Charlotte Vallance

Ohh Deer - Stuck on Repeat

2012-02-07T21:00:00.000Z

www.OhhDeer.com

'Stuck on Repeat'

'Repetition in the Everyday'

This was my entry for Ohh Deer's competition for a design that would be printed on notebooks and sold in their online shop :-) There were some great entries, unfortunately mine didn't get picked, but if you want it as a notebook anyway then let me know!

I enjoyed doing a bit of collage with the kites. They make me think of windy summers on the beach in England, so this design is almost a mix of summer and winter. As blue skies make me think of summer (hence the kites) but it was definitely a cold winter day when I was illustrating this.

Thanks for looking!
X

Extra Special Sweetshop Giveaway!

2012-02-03T09:00:00.000Z

Happy January!

I've had a good start to the new year, January has flown by so fast, and I've received lovely, encouraging feedback. It's come from every direction, from friends & family to fans & newly made illustrator friends - Thank you! I am therefore going to now give something back to you. As you've all seen recently I've been working on a range of illustrations for my local sweet shop aka 'Old Amersham Sweet Shop'. It's the loveliest little shop full of everyones favourites, which you can get in a perfect sized portion of 100g in a pink striped bag-just the way it should be!

Anyone can take part, old friends and new alike. Maybe you entered the last competition I did? You can see the goodies Laura won in that here. In order to be entered all you have to do is sign up to receive my email newsletter. Yes thats right, you don't have to follow me on Twitter to make sure you don't miss out on something I've been up to! Genius? I think so :-) I send a newsletter out about once a month, maybe two if there is quite a bit happening. Please leave a comment on this blog post to let me know when you've done this. And please in your comment let me know which is your favourite painting!

Follow this link to be taken to the form to sign up:

NEWSLETTER

The competition shall again be judged by my hat :-) and the winner shall receive the illustration they love the most out of the 5 on this blog post.

You have a little over a week to join in and sign up :-) I shall be picking a name out of my hat next weekend, on Saturday 11th February.

The classic original 'Great British Lolly-pop'

'Life is like a box of chocolates'

'Love Heart'

Or I think in America they're 'Double Hearts'?!

'Lucky Dip'

'Love Heart Lolly-pop'

Sweet Shop Illustration Range

2012-01-27T08:30:00.000Z

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

2012-01-22T17:21:00.000Z

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

2012-01-17T21:14:00.000Z

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

2012-01-14T13:24:00.003Z

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

2012-01-02T12:14:00.001Z

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!

No Chocolate in 2011

2012-01-01T23:30:00.004Z

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

2012-01-01T23:29:00.001Z

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!

And the winner is....!

2011-12-21T07:47:00.001Z

Again, a HUGE thank you to everyone who participated in my little competition :-) I'm so grateful for you all taking the time to enter, it gives me lovely feedback so I can see how I'm doing, it's a bit of fun, and someone comes out a winner! That lucky lady was Laura Bertinelli! Congratulations Laura (@la_bertinelli), and as you know your winning prize went into the post just before Christmas so I hope it reaches you soon (and unharmed!).

As I stated in the original post, I chose the winner the lovely old fashioned way of putting everyones names in a hat and picking one out :-) It was definitely a fun way to do it!

We'll have to wait to hear from Laura to find out what was in her winning package...!

Follow my blog to find out about my next competition/giveaway! You can also sign up to receive my newsletter which I send out when something interesting has been happening.

Thank you

A little something for you!

2011-12-10T21:29:00.001Z

Hello All!

So since joining Twitter, Facebook and having a Blog, I have entered a fair few competitions, met loads of people (some in real life as well!), enjoyed supporting other illustrators and artists, and I am so grateful for the support that you also give me.

As a little thank you, and as it is the season for giving...for a lucky participant I shall put together a little package of goodies for you to get through the post. If you have any special requirements then you can let me know but ultimately it will be a surprise! And yes, I shall post to ANYWHERE!

In order to be chosen you need to leave a comment on this blog post, or tweet to me ( @charlsvallance ) which of the following books is your favourite, and tell me why, as well as why you would like to win! I shall choose the winner the old fashioned way by putting everyones names in a hat and selecting one :-)

Row of Houses

Wake up and Smell the Coffee

(Delft) Blue

Birds, Boats & Buildings

(THE AMAZING FOLDING BOOK!)

Buildings

Statues of Europe

You have until Sunday 18th December 12noon :-)

Thank you everyone!

Wake up and Smell the coffee

2011-12-10T20:19:00.001Z

This Drypoint printed Artists Book was inspired by my time spent working at Seasons Cafe Deli in Old Amersham, near were I live. It consists of a front cover, 6 prints of different coffee and a contents page on the back page which tells you of the contents of the different coffees seen in the book.

I've used drypoint printing technique with Chine Colle to attach tissue paper/newspaper to areas of each print. To do this I apply glue to the tissue and pass it through the press with the print plate when it gets printed. The whole book is actually on one sheet of paper. This makes making the book less time consuming, meaning that if you are interested in buying a copy then it works out cheaper than it may of done! Nice huh?

I made an edition of 12, last year infact, I think it didn't get talked about because I was giving one as a Christmas Present! However, now you can buy it as a gift too. It's for sale in my Etsy shop HERE.

Impossible at Rough Trade, Brick Lane

2011-12-10T20:14:00.001Z

Last Thursday I supported my Cousin Tom of @Un_Frame at Rough Trade just off London's Brick Lane, where himself and Gina were talking with passers by, shoppers and polaroid fanatics alike about the Impossible Project and it's lovely lovely quality that you just can't get with digital cameras. The Impossible project is all about using polaroid cameras, and one of Tom's loves is using a different film than that intended in a particular camera, or of using old, out of date film. By doing this, he adds to the unpredictability of the final photo. Which I quite like as well. Here are the polaroids I walked away with:

If you'd like to see/read/hear more about what Tom does you can have a look-see at his blog HERE. When ever I am with Tom I'm lucky that he randomly takes lovely photos of whats going on, whether it's me at work or whats been going around me. Do have a look on his facebook page HERE for some more photo updates :-) Here is a polaroid that he took of me at The Manchester Book Fair this year:

Thank you for reading, are you a fan of polaroid?

Sinterklaas

2011-12-07T22:54:00.001Z

I always worry a lot about presents. This stems from the thought and idea that I really want the person receiving the present to love it and not be disappointed. But also for it not to sit in some cupboard for the next year!

So now I know my boyfriends family better than i did last year, so for Sinterklaas (5th December) we celebrated at their home in Oosterhout, Holland. There was food, drink, family and presents! I also felt much more in control this year, as last year I was spoilt rotten and had no former warning...this year I was prepared.

These are the paintings that I did for my Boyfriend's Mum and Dad. The garden is for his Mum and the Landrover is for his Dad. I must admit, I think there were a few tears!

Have you made any presents this year? Leave me a link so I can check them out!

The Red Gallery aka Material

2011-11-28T21:56:00.001Z

My lovely little '(Delft) Blue' Amsterdam book has made it into a shop - HURRAH! Lucy, from The Red Gallery spotted it at The Whitechapel Gallery, London Art Book Fair and got in touch to sell it at both their London shop and their Ludlow shop too. I am so excited about this! I got to the shop quite late so the photos are a bit dark, but you can see what a nice space they have and all the other great books and artwork they have for sale by various artists.

You can find The Red Gallery @ 1-3 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DT

And the Ludlow shop @ 131 Corve Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 2PG

Alternatively you can have a browse on their website: www.materialmaterial.com

The Amsterdam book has had the pleasure of being in this shop a month or so now, it looks like it's made itself at home nicely. This week I dropped off a few of my 'Down Your Street - Old Amersham' books as well as a selection of my Christmas cards for some lucky Londoners!

All of these are also available in my Etsy shop if you can't make it to The Red Gallery or are not local, which you can find at www.etsy.com/charlottevallance

Thank you for reading,

X

Mail Art for a YEAR!

2011-11-27T17:48:00.001Z

The lovely Jessica Mack has been a very busy bunny over the last couple of months with this & that, what-not and life. But, bless her. If this is the outcome...I LOVE IT! I am now the proud owner of a Jessica Mack ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION :-D, she's stocked me up with gift tags (just in time for Christmas present wrapping), a cute notebook + matching pen, a sweet origami bunny and a lovely christmas card.

I had begun to worry that something had gotten lost in the post so was really happy to come home to this package on friday evening after work. It was a lovely end to my week and start to the weekend - my first weekend after a week at my new job :-D

Most of this I shall be keeping, using, treasuring...but the illustration, I feel deserves a home. So, it has been framed up and is going under the tree for my sister...I can't give too many details incase she reads the post - I have two sisters so they will be mystified as to which one of them is getting it! But I know she will love it and it won't be too far away for me to appreciate it still.

Thanks for reading,

Amsterdam Greeting Cards

2011-11-27T17:32:00.001Z

A little collection of greetings cards from my '(Delft) Blue' Amsterdam silkscreen book. I found that the book was so popular that maybe people would like to share it a little, and how better than in the form of a card? These bad boys are printed onto a matt paper stock and are A6 in size, come with brown envelopes and are being sold in the pairs you see here in my Etsy shop, which you can get to HERE.

A nice little gift set if I do say so myself. I'm going to look into getting some nice boxes for them to go in...Keep an eye out!

Thanks for reading,

X

Jules and The Gang

2011-11-27T15:32:00.001Z

I've been working with Julie Chard to develop a classic look for her new company 'Jules and The Gang', that will provide catering for 3 levels of service:

Hightum - Smart Dinner Parties
Tightum - Smart Supper Parties
Scrub - Kitchen Table Supper

She wanted a design that was simple, clean, elegant and welcoming. I found a few fonts, Julie went for this one because of the similarities to her own handwriting. It's a nice balance of elegant and simple. What do you think?

I've been a bit quiet on here recently. There has still been plenty going on but not much to post about!

I've re-printed my '(Delft) Blue' silkscreen book on buildings of Amsterdam, so there is now a second edition of 20 copies - you can find them in my Etsy shop HERE. I've also printed a small range of greetings cards using sections of the print from the book, which can also be found in my shop. There is also movement for an Amsterdam Print - yes a flat silkscreen print that you can hang up on your wall! No book format what-so-ever. Keep your eyes peeled for updates, or sign up for my newsletter.

Thanks for reading,

X

The Sweet Shop

2011-11-14T18:12:00.001Z

Some lovely little notebooks digitally printed from my original illustrations inspired by the Old Amersham Sweet Shop. You can see the original illustrations on my facebook page here. Would make a nice stocking filler for someone with a sweet tooth!

Measures just under A5, on lovely thick stock watercolour paper.

Available in my Etsy Shop here.

Thank you for stopping by, follow me on Twitter if you haven't had enough @charlsvallance

Christmas - YAY!

2011-11-06T22:50:00.001Z

Last year, I rushed my Christmas design somewhat, mainly because I left it too late. I was happy with one of the two designs I did but not 100%.

HOWEVER. This year, I'm 100% happy with the eight designs I've done - hurrah! They are available in packs of 8 ( 2 each of 4 designs at a time) or individually, both through my Etsy Shop - Charlotte Vallance Illustration & Design. Please do stop by, feedback is very welcome even if you don't feel like purchasing anything.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for reading!

X

Down your Street - Old Amersham

2011-10-29T14:20:00.001+01:00

My latest silk screen accomplishment, 'Down your Street - Old Amersham'. I gave myself and Charlie (the lovely girl I silkscreen with) the mammoth task of printing these books of Old Amersham in 3 colours and to do 40 copies. Our newly awakened silk screen skills couldn't take it, and unfortunately quite a few came out rather smudgy looking. This I know is part of the fun when printing with silk screen, however, it was a bit much even for me! I think that they were successful as far as they could be, but from now on I will be sticking to 2 colour prints when using our little home studio print room.

This is the second book I've done of this format, and I love it! It's great because you print onto one flat piece of lovely paper and then construct the book afterwards. This is a fold I learnt from the wonderful Rachel Hazell of 'Hazell Designs books' when myself and my sisters did a Sewn Structures course with her in Edinburgh. You can read about that here. Be sure to keep an eye out for future books in the same/similar format of other cities and places. If you have somewhere to recommend, ket me know! And if you would like me to tell you about it when I produce new books, then please sign up for my newsletter. (You can find the link in the right hand panel on the blog).

Thank you for reading,

The 6th Manchester Artists Book Fair with Hot Bed Press

2011-10-25T19:35:00.001+01:00

A great day! Saturday 22nd October, 11am - 6pm. What an early start we had to get to Manchester for 11am, but it was worth it. Everyone was really lovely, the space was great and I had lots of customers! I got some great feedback and suggestions of places to go to illustrate, which is really nice.

Do you have a city/town/village you'd like to see me illustrate?

I pulled out my beautiful big 'Buildings' book to give my table some height, more than anything else, and it was admired from afar and up close - people often worry about picking up such a book, but it is a book at the end of the day...

It looks like the '(Delft) Blue' book is going to be reprinted - hurrah! Due to a high demand for it in London and Manchester. If you missed out, and would like to know when I've completed the second edition, please email me your details and then I can keep you in on the loop.

Garden Illustration

2011-10-19T23:12:00.001+01:00

Over the course of the summer I've taken on a few commissions to do Illustrations of gardens. Maybe you know someone who is very proud of their garden, fond of it, enjoys spending a lot of time there? Or maybe you threw a great party and want to thank everyone for making it a special day! These lovely gardens are a few that I have had the pleasure of illustrating. They have made it onto gift sets of greeting cards as well as being gifted as framed illustrations.

I can work from photographs and visit the garden in question personally (I've been known to travel quite a distance for a good illustration opportunity). However, if it's a secret, i will work from snap shots that you can provide on the garden's behalf. These gardens obviously show off their summer colours, this doesn't limit your garden at all, what ever may be your preferred season - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter - I will illustrate it at it's best.

It's quite nice to have an original illustration + a set of greeting cards of the garden, go hand in hand together. But if you're just interested in just one or the other, then thats fine too!

Please contact me on charlotte_vallance@hotmail.com

I'll happily answer any questions you may have. And if you know the general size of illustration you would like, and maybe have an image of the garden (so I can see how much there is going on that I'll have to work with), I can give you a quote.

Thank you x

Bicycle Badges

2011-10-18T15:02:00.003+01:00

If you bought a '(Delft) Blue' book of mine from The London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Gallery, please do get in touch!

charlotte_vallance@hotmail.com

Thank you x

The 6th Manchester Artists' Book Fair with Hot Bed Press

2011-10-11T10:49:00.001+01:00

My 3rd Artists Book Fair of the year - YAY! Just the one day, Saturday 22nd October 11am - 6pm. If you're around at least come and say hello and have a look at the the lovely books and works, at the most, buy lots of books and lovely works!

Myself and Jat Bains will be sharing a table, which hasn't happened since Uni days so we're both excited to be working together and helping sell each others books. Jat's style is quite photographic and graphicsy next to my illustrative style so they work well next to each other as they are so different.

I'm working away on a new 'Street view' book, similar to the '(Delft) Blue' book on Amsterdam houses that I did for the London Art Book Fair last month.

London Art Book Fair 2011

2011-09-25T22:54:00.000+01:00

Today was the last day of the Book Fair, unfortunately I wasn't able to be there over the weekend {so no photos!) BUT i did make it to the preview night on the Thursday so I have a few from then for you all. It was really packed, a great atmosphere, nicely laid out space and lovely people!

The AMBruno table where there was a lot of blue.

My lovely little blue book.

(Delft) Blue

2011-09-23T22:39:00.000+01:00

My Aunt suggested that i get in touch with some friends of hers who frequent the Artists Book Fair scene when I saw her before the summer, as for the (then) upcoming London Fair at The Whitechapel Gallery they had a table and a theme of 'blue' that they were inviting other artists to participate in.

I thought, why not? And got in touch with Sophie Loss, who was lovely and said they would be pleased to have my work on their table. The group is known as AMBruno and consist of a group of friends who all have film influences and beautiful books!

I took the theme of 'blue and came up with '(Delft) Blue'. I seem to be spending a lot of time recently in Amsterdam, due to my boyfriend living there, and to be honest I'm not complaining! It's a lovely city, and we always have fun when we go out, whether its with friends for drinks or during the day to galleries and sight seeing. I have wanted to illustrate Amsterdam for a while, for those very reasons, and decided that for 'blue' I could happily illustrate in my fine line style but use a blue pen rather than my usual black. I then felt that maybe I should give the blue more depth, and I thought of watercolours (see above image - this was also used in the leaflet AMBruno put together for the table), but then the opportunity to silk screen came my way and I thought that the 'blue' book could be done this way with shades of blues.

Now, I haven't silk screened since university. Thats a good 2 years. Neither had Charlie - the girl I was going to be silk screening with. Between the two of us we figured it out and were so happy with the results! Now for some photos showing the process from sketch to finished lovely book.

'(Delft) Blue', along with 12 other 'blue' themed books are on show/exhibition/for sale at the London Art Book Fair THIS weekend Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th September at The Whitechapel Gallery. If you can get there, I would recommend it. The preview night last night was packed, and I have heard only good things from fellow Artists Book-er Louise Atkinson about the fair today.

Deciding on a layout, type of fold (inspired by Rachel Hazell)

Making the bike badges that will be tucked in the hidden pocket of the book. I used 'shrinkles' a lot of work as I had thought I could print from the computer onto the sheets, but I couldn't so each is lovingly hand drawn!

The negatives for the screen on top on one another. I had 2 colours, therefore 2 negatives. I quite like how they look in black and grey.

First colour, peacock blue, fills mostly brick work on the buildings, some windows but no outline.

Second colour, navy blue, fills mostly outline detail as well as some brickwork, shutters and windows.

Prints everywhere!

The lovely, little origami boats that I made out of copies of a vintage map of Amsterdam. These also come tucked in the secret pocket of the book.

Finally the front cover, I kept it simple with only text and no imagery.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how this little book turned out. Folded it measures just under A6, and unfolded it concertinas out to be nearly as long an A3 width.

*PROPER PHOTOS OF FINISHED BOOK ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE*

One Year Wedding Anniversary Bespoke Illustration

2011-09-17T19:39:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was the One Year Wedding Anniversary for Andrea & Cassie. Andrea commissioned me to illustrate their wedding day for Cassie for their Anniversary as One Year is 'Paper'. What a lovely idea and a great brief. The colours are 'their' colours that they had at their wedding, along with the flowers and the cake of cheese. The butterflies, birds and shoes were personal touches present at the wedding also.

Andrea wanted 'a big mish-mash' of everything at the wedding, which had me a little skeptical at first because I normally work quite neat and tidy. After doing my research with her wedding photos I landed on the idea of a big bouquet of flowers with everything intertwined into it.

I'm really pleased with the outcome, it was a challenge and the finished piece is just a bit smaller than an A1 size, on lovely watercolour paper, with fine detail added in with a fine liner.

Most importantly Andrea loved it, and so did Cassie!

The Final Piece

Illustrated Postcards take 2

2011-09-13T20:36:00.001+01:00

I've just got back from a little/massive road trip with my boyfriend across Europe. We camped, we went through 6 countries in total (Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia & Italy), we took a pedalo out on a gorgeous lake, we found that there were a lot of old people everywhere we went (?!), we swam in the sea, we cooked over a little campfire thing, we slept on a blow-up mattress that only just fit in our tent and we had a really great time.

Here are the lucky three postcards that got made while I sat with a cold drink of ice tea by the beach in Croatia while the boyfriend sat with a cold beer and got stuck into his book!

2 part spread of the view of houses and buildings in Croatia. I actually have done a similar illustration about 4 years ago when I was in Dubrovnik with a friend travelling, I'm pleased to say that I have definitely progressed with my style since then!

On the campsite in Croatia we were literally the only ones in a tent. Not only that, but our tent was tiny! Literally only for two people to sleep in, and everyone else had these massive campers/caravans that then had tents coming off them as well....wowsers! Made us feel quite small in the camping jungle.

Post for Year - month two

2011-09-13T19:26:00.001+01:00

YAY! My second instalment (shall we say?) of post/mail for a year from the lovely Jessica Mack aka Brown Paper Bunny who I was introduced to through Twitter. You can find her on there at @BrownPaperBunny.

The lovely card is by Sara Lynn, and there was a secret on paper that melts when you put it in water - what a great idea! A little bunch of doggy post-its and an awesome Platypus stamp (as well as one of the National Library of Canberra) :-) I seem to of picked up a love of Platypus' from my boyfriend. Unfortunately we didn't actually get to see one when we were in Australia, maybe next time eh?

You can see what I replied to Jessica's post last month on her blog here.

Sewn Structures book binding workshop with Rachel Hazell

2011-08-26T11:30:00.000+01:00

As part of my holiday I got in contact with the lovely Rachel Hazell of Hazell Design's books and organised for myself and my sisters to do a workshop with her. I've been a fan of Rachel's books since I was at University and was first introduced to book arts. Her books are just gorgeous, I wanted to take home one of each that she on display, but i finally got myself down to just one. A little notebook with 'Do what you love' in type on the front and a little map picture on the back. Made with lush paper, its going to be a while before I make use of this little book for fear of going wrong! I am also the happy owner of a mug and a cute little bag with Rachel's designs on them - mementos of my trip.

We started off with simple books that involved no sewing or glue, and could be created out of one piece of paper. We used A4 but any size will work as long as folded correctly! These are such inspiring little books, and Rachel's little stories of previous projects, the directions people have taken their books and her own ideas really brought the books to life.

There was a good old elevenses tea break, lunch and an afternoon tea break as well - I could of continued all day!

We made a simple 4 page book with a cover and just 3 stitches. We used a lovely old page of sheet music for our cover. 2 pages folded and slotted in together is known as putting them in a nest. Cute.

The next batch of books involved more coordination and a bit of sewing. We were taught the box fold (I forget its exact name - should of taken more notes!) but basically a fold for a cover that means there is a little box around the spine edges, making a nice flat surface to stitch/bind on.

The first bind looked like there were little pearls along the spine, really cute, with room to expand on this idea with thinner thread and actual little pearls.

The second was a chain stitch bind, which looked just like a chain.

The third, linked kisses. Rather than your plain cross stitch look these kisses were made up of two bits of thread linking through each other.

The forth, the ladder stitch, funnily enough looked like a ladder!

The fifth, we went back to the 3 stitch music book, but gave it 3 nests. This was an exercise to show us how we can easily add more nests into any book.

Because we were pretty fast, well behaved book binding apprentices we got to make a sixth book! A bit of leeway and we could make it look how we wished with dots and dashes.

My memory of book binding is so refreshed now! A great day, course and experience all round. Even got to see Edinburgh for the rest of the lovely sunny weekend and enjoy time with my sisters.

Thank you Rachel!

Travels in Ireland via postcards

2011-08-22T20:10:00.000+01:00

8 lucky friends of mine will be receiving/have received these postcards, I know that at least 5 of them have arrived safely at their destination. A couple were going over seas, so fingers crossed for those ones.

My journey around Ireland started in Dublin, we had a blast - live music, tours, Riverdance, good company, sight seeing, Guinness, the lot! We then hired a car and travelled up to Belfast, stopping to see the Knowth and Newgrange Temples/Tombs. Belfast we found somewhat quieter and harder to figure out than Dublin, but a friendly hostel made up for it. We did a great day trip to the Giants Causeway, and after walking around it for hours drove back along the coast and saw the Rope Bridge and stopped in the cute town of Cuthendall for our dinner before heading back to Belfast. After Belfast we progressed on back down South and a little West and ended up near Sligo, in Markree Castle for the night - what a great little treat to ourselves, stayed in the haunted room and everything! We then made it down to Galway, we had high expectations and they were all met :-) three happy campers were we. We spent a day wandering round the streets of Galway, had afternoon tea and looked in the touristy shops, we found a pub we quickly turned into our local for the 4 nights we were there, Dave the Barman was great, and put up with us playing Hangman as a drinking game! We did day trips to the Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, Ailwee Caves and more afternoon tea in little towns by the coast. Thoroughly satisfied and in love with Ireland, a great place to visit.

Ruby Wedding anniversary

2011-08-22T18:05:00.000+01:00

I actually was commissioned to create this lovely card just before I went away to Ireland, but just incase the couple it was intended for looked on here i held back on posting it! Their sons and daughter-in-laws arranged a surprise 40th Wedding Anniversary party for them with friends, neighbours and family. I'm told it was a huge success and as always when there is a gathering/celebration on my road, everyone had a fantastic time!

I take commissions for greeting cards, a special one off design for that unforgettable occasion. Email me at charlotte_vallance@hotmail.com for more details.

Thank you for looking!

Greeting card commission

2011-08-04T23:12:00.000+01:00

A little while ago now I was commissioned to create a selection of greetings cards, and I had free reign on what to have on them! It was a lot of fun as well as quite a bit of pressure not having any guidelines but I did it and I didn't get any complaints, so that must be good? These are the hand-painted cards they got, i also threw in some printed ones as I was in such good spirits after creating these lovely ones!

Post every month for a year! Yippeeee

2011-07-30T07:26:00.000+01:00

The lovely Jessica Mack (@BrowanPaperBunny) decided to do a RT random pic competition and the lucky winner was to get post every month for a year. I was pretty happy when the search engine randomly picked me! This is the first post I've received :-D it's so lovely, I've been showing everyone I know! My particular favourite is the rhino notecard, I have admired these since she created them, and the 'Peri' Penguin zine was such a bonus - so cute! And if you open him out, theres a Peri dressed as an Indian! AMAZING!

So, thank you Jessica.

Seasons Cafe Deli Old Amersham

2011-07-27T16:45:00.000+01:00

Cactus paintings

2011-07-27T12:15:00.000+01:00

These lovely cactus paintings are available to buy at Seasons Cafe @ Rowan Garden Centre. Or if you're after a different plant/flower then please do get in touch and we can talk 'garden illustration'!

Currently they are brighting up the walls at the cafe but I have a few more up my sleeve so don't worry about blank walls.

Thank you for looking.

Thank you Cards

2011-07-20T23:00:00.000+01:00

Thank you cards with a little more personality. I like to illustrate my thank-you cards with what i'm saying thank you for. Especially with birthdays thank-you's (which are what these are for) as I often get a little money from Aunts and Grandparents and I think it's nice to show them what you bought with the money. So these cards do just that, show you guys my new purchases! Apart from the cafe scene ones, those just look pretty. One is for my Granny though as I want to put her money towards a scanner but that doesn't make for a pretty illustration now does it?

This batch also has the type letter-pressed by myself, these were the only 'thank-you's' I did but I also letter-pressed some birthday and other cute cards.

Keep an eye out for the other designs cropping up!

draw and pass it on

2011-07-16T23:24:00.000+01:00

The loverly Louise Whitmore has started up a traveling sketchbook and picked me for the second entry! Check out more about it here drawandpassiton.tumblr.com

The main idea is that you get a question and have to illustrate your answer. My question was 'What are you wearing today?' As I received the sketchbook on my birthday night out I have illustrated my outfit I wore the next day :-D what a good weekend it was! Happy times.

Who will get it next?

Floral Chair Series

2011-07-16T22:14:00.000+01:00

These chairs are inspired by the new Cafe I've helped open with Seasons. It's Seasons cafe @ Rowan, Rowan is a lovely Garden Centre which you can find @ www.rowangardencentre.co.uk/ We had to re-upholster most of the chairs as although saved from a pub which was refurbishing, needed a fair amount of work on them, and they turned out pretty well to the three of us that worked on them having never upholstered before! All the chairs are different, theres no more than 4 of the same, which adds to the quirky feel of the Cafe. The fabric was such a find! I sent Andrea off with instructions to find a fabric that possibly matched our new logo (which I designed) and low and behold she found one spot on, the right flower and the right colours. These watercolours of the chairs will be up on the wall, giving it a more friendly feel for our customers.

Snail Mail Art Swap with Creative Collective

2011-07-01T18:32:00.000+01:00

So I recently took part in the Snail Mail Art Swap which was Creative Collective's June project. Through Swap-bot I signed up and was assigned 3 people to sent arty goods too by a set date, and 3 people somewhere out in the world got me to send to as well in the same manner. Such a lovely idea, and so lovely to receive little packages through the post full of surprise!

I've now received all 3 of my snail mail packages, and have heard back from 2 of the 3 that I sent out - I hope the 3rd gets there safely too!

This lovely vintage scarf came to me all the way from Australia from Anne Brito, yes those are golf clubs in the design!

This was the second package to come through my letterbox, it was like unwrapping a present, so well thought through! I'm so excited about using all of these bits :-) Thank you Jana Miller from one of my favourite parts of the world no less, California!

My last snail mail to arrive, today! Thank you Cat Beloverly for the lovely origami papers and fold pattern, I shall let you know how I get on with it :-D

Did I send you a snail mail package? Let me know if it got to you safely!

They Draw & Travel

2011-06-19T20:24:00.001+01:00

As soon as i came across Nate & Salli's blog/website, I was hooked/amazed/excited...could not wait to get started! Of course, I wanted my map to be perfect, and to come across in just the right way so it took me a little while, but here it is!

Please give me some feedback and most of all ideas/requests for the next map!

Thank you :-)

Chompy!

2011-06-03T17:43:00.000+01:00

For Christmas my friend Alana got me this awesome book on making pinhole cameras. But alas, I have so far (up until now) not been able to complete a whole one! There are two main bits, so technically I had completed one and a quarter...maybe.
But it is soon to be her birthday, and I thought what better a present but one of these cameras?! AND it will get me into the swing of making them, excellent. And it did, this one is Chompy. He now belongs to Alana, I'm excited to see how his photos turn out! I have also found the time and patience to make one for myself - check it out on the 'What I am up to' page on here.

2011-05-25T08:09:00.000+01:00

I was commissioned last week to do a greetings card to give to someone who was getting married, not a topic that I have looked at before in terms of cards so I had an ask around and this is the selection I came up with.

I used an embossing effect for the champagne glasses and some of the bubbles, watercolour and fine liner as well as a stamp for the text. Hopefully they are what they were looking for - they've been sent off to Holland so we shall see!

BABE Bristol Artists Book Event

2011-05-03T20:58:00.000+01:00

My 'half a table', nicely filled I thought.

The other 'half a table' with Liz Lakes work, made me feel like maybe I didn't have enough stock...but our work went well next to each other!

Well done this book! It got lots of attention and love X

The amazing Trolly Dollies!

My 'haul'...I couldn't resist!

Royal Cava - Cheers!

2011-05-03T20:41:00.000+01:00

To help get the celebrations going we had a free drinks table at our Royal Wedding Street Party. You could choose a glass of 'Royal Cava' or Local Ale 'I Will'.

Royal Cava labels designed by me in keeping with the flyers!

Royal Wedding Street Party Paintings

2011-05-03T20:03:00.001+01:00

For the Royal Wedding on the 29th April we in Old Amersham had a Street Party. It was a lovely day, the weather held and everyone enjoyed themselves! These are a few of the paintings that I did for the day, if you managed to get one - well done! They flew off the walls, had barely been hung before they were coming down again. If you are interested and didn't manage to get n there quick, do get in touch and we'll see what I can arrange for you.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped make it such a good day!

Happy Easter Times

2011-04-20T17:34:00.000+01:00

Handmade Easter cards
Each one is individually painted so they all vary - no two alike!
If you receive one or send one, get in touch :-)

Mothers Day

2011-04-20T17:26:00.000+01:00

It was a little while ago now, but these flew off the shelves so quickly I nearly didn't get a photo! There was also a daffodil card, but alas it was sold out at the time of the photo. Thank you to everyone who bought one.

Royal wedding Street Party

2011-03-14T23:20:00.001Z

A little of what I've been up to recently. This is going to be one fun day! Come down and make a day of it in Old Amersham - cake, tea, coffee, games - what more could you want? Oh yeah, the bunting competition - what a great idea!

Sweet Shop Card Range

2011-02-08T23:30:00.001Z

All hand made, painted and packaged.

Home Sweet Home

2011-01-26T20:56:00.000Z

Home Sweet Home
4 x 6 canvas painting
Watercolour, acrylic and fine liner.

Canvas initially created as a 'New Home' present. Can be personalised with address on the attached tag.

Happy Anniversay Mum and Dad

2011-01-09T17:57:00.000Z

Down Your Street

2011-01-07T22:43:00.002Z

Ive recently been working on a sketchbook project (see tab at the top of the blog) 'Down your street' and these are Christmas-a-fied sketches from that in Drypoint using Chine Colle.

They came out pretty well, I'm pleased with how the Christmas trees look.

Lithography

2011-01-07T22:37:00.001Z

This is a great idea - Lithograph Printing PAPER! No stone needed! You just draw onto special paper using a permanent black pen. Use a solution (its slipped my mind what its called) mixed with water and spread it liberally over the paper. Roll the ink on - it will only stick to the areas where you've put the black pen. And then it goes through the press, or likewise you can use a roller and do it by hand.

A process I am going to need to experiment more with.

Thai Cookery Ingredients

2011-01-07T22:32:00.002Z

As you can see a couple of posts ago I recently put together a Thai Cookery Book. These prints are linked to that, they are of the illustrations I did for the 'Herbs and Spices' section in the book. They are all drypoint prints, however, the first 3 are done using a plastic drypoint plate and the last 3 are done using a metal drypoint plate.
You can see the different quite visibly, how the plastic prints are quite a bit sharper than the metal. The metal prints have a more grainy feeling to them i think.
The colour is added through the process of 'Chine Colle' where I stick tissue paper to the print in the press.

Thank you!

2011-01-06T19:26:00.001Z

A massive thank you to everyone who made my Christmas! Love you all xxx

Thai Cookery Book - see tabs for more information please

2011-01-04T21:01:00.002Z

Siam Rice - Thai Cookery School by with Nancy | Make Your Own Book

Down Your Street - London

2010-11-09T16:39:00.000Z

Lovely Magnets!

This is for the sketchbook project I'm working on at the moment, 'Down Your Street', a close to home view in London. Plenty more views, cities and countries to come! These will be for sale at Walsall Artists Book Fair towards the end of November.

Please see my "What I'm up to" page for more information on the project. Thanks!

a cruising time

2010-09-29T22:30:00.000+01:00

The Other Side of the World

2010-09-26T18:50:00.000+01:00

Inspired by Joeri

2010-09-23T17:39:00.000+01:00

Thought that I would branch out and try something new, and i quite like it. It would of looked a lot better if the image had been able to be printed to the edges of the white part of the cap but unfortunately that wasn't possible. Next time I will have to work on a more logo like object rather than a whole scene.

The Sock Monster, for Bella

2010-09-02T14:14:00.000+01:00

Charlotte, please could you design Bella a sock monster? - Cazzie
I loved doing this, its not something I would normally choose to draw but it's all about broadening your ideas and skills and this really worked out!

Knitted Book Covers

2010-08-21T12:18:00.000+01:00

Travel Bug

2010-08-09T21:24:00.000+01:00

Ink and Pen Work - London, View from St.Pauls Cathedral

2010-08-03T11:14:00.000+01:00

Card Illustration Design

2010-08-02T10:13:00.001+01:00

I've been commissioned to design a card in the style of my thank-you card, but with their garden. I took some photos and played around with the layout and this is the outcome. I spoke with them about which features of the garden they wanted included and then I used my own judgment about what to bring forward and the positioning of everything. The garden is actually a lot wider than it appears here, so it was a case of drawing everything together in a way that complimented the different areas.

Woodland Sprite

2010-07-16T10:49:00.001+01:00

Trial Brief: Design a Woodland Sprite. She is exotic, whimsical and magical, living in the woods in winter. She is striking and distinctive, sweet, pretty and charming.

Thank you card design

2010-07-16T10:43:00.001+01:00

Animate Brief

2010-07-14T19:35:00.000+01:00

Animate contacted me to design them a postcard that they could use instead of a compliment slip with their clients. The design was to be contemporary, bright and lively, reflecting the innovation and design on their website.

www.animate.co.uk

It's very different from anything I usually do, but it was interesting having a live brief and feedback. It's finished in Adobe Illustrator, I am refreshing my memory of the program!

2009-12-12T06:29:00.000Z

Happy Birthday Naida! We had tea in ever after and then had a walk around the art gallery!

2009-12-12T05:55:00.000Z

I'm in Cairns at the moment and we had a day where it rained! An excellent excuse to visit the local gallery, full of local artists work. Most of thi sis pottery from the exhibition 'melting pots'. I could of stayed there for hours.

A sketchy view of Australia

2009-12-07T02:05:00.000Z

Byron Bay
Byron Bay
Mount Warning, camping
UKI, stopped for a coffee
UKI
Clarrie Hall Damn, Mount Warning
Jelena, Melbourne
Lydia, Byron Bay

So i finally got a sketch book during the month I was in Byron Bay...thought I'd done a lot more but these are the better doodles and whatnot so far.

2009-11-17T03:42:00.000Z

Woman's Museum in Hoh Chi Minh City, propaganda posters.

2009-11-17T03:32:00.000Z

I saw these woodcuts in Vietnam, only rather than actually printing with them they paint onto the different areas that have been cut out or onto the flat areas to strengthen the piece as a painting instead of a print.

Tom Moore @ The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

2009-11-15T07:47:00.000Z

Amazing glass work by Tom Moore, and interesting drawings that at first i was unconvinced by. But the composition of all the work together worked really well. A very colourful exhibition.

Traffic light boxes

2009-11-14T06:09:00.000Z

I have now found out that you can approach the council if you find a blank one of these traffic light control boxes and ask to illustrate it. I hadn't found a blank one before I left, otherwise I would of painted one! Maybe Ill go back and do one.

Art exhibition in Sydney - Felicity Boath

2009-11-12T00:16:00.000Z

Whilest in Sydney I had the pleasure of going to a private exhibition of Felicity Boath. She's created an Igloo out of Dictionaries from around the world. It's the book as art, or Book Art as we like to call it!

My travels through artist books

2009-10-20T05:36:00.001+01:00

Again, sorry the image are all higgledypiggledy! Not sure how to change that on these computers! But you can see the images not to bad :-)

Final Book "Buildings"

2009-06-11T21:25:00.000+01:00

As most of you know, I work to illustrate my experiences from traveling through Artists' Book and printmaking. For my final project at uni I created a silkscreen Artist Book that linked the places through Europe that I have visited over the time I've been at uni. It's on display at Birmingham City University for this week, displayed both as a series of prints and as a book.

Birds, Boats and Buildings...

2009-05-15T23:19:00.001+01:00

This fold I've learned as the 'square flexagon' really inspired me to make a smaller book. Im getting more confident at silk screen printing now so i gave it a go for this book. It's 2 colour, but also both sides of the paper are printed on. It took a lot of brain power to get it all lined up and the right way round! Its worked really well and Im so happy with the results!

BABE bristol Artists Book Event

2009-04-06T18:02:00.001+01:00

Bristol book fair went really well, met lots of nice people and even sold a couple of books! See you in Liverpool at the book fair in June!

BADGES!

2009-04-06T16:58:00.000+01:00

Myself, Aimee, Yolande and Jat have designed a badge each for a pack of 4. They will be for sale in Liverpool at the book fair in June!

"Draw with your Knees"

2009-04-06T16:51:00.000+01:00

This is a new zine that myself and some friends are working on. The first theme is 'Body Parts' and these are my images for this. I tried to include my travel influences and used drypoint and chine colle to their advantages. I used sculptures from European countries France, Spain, Italy and England and labeled the body parts in the appropriate language.

Satues of Europe

2009-04-02T13:56:00.000+01:00

This is a project that I started when Lucie Sheridan came into our uni and showed us her method of silk screen printing. I really like how the prints have turned out, the colours worked really well. I have since folded these up to make acordian books, which will be on sale in Bristol this weekend!

Zine Project

2009-04-01T15:44:00.002+01:00

This post shows my drawings for a zine workshop we did at uni. As im normally a printmaker i wanted to make use of using another medium so i opted for watercolour and ink, some have come out really well, others not so much, but overall I'm pleased with my exploration into watercolour and the drawing of things I wouldn't usually think about drawing!

6th and 7th March Leeds book fair

2009-03-10T00:02:00.001Z

My first Book Arts Fair! It went really well, we all had a good time i think. Even though I didn't sell any books whilest I was there, it was still good to sell everyone elses books! Looking around was crazy, i wish i had more money to buy one of everyones books!

Barcelona Book

2009-03-09T23:36:00.000Z

This is the new book that I've been working on for the Leeds book fair (which has just been),and I think that the prints went really well. I've used drypoint as before and I like them a lot better than my last ones (Barcelona, Toulouse, New York). There's an edition of 6 and they cost around £25 each. All are in black ink on cream watercolour paper using the process of chine colle to add colour to each page.

Designing Doilies

2009-02-16T19:24:00.000Z

I found out that I can get things laser cut at uni and so i got some doilies cut out on watercolour paper so that i can use them in my artist books and for drypoint prints.

I then thought that if i am going to use these doilies in my work they should be my own designs, so I designed these two on the subject of travel.

Drypoint on Envelopes

2009-01-13T17:46:00.001Z

I thought I would try something a little different now. I like to use tissue paper in my prints to add colour but sometimes the tissue doesn't stick very well to the paper and comes off. This gave me the idea that I don't HAVE to print onto watercolour paper ( which is the paper normally used as standard) but onto maybe a piece of tissue paper itself. I did try it onto tissue paper but I found it dodn't work on such a large image, so then I thought of these envelopes, which I am planning to use for an artist book (really small dinner money envelopes), and I think they have worked really well! Some came out quite grainy, but I think this works as well, just gives them an older look to them.

Lino Printing - Time For Tea!

2009-01-08T15:10:00.000Z

I used a variation of cutting away from the lino and mixing 2 colours of ink to get these prints. So that even though the second print shown is a single layer print the change of tone in the center of the print gives it a bit more depth. Where as the first print gets this depth because its two layers of print, one darker than the other and inbetween printing these layers I cut away at the lino so the original colour would show through still.

21/12/08

2009-01-05T11:18:00.000Z

The question that came up today was, 'Where do all of our letters to Santa go?'. I told my friend that I wasn't too worried because I always sent mine up the chimney like you're supposed to! She'd been posting them through the letter box so was slightly worried/intrigued about where they might of got to!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-15T15:07:00.000Z

I needed to experiment with lino printing to remind myself of the effects I can acheive and how better to do it than for some christmas cards!

Silk Screen Printing in Uni

2008-12-06T20:19:00.000Z

After being in London and doing the workshop there I wanted to get on with some actual printing! So i developed an image from some photos of buildings that I'd taken in London and got introduced to the textiles print rooms at uni! I managed to get done in one day more than I've done in London so far, so I'll definately be going back to develop my prints even further. I also experimented with printing onto both material and paper, I plan on experimenting a lot more with material and how I can present it. I used green and grey to print in rather than just black and think it worked with a pale grey paper and a cream paper.

This shows the layout of my screen - for next time i now know that i should of spread the two layers out a bit more!

The two halves didn't meet up particularly well-another point i need to work on for next time! But I like how the print worked on the fabric, it was much better than I was expecting!

Silk Screen Printing in London

2008-12-06T19:21:00.000Z

My new obsession is silk screen printing, it's always intrigued me but I've never got round to getting images ready and actually doing it! So when I found out about the Free Form workshop specialising in silk screen held in London I was excited to get started! The course is 4 weeks long, every wednesday at the East London Print Makers. Im half way through at the moment so I have designed my screen and had an introduction to the print studios and prepared my screen - the printing starts next week!

The theme for our designs is basically yourself, your personal image, something that shows who you are. I wanted to put across that I am quite a creative person, but other than that I just wanted a nice design! I've been holding onto a piece of patterned paper for a while now and this turned out to be the ideal outing for it!

This is mine and my sisters designs in the beginning stages. She's a very musical person, so her design is along that path. Mine is more random, I have my fancy pattern and then a cameo style brooch shape with a little pic of me in the middle - to make it personal!

We were shown how to wash the screen, coat it and expose the image photographically on it.

Trip To London 24/11/08

2008-11-25T17:17:00.001Z

We decided to have a trip into London to visit the Illustration cupboard for some research and sketching for our projects. These are the sketches that got done on the train...Robyn by Guy, Johan by Robyn, Charlotte by Johan and Guy by Charlotte...

The Illustration Cupboard is full of it's Winter collection at the moment so it was a lot fuller than it has been on my previous visits! I was particularly impressed by Christopher Wormell's woodcut prints and Jan Pienkowski's illustrations for the Nutcracker book. John Lawrences wood engravings of Lyra's Oxford for the Phillip Pullman books always get my attention and some mixed media illustrations by Catherine Rayner had us all selecting which one we would buy if we had the money!

www.illustrationcupboard.com

We visited the V&A, mainly because it's quite an inspiring place to be even if there is not a particular exhibition you want to see! I had found out that there was a Beatrix Potter exhibition on and as well as this there is a 'Prints and Drawings' room which I hadn't looked around yet. There were a lot of etching prints to be seen, and lucky for me some drypoint prints as well! Some were interesting just because they were drypoint but these are the ones that stood out to me by Auguste Rodin and James McNeill Whistler.
Of Auguste Rodin's I liked the quality of the line, some were still quite smudgy which was nice to see. Also because it's wasn't a portrait illustration or a landscape, which seemed to be the theme among the other prints!

James McNeill Whistler's prints I liked because he seemed to have a forward figure in all of his prints. This made the composition quite interesting, it wasn't like they were the focus but just bought the whole image together.

In the V&A there is a tiny exhibition of Beatrix Potter's illustrations 'The Art of Leaving Out' with initial sketches from her work for the book 'Roly Poly-Pudding'. It was so tiny we nearly missed the exhibition altogether but the little illustrations were very inspiring. It was nice to see work of hers other than peter rabbit.

Artist Book Project

2008-11-17T13:03:00.000Z

These are my final drypoint prints for my Artist Books, there are 3 in the series and only 4 copies of each! All of the prints are 8 cm x 8 cm apart from the little one on the back of the back page which is 4 cm x 4 cm. They show my recordings of Toulouse, New York and Barcelona. Not in a touristy way, they are not full of images you would instantly recognise, but of little bits from a journey that you would fondly remember or would want to remember - a strange fruit, a pretty floor, the tallness of the buildings, the sign posts etc etc.

The books themselves are hand bound by myself using stab binding.

They are priced at £22 each or 3 for £50.

Artist Book-Beginning the folding ideas

2008-11-13T17:38:00.000Z

I like the idea of a concertina book. One that as you unfold it you reveal more and more of the same illustration rather than lots of little illustrations. I did this book as a tester to think about paper, colour, book cover etc. While i think that the book itself worked, i don't think that it is strong enough to work as an artist book, it's too small - and, the illustration is not strong enough to stand by itself! The book itself is nice because I've put a hard cover on it and used a ribbon to act as the tie to hold it together so that it stays closed.

Getting back into Drypoint

2008-11-03T21:34:00.001Z

Since the end of the summer I needed a kick start to get me back into printing again and this is the outcome! It was originally intended for an artists book project but I'm not so sure now, it works nicely as a flat print rather than all folded up into a book. I very bravely didn't just stick to black ink - a bit of red was added for a deep burgundy type colour and i also added some water colour to one in the central area.

Books

2008-10-27T21:58:00.001Z

I made this little book 'I Love You Ugly' looking at how to continue images from inside the book to the front and back covers. I used a concertina style folding with hard covers in contrasting papers and used fine liner for the illustrations.

After 'I Love You Ugly' i made this book with the similar style of continuing the illustrations onto the front and back covers. The images are based on a trip to the South of France, from sketches and photos. I used watercolour paints and fine liners.