Shop / Spies Print

I've added a new print called Spies  to my Etsy Shop, just in time for Christmas Shopping! This is an updated illustration of a screenprint I made back at university. A lovely lady called Alison saw this print in a cafe in Edinburgh and asked if I had any more available since it reminded her of her daughter. Since the screenprints were made back in 2005 they're long gone, but it inspired me to make an updated version and turn it into a giclee print. It was so strange and interesting to return to work I made a long time ago and so nice to 'fix' some things and make them better. Do you ever re-visit older work of yours?

Behind The Scenes / How To Make A Travel Journal

I finished my travel journal! It's called Planes, Trains & Fireworks and documents James' and my trip to Toronto, Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Rochester. (It's available here!) Fitting bigger personal projects around illustration commissions is challenge so this took some time to complete, which is why I can't quite believe it's finally done and printed. Wohoo! I thought it would be fun to share some behind the scenes of the process! So here we go:

1. THE SKETCHBOOK I KEPT ON THE TRIP

As you can see during our trip I just made very messy scribbles and notes in my sketchbook. When we're on holiday, James and I like to wake up, walk and explore all day (often 10 hours of more) and then fall into bed exhausted at the end of the day. There isn't ever much time to draw, let alone put effort into making a pretty sketchbook! This is an A5 Travelogue Handbook sketchbook, by the way.

2. PLANNING / STORYBOARD

Back home in London, I made a rough plan/storyboard for the travel journal I wanted to make. I went through the sketchbook I kept on holiday and roughly divided the content into pages. This time I used an A3 Seawhite Of Brighton sketchbook, because I needed the space!

3. SKETCHES 

Then I started to make sketches for the book. Since my original drawings were very basic, I used the photos I took on holiday as reference - for example for all the food we ate. Some things I googled as well, like images of chipmunks which I then drew a few times for practice. (This is a random A4 Leuchtturm lined notebook. The pages were perforated so I taped them with washi tape to make sure they wouldn't rip out).

4. PENCIL LAYOUTS

At this stage I drew each page layout pretty neatly with a mechanical pencil onto A4 sized layout paper. It's pretty close to the final drawings, I only tweaked small details while inking.

5. INKING & LETTERING ALL THE PAGES

The whole book is inked by hand on paper and hand-lettered, too. Ouch! This was the stage where my hand was really aching but it was also the most fun and satisfying part of the process. It's A4 Fabriano drawing paper, with a bit of texture. I love it because it makes the lines look so much nicer than smooth paper.

6. FINALISING PAGES IN PHOTOSHOP

After scanning all 40 pages, I cleaned up any smudges in Photoshop and 'coloured' the pages (i.e. I added black areas and screentone). I also tweaked the layout, corrected typos/mistakes, added a few small things...) This  stage took a lot longer than I had expected. I printed out each page and taped them up on the studio wall so I could see my progress and also see how it would all look together!

7. REPEAT PATTERN FOR ENDPAPERS

During our trip I collected a lot of tickets, bits of paper, business cards etc which I scanned and turned into a repeat pattern for the endpapers of the book.

8. THE COVER

The cover was such a nerve-wracking thing because after all this work I wanted it to be something I would be 100% happy with. No pressure, right? Sometimes things are fun and ideas come easily, but with all this pressure I had zero ideas. I made so many different sketches, none of which worked, until I came up with this one. It wasn't until I draw the elements separately and moved them around that the final version came together.

9. CHOOSING THE PERFECT PAPER

Now it was time to put everything together in InDesign and to ask the printer to send over a lot of paper samples. I wanted the paper to be perfect as well, something beautiful with some texture that would make the final product beautiful and hopefully even more fun to read!

I then asked the printer to send me two printed proofs on different papers that I liked and ended up choosing Mohawk Superfine Eggshell paper (it's so lovely!).  I also realised that the illustration wasn't centred properly on the cover, so I fixed that before sending the travel journal off to print.

10. THE FINAL PRODUCT

And that's the end of this very long story behind the making of PLANES, TRAINS & FIREWORKS. I love seeing/reading behind-the-scenes and hope you enjoyed this! There are more details and peeks inside here in my Etsy shop.

Red Cap Cards / Foil Valentine's Day Cards

Last weekend a box full of Valentine's Day cards I illustrated for Red Cap Cards arrived. So exciting! Like the recent range of Christmas cards, they are foil printed and make my ink drawings look magical. I love them! I added them to my Etsy shop here. If you're interested in carrying them wholesale, they're available directly from Red Cap Cards. It may be a little too late to order them for Valentine's Day on Tuesday, but it's always good to be organised and prepared for next year! Happy Valentine's Day to you. And if you're not a fan of romance: Valentines, Schmalentines.

Shop / 2017 Wall Calendar

The last time I made a wall calendar with my illustrations was back in 2012 and I thought it was about time to do another one! Inktober (a drawing challenge where you do an ink drawing every day of Inktober) is always fun for me because I love doing black and white work. Last October I took this opportunity to put together my colouring book, and this year I decided to make this calender which you can colour! You can also leave it black and white, I think that's pretty, too!

I got it printed on the same wonderful paper as the colouring book, which is smooth and beautiful and most importantly handles both felt tip pens and coloured pencils well without bleeding or looking funny. (Believe me, it was very hard to find a paper with these qualities!) I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and I hope you will love it, too!

It's available here from my Etsy shop (and if you prefer Dawanda, I've made it available there for a limited time, too).

Red Cap Cards / Gold Foil Christmas Cards

 Christmas cards already? I hate to break it to you, but Christmas is only 9 weeks away. Aaaaaaaah! It's freaking me out a little but at the same time I'm excited to share these gold foil Christmas cards with you. The lovely Carrie of Red Cap Cards had the genius idea to turn my black and white illustrations into gold foild cards and they turned out so pretty! And they're even nicer in real life since they're so beautiful and shiny that they are tricky to photograph.

If you want to be organised and get some cards early, I've just added them to my Etsy shop here. Or if you want to carry these cards in your own shop, buy them wholesale directly from Red Cap Cards!

Shop / Anne Of Green Gables

I was originally commissioned to re-imagine the cover of 'Anne Of Green Gables' by Frankie Magazine last year, and it turned out to be one of my favourite illustrations I've ever done. Anne is one of my favourite characters ever and I know I'm not the only one - so I've made this illustration available as a giclee print. It's available here in my Etsy shop! Who are your favourite literary characters?

Shop / A Short Colouring Book Of Nearly Everything

My colouring book! I added it to my Etsy shop a while ago but I haven't blogged about it yet!

Maybe you remember that I drew all the ink illustrations as my  Inktober  project last October. Every single day in October I sat down and made an illustration for this project. I documented the process of inking the drawings as time lapse videos, which you can see here on my YouTube channel!

The reason it took months to get to the finished booklet was that I wanted to get the printing perfect. This was quite a challenge, not many printers seemed to have paper suitable for a colouring book - a paper you can draw on with both colouring pencils and felt tip pens without smudging too much or looking weird. After testing a lot of papers, I finally found the perfect one. Then there were problems with my files not printing correctly and I had to put everything together from scratch a few times. Phew! To be honest, there were several times where I just wanted to give up but I'm glad I didn't. I'm so happy with how it turned out. It's available here in my Etsy shop!

So this is the story of why everything took so long, but I think it was worth it and I hope you will enjoy colouring this book! I made a video where you can see some of the inside pages being coloured, it's on my YouTube channel. If you get the book I would love to see how you colour it! Post a picture if you like!

Shop / Election Collection

Potatoes! I love potatoes and eat them almost every day. Inspired by this deep love, I made an I Vote Potato design last year and uploaded it to my Society6 account. It was more out off silliness than anything else, but it turned out to be the best-selling design in my entire shop!

Since I don't just love potatoes, I decided to develop a whole Election Collection (including a new I Vote Potato design, which I like much better than the old one!). Society6 is a print-on-demand website and they offer a great range of products, so you can get these designs as prints, phone cases, bags, mugs, t-shirts and so much more. What do you vote?

Shop / The Badass Print

The Badass is an illustration I made as part of the MATS bootcamp class. The assignment was based loosely on Tarot cards but I veered off and created my own character, a badass illustrator with a ginger cat sidekick. It was so much fun! The illustration is now available as a professional quality giclee print from my Etsy shop. Meow!

Shop / Puppy Love Greeting Card

I have just added this new Puppy Love greeting card to my Etsy Shop! 

Did you know that I have 42  greeting card designs in my shop for all different occasions? If there's any kind of greeting card you'd like to see, let me know! I'm always interested in new ideas. Have a great weekend!

Shop /Fran & Anke Postcard Set

Hurrah! My super illustrator friend Fran and I schemed over tea and cookies and made a limited edition postcard set! It's Love/Friendship themed and there's six different postcards that you can put on your wall or send to all your special friends. It's available here in my Etsy shop.

SHOP / Christmas Coupon

It's that time of year again! My little shop is fully stocked with prints, cards and little gifts. Here's a little coupon for you as a thank you for following and supporting my work! Wishing you all a very cozy Christmas time.

Shop / New Postcards

I added 16 new and colourful postcards to my Etsy shop! This range was created for Captain Card, a shop in Potsdam, Germany. Lots of cats, bunnies and peculiar creatures - all of my favourite things to draw! If you're interested in carrying these wholesale that's amazing, simply contact Captain Card directly.
And if there's anything you'd like me to stock in my Etsy shop, let me know and I will try to make it happen. Meow!