Children's Book Illustration

Since March I have been doing an online course called Make Art That Sells, with the hope of improving my portfolio for freelance illustration work. It's been really fun responding to various briefs and challenging my digital skills. I'm still not sure I have entirely found 'my style', but I will keep on drawing, filling sketchbooks and developing as an artist. This month is the last brief, after which I will be updating my website and contacting some agencies!
So far I have made a cover for a colouring book, designed a Christmas ornament and illustrated a tarot card.
Last month's brief was to draw characters for a children's book, based on vicunas. So fun!

I think the colouring book assignment was my favourite, I absolutely loved drawing women's faces and hair, so I will keep on trying to improve my portrait skills. Next up is flowers and lettering, here are my sketches so far:

It's been a good opportunity to practice brush lettering, after the ace workshop I attended with Artsy Nibs. I would really recommend Joyce's classes, really fun and good value for money!

Saturday Sketchbook

Here's a page from last night's super rough sketching times. I'm intending on making a new screenprint for the Buy Art Fair, which is rapidly approaching. Genius me thought it was in October, whoops...I've always been a big fan of shield bugs, they come in many shapes, sizes and an incredible array of shimmering colours. I've seen a few around this Summer that have captured my imagination. Here's hoping I can get the print done in time! Set up is the 23rd September, wish me luck.

An incredible shield bug visited my tent. #Greenman

A photo posted by Nell Smith (@iamnell) on Aug 24, 2015 at 3:29am PDT

More shield bugs! Love these guys. #inspiration #nature

A photo posted by Nell Smith (@iamnell) on Aug 27, 2015 at 3:35am PDT

A photo posted by Nell Smith (@iamnell) on Jul 22, 2015 at 3:28am PDT

Back to Skool

I've had such a lovely summer, full of friends, fun times and adventures. I'll be blogging more about what I've been up to over the coming weeks, this is part of my back-to-school plan. I went to a Creative Business Development session yesterday here at the Craft Centre, run by the very lovely Pete Mosley. It was a very inspiring day, I feel ready to make some Big Plans and get myself into gear!

I'll leave you with some things I've been working on, some Shit Portraits of some of my favourite people! Can you tell who they are?? (portraits aren't my forte, but they're lots of fun to do!) As always, there's more on my instagram

Can't get enough #shitportraits. It's Amy Johnson! #feminist #icons #drawing #sketchbook #strongwomen

A photo posted by Nell Smith (@iamnell) on Aug 29, 2015 at 3:03am PDT

Bummed out staying in on a Friday night, cheering myself up with records and some shit portraiture! It's Frida! #fridakahlo #shitportraits #drawing #sketchbook #fun

A photo posted by Nell Smith (@iamnell) on Aug 28, 2015 at 12:47pm PDT

It's KISS! #shitportraits #drawing #fun #sketchbook

A photo posted by Nell Smith (@iamnell) on Aug 16, 2015 at 10:19am PDT

How is everyone getting ready for the new season?

Work in Progress Wednesday

Yesterday I did a large scale dotwork drawing on the window of the Craft Centre, which was very enjoyable, and a bit of a learning curve! I drew an heptagon measuring about half a metre across using 0.7 mm Posca markers. This was my first error. I've never drawn on glass before and using a nib so narrow made the ink kind of slide around, and of course it took a VERY long time to build up enough colour to make an impact. I wish I had drawn a larger shape, as it gets a bit lost in the window, and next time I would use fatter pens. I've got lots of ideas for my next window, so I'm really glad I've made a start on large scale work outside of the studio. I felt pretty nervous before I started, then I popped my headphones in and all was well. My arm really hurts today.

Vinyl stickers for the window.

Poscas in the pouch, plus makeshift measuring devices (i.e string)

Tiny, tiny dots.

CMYK

 Pretty much impossible to get a decent picture from the outside, but I like the layers of shapes behind my drawing.

Juneathon week 2 round up

Another busy week! I am so tired I can't really think about what I've done. Made a start on some new big drawings and made some time-lapse films, thank you very much to the ever lovely Paul Capewell for the app recommendation! Lots of fun to be had. I can't upload it here without a big faff about and frankly I want to go to bed for a bit, so that'll have to wait. Follow me on instagram if you're desperate for a peek.

'Hand' was the theme for this Weekly Word Drawing and as it was Friday the 13th I thought I'd embrace the beast within with some horns. Drew this watching the Mexico-Cameroon game. I am now dead into football after forgetting all about it for the past 4 years. Funny that.

I hadn't done any running since Sunday, but got up early this morning for parkrun and got a PB.

Pretty satisfying to see how much quicker I've got over the past year, also felt a lot easier than it used to! 26th female, happy with that.

I still haven't had a booze-drink, but this is all set to change later, BBQ, football and party times. What could possibly go wrong?

Miles run: 3
Miles cycled: absolutely loads
Yoga classes: 1
Alcohol consumed: 0
Magnums consumed: Let's not talk about that, ok?

Out of the Comfort Zone

I spend quite a lot of time thinking about how to push myself and to find new challenges. A good exercise from Philippa Perry's excellent book, 'How to Stay Sane' is based around this idea.

"The Comfort Zone Exercise is straightforward. Get a large piece of plain paper and draw a circle in the middle. Inside the circle write examples of activities that you feel completely comfortable doing. Around the edge of the circle write down examples of activities that you can do but that you have to push yourself a little bit to do - those activities that may make you nervous in some way, but not so much as to stop you doing them. In the next band write activities that you like to do but find it difficult to get up the courage to do. Draw another circle around this ring of activities. After that write down those things you are far too scared to try but would like to do. You can create as many circles as you like. The point of the Comfort Zone Exercise is for you to consider what you are comfortable with and what you are not, and then to experiment with expanding your area of comfort. "

Here's one of mine from November last year:

Check me out, I achieved a goal! I did a Pecha Kucha talk a couple of months ago. I was pretty nervous getting up to talk in front of a room full of people, but afterwards I felt great and I think it went well! There is a video here, if you want to see me being exuberant about support networks (and probably saying 'support networks' about 20 times). It's a great night and lots of fun whether you want to do a presentation or not. The next one is on Thursday 29th May at Manchester Art Gallery, book your free ticket here, the theme is Time, should be a good 'un!

This is my most recent comfort zone exercise:

I made a start on pushing my geometric drawings on by experimenting with scale on the wall in my back yard yesterday.

 Had to improvise a bit with circles and straight lines! Drew round my garden table, various pan lids and used my clothes dryer as a ruler.

 My toes are in shot here for sense of scale.

A decent start. The wall isn't in great shape, in fact I'm cleaning and painting it on Friday, hence why I decided to do this little experiment. The drawing needs more definition and is a bit wonky due to my makeshift measuring implements, but I know it works on a larger scale now. I'm off to Draw North West on Tuesday, so hopefully I can talk to someone about possibly being involved in Outhouse then. Onwards, upwards and outwards beyond the comfort zone!

Day in the Life - a photo an hour on the hour

 8 a.m Failed to set my initial alarm, luckily trusty secondary alarm awoke me. A glorious sunny morn.

 9 a.m Nice enough for an al fresco breakfast experience of porridge and coffee in my back yard. I was filled with glee to note that birds have been eating the food I've been putting out, even though I've only seen ONE coal tit since December. Those sneaks. My mealworms bring all the birds to the yard.

 10 a.m Cycled to the Craft Centre with my sunny gees on and no coat. I love Summer! I spy Amy Wilkinson whizzing in on her bike too!

 11 a.m Printed some fox bibs and hats for a Not on the High Street order.

12 p.m A coffee, followed by getting sucked into Internet world for far too long. 

 1 p.m Freakin' delicious lunch from Oak Street Cafe. Ham and leek pasty with spicy tofu and beans, new potatoes and beetroot. Yummmmm.

 2 p.m Heat set my prints and packaged 'em up…

 3 p.m …ready for the Post Office run in the sun.

 4 p.m Did some work on a geometric drawing. I think I'm going to do this again, but symmetrical. Not very happy with it.

 5 p.m Got some hydration on the go. I love Bobble filters and am a bit evangelical about them!

 6 p.m Cycled home. My front garden is looking beautiful, if a little wild. Loving seeing new flowers blooming everyday.

7 p.m Still warm enough to sit outside with a little beer. I love to be outside as much as possible, even if this beer wasn't as tasty as my favourite, Badger's Golden Glory.

That's it! I'm going to chill out tonight, I'm working again tomorrow and am feeling the need to rest. Happy Friday y'all! x

Passion Projects

The title of this post is Passion Projects - what do you love and would like to make money from. Well, I do love what I do and get a lot of satisfaction from working for myself and being able to be creative every day. That said, I am giving myself some time this Summer to work more on things that are completely non-commercial. I love all my little creatures and critters, but sometimes I think I would be quite happy never to print another lion bib ever again.

I have been working on some geometric drawings and while I'm not really sure at this point where I'm going with them, I've had a really nice reaction and feel excited to develop them over the coming months. A lot of the dot work drawings take several hours each to complete and I love that intensity of work, focusing my usually pretty scattered attention and really zoning in on them. I've been posting these up online and have been asked by a friend to design him a tattoo, so that's a promising start!

Dotwork octagon

Dotwork mandala

Weekend Morning Routine

Saturday depends on whether I'm working in the shop at Manchester Craft and Design Centre. If I am, then it's up and out on my bike to the studio. If I'm not in the studio I may well be running a workshop somewhere, like Fred Aldous for the Ministry of Craft. I often run in the morning too, distance dependent on whether I'm training for something. Porridge or eggs and green smoothies will be on the menu.

Actually I'm not a huge fan of routines, but I also think they're good for me. I've got a strange brain sometimes, it's full of conflicting ideas. I try to meditate everyday, weekend or not. I use the Headspace app as I'm not very good at staying focused without guidance. I very rarely have a long lie in, it's no fun on your own! I also feel too guilt-ridden and as though I'm missing out on some fun times if I lounge about too much. I usually try to make plans to see friends and do something interesting like attend Sunday Assembly, go to a life drawing class, or a nice long bike ride in the country. In the evening I like to go to gigs, parties and suchlike. Fun times please. Last Saturday I went to an amazing event called Drawn to the Beat at Victoria Baths.

Basically, I believe that life isn't happening at home.