Fairy Tales: Finished piece

It took me a while, but i finally finished colouring my Fairy Tales piece for the February Pencil Play theme, so here it is: 

Fairy Tales rough for Pencil Play

This month's theme for the Pencil Play collective is Fairy Tales which has made me very happy, so i thought i would get to work on it pretty much straight away, especially as i've been looking for a reason to draw more castles. I also came across this quote recently on pinterest, and it just seemed to fit with some of the thoughts i've had this week:

Once in a while, in the middle of an ordinary life, LOVE gives us a fairytale - unknown. 

Not so much because it says love, but because to me it implies being passive in your own life, that 'love' just happens and will make the mundane magical. That you don't have to go out of your ordinary way for things to happen to you. Well, i'm a bit fed up of that notion, i think you have to get out of your comfort zone and create your own adventures. So here is my rough for the fairy tale theme, the concept is that lots of bored princesses are just hanging around waiting for their 'princes' to come and rescue them, except for one ... 

A box for Ideas

Yesterday the lovely children's illustrator Jane Porter posted a blog: A suitable repository for ideas  about being inspired by Allan Ahlberg to create an 'ideas box'. Somewhere to store all those ideas and thoughts which might have potential to become something more.

I thought this was an absolutely brilliant idea, especially as i have been revisiting old sketch books for inspiration recently, how much more convenient to have all those ideas i really like in one place without having to spend hours trawling and for them to be able to mingle and get mixed up.

Also, what a great excuse to glam up one of the zillion boxes i seem to have hoarded. I did this last night using some of the decorative papers and old photocopies which have been hanging about in my 'research' folders since university and quite a bit of PVA glue.

I've made a start by putting in some of the doodles and scribbled thoughts which have been cluttering up my desk space. I'm quite excited to see what inspiration comes out.

An exciting box ....

 I received an exciting box in the post this morning:

 Inside, under layers of tissue paper, was another exciting box ...

Yes, i did get a little bit giddy about all the yummy packaging ... 

The arrival of my super posh new luxe business cards from Moo, don't they look spiffy?! Almost too lovely to give away ....  

A trip to Mughal India at the British Library

A few weeks ago i was spending a bit of time in London with my family, my parents were on their first visit to the UK since moving to Delhi in the summer, so it was really good to see them and hear all about their adventures. My dad was really keen to go to the Mughal India, Art, Culture and Empire exhibition at the British Library so i tagged along. I was not really sure what to expect, but it was definitely not to be as fascinated and impressed as i was for the nearly three hours we managed to spend in there. It also really added to the experience to get some of the context, both historically and geographically (i.e. I've been there!) from my dad.

Divan-i Khas in the Delhi palace

I found an overwhelming wealth of inspiration. Some of the images contained entire narratives, documenting both historical events and mythical stories. The level if detail in some of the images was amazing, and I particularly loved the use of decorative pattern, both within images - fabrics, plants, the incorporation of architecture etc -  and in the ornate borders which complimented the paintings.

Prince Aurangzeb reports to the Emperor Shah Jahan

Portrait of Prince Dara Shikoh (1615 - 1659)

It was interesting how contemporary some of the images seemed, particularly the stylised portraits, and the colour palettes which were so fresh and yet rich. I could see where other illustrators i admire such as Delphine Jaquot, Aurelia Fronty and Jane Ray might have drawn inspiration from too.

Mystery Land Exhibition with Pencil Play and others

Am quite excited and thrilled to have been asked as part of Pencil Play Collective to be part of an exhibition called Mystery Land which is currently taking place at Z Arts in Manchester.  More information about the exhibition can be found here.

I created a piece specifically for the exhibition which i'm really proud of. I took ideas which i had developed in my designs for this years Christmas Cards, which were based on Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales with a wintery theme and developed them further into this one off landscape piece.

Pencil Play Collective

I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to be part of a new illustration collective called 'Pencil Play', a group of 10 lady illustrators with a shared enthusiasm for children's illustration. Each month will see one of us setting a theme for us to respond to, and I have just completed my illustration for the first theme 'Science and the Zoo' today:

We also have each illustrated a letter for the banner, mine was the flamingo: 

The amount of positive feedback we've already received has been brilliant, and i'm very excited for our future as a group, and i hope one day we'll all get to meet in person.

You can find us at www.pencilplay.co.uk  and on twitter: @pencilplay and facebook.