New Blue Willow tea towel range.... and a new home for my ramblings

My last blog post was two years ago!  Hard to believe two years has passed, in some ways it feels like five minutes ago - and other times it feels like a lifetime.

It has been incredibly hard trying to maintain a small business involving commercial freelance design work for clients, with my own product range, and having two small children!  A few things have had to slide in order to remain sane and not be too overwhelmed and swamped with life - one of which has been this blog.

So, for now I'm using Facebook and Instagram to communicate and share work and a few personal things I'm involved with.  I've loved writing this blog and connecting with people, and hope that some of you might pop over and say "Hello" over there!

I'm leaving with some images of my latest 'Blue Willow' tea towel range.  Launched a few months ago in October 2016, it's the culmination of a years work in between a baby growing into a toddler, a toddler growing into a pre-schooler, new clients and freelance projects - and that big thing that gets in the way called life!!

Based on my inky illustrations of the famous Willow pattern, and all taken from my own collection of Willow dinner plates, side plates, jugs and teacups etc.  You can head over to my online shop to see more information and images.

Watercolour teacup illustrations

A few weeks ago I posted about some teacup artwork I had been comissioned to work on.  I'd been asked to create a watercolour piece for a 40th birthday gift, featuring some of the recipients vintage teacups and saucers handed down from her Grandmother.  It's been a really lovely project to work on, and very special that it was a for a significant birthday gift as well as the really personal element with the family heirloom china. 

After selecting the chinaware to use and placing it into a suitable arrangement, I started the illustration by sketching out the individual pieces directly onto Arches Smooth 185gsm Watercolour paper.  I then initially applied light washes of grey hues to the teacups, gradually building up the layers to create the shape, form and shadows of each teacup.

 

Once the shading was completed I started to paint the gold rims of each cup, followed by the detail of each cups pattern over the top of the grey shadows.  Again this was done with washes of colour, starting quite lightly and free and gradually building up to the finer details and intricate patterns.   

This is the finished illustration featuring four teacups and two saucers.  I was really pleased with the artwork, and despite being a little intimidated about painting a piece to be a framed picture and not being able to correct any mistakes on the computer, I thought it turned out quite well! 

Teacup artwork

 

I've recently been commissioned to create a watercolour artwork piece featuring my favourite subject matter - vintage teacups.  It's always a little bit terrifying creating artwork for someone else, especially when the finished illustration is to be framed as an original artwork so I don't have the option of scanning into Photoshop and tweaking any bits, I can't make any mistakes!  However, I'm really pleased with how the illustration is progressing, and without giving too much away here is a little preview of the artwork in progress.  

Teacup etchings

A few weeks ago I wrote about an etching workshop I did with Bridget Farmer and I've finally managed to find time to photograph some of the prints from my weekends work.  As well as some black and white etchings, I managed to produce several coloured artworks of my favourite teacups.      

 

The top image was my biggest print, with all three teacups printed onto one sheet of paper, whilst the rest of the prints were single teacups. 

Such a fun weekend and great to learn a new process which is totally different to how I normally work.  Thanks again Bridget x    

Weekend print workshop

Over the weekend I took part in a Dry Point Etching workshop in Daylesford with Bridget Farmer.  Bridget specialises in various forms of printmaking, but it was the Dry Point Etching I was most interested in learning.  Myself and fellow local designer Fran Pidgeon headed to Bridgets fabulous studio armed with rubber gloves, aprons and itchy fingers ready to print!             

Bridget has dedicated 2013 to 'The Year of the Finch' and has been drawing and creating prints specifically on this little bird.  Above is one of her very cute dry point etchings of said Finch. 

The etching workshop took place on Saturday and Sunday, and it was so lovely to have a creative weekend for completely personal enjoyment - no brief to work to, no commercial limitations, (no toddler around) just me, Fran, Bridget, some 1930's music, choc-chip cookies, cups of tea, and lots of chatting.  Fabulous! 

I love being in other peoples studios and workspaces, seeing how creative people work, what inspires them, are they neat, messy, organised etc.  Most studio's house a lovely mix of random bits and pieces (I like to think of it as studio flotsam and jetsam) that have been found and gathered to serve as useful equipment or inspiration.      

I decided to take some of 'my girls' (vintage teacups) to use as a basis for my etching prints. I started off roughly sketching the teacups, before engraving my illustration onto the plate.  We were using acetate as a plate, which makes it a really easy substance to engrave and allowed us to work very quickly as no acid is necessary to eat into the more traditional copper plate.   

We started off printing our etchings with single colour prints, before progressing to applying several colours to the plate.  This is called 'a la poupee' (multiple colours applied directly to the plate) and Bridget has a tutorial about this technique on her website.    Above you can see Fran's very intricate and detailed beautiful bird print (left) and my sketchy-style teacup print and inked acetate plate (right). 

A big thanks to Bridget and Fran for a wonderful weekend! 

New illustrations sneak peak.....

I've been working on a project recently which has involved creating some new hand-painted illustrations.  The objects I'm painting all have a slight vintage feel to them, and the artwork itself has all been created using watercolour.  I've loved getting back to doing some drawing and painting and it's been a really fun project to work on.  I'll blog about it again when the work is all completed, but for now, without giving too much away, here is a little sneak peak of what I've been working on including the initial sketches and finished painted versions......

Frankie calendar 2013

Work featured in the 2013 Frankie calendar by The Black Apple,

Ana Albero & Kate Pugsley  

Anke Weckmann & Donna Wilson 

Lucy King, Jennifer Davis & The Pin Pals

I was asked to contribute to the Frankie magazine calendar for 2013 with my 'A Splash of Milk' vintage coffee pot & jug illustration, and it was very exciting to receive the calendar last week!

The calendar is filled with a lovely selection of quirky, vintage and retro inspired artworks, by various illustrators from around the world - and I was delighted to be included amongst so many other talented painters.  Thanks Frankie! :)

You can order a copy of the calender online here

Painting plates

         Light washes of colour are applied over the plate sketch to form the outline, shape,
                                                 texture and shadows of the plate

Once the lighter washes and key shapes have been applied, the detailed areas of the plate can

                                                      start to be painted 

       The layers of colour and detail are gradually built up until the illustration is complete

It's a chilly day here in Melbourne and I've just finished some home-made parsnip and ginger soup to warm me up a little, put my comfy ugg boots on and turned the heating up a notch.  Ahhh, much better! 

I thought I'd share how I created some of my recent plate illustrations for Real Living magazine and the process I went through with the painting.  For these illustrations I worked on Arches Medium textured 300gsm watercolour paper.   

The first stage I went through was stretching the watercolour paper, the process of stretching paper prior to painting means the paper will always remain perfectly flat, and won't buckle when the wet paint is applied.  I don't always stretch my paper before painting - especially when using the 300gsm weight paper, but as the illustrations where to be photographed I wanted to ensure the artworks remained perfectly flat.

Using a B pencil I sketched the outline of the plates, including any pattern and detailed areas.  I try to do this quite lightly, so I can rub out any pencil marks once the artwork is finished.  Sometimes I work 'blind' and paint directly onto the paper without any pencil sketches first, but for these illustrations I chose to sketch the plates first to ensure I could capture the plates as accurately as possible.

Once the outlines were sketched, I started to apply light washes of watercolour paint to create the plate outline, as well as shadows to give a sense of 3 dimension.  Once the basic shape of the plate was finished, I added more layers of colour to acheive some of the basic detail and pattern of the plate.

The layers continued to be built up, finishing with the darkest areas and fine detail.  With watercolour you always paint light to dark - so lightest areas first and building up to the darker sections last.  Any white areas are created by letting the white paper show through, rather than using a white paint colour. 

It depends how detailed you want the artwork as to how many layers of paint are added or how much detail to include.  I like my illustrations to have a sense of realism and detail to them - but without being too perfect or 'finished'.

J&G Meakin retro 'Aztec' coffee pot

 'Aztec' coffee pot by J&G Meakin

I'm very chuffed that little Jasper at just 9 months old, already seems to have a keen eye for vintage ceramics - as I got this rather fabulous retro coffee pot for mothers day! 

The coffee pot design is called 'Aztec' and is applied to the 'Studio' shape, which was introduced by British manufacturer J&G Meakin in about 1964.  J&G Meakin started manufacturing ceramic ranges way back in 1851, and their Studio range was particularly popular both in the UK and overseas.

This is the third design by J&G Meakin I have in the Studio shape, the other two being Topic (left) and Elite (right).  I love the elegance of the studio coffee pots with their tall, slender and statuesque shape - and I also love the colour palettes of the three designs with their turquise, aqua, and olive green shades.  Gorgeous!!

The Topic design in particular has become a favourite of mine, and has featured in many of my illustrations and sketches in recent times. 

Various sketches and illustrations featuring the Topic coffee pot.
 

Mother's Day plate illo's in Real Living magazine

My watercolour plate illustrations for Real Living magazine  

 

 

 

This months edition of Real Living magazine features some yummy cake recipes for Mothers Day - and the cakes are photographed on my watercolour plate illustrations!

Rather than have the cakes on actual plates, I was asked to paint the plates so the cakes could be photographed on the illustrated versions.  A very cute idea!  It was great to paint the pretty plates knowing they were going to be used as styling props, as its something very different to what I normally do. 

The delicious recipes for the cakes are: flower jam drops, blueberry cheesecakes with white chocolate base, chocolate coconut hedgehog slice, fig and frangipane tart and triple chocolate cherry cakes.

Yum!

Painterly florals

Preliminary flower sketches 

 

I've been flat out these past few months with various freelance design projects on the go, including several hand-painted floral artworks for textile and ceramic application.

The illustrations have all been painted in watercolours onto medium textured watercolour paper, they were originally sketched out in pencil before being painted - with the exception of the last image where I painted directly onto the paper without any sketching beforehand.  I love the really relaxed effect achieved when I paint 'freehand', but it depends if the client wants this style of casual artwork or something a little more formal and structured as per the other illustrations.

With the hand-painted illustrations I normally scan the artwork into Photoshop where I can then manipulate the scale of the artwork and create the design placements for the actual products. 

I'm also working on some Christmas designs for the end of this year, which will be applied onto tableware - so I'd best get on with these and stop procrastinating by blogging!

I Heart Stationery

 I Heart Stationery by Charlotte Rivers (modelled by the Jolly cat!)

                                                                That's me painting! 

                                     My watercolour paint box and floral illustrations

                                                        My watercolour gift cards

                                                        City postcards by Kristin Carlson

                                  Gocco printed cards by Sydney based La Rara

                                            Fabulously quirky cards by Allison Cole

                                        Digitally designed wrapping papers by Smock Paper

                                              Bold calendar design by The Indigo Bunting  

                                                Rather gorgeous floral designs by Brie Harrison

I'm super chuffed to be included in Charlotte River's new book I Heart Stationery.  

I Heart Stationery is a very cute book showcasing a broad range of stationery products from cards, gift wrap and postcards, to notebooks, calendars and diaries.  The book covers work by designers from around the world (including several Australian entries), but best of all it's divided into chapters based on the techniques used to create the stationery items, such as hand-drawn illustration, block printing, digital illustration, letterpress, screen printing, collage and calligraphy.

Each section focuses on a particular technique with photos of the featured artists’ work, an introduction to the processes employed and a list of the tools used. 

I love that the book is divided into techniques, and it's great to see a variety of creative peeps making different products and designs in each section.  I'm lucky enough to be included in the hand-drawn illustration section with my range of watercolour floral, vintage tableware and cup-cake cards.  Yay!

A very BIG Thank You to Charlotte for including me in her fabulous new book, it's amazing to be featured alongside so many fabulously talented artsits from around the globe and I'm very flattered to be included. 

You can visit Charlottes website and she also has a gorgeous blog Lottie Loves which is well worth checking out (I was featured on her blog back in May last year, you can see the post here) as well as her children's blog Little Lottie Loves - phew she is one clever and busy lady!