It's getting Christmassy!

This year has been all about me illustrating buildings more.  I love to draw buildings, street views, aspects of cities, etc and really felt the need to get this into my work more.  Through Untapped Cities this has really become possible towards the end of this year and continues on into next year hopefully!  In June I participated in the '30 Days of creativity' challenge and illustrated a building everyday in June.

 

I think that my Christmas cards this year, continue on in this fashion and show Christmassy shop fronts from all different kinds of shops.  I used watercolour to illustrate and then put them together digitally to bring together a collection of 5 designs.

I'm really happy with them - and I'd love to know what you think.

You can see last years cards here and you can buy both (while stocks last) in my online shop here.  If you can't see them in the shop please leave me a message with your details and I'll organise your order for you.

Thank you!

X

Happy Birthday

This illustration follows on from my 'Home Sweet Home' design and shows a birthday house!  YAY!  Filled with cake, bunting, balloons and banners, it shows a home alive with birthday celebrations.  The perfect card to use as a party invite and to send or take to a birthday.

Happy Mothering Sunday

Happy Mothering Sunday!

I always design my Mother's Day card range with my own Mum in mind.  This backfires when she's seen all the designs pre-Mother's Day and I need a special design just for her!  This year I had 3 hand painted designs I worked with.  They were available to buy at the cafe local to us in Old Amersham, Seasons Cafe Deli.

These last two are the special ones I painted for my Granny and my Mum.  My Gran's one is a larger version of one of the above designs and my Mum's is a heart of (my interpretation of them anyway) English Daisies, with a personalised message.

I had a few orders from friends as well as selling them in the shop, which was lovely!  If you've seen something you like and don't know how to get hold of one, then please leave a message on this blog post and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Do you hand make your Mum cards or do you opt for a pretty/quirky card from a shop?

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 :-)

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!

X

Mail Art for a YEAR!

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,

X

Garden Illustration

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

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

                                                       
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!