the minions are coming...

Despicable Me 2 is released later this week and I will hopefully be going to see it sometime next week for my birthday.  Nothing better than saying farewell to your twenties with an animated movie!  I loved the first film so I'm really looking forward to this one.

We watched the first one again last night in order to prepare Dan and he was won over by the minions, I love the minions.

my illustrating process

I always find it really interesting to see how other people work so today I thought I'd quickly share with you my working process.

The way that I work developed throughout my studies at university but it has continued to change slightly over the years and I now have a process that I feel works best for me.

I start with a very rough drawing, usually based on ideas from my sketchbook.  This helps me to work out composition and scale.

I work on a drawing, refining it until I have something I am happy with.  Because my work is based on shape, colour and pattern it is important that this final drawing is right so that all the pieces fit together properly at the end.

I then trace the drawing and transfer the areas that I want to be painted onto stretched paper.

I start painting, filling in one colour at a time.

Once the painting is finished I start adding details and patterns using coloured pencils.

After this is done I cut out paper shapes from my stash of pre-painted papers for the final details.  I then add extra details to these pieces using coloured pencils before gluing them in place

The final touch is to add the eyes.

When I was at university I used to cut out ALL of the pieces.  This took such an awfully long time and some illustrations would have hundreds of pieces to cut out, add details to and stick down.  Pieces inevitably went missing and things would often go awry if I didn't glue things on in the right order.

Over the years I have refined my process, I began painting more of the larger shapes and it felt more like creating an illustration rather than putting together a puzzle.

from my sketchbook: crocodile dance

Lately I have been having a long hard look at my portfolio and it is definitely lacking in some areas.  As a result I have put together a (rather long) list of things that I want to work on for it.

This week I have made a start and been working on some character development pieces.  I can honestly say I have done very little character development since I left university and I've really enjoyed doing it this week.

I found a piece of work that I did in my second year at university and used that as a starting point for a family of little crocodiles.

Here is a little crocodile dance from my sketchbook.  Hopefully I'll get some time this weekend to start painting these happy little chaps.

#twoodle

I came across #twoodle on Twitter last week when up popped up in my feed.  The hash-tag was created by illustrator Alicia Padron. 

It's a pretty simple idea: twoodle = Twitter + doodle.  Every week you can join in by tweeting random words along with #twoodle.  Then on a Wednesday you search the hash-tag and choose two unrelated words and create a little doodle combining the words and then share it.

Last week my #twoodle words were squirrel and queen.

And this week I chose parrot and guitar.

You can find out more about #twoodle on Alicia's blog.

It's good fun and also a great exercise for getting you thinking and doodling, especially if you have been feeling a bit stuck and staring at a blank page.  Go on, give it a go.

words of wisdom wednesday #3

happy farther's day

Happy Father's Day

We'll be spending the day visiting our families today, happy Sunday everyone.

collecting

Do you have a collection?  I thought about this one and while I don't "collect" things, there are things that I have a lot of, so I suppose you could call that a collection.

Some things I currently have a lot of:

• Picture books: I began buying picture books when I was studying at university and I haven't really stopped since.

• Momiji dolls: These have been bought for me as gifts and I have now built up quite a collection.

• Animation DVDs: From Disney and Studio Ghibli - one day I will own them all!

 Recently I have been buying a lot of house plants, succulents in particular.  Succulents are great plants to have as they are easy to look after and there is a huge variety.

I went around a few garden centres looking for succulents but I often found them to be quite limited and very expensive.  It turns out one of the best places to get large, good value succulents from is Ikea.  And their pots are great too.

Another great thing about succulents is, as they grow, you can split them down and get more plants for free!  I try to re-purpose things where I can so I have planted some of the smaller plants in empty Nutella jars.

I am gradually filling up every corner of our house with potted plants and very soon I will run out of room!

howdy

Howdy everyone, hope you're all having a great weekend so far. 

Unfortunately I have missed a couple of days on my blog every day for a month challenge, ooops *slaps wrist*, so I'm playing catch up today.

words of wisdom wednesday #2

share it, pin it, tweet it...

Since I joined the world of smartphone owners last year I have been using social media networks more and more.  I have accounts with a few but the two I use most often are Twitter and Pinterest.

Twitter is brilliant for staying in touch with friends, keeping up to date on the news (I tend to find out about most things from Twitter these days) and for connecting with some awesome creative and like minded people.  It is also a great way of sharing your work with another audience.

Pinterest is fast becoming my favourite social media network.  It works like a mood board where you can virtually pin great images.  It is one of those things that, if you're not careful, can rob you of your time.  It is far too easy to get sucked in and you end up spending far too much time on there.  It is a fantastic source of inspiration and a quick and easy way of collecting everything together in one place.

Kim Lawler of Finest Imaginary wrote a great post on 10 awesome easy ways to use Pinterest for your website, which is well worth a look.

I also have a Facebook page for my illustration work but as I am not a huge lover or user of Facebook on a personal level I have been struggling getting to grips with how to use it to get the best out of my page.  It is definitely a work in progress.

If you would like to take a peek at any of the above you can follow the links in the sidebar.

How about you?  Which is your favourite?  And how do you use it?

"and now," cried max, "let the wild rumpus start!"

Today would of been Maurice Sendak's 85th birthday and Google have honoured him with an inspired animated doodle.

I have done my own little doodle of Max in celebration of the great illustrator and story teller.

And if you have a spare 40 minutes or so watch this.  In this intriguing documentary Maurice talks candidly about his youth, family, thoughts on death and his career and some of the controversies that came from his books.

May the wild rumpus never end.

Happy Monday everyone.

illustration friday: children

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is Children.  Above is an illustration I did a while ago of a rather sticky, messy kids party.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

fit and healthy

Both Daniel and I try to keep fit and healthy.  I try and cook all our meals from scratch with fresh ingredients and avoid ready made meals.  We do have the occasional slip up, but doesn't everybody.

When I was at school I hated PE and dreaded the summer athletics stuff.  I would cycle a bit and go on walks with my family and that is the kind of stuff I still enjoy doing now.  The thought of spending an hour or so on a machine in the gym with a bunch of strangers really doesn't appeal to me.  I would much rather get outside and go somewhere.

We are fortunate that where we live is surrounded by some lovely outside spaces.  We don't have to go to far from our door and there are fields, woodlands, rivers and canals that provide great opportunities to get out and get some exercise.  Dan used to go to the gym regularly but in order to save a bit of money we have been trying to do things that are free and take advantage of the outdoors, like running, walking and cycling.

I used to cycle a lot when I was younger but got out of the habit as I got older and went to college and university.  When Dan and I started going out the first thing he ever bought me was a bike.  He has always been a keen cyclist, riding BMX and mountain bikes for as long as he can remember and he wanted us to do this together.

We have been getting out on the bikes a least once a week.  Cycling on the roads terrifies me so at the moment we are just going along the canal.  We try and go either early morning or late evening when there are fewer people about.  It's good practice for me as I haven't ridden for a while, I'm just getting used to using the gears properly and building up some strength.  Hopefully we'll be doing some longer rides soon and start throwing a few hills in there too.

My aim is to be able to go to Dolby Forest and ride some of the tracks they have there.

What do you do to stay fit?  Do you like getting outside too or do you prefer to go to the gym?

it's friday

It's Friday and I've completed a whole week of bloggin, good times :)

We're off out tonight to watch a band so I'll make this quick and share a new illustration with you all.

It's Friday, so lets par-TEA.

little, little thee

When I was little the one thing that I remember people commenting on the most was my hair.  I really had a lot of hair, it was super thick and curly and had a mind of it's own.  It was so unruly even the hairdresser didn't know what to do about it.

That's me, see what I mean, loads of it.

Combs would get stuck, warm weather made it worse and I hated the hairdressers with a passion.  Fortunately it got better and thinned out a bit as I got older and started growing down rather the out.  Below is a little illustration I did a while back about how I felt when I went to the hairdressers when I was a kid. I don't think I ever got stuff stuck in my hair but sometimes it felt like anything could get lost in there. 

Any-who, enough about my hair woes, hope everyone is having a super sun shiny week.  I've really surprised myself that I have managed to blog 6 days in a row and I'll be super chuffed if I make it to the end of the month.

words of wisdom wednesday #1

living with a lizard

The title of this post is a little odd but today I am going to tell you all about our pets.  Both Daniel and I grew up in houses with pets.  We would love a dog of our own but we are renting so it's not something we can really do until we have our own house.

In 2011 we decided to look into getting a lizard.  I took a little convincing at first but we did our research and got help and advice from a couple of friends who have a house full of snakes and lizards.  After careful consideration we decided to get a bearded dragon.

We got our baby beardie from Leaping Lizards in York, along with a full set-up for him.  They were very helpful and gave us loads of advice.  Dan named him Ron (after the legend Ron Burgundy, he's a huge Anchorman fan).  He looked so tiny when we brought him home and placed him in the vivarium, but they grow very quickly and have huge appetites.

Bearded dragons make fantastic pets.  They all have their own personalities and are very sociable.  They are pretty laid back and easy to handle.  Their little behaviour quirks also make them fascinating to watch.  We would often find Ron sat in some very interesting and uncomfortable looking positions.  When he was shedding he would inflate himself like a balloon.  They also do this weird thing where the push their eyeballs out which is really quite worrying the first time you see them do it!  He loved our company and would come up to the glass and scratch at the door to be let out to have a run about.

When Ron was almost a year old he got very sick.  One morning he just wouldn't move or open his eyes.  Luckily we were able to find a specialist herpetology vet who was just up the road from us, Johanna at Internation Zoo Veterinary Centre who was fantastic.  He was tested and treated for parasites, something that is quite common in reptiles and we took him back for regular check ups.

Unfortunately after the initial treatment his health got worse.  He refused to eat anything, was very lethargic and began to loose weight.  We took him back to Johanna who gave us vitamin shots and a food supplement but he still showed no signs of improvement.

Sadly we had to make the heartbreaking decision to have Ron put to sleep.  I would never want to have to make that decision again but it was the best thing to do.  Afterwards Johanna told us that there was very little else that could have been done.  She said his liver had failed, something that most likely developed when he was small.

We have talked about the possibilty of getting another bearded dragon in the future.  But we have said that we would rescue one next time.  So many people buy them when they are babies and either don't realise how big they grow or what is invoved in keeping them, so they just get rid of them.

Since then we have gotten Attenborough, a crested gecko, from our friends.  Crested geckos are so very different from bearded dragons.  Much smaller, faster, can lick their own eyeballs and they are nocturnal so he's out and about when we are home in the evening.

There are so many different types lizards and reptiles out there and there is something suitable for everyone, from the beginner to the more experienced keeper.  A lot of people are a bit squeamish about lizards but everyone who met Ron who was little unsure was instantly won over.  Next time you are in the pet shop have a look at the reptile section and see if you're not won over by the baby beardies waving at you.

5 favourites

Today I am going to share 5 of my favourtie blogs with you.  I read a few blogs but these five are the ones that I tend to read everyday:

A Beautiful Mess: wonderfully creative and inspiring blog with great DIY and craft projects to brighten up your day.

The Dainty Squid: Kaylah shares her quirky collections and unique style.  I have to say that I'm a little bit jealous of her collection of cacti and succulents.

Little Chief Honeybee: charming and refreshingly honest blogging and lovely photography from Kaelah.  And her two dogs are adorable.

Hip Hop Sideproject: great blog from Kim, just up the road in Huddersfield, giving honest and helpful advice on how to survive making a living from something you love.

Tigerprint: the home of Tigerprint, greeting card designers for M&S, originally formed in Brighouse (wooo). This blog showcases lovely print and pattern.  They also run regular competitions which are always worth a look.

There are so many blogs out there and I discover and add new ones to my list everyday.

spring is here (finally)

Day two of blogging every day for a month and it finally looks as though spring is here to stay.  Today has been a lovely sunny Sunday and my little garden is coming along well.

I have a little container garden at the front of our house where I grow flowers, herbs and vegetables.

After last years very disappointing summer where most of my plants failed to do pretty much anything I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a better turn out this year.

You don't need a lot of space to grow your own.  In the past I have successfully grown carrots, curly kale, peas, beetroot, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, spring cabbage, spring onions and garlic all in containers.  I gave pumpkins a go once but that didn't quite work out (but the snails loved it).

This year I have bought some new herbs and will continue to grow strawberries and garlic.  I am also giving shallots and radish a go for the first time.  Hopefully if I can keep the slugs and snails (and cats) at bay this year should be a success.

I would recommend that everyone gives growing their own a go, in your garden, a few small pots in the yard or even on the windowsill.  Go on, give it a go.