It's Chriiiiiissstmaaaaaas! 'Whimsical Mice'

Ooops! Terribly sorry on this rather large departure. I've been rather busy with a new job and painting up christmas stock! I've been doing lots so i will have to back track and upload photos of my recent adventures and events. 


But for now here are some lovely Whimsical mice up to festiveness decorating christmas tree's and building Snowmen. Don't they look like their having fun!?

These are available to buy too! They come in packs of 6, 3 designs of each with an envelope! Aren't you lucky. If you would like to purchase one please visit my FB page here and give me a little a message. 

Today we went on an Adventure!

Excusey on the lack of posts recently, I have been super busy and I'm also revising for my theory which is very important that I pass! - Anyway, today I had a little break from the rush and went out for a refreshing walk with my two nieces, big sister and her Springer Spaniel pup called Max (You will find a painting of him in recent posts!) 

We went over to a place called Canvey Heights which is on Canvey Island in Essex where I live. It was a beautiful Autumn day to be out in so we made the most of it.

Even Max was hot in the sunshine and went for a dip in the sea! 

We had adventures of trying to find the Gruffalo and witches (all the while hoping they won't hump out on us!). We even came across, which we think was the witches magic post she made in a tree, it was rather fun, you can see photos below of Ava-Mai and Kaiden posing in the witches lair. 

We also hunted around for ingredients for our potions, we found all types of things to put in, different berries and leaves. We are going to cook up our potions tomorrow along with pumpkin carving and another witch hunt so watch this space! 

'A book with no pictures'

As you well know I am a great lover of children's books and illustration, but this is rather quite a super idea, its so lovely to open a child's mind and humour!

Definitely a must watch for all children's book lovers, click here to watch something unique!

#Frozen Invitation!

I was given the honour of designing a #Frozen themed party invitation by a commissioner last week and they arrived in the post today and I must say I am mighty pleased with the result!!

What an exciting party! I do wish I was attending. 

The design itself.  

And (a bad) photo of the invitation! 

Homemade recipe of Onion soup!

It was absolutely chucking it down today (so much so our road is completely flooded!) it was a perfect afternoon to get cozied up with some yummy homemade soup after a busy morning of painting and sketching new book ideas! 

Decided the soup tasted so good I jotted down my recipe along with some onion doodles. Someone actually thought it was a recipe book! Perhaps thats something I could do, I do quite like illustrating food... We'll save that for another day. 

'Chicken on the Run'

Here she is, still all puffed out but made a lot prettier with a little editing on photoshop. 

You can win the original illustration of this little lass by clicking here! All you have to do is like and share the photo to enter yourself in the competition! Be sure to take part as this is only happening due to me reaching 400 followers! Winner is announced on Friday. 

'Chicken on the Run' 

400 likes BIG competition!

As a BIG thank you to all my 400 followers, I am doing a rather large and rare competition to win an #original illustration! 

All you have to do to enter is go on over to my page here and LIKE my page as well like and SHARE the competition post! 

Competition will be available all week and the lucky winner will be announced on Friday evening! 

Here is what you could win! GOOD LUCK! 

'Chicken on the Run' 

Tiny Bunting!

I made super tiny bunting for my sisters birthday cake on my Nana's old Singer Sewing Machine! The triangles are teeny measuring approx 2cm so it was quite fiddly when cutting them out making sure they don't fray. But oh my does it look pretty when finished! Couldn't wait to put it on the cake with the powder pink roses and yellow lettering! It looked lovely, sadly I didn't get a photo of it, so you will just have to use your imagination! 

Portrait of a very handsome Springer Spaniel - Work in progress

For my sisters surprise 30th meal I wanted to give her an extra special gift, so I thought what could be a better present than a portrait of her very handsome springer spaniel pup called Max. 
I thoroughly enjoyed this project and would LOVE to start doing pet portraits on a regular basis! - New business idea perhaps? 
Here are photos of my work in progress to the finished piece! I must say I am dry pleased on how he came out, took me a total of around 6 hours of many layers, textures and shading! Would love to know what you think.

 

 

Starting on something a little bigger..

Last night I set myself up on a board! Working on something at a larger scale than normal, it's a special commission for someone special. I will post up the process when able!
But here is the exciting blank canvas.

Sunday sketches

Just a couple of yesterdays Sunday afternoon sketches - Penguins, Jellyfish and ..Cats? Shows how my imagination is quite varied eh! Hehe.  

Birds eye view..

Just come across this that I painted last Autumn (another Autumnal affair) So I thought I would share it with you, It's a birds eye view flying over the suffolk countryside, of course. 
 I've always envied birds and their ability to fly whenever they wanted, catching a glimpse of the beautiful patchwork of fields and farm land that fill our landscape. For me to do this i'd have to hop on a plane every time! So, my imagination kicked in and I jotted this down. I think it's one of my favourite pieces and I may just include it in a picture book idea i have occurring in my mind at the moment. So watch this space. 

Dip Pen Pheasant Sketch

Driving around Suffolk over the weekend we came across a gathering of slightly confused Pheasants in the middle of the road, we had to drive very close for them to realise they may be in danger. I found them rather amusing to watch just 'doddling' around in circles not knowing where to go. They're beautiful but daft and have no chance escaping the hunters, I think. 
But alas they inspired me with their golden feathers to create this Dip Pen sketch which I plan to paint in all the colors of Autumn. 

(please ignore the frustrating spilled splurge of ink!) 

@Dailydoodle - Triceratops!

Todays Dino Doodle for the @daily_doodle dinosaur week! 

(lots of D's in that sentence) 

..I think he looks quite cheeky. 

'Skipping through the trees' - Todays Doodle

My lunchtime doodle of the day, a little girl girl happily skipping through the trees..

(excusey on the terrible lighting) 

#GBBO Iced Bun - fully sprinkled.

Decided the last photo didn't quite do it justice so I scanned it in and had a play around on photoshop brightening it up and making it shine. Scrummylicious!

#GBBO Inspiration.

I don't have much of a sweet tooth myself but having previously watched the Great British Bake Off  I suddenly had the urge to paint some Iced Buns! .. Don't they look delicious?

(excuse the bad quality photo, it was taken in the evening so not much light) 

Hello, again.

Okay, so here we go again. 
I once had a blog that sadly got lost in the midst in the wonderful (yet very large) 'World Wide Web' which surely i must have deleted? Any how, I decided I needed/must get back into it so i'd like to begin my new blog with just a few little Autumnal doodles I did this afternoon in my sketchbook, though we have only just arrived in September its not quite Autumn yet, to my disappointment that is, as Autumn is my all time favourite and I long to go on long walks getting my wellie's good and muddy! - My favourite days are when they're super sunny but crisp and fresh with that bitter chill in the air. Just delicious. 
So here I am today on what still feels like the left overs of summer, doodling away my wishes for Autumns arrival. 

(I have no doubt that there will be a lot of Autumn themed doodles and illustrations this month!)