Getting a little behind...

...in my quest to blog once a week with the results of my drawing-a-day challenge. I must stress that I have, by and large, been keeping up with the drawings themselves, it's just the subsequent documenting and posting that I've been a little lazy with. So here are a few from the end of January, a funny old month.

Jan 23rd

Jan 24th

Jan 25th

Jan 26th

Jan 27th

Jan 28th

Jan 29th

Jan 30th

Jan 31st

The start of something great?

I am very excited to reveal the name of a new collective, started by a group of creative minds from the South, including myself. We are called The Coterie and will be sharing our collective blog with you very soon!

We will be holding our first exhibition at Hanger Farm Arts Centre in Totton from Tuesday 8th February until Saturday 5th March with a 'Meet the Artists' evening from 7pm on Friday 25th February. Why not come along, drink some wine and have a chat with us to see what we're about?! See the website for other opening times and directions.

'The Coterie' as the exhibition is also entitled, will feature some new illustration and textile work by myself, beautiful paintings by Lisa Jean of Iris Hill and a first ever showing of photography by Sarah Wade of Sarah-Leigh's Style Files.

If you are interested in joining The Coterie for future events and exhibitions, please email iris@irishill.co.uk

Third week of 2011 and I'm still going...

Still drawing once a day, here are some delights from this week. I have been gazing at the moon a lot this week as it lit my path on my morning walks, just beautiful.

Jan 15thJan 16thJan 17th

Jan 18th

Jan 19thJan 20thJan 21stJan 22nd

More little drawings!

The resolution continues! I'm two weeks into the year and I'm still going! Here are some more of my daily drawings.

Jan 7th

Jan 8th

Jan 9th

Jan 10th

Jan 11th

Jan 12th

Jan 13th

Jan 14th

2011 - A drawing a day

When bringing the Christmas decorations down from the loft in December I found two completely empty little sketchbooks. I have, therefore, made it my New Year's resolution to fill a page a day until they are both bursting with colourful, meaningful and inspiring treats.

Here's how I'm doing so far:

Jan 1st

Jan 2nd

Jan 3rd

Jan 4th

Jan 5th

Jan 6th

Quite a few things, really

I've been busy making headway with my children's book! Without giving too much away, here's a sneaky peek at some of my initial drawings. I'm really enjoying just getting on with this at the moment. I've been thrusting it under the nose of anyone who'll look to try and get as much feedback as possible before attempting to show it to the big boys!

I also did a very successful Christmas Fair at my local school, where my little misfit kOodles were the stars of the show, closely followed by these fabulous fabric keyrings. Both make great stocking fillers!

All my Christmas cards are now available in packs of twelve packaged in a rather fetching kraft box. There are three different sets for sale in my Folksy shop and my Etsy shop.

So, I'd better leave some news for later, ciao!

Beautiful Blogs

One of my cards was featured by Kellie of "it's the little things..." blog today for her Folksy Friday. A new discovery for me, I look the look of her blog and it will definitely be a regular read for me now!

Here's the card that she featured and here's one of the other hideously cute things she admired!

Characters and Places

I have a huge pile of ideas that I struggle to put into words, even with the Thesaurus app on my phone! I have a plotline, but no main character, or I have two fabulous characters with amazing personalities, but no story. To try and fire my brain up I have been reading a few books this week. Largely Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan, which I have only just discovered and it's arguably not really a children's book, but it's just so surreal! It's a series of short stories and beautiful illustrations that I could not put down.

Anyhoo, I occupied myself by trying to put my own characters into their own environment. Very experimental at this stage, but we'll see how it goes. I've tried to keep it light and colourful because often my style tends towards the darker side.

Real life Maurices, Harrys, Lolas and Mias are available to purchase here. Each kOodle cometh in its own little box with a badge and a little booklet about it.

This week I have mostly been thinking about...children's books

...because, like Alice, I don't see the point of a book without any pictures in it! It's my lifelong ambition to write and illustrate my own book, a lot of people have said I could do it, but I don't know how much they are just being kind.

I have a fabulous collection of children's books featuring some of my favourite illustrators Oliver Jeffers, Lisa Evans, Shaun Tan and Sara Fanelli to name a few. I get so much inspiration from them and it helps in every type of work I do.So, this is the beginning. This will push me to work harder towards my dream, because I am going to record every bit of my journey here. It could take a very long time, but I'm determined to get there in the end!