Christmas plant

As promised, my first sketch!

This sketchbook is going to be just biro

So this is 'Christmas Plant'

Named before I discovered it was called a Poinsettia

Update:

So Ive just had my first job interview for English teacher position in Barca

It went really well (even though I was insanely tired), and not half as terrifying as I'd built myself up to believe!
…and I got the job!

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Ive joined 'Good Reads'

A great website for keeping track of your books, book discussions, 

and suggestions.

Now that I have a kindle, I miss having a book shelf

so this is a nice substitute

If anyone reading this has a Good Reads account, 

I'd love to have a look at your suggestions!

Follow me here - 

My Good Reads page

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I've also decided to start sketching in my sketchbook again.
It's been a shamefully long time since I've done this and I'm living in such a lovely place now..
it would be shame not to.

I read (I think on Meg Hunt's blog) the suggestion of keeping a sketchbook and only using one
medium for it.
I think this is a great idea and forces you to work in way that perhaps you haven't tried before
(One of my biggest problems is indecision)
I've also got a few weeks to kill before the school terms start!

Valparaiso sketchbook 2013

Cupcake

So this was a bit of an experiment, 

trying to make an illustration look like a lino print

Hello old friend!

An illustration I made a few years ago for Cambridge University

 is still being sent to their graduates and is temporarily on their website!

Really nice to hear about this one

Arunta Bar finals

Here are the final cuts!

I really love this logo, very happy

Arunta Bar

A couple of designs sent off for a new bar in Australia

Arunta means cockatoo and is one of the birds native to Aus

The design had to be black & white and
 suitable for a sticker as well as a logo

Profile picture

Super quick add-on for the ExamEnglish commission

A happy profile pic!

Not my usual style, but I didn't want to make it look too cartoon-y

Now I'm working on another commission that I'm pretty excited about

and studying for my CELTA course in.. 18 days!!

ExamEnglish facebook cover - 2

It didn't look.. fun enough?

So I added some more people, then went crazy and added some streamers.

Hopefully the feedback will be good, and the client likes it.

I didn't have very much time for this as I've been in Morocco and...

I've just moved to Barcelona,

and I've been accepted onto a CELTA course to study teaching English as a foreign language!

So excited, I'm already studying like a loser

but I start in November

:)

I won't be illustrating for awhile, but I will still update this blog with interesting stuff, 

photos etc

ExamEnglish facebook cover

*DRAMA*

Possibly the funniest thing Ive accidentally drawn in awhile.

I had to share it

Whilst working on some characters for a cover banner

Valparaiso favourite places

Really not how I had envisioned this map at all. 

After spending so long making the pencil sketches, then completely re-doing them to make my first coloured buildings, I realised I was spending far far too long messing about.

I would like to make another map pronto, but this time in the way I had imagined it from the beginning.

I loved my pencil sketches, but they were really constricting in the end.

This was the best I could do with them, I tried colouring them (see previous post) but that looked pretty terrible as well.

Sometimes I think you just have to admit defeat and move along

Valparaiso coloured buildings

A different way of working up my Valpo building sketches

House sparrows lino

A small print of 4 house sparrows and some dog rose

La Sebastiana - Casa de Pablo Neruda

One little building left, 

finished before I decided to stop this way of making them

Ciao Valpo :(

So I coloured these tiny buildings from my pencil sketches but..

they've all lost something.

I loved the pencil buildings so much

I'm gonna scrap this idea and return to the original sketches. 

A learning curve but frustrating nonetheless

I won't be returning back to Valpo this year, so looking at this project again is making me pretty sad.

My laptop is also struggling to do even the basic of tasks 

this is all adding to the rubbishness of today

Skylark lino print

Another small lino print, this time of a skylark bird

Fieldfare lino

A small lino print of a fieldfare bird

Canberra Educational Government Pattern

I made this pattern with and without the texture

(the last green one is without the texture)

Really happy with it!

I think it would look great as a notebook cover and wrapping paper

It was made as a background for an Australian Educational Gov Fact Sheet

which I won't post, but it meant I got to brush up on my indesign skills

Buildings

A couple of things I've been enjoying lately...

The first thing I've been liking recently is this song from Lana Del Ray's new album

And then this book

'20 walks in and around Shrewsbury'

The walks are set out with points to follow, 

which feels like a treasure hunt.

Each walk has been super lovely so far

These photos are from a mix of 3 of the walks

Massively recommended if you live in or near Shrewsbury!

le tour de France!

Here's a poster I made to celebrate the Tour de France starting in Cambridge this Monday!

(This was the chosen colour design)

I made loads of different colour versions, 

but I actually quite like the black and white one