Fondest Childhood Memory

My friends and I decided to get together to and set each other fortnightly illustration briefs.  The idea behind this blog is to share work and help each other to improve.  I think it's such a good idea and I believe it's important to keep producing work and keep work fresh.  There's nothing worse than showing potentials clients a stale portfolio.  The blog is Unicorn Illustration if you wish to check out what's going on!  Bare in mind it's only recently been set up so there isn't a vast amount of work up there.  But if you click on about us you can see the who's involved and check out their work too!  Thank you Sam for coming up with the idea!  What a genius!

Here is my recent submission.  The brief was to illustrate your fondest childhood memory.  Mine was when I first got my dog.  She's a tiny little Chihuahua and I love her to bits.  I got her when I was 7 and now she's at a grand old age of 14!  (That's 98 in human years)  And besides the odd bit of blindness, deafness and weak legs...she's actually doing alright!

There was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly

And of course you all know she died.  A bit morbid but absolutely fantastic!  Parents nowadays are apparently worried about stories being ‘too scary’ for their children which is rather stupid.  There’s a reason why it’s called a children’s classic.  DUH.

When I received my package from Amazon today I was extremely excited!  I quickly scoffed my poached egg on toast and opened up the box.  Can I just say, the amount of packaging used to transport the books was silly.  There was enough paper and card to probably produced the same books in the box!  (I also bought Animal Farm.) Sort it out Amazon.

So after wrestling through the waves of paper packaging, I got to the book I’d been waiting for with great anticipation…and it didn’t disappoint.  It was bigger than I had imagined but that didn’t matter to me.  It had a beautiful linen-finish card jacket that was tenderly hugging the book.

The attention to detail is brilliant and the format is faultless.  The pictures of the book don’t really do it justice.  You NEED to have the book and play around with it to appreciate the effort that has gone into producing it.  This book is the reason why devices like kindle will never be king.  Yes it may carry thousands of books for you in a handy device but it will never replace the special feeling and aesthetic quality that a book has. 

I haven’t felt like this about a book in a long time.  It’s a bit like going out with someone for the first time.  You get those butterflies and every page turn is like the next exciting date.  It’s just incredible.  This is the first review I have given to any book that I’ve bought.  That is how impressed I am with this.  The genius behind the illustrations is Jeremy Holmes.  Not only is he an illustrator but he also is the owner of Mutt Ink, the multidisciplinary studio.  If you love the look of this book you should check out his website. 

Below are images that I’ve taken of the book.  Enjoy!

P.S. How awesome are these shoes! Who said old people don’t have style eh?

Snowy Totoro!

I love snow.  Not only does it look pretty but it's also an amazing medium to use for art!  It's unbelievable versatile and fun to experiment with!  Last year I made a snow dear but this year...I thought I'd give a Totoro a go!  And here is the result!  Enjoy! :)