The Seven Ravens

So this has taken me a lot longer to finish than I thought. The seven ravens is a Grimm tale that is very similar to the Six swans, but just that little bit...well..more grimm! I decided to show this by making The Seven Ravens similar in composition to The Six Swans, but a lot darker (and a bit occulty looking it seems).

Now for turning them in to screen prints.

The Seven Ravens

(As the drawing is pretty large, this is yet another one of my badly lit cameraphone snaps so some of the detail is missing and the tone uneven, hoping to get a good scan soon though)

Kitty Macabre

This is my latest illustration up for voting on Threadless. It's pretty bsic, but I think it makes a cute (if slightly morbid) little tee.

You can vote for me here, if it takes your fancy:

http://www.threadless.com/threadless/kitty-macabre/

Work in progress

The seven ravens print is taking a long long time, but I'm slowly getting there.

Pinterest

I joined.

https://pinterest.com/kikimcnee/

Sample business cards

They've arrived and now I have to choose which ones I'm going to go for!

Society 6 v Redbubble

I've been on both Redbubble and Society 6 for a while now, but don't seem to have had much luck with either. I've sold a few things on redbubble, but trying to get attention on Society 6 seems near impossible (unless you're in a small and select group on that site), so I've been thinking of closing my society 6 account. Anyone had any major success with either site?

I guess it comes down to self promotion, but I've been unable to work out exactly how to do this on either site. On my Redbubble (which is pretty neglected at the moment) I have sold stickers, cards and a t shirt, but I think that that's because Redbubble is more likely to give new and lesser known members more coverage.

An example: My ramskull drawing was chosen as a pick of the day on redbubble, meaning it was up on the homepage where people were more likely to notice it for a few weeks. In contrast, though my most recent swan illustration was picked to be in the Society 6 shop (I have no idea how that's any different to where they normally are) despite scrolling back through about 10 pages of their shop, I never happened upon it. This could be because they rank them from most to least popular, but there are so many artists on Society 6 and so much to look at, I'd imagine most people will just look at the first few pages. Helping the most popular images just become more popular and give other members less of a chance.

I'm in no way saying the popular artists on Society 6 aren't talented and don't deserve to be successful - not at all, I think these sites let artists with amazing talent share their work and get more exposure - but it would be nice if Society 6 could mix it up a bit, maybe showcase new members or something a long those lines.

Anyway, rant over.

Here's a picture of a fawn.



(note, I edited this post as I realised it seemed to get a lot of views so felt I should maybe elaborate a bit more)

New Business Cards

I've been trying to design some business cards recently, but I've decided to keep the children's illustration separate from my other stuff, so it's starting to get complicated! I designed a sample pack from Moo so I can see what a few different designs look like.

My First idea was to just have a different illustrated letter per card, but I'm not sure if that would be a bit plain. the other design is this:

 

It needs a few tweaks as it's just a rough design but I like that it's got my favourite frog prince on it.

I've also started playing around with designs for cards to have at my final MA exhibition. I'm not sure about this one, though I like the colour. I imagine I'll have produced a  better image by the time my exhibition comes up.

It's unexpectedly difficult designing your own promotion material, I have a tendency to get a bit precious and perfectionist about it all!

Gender neutral

I've found my first stockists for my name prints, so they will soon be available to buy in an actual shop. It's very exciting!
The shop owner requested a gender neutral version of the animalphabet, so I've now got it in white with just a black outline. It's very minimalistic and - I think - quite effective.

I've had people requesting numbers, dinosaurs and fairy versions, so this may be my next project (along with many, many others!) 

Z is for Zebra (obvs)

It's finished! I of course finished with a Z. Now to mock up some posters.

It's scanned in blurry for some strange reason, which needs redoing, but apart from that!

Wittlebee + Threadless Kids

My submission for Threadless x Wittlebee has been approved, so the Dandy Otter is up for voting for the next week here.

Xolo

The hardest letter to find in my animalphabet was X. Step up the Xolo, a hairless, mexican dog.

Edward Julius Detmold

I don't ever really post about other illustrators, preferring to keep my blog's focus on my own work, but recently whilst researching book illustrators for my MA I came across Edward Julius Detmold's work. It's quite simply stunning; amazing lines, vibrant colour, story book animals perfectly realised. So I wanted to share it. Here's the mood board I made for my research book, with the images mainly taken from his version of Aesop's Fables.

You can actually buy a copy of Detmold's original from the Folio Society here.

Logo stamps

I recently got a logo stamp made by The English Stamp Company. Pretty pleased with the results and hopefully it will help save time on packaging prints.