It's my Birthday and I'll Cook if I want to...

I have gone back to school. I signed up for Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells to build my portfolio, strengthen my illustration skills and learn about a variety of different art markets. 

The first week is now coming to an end, and I am thrilled to have completed my first assignment: my 'vintage kitchen' bolt fabric design includes cheerful root vegetables, kitschy casseroles and a pair of long-eared bunnies...

Line layout

Watercolour and pen sketches

MATS Part A - BOLT FABRIC - Week 1 Assignment 

P.S. Today is my birthday.

Autumn is here

I have a cold. Autumn is playing with the leaves outside. This calls for hot honey and lemon, a sugar hit and a quick sketch or two in between sneezes. Right now I have a pumpkin on my desk, surrounded by an assortment of skulls and my favourite Lyle's Trick or Treacle tin.  Along with the autumnal drawbacks of colds, shortening days and the like, come the fast-approaching twin delights of Halloween and Guy Fawkes' Night...

Beetle Bookworms : Beauty and the Beetle, A Cockroach Orange, and Lawrence of Scarabia

I had such fun drawing these intellectual little beetles and creating a repeating pattern. Hopefully the book titles will make you smile! 

Grazia Road Trip: The Map

Back in February of this year, I went on a press road trip as part of team Grazia. Our challenge was to drive the new Ford Tourneo Connect aka 'The Beast' from Folkestone to Courmayeur in Italy and to retain a sense of humour. We succeeded, and once we had completed our hilarious journey we had champagne and a weekend of skiing to recover! Here's a little map I drew to show our route. The lovely article on the trip, written by Grazia's divine Chrissy Quinn, can be read here.

Illustrated Ford Road Trip Map

Granny's Ginger Cake - They Draw They Cook

My Granny was hugely important to me and of great creative support. As an artist, she was very encouraging when I was small to draw, and paint and experiment with art. Sadly, we lost her last year, but I am pleased that I got to show her my first few illustrations. 

One very fond memory is of making a ginger cake with her and my mother at Halloween. We crafted a recipe that was a mixture of several from 'the books', drank tea, and pondered over if the recipe would turn out well. It did, and a few weeks ago I made the ginger cake and decided to illustrate our 'family' recipe. It is a delicious sticky cake using black treacle, and is especially yummy after a few days of sitting and thinking about itself.

It is featured on the glorious website They Draw They Cook, which is awash with beautiful artwork and food inspiration.

Happy Birthday!

I really enjoy creating personalised birthday presents, and below are three examples. The first was made for a 5th birthday, the next for a 40th and the final one for a 65th! A lovely spectrum of ages!

The four-year-old had created an imaginary superhero character for himself, with his cat as his sidekick. It was a joy to bring this pair to life! As far as I know, the image was put onto a t-shirt for the child.

The Incredible Adventures of XO Man and Furball

40th birthday artwork

65th Birthday Artwork

Vegas Baby! A Showgirl's Wedding

This wedding gift was created for a wonderfully eccentric sounding couple!

Bryn and Rebecca got married in Las Vegas, and the bride's showgirl outfit was made by the incredible designer and dressmaker Gilly Woo. 

I am hoping to see some photos from the ceremony appear on Facebook at some point!

I do not know the significance of the Wookie and the Ewok… but I now feel that no wedding would be complete without an Ewok.

Halloween Preparations Begin!

Unexpectedly, I have found myself in the UK for several weeks, and the last few days have been an incredible mixture of crisp sunny days and intense thunder and lightening storms. 

It is Autumn. 

It is nearly H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N !

...and I am really excited! 

I love Halloween. The colours, the creativity, the dressing up, the special effects make-up, the cooking, the planning. It takes over my mind far more than Christmas does. If i'm honest, I have been thinking about it for months!

Last year we were in Istanbul for Halloween and, although, we found a fantastic party to go to I couldn't find any pumpkins to carve - so I took the knife to a small round courgette. It was remarkably easy, and pretty effective once glowing spookily on the dining room table. 

Today, I have sat down with a cup of tea and started to plan my Halloween meal for this year. We are having friends over and I want everyone to really enjoy the evening and the morbid black food colouring! I'm going to make some decorations and, hopefully, i'll have time to drive to a small village in Kent that fills one of it's barns with pumpkins and gourds - an amazing array of goodies for cooking and carving. Anyway, I digress, as well as the party planning I am enjoying sketching out autumnal and halloween inspired illustrations….i'll post about them soon.

Halloween Frankie in his pumpkin hot- air balloon