HOT14 Plymouth Illustration Show

I took a trip down to Plymouth last week to catch up with some uni friends and check out this years degree show. It was interesting to go back and see the work all the third years have been making to motivate myself to start something new. I am currently in the process of moving house which is taking up a lot of time and thinking space but I have a nice little dresser in my new room which I will be turning into a desk I hope :)

I find it interesting going to these shows because there is such a wide variety of drawing styles and themes. I chose my course because they encourage you to follow the style you work most comfortably in, rather than getting you to try what they like and criticising your work otherwise (which I have heard from some people). I have linked to the people whose work I recognise, comment if yours is here and you would like me to put a credit under!

Sammy Arnault-Ham

Lydia Coventry

Lucy Feebs - wish I could bend like these awesome ladies

Ross Ingliewicz (one of my favourites!)

Hope you liked these, over the next couple of weeks I will be bringing you some pictures of the product design and photography work to continue this series - let me know what you think of these!

Pattern Hunting in Guildford

So last year, after a weeks placement at The Great British Card Company, I was told I would never look at greetings cards the same way. They said that every time I go into a shop I would pay much more attention to the designs and styles on the shelves. 

This is definitely true, and it goes further than just greetings cards, I now find myself noticing packaging design, home ware, wrapping paper, clothing patterns, and anything else that involves beautiful design in shops.

I met up with my illustrator friend Jess in Guildford for some shopping, and we decided to go pattern hunting in a number of shops - it was a very successful mission and I documented our finds here for your perusal and inspiration. I always find looking at a number of beautiful designs can help me get started when I am stuck for ideas :)

Let me know what you think of these!

I also highly recommend The Tea Terrace at the top of House of Fraser in Guildford - they have a beautiful garden outside (shame it was cloudy) and gorgeous vintage style cups and saucers. The people next to us had tea in these elephant teapots which you could also buy from the counter!