All quiet on the blogging - as I'm mostly busy trying to get through my dissertation - it looms above me ... but as they say, even this shall pass ... and I'll be back to drawing soon.
Also, we've been having a play with the Adana - have made flexoplates at college! - but there are still teething problems with printing. Am trying to take lots of photos as we go along, and will put a photo story up once we get the chance ;)
Brief for a legal-training firm to produce calendar images based on cities in which they have offices.
From the the top, Liverpool; Birmingham (canal locks); and London (Inns of Court).
Re-envisioning the Royal Bank of Scotland ...
For an Amelia's Magazine brief...
Oh! Been very quiet here, hasn't it? Sorry - much busy with many projects/deadlines and getting over over a nasty cold. Here are some drawings of buildings to keep you (temporarily) entertained :)
A cookie to anyone who guesses what ties these buildings together ... ;) All will be revealed next week (when I hand in the final images).
So what were all those kids and bicycles about?
My submission for the Anorak Mag cover design competition...
Its OK, but I feel quietly dissatisfied with the outcome ...
Things I've learnt:
1. I LOVE making - and the 2D-3D crossover
2. BUT it takes a LONG TIME ...
3. And can be a whole lot of frustrating (lucky for me to have the best husband in the world and his collection of camera and lighting equipment)
4. Will go back to plain 'ol 2D and bring the scissors and glue out only for special occasions ...
Set up - oh yes, those laboratory clamps come in handy ...
Thanks for all the comments on the last post - the most important thing I learnt was: forget translucent vs opaque; the real issue was that the bike wasn't 'simple' enough. Needed less detail ... now our young man can have a bicycle much more suited to him; that he can cycle to the park and lie in the grass and enjoy the sunshine with ...
Illustration can be a very slow process sometimes ... sigh ...
It's nice to go for a picnic .... but you gotta watch out for those soda bottles with lives of their own!!!
This is actually work-in-progress for another project; but I quite like where it is right now ... so I thought I'd make a version that stops here :)
Inspired by our newly discoverd herbivorous arachnid friend :) Trying to do it in autumnal inspired colours ...
Working on some briefs based on some UK cities ... this is my attempt at Liverpool (I thought I'd do a city I've actually been to ...). Here are a couple of 'work-in-progress' versions ...
Something about it is still not quite right.... maybe I should just let it be and move on to some other stuff for a bit to clear my head of it ...
My its been quiet here ... hasn't it?
This last week has just been rather hectic and I've only just found some time to sit down and tell you about wat I've been up to - most importantly - an enamelling workshop!
On the bottom left you can see my test piece of copper (yes, I had laid the liquid enamel on a little too thick!), and then the other two pieces was me playing with some microorganism inspired images ... It was great fun and the tutor was fab - and I'm very inspired to use enameling this year ... just have to work out in what context to use it, and for what projects. It is actually quite a difficult process to learn to control - but when you can, the results are stunning. I'd actually wanted to learn enameling on glass so I could do some work on old labware ... maybe can still do that at some point.
Apart from that, I've also been to London to see Origin part 1; and potter round the Tate Modern (well, mostly its bookshop ... mmmm.. yummy); a couple of other galleries; and spend lots of money at some specialist art shops on some expensive specialist art materials!
Man do I feel poor ... um, and oh yes, a couple of things bought off Amazon have also arrived ... yay! AND we had our first "Ain't Misbehaving", AND we had friends in town visiting, AND I've also been busy with lots of briefs ... AND we've been patiently waiting for Sunshine's sister's baby to arrive ... What a busy week!
Hooray for women scientists! ... Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine for work on telomeres.
I was actually also doing a drawing of her fellow Nobel Prize winner Dr Carol Greider (yay! more women scientists!) too, but it just wasn't a 'flattering' image ...
Some work-in-progress ...
Still playing with the colours; and its still quite flat and so I'm experimenting with some textures etc .... hmmmm ....
Having a bit of a clearout here at planetmithi headquarters, and have put the original Meta- embroidery hoops on sale at etsy... grab the originals while you can!!!
It is family day here at planetmithi ... Sunshine and I would like to say:
First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY lil sis Tiara ... who turns 24 today ... lookie at what a cutie she was! (with me aged about 12 I think) ... Woo .... loveses you!!!
Then, HAPPY 40th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY to my folks ... look at them being all cool in the 70s ... oh yeah ... my parents ... looking fiiiiiiine ...... ;)
And also, HAPPY 40th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY to Sunshine's folks on Monday ... can you believe it? The two sets of parents got married within two days of each other on two different ends of the world 40 years ago!
Woo! Have a great day all!
Much love, from Us
Today's topic ... entertainment! (other wedding related posts here)
Sunshine and I lead fairly active lives - infact we met swing dancing, via a mutual swing dancing/juggling friend who Sunshine had met through juggling. And as such, we had to do very little in the way of organising "entertaiment" for our guests - as they were all so entertaining themselves!
So, there's far more to hand-presses than you would think. I have been doing a lot of reading and yesterday even managed to see one of the print tutors and borrow a quoin key so that I could unlock the type and clean out the chase that came with my Adana. Last week I also managed to drop by the Impact 2009 product fair (I wasn't a delegate - just gate crashed!); and speak to the people who make these Safe Wash inks - and they gave me a couple of free samples :)
This was probably the nicest - but still with issues.Whattalotta things going on! I'd like to introduce you to what I've been working on the last few weeks - my new portfolio site! Those of you who have been coming here will have noticed the two changes of banner images recently - one was a trial, and the other (on now) was to make it more in-line with the website, which is at : http://cargocollective.com/planetmithi
It's still in the process of being refined - lets call it a beta-release ... - and I'm hoping as I produce more work over the year; I can take off some of the old stuff, and put on more new stuff - but at least I've got something up now... Also, planetmithi.com is still redirecting to this blog - but in the future, when I'm happier with the state of the portfolio, planetmithi.com will direct straight through to the portfolio site ...
The other thing I've been up to is I've also finally set up a SHOP! After two years of having an account there, I give you http://planetmithi.etsy.com
Not much on there at the moment - but you can purchase mini prints of my little Charleston Bees Knees girls and also Mr Fox ;)
This is also, my 300th post! And in conjunction, I've got a little giveaway for my lovely readers... Remember our wedding invite and how much fun our guests had with them? Well, I have about 8 tweeters still available to the first 10 people who leave me a comment here (please make sure you put in your e-mail address so that I can get hold of you to ask for your address ...). Come on folks! Stop, lurking and say hello!
The first term on my final (yikes!) year as an illustration student officially starts tomorrow - although not a lot happens in the first couple of weeks ... Stay tuned for some exciting new adventures in the next year :)
Giveaway edit: Yay ... all gone!
1. Kerstin
2. SaraPham
3. Lucy H
4. Andrea
5. TheFrase
6. FabricNation
7. Claire
8. Emma
Will be in touch ASAP!
