illustration friday-worry

worry, worry, worry.
I am a woman, I worry all the time.
However, this particular illustration is about men.
This man is worried about testicular cancer.
(commissioned by another art director not wanting any genitalia on show)

Contact Illustrators 24 is OUT NOW

All round excitement as Contact Illustrators 24 came through my door this week - this means that art directors everywhere should have their copy now too.

The book is a bit thinner this year, but as my chum Glen says, that just makes it all the easier to be found! The power of positive thinking.
Contact also has an illustrator's website, where I have 20 images on display too

I decided to do a montage image this year - playing around with blocks of colour, texture and line, and of course, showcasing my pen and ink people and objects. I have cars, handbags, shoes, bicycles, flowers, LETTERING and even mobile phone masts in there, all artfully composed. Looking forward to a few phone calls and some lovely new clients.

Australian Paintings - sneak view

I have 2 shows coming up and have been working on several new paintings for them - I showed you some a few posts back.
Well, I need to get them to the framers on Monday, so I have to get them finished this weekend!
I was in Australia over the Christmas and New Year as a good friend of mine was getting married. They have a lovely farm in the hills out the back of Perth in WA, where we stayed for a while. The birds on that farm are amazing - you get emus, of course, but the black parrots, green parakeets and the tiny, electric blue Fairy Wren, which would come and sit on the wire fence outside the verandah. Kangaroos everywhere at dawn and dusk...and some large wolf spiders too.
Here is a section of a painting called "Parakeets at Gidgegannup"...the orange looks a bit flat in the scan, as the saturation has gone way up in the scanning. There are lots of tiny details which youmaybe cannot see here, but you get the idea.

Elle Netherlands - job done

Phew-ee, the job is done, emailed and got final approval today.
The fashion is fashionable and the girls must be pretty, so all is good!
Here we go - sneak preview of them, though they will appear in the July issue. If you are over in the 'Dam then, go grab a copy.

Sunny here in Cellardyke, but I have my website to work on and an exhibition and the East Neuk Open Studios in June to get ready for now, so I am inside on a glorious day :-(. Maybe I'll go outside and draw some birds instead - we have a blackbird who is nesting in the current bush and keeps hopping into the kitchen after any crumbs - cheeky.

more Elle progress reports

Well, I have been working on the three Elle illustrations all week - really enjoying them, as I do love doing a foxy portrait, using colour and some of my ink drawings. John Singer Sargent IS an inspiration, you know - especially Madame X and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (which is on show at the National Gallery of Scotland)
The art direction is quite strict in terms of what the females need to look like - and about the clothes they are wearing too.
I've been told the girls need to be prettier and the clothes summery but fashionable. Now, I do love fashion but being a country bumpkin these days, I tend to forget my fashionista roots. However, I discovered the wonder that is Net-A-Porter.com for all my fashion reference - roll on Diane Von Furstenberg and Mikey and Alice Temperley does rather nice threads too. Maybe I need to include some Dutch designers too...mmm.
Anyway, this portrait with the champagne glass is my self termed, night-time clubber one - the girl with a bit of danger in her eyes. She is also sporting a custom designed Aquarius salmon skin belt in Screaming Teal. Really.
The really hard looking girl was the one that got rejected - for being too hard and Eighties looking (note: my fashion sense was honed in that decade, so maybe it has come back to haunt me)
I think these illos might make good prints once they are finished - and alongside my USAville Girl portrait, could be a rather fetching quartet on anyone's wall...

An ELLE in progress...

I am working with the refreshingly direct designers at ELLE Netherlands to do 3 full page illustrations for their July issue, which is quite good fun, actually.
The job is for the Horoscope specials and needs to have all the symbols in there - 4 per illo. I have to do it quite subtly, and tie it in with their ethos - young, modern, confident and fashionable (and no hair in pigtails).
I am in the process of trying to draw slightly prettier(!) women, but here is a current rough - spot the symbols! This one IS going to be changing quite a bit, as the beret is a bit too wintery...and the birds are OUT (more flowers IN)
These changes might all seem a bit prescriptive, but it is a good process whereby you create work that you are happy with, aswell as delighting the client.