Sweet Shop Illustration Range

I have recently taken it upon myself to do a range of illustrations for my local sweet shop, Old Amersham Sweet Shop (also because they ask very kindly when I go in and they display my illustrations above the counter).  If you are around the area I would definitely recommend stopping by to pick up 100g of your favourite sweets in a pink striped bag!

These prints will be for sale as greetings cards and also as (5x7in) prints, in the shop as well as in my Etsy shop soon!

Love Heart

The Original 'Great British' Lolly

Life is like a box of chocolates

Lucky Dip

Love Heart Lolly

Which is your favourite sweet?  Personally, I love a mix of tangy apples and milk bottles :-)

Dancing

Dancing

This is a commission that is actually my first illustration where the people are the subject of the piece.  Sometimes people creep into my city scenes, but very often, not.  I haven't been very confident at illustrating people as there is so much to get right, proportions and such.  HOWEVER.  I worked on a Dog portrait in December, which you can read here, and it wasn't as difficult as I had worked it up to be.  That being said, I was still daunted by the thought of doing this illustration.

The brief I was given was quite open, there were a range of photos to choose from, they wanted more movement than detail, and to be able to recognise the dancers for who they actually are.  Now, the likeness of the male's face is not like for like to his real counterpart, but the couple dancing is definitely the couple it is of....If that makes sense?  The dress is the lady's favourite, the man always wears a black suit, and they dance around the dance floor with a lot of energy and poise.

Both were extremely happy with the illustration, which makes me one very Illustrator indeed!

Workshop at The Royal Masonic School for Girls

All forms of Book

I was contacted by RMS's textile teacher Mrs Bloomfield Proud, to come into the school and do a workshop for the girls working on a Children's Book project.  They have to take a cultural, traditional, children's story and interpret it how they will and produce a textile piece.  After seeing the work I've done which involve books, she was inspired to get me to inspire the girls!  

I took along examples of my work, in all different book forms to talk through with them.  As a bonus, I took along the children's book that I developed in my 2nd year at University as well as some of my favourite children's books that i have for *ahem, research and reference.

I demonstrated how to make a couple of books that involve only folds and cuts rather than stitching (as this is the option I normally go for myself) but also showed them a bit of stab binding as it's a good bind to know if you have numerous loose pages to put together and is relatively straight forward.

Hopefully the girls came out of it a bit more knowledgable and full of inspiration and ideas on how to possibly incorporate their current ideas into a book format.

Frasier

Frasier

Frasier was my first illustration commission of a dog.  Therefore quite a bit of pressure, nerves, excitement going on.  Luckily, I actually know Frasier quite well as he belongs to friends of the family. I think I've captured his cute little face, and the client seems very happy with them indeed!  There are 2 paintings of him, one face on and one a side view.  The couple who commissioned Frasier were buying them for each other for Christmas, as a little extra I wrapped both up so they would both have a christmas surprise!  I had a lovely phone call on Christmas morning praising my work, which was so nice as even though I was really proud of my work, it's the clients thoughts on the end product that count the most.

They were lovely enough to take some pictures of Frasier up in their house.  He now has a new home towards the front of the house, going up the stairs, so anyone coming into the house will see him!  To say I'm chuffed is an understatement! 

If you're interested in having me do an illustration of your pet (not just dogs!) or maybe it's a friends birthday coming up?  Please get in touch, either by leaving a comment here, email me charlotte_vallance@hotmail.com or by phone 07793710416 - please be sure to leave a name and number if I don't manage to answer.

Thank you for reading!

Thank you

Thank you friends and family for a lovely Christmas!

Last year I went for the classic round swirly lollypop and this year we have the Christmas tree edition!  It always inspires me at Christmas dinner to see these lollies staring at me, waiting for me to finish my dinner.  Yes thats right, they are sat in the middle of the table looking lovely, the whole time!  So, of course, come thank you card writing, they are all I can think about!  I thought I'd share my process of the watercolour with you all.  It's different to normal you see.  I have not used any black fine liner, or fine liner of any colour for that matter.  And for once, I have taken the time to do layers of colour!  It was slowly built up over a day, very patiently I might add, to give it a deeper, vibrant colour.

Enjoy!

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No Chocolate in 2011

WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY back in September 2011, Laura Manfre decided to give away a BESPOKE ILLUSTRATION by her lovely self.  All that was asked of entrants was to say what they would like and why, and an entry would be selected at random as the winner.  I absolutely fell in love with her illustrations, they are bright, gorgeous, almost edible, cute and amazing works of art!

Therefore, I was over the moon when I won!  You can see the original post on her blog here, and as well as seeing the lovely finished illustration in this post in it's new home, you can see the post Laura wrote about it here.

The subject of the illustration came about because myself and my sister Katie gave up chocolate for 2011 - yes you read that right, we did NOT eat CHOCOLATE for the WHOLE OF 2011!  I had been thinking about getting something for us to remember this year by and Laura's competition came along and I thought, great idea!  So I asked if Laura would do an illustration to celebrate all the chocolately things that Katie loved.  I think the banner was Laura's idea :-) such a great illustration, it's up in our studio area where we have our desks to inspire us everyday!

Here are also a few photos of pieces i've managed to get/swipe up from Laura's Etsy shop,  she always includes great cards as a compliment slip as well which are lovely to have dotted around my room!  You can visit her website here, and you can follow her on Twitter here.  Which you should do as she's lovely and you often get to see little previews of pieces she's working on.

Thank you Laura!

New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year!

So, a happy 2012 to everyone and all the best for what this year ahead brings us.  As with the start of every year, I've been thinking about resolutions.  Last year, it was more about not doing something rather than putting expectations on myself.  THIS year, however, I'm ready to set myself some 'real life' goals...as it were.

A lot of the illustration work I do seems to be for someone else, or specifically for something.  Therefore my FIRST new year resolution is to 'Do an illustration for myself once a month'.  Now this is of course quite vague and only an outline, but I didn't want to make it seem like too much pressure.  This is all about me enjoying illustrating, making time to draw what I want to draw without a brief or client involved.  I think that this will help, over the year, with my illustration style and confidence in myself as an illustrator.

Now the complete opposite of this is my SECOND new year resolution 'Design an illustration/illustration range for use on stickers, pocket mirrors and badges'.  I love the illustrations I do.  But they really do not transfer well onto something that is not a print for the wall or a greeting card.  I admit it, I am quite jealous of illustrators who seem to have a knack for this area of 'cute little extras' that even if you have 5 of you definitely always need one more!

I think that this past year, I've got the hang of Twitter, I've created a Facebook page and I've blogged more than I've ever blogged before.  I have really loved the feedback that I've received, the friends I've made because of it (I've even met a few in REAL LIFE!) and the quiet community that it brings with it.  And so, my THIRD new year resolution is to 'Keep up/Increase my on-line presence'.  This will involve; 

Blogging once a week - there are ofter a few weeks that disappear without me having posted, but I've still been doing things!

Design a website for myself - If I at least have my ideas sketched out, it will be easier to make it a reality. 

And finally, to upload more photos onto my Facebook page - I need to be more visual with these online/digital sites, Facebook is the best platform for people being able to see images without having to follow links off at a tangent.

A new venture this year was setting up an Etsy Shop.  Now it's all well and good showing your family and friends your work, and even for them to say how much they love it, and even still for them to buy cards and books off you.  BUT, the rest of the world is a scary place!  I think I signed up for Etsy in 2010, I bought a lovely pair of snowflake earrings and signed up for the newsletters.  They have been a great source of inspiration and temptation over the year!  In time to sell my Christmas cards, I properly set up shop - HURRAH!  Now, all I have to do, is stick to my FORTH new year resolution 'List a new item every month in my Etsy Shop'.

My FIFTH new year resolution helps me keep on track and make sure all of the rest of them actually happen 'Be organised'.  I received a mass amount of notebooks, jotters, sticky notes, planners and sketchbooks for Christmas.  I really have no excuse.  I am slowly finding new tasks for each one so that I can have a place for everything and not loose little bits of paper or images I like.  Ideas will have a place to go, lists will be written in the 'lists' notebook and inspiration will be only a flick away.

Thank you for reading, I've enjoyed reading everyones blogs full of new year resolutions - lets hope we all keep them!

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