2015 Review

 

I mentioned in my last post that I would come up with some goals for the up coming year…

I wanted to focus more on long term goals rather than short term. My lifestyle is hectic enough as it is without adding weekly goals!

In 2014 this blog received 2000+ views.

In 2015 it raised to 5,800+ views.

So for 2016 I’d like to get 10,000 views. Am I overly ambitious? 😀

I’d also like to get 500 Instagram followers and receive 100 likes on one picture.

These goals seem pretty shallow and petty but it’s the easiest way to monitor how well received my art is.

The most liked picture on Instagram was an outline of my ‘Moody Ballerina’ at 57 likes 🙂

But my most viewed piece (ever) was a painting I did in August 2014 called “Birds of a Feather”

Already this year I have been asked about this painting! The public demands! So it would almost be idiotic not to branch out from this idea. I have been contacted by several charities and clients about using this image  – and even gaining commissions to replicate it.

I would create a collection from this except… it is already part of an existing collection called ‘The Fly Away’. How can I take this further haha!

Also my lovely boyfriend gave me a large Moleskine sketchbook to put my ideas and drawings in ❤ Hopefully this year will be more successful or at the very least more productive than 2015! 🙂

Artichokes 1: Finished

This took AGES (in retrospect to how long I normally take at least) and is 7.5″ x 5″ and a combo of watercolour paint and ink.

It’s currently pending review from the client 🙂

Artichokes 1: WIP

New commission has arrived in the form of artichokes!

Never tried an artichoke myself, but the client would like a ‘small’ painting of the artichokes in the picture with the silver bowl and wood behind showing.

I thinking I’m going to do a few compositions with this one. The first (pictured) will have a sliced view of the picture with some fancy text saying Artichoke down the side. It will be painted once drawn in ink. Finally combining the pen and paint brush together!

The next I will use purely paint (as pen wasn’t mentioned in the brief) and use one corner of the photo: One Artichoke with the curve of the silver bowl and the wood behind.

The next (I tend to work in 3’s, the freak that I am) I have yet to decide!

So anyone with advice, tips or nuggets of inspiration would be more than appreciated!

I’ll update my progress soon – watch this space xx

Mini ‘Peace Feathers’

Working on some commissions for a miniature ‘Birds of a Feather’

The brief consists of being the painting being 3″x 5″, to have doves flying out and the have the erupt from the middle of the feather rather than the top.

So far it has been very difficult to work on such a tiny scale – I’m losing a lot of the details and blending tones.

Birds next – watch this space 😉

Etsy Shop

Hi All!

Sorry I have been absent for over a month… hectic lifestyle and all that 🙂 I HAVE been drawing, there’s just nothing good enough to put up on here yet! haha

The Skull 3 drawing I promised has been put on the back burner. I was so pleased with Skull 2 – everything I’ve tried to draw since just doesn’t come close to the standard I want… but never say never. I may draw one eventually…

On a positive note I’m finally in the process of buying my house! The ‘new’ studio space is tiny in comparison to my attic studio, but I love my new creative nook all the same! 🙂

So as solicitors are charging me by the minute and I am still in need to furniture to put into this house, I’ve decided it’s been long over due for me to open my Etsy shop!

It’s a work in progress as there are only 3 illustrations up there but more will soon follow.

Any advice or tips to using this site would be mucho appreciated 😉 and also feel free to browse, suggest a possible commission and of course buy all you want! xx

New Studio Space

Massively jumping the gun here as none of the contracts have been signed but I am very much hoping that this will be my new studio!

For the people that have been following this blog, I have (often) moaned that I do not have any where to paint because I am living at home saving for a mortgage.

I have finally put an offer on a place and the converted attic is where I plan to fester in creativity 😛 Fingers crossed this goes through and then my Pen Drawing will come to a close and my Watercolour Paintings can start off again 😀 xx

Pilot Pens

Hi Everyone 🙂

No artwork this weekend as I was away having a seriously messy and disastrous weekend in London… never made it the rave, I lost all my mates and was wandering around Camden Locks for an hour with a dead cell phone. Oh well! 😀 A story to tell and a lesson learned!

Since I lack any evidence of artist flare this week, I thought I’d big up these rather cool pens from Pilot 🙂

Firstly, I’m not an expert on pens. My criteria is pretty basic – don’t smudge, don’t fade, don’t bleed and don’t cost me an arm and a leg to buy 😀

Secondly, drawing with pens – if you’ve been following my blog for a while – is a fairly recent development for me. My living situation (saving for a mortgage, living with the folks, yadd a yadda) means I cannot paint, so this has almost been my substituent for the time being.

I have 3 pens: 0.5mm, 0.1mm and a ridiculously tiny 0.05mm. It’s so tiny the nib sticks out at an angle like it’s broken (fyi, it’s not) and at £3 / $5 / €4 each, they’re not as expensive as some of the other brands out there. (Copic I’m looking at you)

I’m beginning to really enjoy the pen drawing and I’m actually beginning to think… What will I actually do when I can paint again? Will I pick up the brush or the pen?

Watch this space 😉

Plagiarism Sorted

I’m pleased to say that the website that had been plagiarising one of my paintings on their t-shirts has took it down 😀

Thank you very much to everyone that gave me advice and words of support! I’m glad I went through the effort now 🙂 xx

Instagram: oi_you_blondie

Morning All 🙂

Something that I am beginning to notice more and more is that I am instagramming my work as I work to see how people react to it. In some cases, if the reaction is a bit poor, it never makes it onto this blog! 😀

So if you want to see my art hot-off-the-press, the good and bad, then please follow me on instagram: oi_you_blondie 🙂

Plagiarism

It appears that I have been a victim of plagiarism…

This website is using my painting on t-shirts.

I’m flattered, I really am. Firstly that someone think my painting is good enough to print on a t-shirt and secondly that someone recognised my work and let me know! 🙂

But I was not asked for permission. The website says the image is theirs. And they’re making $35 a t-shirt on this. The original painting is still in my bloody display folder at home. So I’m annoyed.

If anyone has any advice or information that could help me sort this out, I would really appreciate it.