A new greeting card- No Otter One

Another wee greeting card that I designed around sea otters, holding each other's hand. It's been a rough week and a half, but I think that I am almost seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Running

So I've been working on some more editorial illustration, as I need to find editorial work. Here's a running illustration, I'm hoping to submit to runners world. I'll probably colour it later, but here's the black and white version for now.

Oranges!

I also came up with a pattern (it's taken me roughly 2 days to complete (amongst a couple of other things). I actually did the lineart for these as little still life drawing exercises from a basket of clementines that we get in our weekly shop- they're surprisingly well packaged for ASDA. I ate them afterwards, of course. I am considering making little coin purses out of the fabric some time soon.

I am currently making my partner an orange flavoured birthday cake with dark chocolate and orange zest- it's experimental, so I hope it turns out ok!

Some new greetings cards :-)

So I made some more greetings cards- here they are. I always thought that blob fish looked a little like unfortunate grumpy old men.

So I got some more teatowels printed

One using the thistle design that I have on a few other items, and one with a brand new pattern that I made (I started doodling it during an unsuccessful evening at Granny Would Be Proud), a 'cattern'. I'm still trying to find somewhere to license my designs as I could really do with the money, but for now, if you want to support me a little bit, my shop is here :-)

I made a new Cattern Pattern

And here it is- I'm making it into teatowels, which should be avaliable on my Etsy soonish.

So I made some christmas cards

For this year. A bit of a random selection, but I'm going for the 'Cheesy Biscuit' theme and style- they're avaliable from my Etsy and on my stall (this week in Royal Exchange Square- I'm hoping that the weather holds up).

More Christmas Cards

So I've designed some more Christmas cards- I am HOPING to have these sent off very soon (although my part time job is taking up a lot of my creative time) and get another done. I'm at the Little Bird's Market this Sunday, so fingers CROSSED that I get them finished and received before this weekend!

New badges

I recently ordered some new badges to be printed, and they have arrived! I was selling them on my stall on Sunday (after my lovely boyfriend carried them in for me). I do need to settle on a price, though- I got some good ideas from my fellow stall holders! I really felt like I wanted something on my stall that little kids could take away- relatively cheap, but still cute and colourful! I hope that these buttons do the trick!

Last minute Illustration Friday

But I did it! Just a quick, wonky, scribbley sketch photoshopped, but here it is- Prize. I will do a slightly better one this week, and hey! It's Inktober!

More items for my shop :-)

 I've now got some seafood print teatowels and a cat mug in my shop, available both via Etsy, and every week that I set up shop in Merchant Square.

Illustration Friday- Old

I did start this on Friday, to be fair. I have just got around to scanning it today, with so much else that needs to be done. I would love to colour it- if I get a chance this week (hopefully before Friday, so that I can upload it again to IF), but I do quite like line-work- its simplicity and effective communicativeness. I also love drying brush pens, for the amount in variation you get with your lines.

Scribblings

So I finished another greetings card- yay! I just have a few more designs to go, and then I'll be just about ready to get the catalogue sent off to retailers- and not a moment too soon. I've also been trying to get part time work at a gallery, but we'll just see how that goes. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to make more sales at market stalls- I had to take a bit of a break this week, as I couldn't find any free spaces, but next week I'll be at Granny Would Be Proud again, and then Merchant Square the week after that, so fingers crossed, and hope that all goes to plan and people buy my stuff.

I have ALSO been trying my hand at political cartooning and blogging (fingers crossed for that) 

Here's a cartoon on the Labour leadership race, I still need to do lots of work on these, but the amazing Chris Riddell gave me a couple of pointers to improve. And you can read my political blog right here, if you're interested. If not, ignore it.

I also recieved a sample of my fox and squirrel wildlife scarf

Excitement! But I have to see whether people want to buy them before ordering, which is tricky, as I'm ordering a few here and there, the retail price has to be expensive to make up for the wholesale, but I hope that people like them enough to pay a little more. I really love the free sample that was sent to me, and a bonus is that it's printed in Yorkshire, whereas a lot of the cheaper scarves out there aren't even printed in the UK. If anyone's interested, they can order one here, or if they find me at a stall, there's a chance I might have one for sale there.

Illustration Friday on a Wednesday

Just a quickie, because I realised that I hadn't done one on a while! The Statue of Liberty for the theme 'pointy', I initially thought of teeth (a shark, crocodile etc.), but I guessed that would be what everyone was doing, and I really miss New York! We never had the chance to go up the statue, but I did want to.

 Right now I'm working on my shop, and then I'd really love to try and get some jobs illustrating political cartoons- money is too tight right now! Luke and I are attending a Corbyn rally on Friday, so I'm HOPING to get some sneaky pictures of Jeremy for reference!

So I updated my shop

Just a little. You can see it here. Fortunately the old URL still links back to the same shop, which is very handy (I handed out a fair few coupons in Stirling), although I can't change the name of it again. I also have some digital prints available, such as the one below. I've got another stall this week, on the Sunday at Granny Would Be Proud, Hillhead book club on the West End of Glasgow- here's hoping I do better than Stirling!

So I finally got some more stock for my shop

 It's here https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KitchenCrawlies :-)
I was a little worried that it wouldn't arrive in time, and then I'd have jury duty... but I didn't have to do that afterall...
And now (HOPEFULLY) I will have my first ever fair in Stirling on Saturday, where I hope to sell this stuff :-)

So my cards arrived

I got them all cellophane wrapped and ready to go! I'm just waiting on my other stock at the moment, which I am super excited for! In the mean time, you can purchase my greetings card from either my Etsy or my Folksy stores. 

When life rains

So it's been raining a lot lately... although I guess that's what you should come to expect when you live in the northern region of a tiny island notorious for it's weather. I'd been wanting to do this for a while, really, but I finally got around to it when I realised that I needed another postcard for my stall in Stirling in August. It's just a little thought that I've been doodling for a while.

 Growing up in various regions of this little island, I came to  find it a sensible idea to always take an umbrella with me, just in case. Because even if it looks sunny, and the skies seem clear, you never can tell what lies ahead. I felt like it was an appropriate metaphor for life too- if you always have it in your mind that (although you hope for the best) things could go horribly wrong, I don't think you'll be as upset when they do, and pleasantly surprised when they don't. I guess that I just have an optimistic pessimistic view on life, but I feel like it serves me well, I'll just have to keep all my fingers and toes crossed that my stall experiences are mostly pleasant ones!