Rainy day doodles.

Do you remember the game where you draw a head, fold it over and pass it to a friend who then draws a body and then finally returns it to you to draw the legs?  Well this is the outcome of mine and Sian's rainy afternoon...

Brad.

Jonny.

Cod Knievel.

Chop-Stick.

McLovin'.

Ralph.

Sparkle.

Babs the Belieber.

Noodle Poodle Doodle.

Do you ever have one of those days where your brain just won't co-operate?  I've spent most of my day trying to come up with something original for my James and the Giant Peach brief and all my brain gives me is what I think is total rubbish.  By this point in the evening I would get stressed out and annoyed at myself for not being terribly creative.  But instead, tonight, I thought I should just make a fun little collage which may trigger something.  So here it is.  Introducing my Noodle Poodle Doodle.

Perhaps these could become a regular post for when I'm creatively stumped.  The Adventures of Noodle Poodle.....

Welcome to my Studio.

After living in our apartment for 2 years I've finally rearranged the 'Den', aka guest room, aka storage room into a space I can use.  It was a mess and it took a couple of days to organise but I now have my very own studio and I'm thrilled with the room.  We even bought a beanbag chair for my boyfriend so if he feels a bit lonely a few paces away he can come in and sit with a geeky code book or something.

This wasn't the state the room started in but you have to dig everything out to make sense of the chaos.   By this point I'd pulled so much out and reorganised the wardrobe I had the 'where do I begin' moment.

Ta-da!  My very own studio :D

My inspiration wall and a place to pop up work in progress.

As you can see at the bottom left hand side, a comfy spot for my fella.

Birds and Bugs.

A handful of new drawings and collages from my James and the Giant Peach sketchbook.

London Trip.

Last week I went on a drawing trip to London with NUCA.  I spent the afternoon visiting the V&A museum and The Natural History Museum.  There was just so much to see and so little time to fit it all in but it was a fun day and it felt brilliant sketching again after slaving away at the dissertation.  Here are a few pages from my sketchbook from the day.

Initial research for my James and the Giant Peach project.  Unfortunately we could only find a real spider and centipede out of the characters.

After searching everywhere for certain bugs I decided to just sketch animals that caught my attention.  These are quick line drawings where you don't take the pen off the page.

More quick sketches, I particularly love the cheery sloth.

In the V&A I discovered this drawer and it was filled with beautiful name tags for bottles.  I love all the different typography going on.  These are just a few of my favourites.

The V&A is filled with patterns be it from textiles or china, this was one of my favourites.

There we were, sat outside eating lunch when I commented on the lack of pigeons.  Literally 2 seconds later a hoard of them flocked upon us and our tasty treats.  Should have kept my mouth shut.  We originally named this feathery friend, Dave the Fat Pigeon and he likes reverse psychology :)

Cakey Nostalgia.

Earlier this week the 3rd year Illustrators held a cake sale to raise money for our auction and degree show.  The group baked an array of cakey goodness and we managed to raise a massive £147!  Not bad going but then again who can resist cake?  I'm a keen baker, so was happy to help out and I decided to make my mums spiced apple muffins.  These were always a hit at school fairs so I thought they would be perfect for this occasion.
You know how certain smells and tastes bring back memories, well the smell from baking these muffins took me right back to my mums kitchen.  I haven't had that kind of experience about my mum for such a long time.  It was such a strange but lovely feeling, even though I did well up a tad.
I was very happy with how mine turned out and I hope that whoever purchased one felt it was 80p well spent.

A happy bite of nostalgia, nom.