Crikey! I have quite a lot of catching up to do with what I have been doing and seeing etc!
Starting back in the second year took some time to settle back in again, but feel full swing.

Today I have been helping a woman called Julieta Brandao on her stall KNITSHOP at the Harrogate Interrnational Centre for the Knitting and Stitching Show!

I was doing demonsatrations throughout the day of Needle point Felting which is really pretty easy, just need to be good at putting colours together and what not. I had a go at giant knitting kneedles too which were just amazing! You had to stand up to actually knit with them!

Made some really good contacts with a Knit Magazine for potential work experience and even Selvedge Magazinge had a stand that I pestered for work...will send some emails out and get on it!

www.knitshop.co.uk

Leeds City Museum

Did a quick visit today into the 'new' museum to check it out....had a really wicked interactive museum area for kids to play and 'learn' in! Good source for lots of shells and insect drawings..may have to return for next project..

Here are a few more sketchy pages, to give an idea of style and drawings. I use mainly pen and ink with acrylic, the prints you casn see were done with carved potatoes, yup, your bog standard spud!

My Sketch Book

Here is a wee insight to some of my sketchbook pages that I have done for my summer project which was a wallpaper brief in which I chose insects as my source....

I have a selection of gift wrap/tags and christmas cards amongst blank cards which I am currently trying to get off the ground.

Children's thank you pack - Stationery by Caroline Gardner

Children's thank you pack - Stationery by Caroline Gardner

Inspirational work

My Face painting Days

Here are some designs and things I get up to over the summer...

Eduardo Recife --[ ART DIRECTION ] SCENE 360

Eduardo Recife --[ ART DIRECTION ] SCENE 360

Another wonderful man who does wondrous things with collage and typography!

Simon Henwood, painter

Was going through my clippings of little ads and things I hold onto and came across Simon Henwood as someone who had produced a little portable hugging soft toy, but when I googled him I doscovered he is the most amazing portrait painter I have come across!

His work is mostly in Gouache which to me seems a really strange medium to work with..it works though! Not sure if I like some of the face textures he has recreated with the paint...sometimes it looks like they have cling film over their faces..

City Arts Gallery - Book Fair

For part of the research of my artisit book I took myself to the city art gallery where there was a temporary exhibition of various artists books on display.

The ones that stood out the most for me were the following:

• Sarah Mitchell (leeds based book artist)


• Melanie Bush - 'Abecedarium for Biblioposey'


• Peter Trepanier 'The Role of a Lifestime'


• Philippa Wood - 'She Said I Said'


• Graham Martin - 'The quiet corner of a Book'

Bernie Reid

Fashion Illustrator, general illustrator who uses stencils and spray paint as his main medium.

Found his images in the telegraph magazine and can't say I've seen anything quite the same as his work..yet!

THis guy is called Kelly Hyatt,

An illustrator and graphic designer from Leicester who has done a multitude of work for Habitat and the BBC involving his simple line images.

Dispite his images and works being really 'simple' looking i think his colour and compositions are just so delicious.

http://www.retromummy.co.uk/

http://www.larkmade.com/

Both of these websites have some fabulous fabric and patterns on them for inspiration..thought id share :)

Here's a great website for some pretty funky t shirt designs, good for both inspiration and some shopping ideas!

www.moretvicar.com

Inspiring designers

Natasko Seki is an illustrator who collages together a mix of hand drawn imagery, mixed media and a bit of digital manipulation.

I like her concepts behind er work and the composition she uses: simple and not too over crowded with colour.

I came across her work looking through 'digital illustration' which has given me lots of interesting ideas about ways of drawing and also makine me look at computer work in a more positive way!

January 2008 New Year First blog for the new year!

A collection of stains for this next project to see where it takes me. Pass this one in particular every day on the way to college and i always always notice it! it fantastic! its just like yoghurt...
Wandered in town and noticed so many chewing gum marks just everywhere, made me actually stop noticing them. Headed down the main high street and towards the market area where all the outside stalls are to see what vegetable foodie remains would be there, quite disappointed really! A few gems but in my mind i was hoping for a few more!


Am hoping to get round a few of the kitchens in halls, tracking each one and place etc but think im going to be mainly interested in their actual shape! the random form they take.

Yesturday : Was very annoyed at the fact that when I fixed some papers to the the lunch tables with masking tape the cleaners/possibly students! had ripped them off...annoyed at myself for not leaving some sort of notice saying please leave for project...but at the same time would rather it be left inconspicuous!

So will be trying again..and hope there are some fantastic spillages.