Arlington Magazine / The Thing About CSAs

Hello & happy Monday! If you know me, you know that I LOVE vegetables, so drawing this illustration for the current issue of Arlington Magazine made me feel so lucky to be doing this as a job. My illustration is accompanying an article about the advantages and disadvantages of CSAs (weekly veg boxes), written by Holly Scudero.

The first image is the finished illustration, followed by the initial pencil rough I sent off to the art director. There was only one change I was asked to make, which was to change the cucumbers in my sketch to okras. I definitely think it's much better with the okras! All my illustrations are inked by hand on paper and I work pretty neatly, so the third image is just a scan of my ink drawing. Once the drawing is scanned, I colour it digitally and in this case I also added some hand-made watercolour texture to the big lettuce leaf. Finally, at the bottom you can see how the illustration looks in the layout of the magazine. Here's a link to the article as well, if you're curious!

I've already shared the illustration on my Instagram, but a blog is such a nice platform to share a bit about the process behind it and since I am determined to get back into blogging, this is one thing I am planning to share more of. Do you enjoy this kind of post? Suggestions are always welcome!

Exhibition / Isle Of Dogs

At the start of April we went to see the Isle Of Dogs Exhibition at The Store X in London. Like so many other artists and illustrators I know I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson, because, well, he's obviously amazing. His new film (Isle Of Dogs) was finally out at UK cinemas and this exhibition displayed 17 sets from the film and a lot of the puppets. It was incredible and so much bigger than I had ever hoped! Even though it was pretty busy, there was plenty of space for everyone to have a closer look at each set - each one was to detailed and beautiful.

I decided to finally share these pictures (which admittedly I've been meaning to do for weeks!) But hopefully that means most people have seen the film by now and it won't be full of spoilers. Even though the exhibition isn't on any longer, maybe it is fun to see a glimpse of it if you didn't manage to go?

Out And About / Kindred Studios Open Day

On Sunday I took the day off and we visited the Kindred Studios open day! My illustrator friend Viktorija has an amazing studio there (you can see her desk in the last photo) and I had visited the studios before so I knew this would be amazing. 

There are over 160 artists making all sorts of work in this huge Victorian building which used to be a school. From fashion designers to fine artists, architects, graphic designers, jewellery makers, sculptors, ceramicists, photographers and more. There was so much to explore. Lots and lots of inspiring work and just as inspiring workspaces - I loved seeing the details of everyone's space and who doesn't love a huge building pretty much filled with art materials! Not to mention the beautiful lighting inside the building and great views over London! 

Bt the end of the day I felt all inspired to go and re-organise my own little home studio. If you live in or near London, I definitely recommend checking out Kindred Studios on their next open day. It's such a magical place!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2017

Merry Christmas, everyone! 2017 has been one of the busiest, if not the busiest years I've ever had - I need to catch up on sharing my work on this blog! Maybe it will be better in 2018? I have a feeling that I always plan that for the coming year... well, fingers crossed. If you want to keep up with more new drawings, check out my Instagram. How was your year? (Is anybody still reading blogs?)

Schweizer Familie / Questions Age

I recently drew this illustration for Schweizer Familie magazine, about the age when kids start asking lots of questions. I got to draw a talking cat and so many fun details - what could be better?

Sketchbook / Mini Twin Portraits

During the past few months I filled a small-sized sketchbook (A6) with what I call 'Twin Portraits'. They're not really portraits and not quite twins, since they're imaginary and intentionally different. I'm obsessed with sketchbooks for just messing around and having fun. Usually they're not themed at all, so this was new for me. I drew most of this in the evenings while watching episodes of Gilmore Girls with James. If you're interested in seeing the whole sketchbook, click on the YouTube video I made:

Cincinnati Magazine Baby Guide / The A to Z Guide

Here are some illustrations I drew for The Baby Guide Cincinnati. You can read it online here. My favourite to draw was the scared pregnant lady with the giant calendar. I didn't know that parental leave is so different from country to county. That's one of the things I love about being an illustrator, you learn new things and interesting facts all the time while getting to draw all sorts of cute things!

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.

Good Magazine / Christmas Cover 2016

At the end of last year I illustrated my 4th Christmas cover for Good Magazine!  It's been a while since Christmas now, but Christmas illustrations are among my favourites to draw, whatever the time of year. There are many things I don't like about real-life Christmas, but I've always loved story-world Christmas. It's always so perfect and cozy! When I was little, I always re-read the Christmas chapters from my favourite books over and over at all times throughout the year. Astrid Lindgren, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder - they always write about perfectly snowy, cozy Christmases. I still love it.
This cover illustration is picturing a scene of carol singers in front of the Dubai skyline. I added some of the roughs/sketches so you can see a bit of how it came together.

Frankie Magazine / Calendar 2017

I'm so thrilled to be part of this year's Frankie Magazine calendar! Above is a photo of the calendar, as usual it's huge and gorgeous and printed on wonderful paper. Underneath is a picture of my ink illustration which originally appeared in my colouring book and the coloured version I created especially for the Frankie Calendar.
The other wonderful artists in this calendar are: Esther Sandler, Joel Penkman, Miju Lee, Janet Hill, Monica Ramos, Cornelia Li, Sandra Eterovic, Ashley Ronning, Choi Mi-Kyung, Daniela Dahf and Alessandra De Cristofaro.