality)

Face Value

I find faces are so easy to get wrong, eyes can be squint with just a small detail... but are very rewarding when you get it right. This is a practice page in my sketch book. These are quite lazy sketches as I cannot find a pencil sharpener!

A technique that I use for a final piece is to look at your drawing in the mirror and you can see any flaws that you have not noticed before, you see it from a different perspective and you can rectify it from there.

What is my blog for?

As I do not have very may blog followers at the moment it feels like I am keeping an online creative diary for myself! Ideas, quick sketches and development which then in turn creates a log that I can look back at, share with my friends and whoever pops by for fun. Keeping me active in a way which is beneficial. I have had this blog for years and have just become a regular blogger (mainly of images... unlike this post) and hope to keep it rolling on.

I love to read through blogs that do not have a hidden agenda: that inspire and thats what I hope to achieve. Yes! I would love to make money from my passion eventually but still feel I am in the development stage, not yet polished.

There are a few opportunities that have come to me recently to develop final illustrations to a set brief which I very much look forward to and will push and challenge me to develop an image to a high standard. These are the works which will then be part of my professional portfolio. Eventually I will have my own portfolio website.... PLAN

For me and whoever may read this I hope I have inspired you. :)

Because I believe every post should have an image I had a look through my billion images that I have downloaded for inspiration/reference... in amongst are multiple images of my personal guinea pig aka little sister Kayleigh