Happy Birthday cards!

Cards I've just made for my sister and dad's birthdays, this coming weekend! Now that I've made a few cards to actually give out, I'm beginning to get the hang of it and I notice things that 'aren't right' sooner. For example, on the bear card; the blue circle is not equal against the edges and the bear could maybe have been filled in.

Natasha Lawless

http://www.natashalawless.co.uk/

I found Natasha Lawless on my phone app - Fab <3, but also managed to find her personal website. I basically chose her work because of how she displays the same design on various items to sell. She has changed the background and the colour palette slightly on the cushion but she's made it work better than being in a white square, with many other white features. Putting them into context helps buyers see the size a bit better, rather than having dimensions, it's also like a interior design thought.

Susie Ghahremani

http://boygirlparty.com/splash/welcome.html

Susie Ghahremani is a 2002 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, in Illustration. Her artwork combines her love of nature, animals, music and patterns which are said to be painted with a tiny paintbrush!
Some of her clients include;
 Bank of America, Target, T-Mobile, and The New York Times.
Ghahremani also produces her own stationary and is currently celebrating the release of her book 'What Will Hatch?'.
I like Ghahremani's work because of the simple illustrative style, she encourages pattern work into the simple designs to almost give them character. I'm also a fan of her background Goddess skills! Basic backgrounds don't take the viewers eyes off the illustrations, but they can still be appreciated as much. She seems to use minimal shapes and make endless amounts of work from them. She has a very inspirational look about her work, especially for my current project and the need to draw so simply, I also incorporate intricate patterns into my characters , so it's nice to see another artist who works in a similar way.

Found texts

Loads of random, found texts from various places. The first two are a menu from a restaurant called Zizis, in Exeter. The thing that appealed to me was the colour variation for each different wine selection; white, red and rosé.
The next framed text was an Internet find which stood out because of the simple style.
The fourth image is an album cover, new out by an artist called Bastille, I like the letter 'A', it's very similar to that of my own and I like how perfectly aligned it is, the point size is the same so each letter is exactly the same too.
Next is another Internet find before the next two images which I discovered on a site called Pinterest, an image upload site that allows you to upload your own work and repin work of others. I like how minimal the salt and pepper packs are, all hand made and have the easiest template in the world, but they are so successful!
The last image is a greetings card from Paperchase, simple hand rendered text with a basic background. I love the simplistic idea!

Owl potato stamps

Owl potato stamps! Some of them are pretty successful, but some of the shadowy stamps didn't work so well. I think the rounded owl looks more like an owl too. Maybe more surfaces having been printed on is in order- brown paper here I come! Potatwooo!

Sweet Music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsgHsydoo9Q
I found this Youtube clip on The Black Keys- Lonely boy. Some of the artwork and text in the video is amazing! That is all.

Fab <3

These are screen shots from an app I discovered on my iPhone. It's called 'Fab <3', it's foreign but some of the work that gets uploaded it so unique! You can buy from it but I use it to just look at the modern work being produced.
I have been looking at making tags for my Design to sell project and these are a great way to portray them! Pop out tags, so clever. The artist is unknown but from the style of work, it is clear both the tags and greetings cards are by the same designer.

Editting

 This is me just simply editting some of my earlier designs, I've begun to combine some of my hand-rendered typography with the simple images that most appealed to me. The colour palettes may need some editting but I'm still very happy regardless. Pylon press only ask for black and white work so this is a little extra just for personal progression.

Recycled owls

http://www.creativejewishmom.com/crafts-recycling/
Now that's simple! I think these are fantastic because they're made out of what people consider to be useless, when it no longer has toilet roll on. A recycled piece of card... recycled! They all have the same body shape but they all look totally different yet can clearly represent the same artist.

Ceramic owls

http://www.modcloth.com/shop/tabletop/swoop-or-salad-bowl-set?utm_source=affiliateprogram_cj&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=affiliate&utm_medium=CJaffiliate&cj_webid=4441350&cj_affname=rewardStyle&cj_affid=2975314&cj_linkd=10632182&utm_campaign=CJ&utm_source=CJ&cj_sid=hxv59pmrqe--1378197957
Three different ceramic bowls with three different owl shapes that all link together and are clearly from the same artist. By having them both inside and outside of the bowls it shows that they can work with colour and in just black and white.

Patterned owl

http://piccsy.com/2010/09/the-owl/
Artist Unknown.
A square owl! Before my research, all my owls had similar body shapes, but after seeing this one especially, I see that they come in pretty much every shape possible! I like this one because of the black and white patterent chest, I previously did a few like this and labelled them as my favourite. They hold the simple style that I'm looking for but also have a twist which makes them unique to me.

cinzia zenocchini

http://cinzyay.tumblr.com/post/646361322/no-matter-what-owls-say
This is very close to what I'd like to produce, the owl shape is very different to what I've seen so far in my research and the typography is very similar to that of Eduardo Recife- fantastic! I love that it's in black and white too. This has to be an Eduardo Recife influenced piece of artwork, it even has the style of where he cuts a word up to fit on several lines.

Kate Sutton

http://www.katesutton.typepad.com/blog/page/3/
By Kate Sutton
This owl shape keep reappearing in several places, I like this one the most because of the use of text and the hanging moon in the background. The shape of the owl is so simple but the infill makes up for it! I love the repeat patterns and the colour palette. The two-toed feet and the branch underneath it all. This piece really appeals to me, the combination of styles work particularly well too.

Rebecca Peragine

'Owls' by Rebecca Peragine
Collage owls, the most important parts of an owl cut out and stuck down, any detail is in the paper used to make the collage. I like how these are all almost perfectly round, a very abstract and unrealistic look.

Owl alphabet

I found this on a site called 'Pinterest' it's a lot like a social networking site. By an artist who goes by the name of Stacie Bloomfield.
26 different types of owls right here, simple but clear. I like the overlap of colour onto some of the owls, some of the portrayed expressions are fantastic!  I like letter E, I, Q, S  and U the most! they keep mostly with the owl look. Some of them like M encourage other animals.... like a panda!

Flora Chang

Artist Flora Chang produced this to be a 2012 calendar. These are owls stripped back to basics, only the neccessary lines are here. She has given them decoration but the most important detail is the lack of detail! basic shapes yet so clearly an owl. I like the two-tone colour palette as well.

Lottie Woolnough-Rai

I found this artist on Facebook, we became friends on our Facebook illustration pages.
I obviously love this piece of work because it's an owl but it is too detailed for what I'm aiming to produce- but I do love the colour palette!

Design to Sell

My second project is Design to sell, I want to produce a handful of quotes and apply them to various items, possibly; greetings cards, notebooks, labels, stickers, stationary, invitations, packaging and a list of others. I aim to produce about three different items for sale.
This was just me messing around with a quote from my childhood, I want them to be uplifting, this will encourage people to want them.

Owls, owls EVERYWHERE!

Loads of owl drawings are a necessity so I can produce a really simplified, working owl for my zine!
I drew loads of outlines and went over them in pen, before editing my favourite ones and filling in their bellys, eyes ect with patteern.

Illustrated owls

http://pinterest.com/lizzibee/illustrated-owls/
This is a fantastic site for different owl illustrations!

Happy Mothers Day!

No it's not to do with the project- but it is nearly Mothers Day! Here's my hand-rendered, text filled card for my Mother Palmer!

Pylon Press

My latest project!
My first project is to create a tewnty-four page zine, A5 size which tells a story or talks about a theme. My hand-rendered text has recently got a lot of recognition so I intend to use quite a large amount of this! But also, my fascination for owls is defeating me, I've only had the chance to touch upon them very briefly and it's agonising to say the least.
My project will show a day in 'Mr Owls' eyes and in his life. This first image was simply a doodle to get my creative juices flowing, the image below is a possible idea for the cover of the zine.
Both hand-rendered but soon to be in Photoshop.