Friday 30 August 2013

DIY: Sketchbook and Pen Travel Wrap.


First off apologies for the absence, we had ourselves a little holiday down in the Devon and Cornwall counties... two whole weeks off, absolutely lovely. So back to it, I thought I would post a non illustration related post, things have gotten a bit illustration based around here what with setting up the company and website, so here is a little DIY I recently made. Righty ho I believe I may have mentioned King Kwak draws once or twice? He carries a sketchbook and pens around with him all the time, to sketch when the mood take him, all of which rattling around in his bag. He often draws upon the tube to work and home, so for one recent special occasion I decided to make him this little wrap to carry all of his supplies in one easy place. About a year ago my dad had given me a load of old rice sacks, and my husband he is rice's number one fan, so it was a no brainer that I used one of these sacks. I did not photograph the process I am afraid as it was a bit spontaneous one nap time. You can see from the photos how simple it is, but effectively it has been made from one piece of sacking and felt sewn together then wrapped. The length of which equals two times the width of the sketchbook, by just over the length of the sketchbook.

Front:

Sacking outer with leather fastening, I like that the use by date is still upon it. Please excuse the dodgy stitching.

Reverse:

The sacking was cut according to the print upon it, I wanted the rice text to be the focus upon the back. 

Fastening:

I made this little fastening from leather, hole punched and sewn on with a nice little punched name detail. I acquired a great little set of steel alphabet and number punches from my dad, similar to which are available on eBay. It is best to do this part outside, as I unfortunately discovered it goes through the leather and my wooden floor now has Kwak imprinted upon it. Oops.

Inside:

A pocket for the sketchbook to the left and to the right I sewed in two little pockets with embroidery thread. One smaller pocket of felt to hold little bits like rubbers, pencil leads, tape... etc. And below a more heavy weight pocket from the sacking, I chose a piece from a nicer part of the graphic and sewed (very basic) lines to hold the individual pens and pencils.

Bits and Bobs:

As you can see the wrap has been aligned to safely hold the sketchbook to the left, the little pockets are able to hold all the supplies King Kwak may need.

Sketchy Kwak:

And should he fancy drawing a heart any time, then now he can do it. No more rummaging around looking for pens. Ok I admit I drew the heart.

Anytime, Anywhere:

And there you have it, he carries it around in his bag all the time and can whip out his sketchbook whenever he fancies drawings something. Job done and an actual miracle I made something for him which he actually uses... Hoorah. On a side note, I spent really rather far too long stamping out bird poo from this photo of the park bench, lovely.

Cost: Nothing.
Supplies: Sacking, felt, leather, embroidery thread, embroidery needle, scissors, leather hole punch, scalpel and alphabet punch with hammer.
Time taken: Two hours: One baby nap time.

I do hope that basic description and the photos make sense? Should anyone want a real tutorial, then please send me an email and I shall whip up something for you. I hope you like it, so for any sketchers out there, would you carry this around? And should you see my husband using this on the tube then do say hello.

Friday 9 August 2013

Illustration: Competition Shortlists.


So in the past week I have made not one, but TWO shortlists... can I have a woop, woop. The latest Is with the above card illustration for a competition held by one of the greeting card giants, Hallmark. The brief was to doodle a birthday/ celebration greeting card. So what better for a party than the obligatory party favourite... the humble party ring. I realise if you are not English you may not be familiar with these biscuits, as I discovered when one King Kwak asked why I had drawn doughnuts and was found muttering words along the lines of  "I Don't get it??". Charming. They are biscuits and they feature rather highly at all children parties here in the UK, well the parties I went to as a child at least. Here is the shortlist the colours of my entry have gone a little crazy on their website, fingers crossed it is being judged upon the true colours. Even if I make it no further I am overjoyed to feature in the final six, woo hoo. Here are the four other entries I submitted. The above I drew specifically for this competition, the others are cards I had previously illustrated, which fitted the brief.

Birthday Cupcake:

Birthday Trifle:

Birthday Sausage roll: Why not?

Birthday Jack in the box:

Last week I was also on another shortlist for a Tigerprint competition. The brief was to design a love/ wedding/ marriage themed surface pattern. I chose to illustrate lace as lace and lace trim have featured widely in weddings for many a year and date back to at least 1840, at the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Lace has featured at many a wedding in dresses, accessories and decoration ever since. I did my research, can you tell? This time I was one of 30 with this lace trim illustration. Here is the shortlist, alas I did not win, but I am super overjoyed to be on the shortlist. 

Lace trim Surface Pattern:

I did a couple versions along the same theme, and the above lace trim design was accompanied by the lace fabric design below. I prefer the below design to be honest. I am really enjoying designing surface pattern and have many more idea's  which I am working on. I hope you like these designs, if you have any comments or suggestions about any of these designs, please feel free to let me know. Have a super weekend.

Lace Surface Pattern:

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.

Monday 5 August 2013

Illustration: 'Feel Good Drinks' poster competition.


Last week was mostly spent illustrating a poster for a competition for 'Feel Good Drinks'. The brief read: "People need to know our brand name, what our drinks look like and that our drinks are full of tasty goodness". The image above is what I came up with. I worked on the theme of goodness and meditation as used within their logo, and more specifically I based my design upon Buddhist meditation imagery. If you like my image and are looking for ways to fill a whole 30 seconds, then please could you be ever so kind and vote for me HERE and I shall forever more be eternally grateful to you for your kindness. All you need to do is open THIS LINK, then press the like button above the image. Thank you ever so, that would be super kind of you. I do not know anywhere near as many people as some of the images have votes, but I worked very hard on this illustration, so it has got to be worth a pop trying to amass the votes at least. Thank you lots and lots and lots, big kisses to you all.

And Here's the link again just in case you missed it. Should you wish to read the full brief that can be found just here. Thank you!!

Artwork copyright of Queen Kwak.