“A human can become a fish; a fish can become a god.”

Mixwit.com is fairly awesome!

The weather is crap and I don’t get a holiday this year, but this song makes me feel summery…

He is sad because he can't hold the knitting needles.

I’ve never really drawn bears before… I kind of like this one. Someone suggested that I should try my hand at more natural history illustration, but I’m not sure this is what they meant..?

For an editorial on why wild animals don’t make good pets.

Royal Jelly: Royal jelly is the food of queens — queen bees. It’s actually a substance secreted from the glands in the heads of worker bees that’s fed to bee larvae. After a few days, the larvae that have potential to develop into queens continue to be fed this nectar. Since queen bees are much bigger, live longer, and are more fertile than all the other bees, this potion is believed by some to impart mystical qualities…

My blog has been terribly neglected recently; I has a lovely time working at Art in Action, came home for a short while, and promptly came down with some hideous virus thing. In between, I have been working on my re-assessment, got a commission which fell through at the last minute after doing all the concept sketches (sigh), and have 3 prints ordered. Which is something.

I also visited Amazing Butterflies! at the Nat’l History Museum. It’s pretty cool; I went on a Tuesday lunchtime, pre-summer hols, so it was fairly empty – except for the butterflies, of course. They are everywhere! Took some shiny pictures… enjoy!

More illustrations to come when I feel like fighting with my scanner

Jumper Animals, also known as jumpus animus in Latin:

They are shy little creatures which roam the British-urban environment, but can be lured in with a little ice-cream (choc chip or strawberries and cream ideally) or a nice cup of tea. This one likes watching Mythbusters and walks in the rain.

& now … THE CLOSE-UP:

I’m sure I detect a glint of intelligence in those little brown eyes…

Also, if you have a left-over sleeve, you can turn it into a hottie cover (just sew up the end and decorate as appropriate):

As an experiment in learning to use my sewing machine this failed because the knit was too thick for the machine to do justice to. Also, I’m kind of tempted to make him a bow-tie.

Any ideas for a name?

The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green is full of awesome things – like these dolls’ heads.

Creepy but kind of beautiful/fascinating, or maybe that’s just me?

Around this time last year I was in China. It was more interesting than what I’m doing now, e.g. watching Wimbledon (not the movie) on the telly!

This is a rather interesting article on business-card design ideas. It makes me want to be more creative next time I design my cards. Nothing against Moo’s cute and easy cards, but they do seem to have become very popular with grads, very quickly, turning me into Little Miss Ubiquity. Or maybe I just never really thought about it before.

I also kind of want to redesign my site, even though it’s perfectly fine and new. the problem with the current layout is that it is difficult to change – I can’t add in a new section very easily, for example, and it goes crazy if I fill up too much space with writing or thumbnails.

Something to think about after, you know, getting a job! Or whilst unemployed, for that matter…

Sometimes I wonder about what to write in this blog; and, for that matter, what not to put. It’s personal – it’s entirely mine – but it’s also not. I would like to appear professional (employable?) to some extent, and yet there’s no hiding my student status. I would love to be able to get work as an illustrator/designer, and don’t remember wanting to do anything else much, which is clearly foolish in the extreme. It’s not an easy or lucrative area to get into, and competition is fierce.

So I suppose this blog is a chart of … my attempt? Also for the sketches I make without thinking and work I love making, even if I don’t get paid! Actually, I’d love and adore to hear from other newly-grads in my position, or who started off in my position who have had some level of success since joining the real world!

As a result of D&AD and P3, I have a few potential possibilities of commissions/sales/work opportunities to pursue, which is no bad thing.

Also, I got my degree results! module by module, it’s essentially 2 firsts, a high 2:1, and, infuriatingly, a low 2:1 on my Final Major Project, pulling my ‘first’ average down to a high 2:1 … which is still a 2:1, no matter how close it may be to a first! Urgh. I know that I didn’t achieve everything I wanted on the FMP, largely because I spent 3 of the final 5 weeks on crutches, in-and-out of hospital after spilling boiling water in my lap (not recommended!). Sadly the FMP is the one module whose marks cannot be exchanged or dropped, so I’m going to try to get it re-marked.

Interesting to note, I have one friend, now a full-time designer, who got a 2:2 and tells me that no-one ever asked after her grade, but conversely, another friend got a 1st with honours and some award or another in a less impressive-sounding subject (it has ‘media’ in the title! Horrors!), also fully employed, who makes known his various accolades , but not what subject they are in. Either way, it could be win-win! And a 2:1 is perfectly fine, really.

My next step: chase up those potential employers, and more!

Plus another event:Art in Action. I’m going to be an artist’s assistant to Shuhua Jin. I’ve done it for 3 years now, and always have a great time. I get paid in tea and biscuits, but I get to meet many other artists and crafts-people – last year I met illustrators Cliff Wright, Hannah Firmin and John Bendall-Brunello, all of whom are delightful and friendly. AiA’s view of illustration is far from envelope-pushing, but it shows off a good variety of styles and applications and it’s great to see work being created in front of you, or to go on a drawing/painting/sculpture workshop run by someone with crazy skills. 50% of profits go to charity, and the other 50% to help artists to feed their family. Aaaah.

This post is now quite long enough, and distressingly picture-free, so I’ll leave it there! Hopefully the next post will be more exciting for the artistically-minded out there