Merry Christmas

 Wishing you a very merry christmas and a happy new year.

Shop Small

 Just a friendly reminder to shop in local, small or independent stores when you can.  It makes a massive difference to small businesses.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased something from my shop this year. 

  You can find my shop here

Designing Christmas Cards

For my Christmas card designs this year I wanted to keep things simple.  I decided to make a pack of four cards with two designs using red and white and two using green and white.  The colour limitation really helps me to focus and means I won't get too carried away.

Below you can watch the process video for my Winter Warmers card.  As you may notice I begin with a very loose outline and build the detail as I go.  This was drawn on Procreate on an Ipad.  It's a process I'm new to as I usually do all my drawing on paper first but this saves a lot of tidying.  I won't be switching to full digital drawing anytime soon though.

I had a lot of fun designing knitwear patterns for the mug and on the other cards.  

You can purchase a pack here.

And here is the full set.

Wintry Woods jotter design

 I've recently added some A5 jotters to my shop. They weren't supposed to Christmassy but it's been pretty chilly here for a long time so I was feeling wintry, and really I'd like nothing more that a snowy mountain cabin to myself.

Click here to go to the shop.  

Here's a time lapse video of my cover design.

I did an initial sketch in my sketchbook and then drew straight on to Procreate.  I love how you can watch all the decisions you made.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  There's even a cute little 'This book belongs to' on the inside cover, and they're blank so you can sketch or write.  

Christmas cards 2021

 I know it's still a little early, the pumpkins aren't even carved yet, but I'm getting organised this year.  I still have a book to finish so my Christmas cards have come early.  

There are 4 new designs, each made in Procreate, and sold as a pack of 4.  You can buy them here

Last year's Christmas cards are also available as a pack of 4, or sold individually.

 

#illo_advent 2017

This December I decided to take part in #illo_advent again, where you draw a different festive illustration everyday.  If you follow the hashtag on twitter you can see many different illustrators taking part.  It can become quite time-consuming so this year I decided to limit my colour palette in an effort to keep them simple and save time.  Here are this year's batch.

Here's a closer look

Week one

Week two

Week three

I gave up on day 21 as I'd just finished the artwork for a new book and as much as I wanted to complete my advent set I was eager to begin my holiday.  I did do one final image for the 25th though.  We have a Christmas day birthday in our household so I try make a card that covers both occasions.

illo_advent week one

Those busy elves on Twitter are preparing for the festive season with an illustrated advent yet again.  You can find lots of wonderful artwork at #illo_advent  Last year I only managed day one, this year I'm trying to do an illustration a day.  I'm up to date so far.  Here's week one.

December 1

December 2

December 3

December 4

December 1

So it turns out it's December already (no-one panic.)  That means that the lovely folks on twitter have started to #illo_advent again.  I won't have time for many but here's one for day one...

You may now panic.

Christmas cards are available here for those of you feeling festive and in need of cards.  

It's too soon I know, but Christmas cards!

This year's Christmas cards are ready and available to buy here  

All are printed in recycled card on the UK and are looking for good homes.

You could get your seasonal mitts on all of these:

Stocking Fillers

Meet Snug, Smirk, Slurp and Scrump, Santa's lesser known helpers. They may look like they're relaxing but due to an unforeseen stocking-filling shortage (someone forgot to order the tangerines...it was Gary) these four furry heroes have taken it upon themselves to fill the stockings themselves.

Lovebirds

Spread the love this Christmas with this lovebird wreath. These birds whistle Christmas carols all year round, come with their own stripy hats and are all house trained...except Mo, but he's pretty so we let it go.

Mouseltoe

These two lovebirds have been the talk of Santa's workshop, the will-they-won't-they couple of the season. All bets are off but no-one is safe with kissletoe about!

Mouse wreath

A mouse-infested wreath may not sound like an ideal gift but I guarantee these furry friends are the height of Christmas spirit. They knit their own hats, jingle their own bells and will only eat your cut price cheese, not the fancy stuff you reserved for guests.

Christmas Print Shop - Now Open

Seasons greetings...well almost.  With Christmas just about upon us I've opened a small print shop selling handprinted cards.  You can find them all here: click to enter shop

Each card is printed by me and they're available nowhere else.  There's also gift wrap.  What more could you need?  So if you're looking for something a little different this Christmas then these could be just the thing.

This card highlights the joys of proud winter waiting staff.  

Eager to please and highly professional, these penguins deliver puddings with pride.  Approximately every third Christmas one of the waiting staff loses his or her temper, and puddings have been thrown.

Days without incident 1067...

Nature documentaries may have convinced you that penguins are naturally suited to warm weather but my lack of research tells me otherwise.  They are known to wear scarves year round, and extra long scarves towards December.  The penguins bearing banners run throughout the land spreading the news that winter is coming and that it is time to reach for the extra long scarves once more.

See above for the plight of the penguins.  Thankfully polar bears love to knit and due to their complete lack of a sense of scale their scarves veer towards the extra long.  Sadly since penguins and polar bears live so far apart the postal fees are extortionate. 

More prints, less seasonal, coming soon...