A Froggy Haloween

An early Halloween party inspired a few Kermit the Frog inspired crafts.

On Saturday night a good friend of mine held an early Halloween party for her close friends, unfortunately I was working late that night so my original costume idea to be the Cheshire Cat wouldn't have worked as it would have had to use face paints which would have made me later than than I already was. So Kermit the Frog it was, adored with the words "It's not easy being green" on the back of my top (Homemade is the only way).

Above are the mint chocolate cupcakes I made for the party, the pumpkin which now acts as a table decoration. A Woodland Nymph ,The Ice Queen and Myself the Frog.

Hello Autumn!

With Autumn brings my favorite weather, the frosty chill that makes you see your breath combined with the sun peeking through the clouds and I get the chance to select a scarf from my collection of many.

I love the introduction of the seasons veg, the jewel colours that come out in fashion and the cozy nights with a hot chocolate, bed socks and a blanket.Where I work has already introduced it's festive product lines and it is surprising the amount of people who pick up a chocolate Santa with their groceries in the early days of October! The festiveness of the chill is just irresistible.

Since everything has slowed down, I have decided to make creative plans to coincide with the seasons changing. I have a Halloween costume to create (Homemade is the only way to go) and have many crafty projects to keep me going until Christmas. I've began making soup again and hope to produce some creative recipes from may many vegi books to warm me up and the watercolors have made an appearance as you can see from my image above devoted to the season.

I have also begun a brand new project! I am now learning to play the piano. This is something I have never had the chance to do before and with my Graduate's free time I have decided to go for it, I am learning from the very beginning and realize that I might find it extremely difficult but I might just be able to play 'Jingle Bells' for Christmas!
My second lesson is tomorrow, wish me luck!

I will be sure to keep my blog updated with all of the above projects!

New Blog Banner

I decided to change the banner for my blog, which has been needing done for a long while now. Where my previous header displayed illustration work from 3 years ago combined with the words "Illustration portfolio of Lana Steel". It is now obvious that this blog has seen much more than a portfolio of my illustration work. Due to my varied college and university courses and opportunities that have come my way this blog has seen everything from fashion shows, to baking, to my worries as a creative graduate and this is how I mean to go on.

I have thought hard about what the theme of my blog should be and judging by my past posts it seems like it should be labelled a "Creative Lifestyle blog." A theme which gives much more flexibility to what i can post on here.

So I will be saying goodbye to my swallow..

And have  now updated  it with a more recent self portrait but this may change a few times yet! 

My Work Experiance at LEWIS

Lately I have just finished some work experience which I absolutely loved!

I volunteered my time twice a week for a month to sit alongside the Account Management team at the Digital Agency LEWIS. This experience gave me amazing insight into a job which I would love to be part of. Above is an image taken from their blog, where I wrote the post for them: A Graduates Dilemma,  where I explain a bit more about my time with them.  I would like to thank the people at LEWIS who were so lovely and took time out of their working day to show me the ropes, involving me with meetings and helping them out with bits and pieces.

I would recommend anyone to do something like this whatever their field. I understand that many people think that things like work experience or internship are out of their reach and like myself have to work as much as possible to earn a living. Indeed I was a bit tired, but this didn't feel like work as I was genuinely excited about going there, I learned so much and it gave me something vital for my CV. And who knows you might find a gem like LEWIS and create some great contacts!

Late Night Drawing

I annoy myself sometimes as all my creative inspiration comes to me late at night. Time goes fastest for me when I am drawing and before I know it I am into the early hours with a piece of work I find hard to put down.

Above is development of a self portrait which I started after I had finished work at 10 pm. It will probably be a few days before I carry on with this little project as I have lots happening over the weekend, will keep the blog updated with the final image.

Olympics Mania

This is my Illustration submission for Illustration Rally's current Olympics/Paralympics submission.

I chose to do a gymnast because when I was little I wanted to be a gymnast when I 'when I grew up.' I's safe to say, that I never fulfilled that particular dream, but this illustration is (obviously) what I would look like if I were an Olympic champion!

I hope you like it!

I'm sure I can still pull off a cartwheel...

Illustration in use!

I adapted one of my illustrations, (as shown in a previous post) for a friend's start up cupcake business. Delicious!!

  http://www.facebook.com/MarrCupcakes