It's picnic time!

Hello,

As it's summer I thought I'd share some picnic/summery food illustrations I've worked on.  The first is a submission for They Draw and Cook for the theme of a Birthday Bash.  I choose a picnic as I think that's a lovely way to celebrate.  My birthday is in winter, but I can always celebrate other peoples :).

A couple of close ups.

Here are some sketchbook illustrations on a similar theme.  I have been taking part in the 100 Day Project as a way to increase sketchbook work (seen on my Instagram).  I have to say I've found it pretty beneficial.  If time is tight I've created some quicker drawings and it's been a great way to test things out and make a visual note of potential future work I would like to make.  

I hope you've had/are having a good Monday!  It's always a bit of a busy day.  Have a great week and I'll be back soon :).

Festive food and drinks

Hello,

So I’m writing this from my phone as I’ve managed to damage my laptop screen and it’s in for repair :(.  Pretty annoyed with myself but it’s happened and so I have to get on with it!  It will take a few days so until then, no computer!  Thankfully at least I can keep making work in the meantime as it’s all hand drawn.
Anyway, I wanted to share the illustrations I created for this months Women’s Health UK.  It was a lovely festive commission of food and drinks.  I especially loved drawing the tree crackers and the mushrooms.

That’s it for now I hope you have a great weekend! 

Food illustrations and a lovely weekend

Hello,

I hope you've had a good week.  Today I'm sharing the illustrations I created for this months Women's Health Magazine.  The article is all about trace minerals in food and I do love drawing food!

I really enjoyed working on these, I think they make quite a nice set all together.  I'm especially happy with how the fish, eggs and nuts turned out.  It also gave me the opportunity to draw one of my favourite things, oats, twice :).

I spent some of last weekend with a visit from a lovely friend Kerry Lemon spending time gallerying (with plenty of tea and coffee stops, obviously!)  We did get to see the Picasso exhibition at Tate which I think closes this weekend so go if you have the chance!

We also visited Camden Arts Centre and had a very delicious lunch there in glorious sunshine :).

Ok, that's it for me I'm off to Saturday Bodycombat then back to drawing this afternoon.  Have a lovely weekend whatever you're up to and I'll be back soon!

Exhibition and food illustrations

Hello,

Wow, it's been another lovely hot hot week here.  I can't believe the weather this summer, it's been amazing!  I've got so used to leaving the house without having to worry about taking layers in case it gets cold, it's lovely.
So this week I've been working on some lovely food illustrations for an editorial commission.  I can't wait to show the images as I loved creating them.  I also got out to the Royal Academy to see the Summer Exhibition.  I often miss this but was determined to go this year as Grayson Perry is the curator so I thought I would enjoy it, and it feels like an age since I last went to an exhibition.  I wasn't disappointed.  I took loads of photos so I'll share some here.  My absolute favourite was the incredible knitted and crocheted sculpture Royal Valkyrie by Joana Vasconcelos which fills the octagonal space as you enter.  It's so colourful and delicious, it was a wonderful start to the exhibition.

I also wanted to share a recent iced coffee illustration.  I do love a good coffee, who doesn't?  I drew a load of coffee pots so I thought I'd share those also (I also have a whole bunch of coffee glasses).  I limited myself to only brown rich coffee shades for this illustration.  I really enjoyed drawing the beans and leaves.

After my Royal Academy visit yesterday I also popped to Burlington Arcade and snapped this lovely installation, lots of lovely hanging paper flowers.  Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, they don't do it justice.

So, that's it for now.  I'm off to Bodycombat this morning then back to edit the food illustrations and work on some nature themed work.  I hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to :).

Tea and a tasty sunny snack

Hello,

Today is all about food and tea (never a bad thing in my mind).  These are a couple of illustrations I completed recently.  I hope they feel quite summery as that’s my intention.  The weather has been consistently hot, which is such a treat for us here in the UK, I hope it continues!  

I wanted to use a really restricted palette for the tea illustration and keep it light, airy and refreshing.  I do love tea, although I never drink it in anything as fancy as this, as knowing me anything this delicate would be broken immediately!  I had fun creating all the patterns all and drawing all the leaves.

Below is figs on toast with ricotta and a drizzle of honey.  I haven’t actually eaten this but it looks like a perfect summery snack and I may well have to try it. 

That’s it for today, I’m loving working in the sunshine it’s such a delight although I really need more pairs of shorts!  My flat gets the sun in the afternoon and evening and it does get very hot so it's nice to feel the coolness of the morning.  Today I’m drawing another summer inspired drink, I’ll be back soon with that.  Have a lovely weekend whatever you’re up to :).

Dulwich and Tea

Hello again,

I hope you've had a good week.  January is racing past and it's been going pretty well so far.  I'm creating lots of new work and planning all sorts of things which I'm really excited about.  It's also been (unsurprisingly) very cold, (well I am a wimp with the cold, so very cold for me that is!).  This time of year is a great time to be cosy at home with a nice cup of tea which is what inspired the illustration below.  I do enjoy drawing food and drink and I had fun inventing the cup and teapot design and arranging the composition.

Yesterday I also had a lovely day finally visiting the Tove Jansson exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. I really enjoyed it, she had a wonderful way with colour and it was great to see a range of work besides what she is best known for.  It was also a beautiful day with a wonderful blue sky so I took the opportunity to go into Dulwich Park for a bit of a wander.  This was one of the first London parks I visited when I first came to London many years ago.  It's quite far for me now so I felt incredibly lucky to be visiting on such a gorgeous day.  It was wonderfully peaceful and very relaxing.  Nature is an amazing thing!  I would have liked to spend longer there (even though it was very cold) but I really wanted to come back to sketch up for some new work I'm doing.

I'm glad I went yesterday because it has been raining most of the day here today so I definitely would not have had such a lovely walk :).

Have a lovely week and I'll be back soon!

Sunny days

Hello there,

I've had a busy few days of organising and planning as I am re-designing my website.  This is a pretty big job for me but something I've wanted to do for a while so I thought I'd better get on with it.  I didn't realise quite how long it takes to transfer everything over or how much downtime there would be so I'm currently without a website!  I'm hoping it won't take too long until it's up and running and hopefully looking more organised, fingers crossed!
In the meantime here's an illustration I completed on a lovely sunny day but I never blogged about.  A lovely pot of iced tea.  I'm still convincing myself that we're just having a late summer here and it is on its way!
I hope you've had a good week.  Right back to sorting out my images! :)
Bye for now

Summer food and drink

Hello,

It's been a few weeks since I last was here.  I thought I'd do a quick post with some of the work I've created during that time, (I've got a bit of scanning to do!)  I've been drawing food and drink mostly.  I think both of these illustrations were created on lovely sunny days.
The first is a tomato plant.  I do enjoy playing with ways to depict leaves and combining different mediums, (I have a lot of random drawn leaves littered around my desk!)  For this I used quite a bit of ink.  I use different brands but I particularly like Dr Ph Martin's as they have some fantastic rich colours.
I always think I should attempt to grow tomatoes but I'm not very green fingered.....maybe this is something to attempt in future!

Next a refreshing glass of orange juice.  There's been a lot of orange use just lately in my work, although today has been a pink day as I've been drawing flamingos.  I'll be back with that soon.  

Whatever you're up to this weekend have a good one! :)

Hello,

I thought I'd share some more work I've been up to just recently.  As it's summer, and the weather has been pretty lovely last week, finally! here's a couple of rather lovely summery drinks.  I know you can drink them whenever but in the heat a lovely iced drink always goes down well.
I really enjoyed creating the different textures especially the ice and limes in the mojito.

Mojito

Sangria

I hope you've had a good week and it's been sunny where you are :).

Have a good week! x