Royal Cycling

This year's AOI/TFL competition was on the theme of "Cycling in London". I entered the two images above. This is what the multitude of Queens were about. Here's some more sketchbook work.


Although the image of the Queen and her corgi is my favourite, the horseguard on a tandem made the cut and is one of the 50 chosen to be exhibited at London Transport Museum till 22nd August 2010 :)

Trotting with Mr Fox ... revisited

Remember this from last year? Well, it did get revisited again this Easter - improved and submitted for Macmillan. Above are the final 6 spreads I entered. And here's a selection of sketchbook develomental work.


Although it didn't get anywhere with Macmillan, I've had a lot of my friends - especially the dancers - be really interested for themsleves (and the young people in their lives...). The bulk of the storyline and drawings are done so hopefully I'll finish off the other 10 or so spreads (and cover) over summer and maybe self publish it. Watch this space for news!

Alice's Adventures on Planetmithi

Finally ... its all over. Although "the end" was a few weeks ago, we've had a couple more shows in London, which meant that I have still been preoccupied with college life - till last Friday that is. At 5:50pm Friday I started taking down my work from the walls at the Coningsby Gallery; wrapped up books/portfolio/chair; Sunshine then proceeded to come pick me up and we stuffed everything in the car; I said my goodbyes; and we headed back to Bristol. Apart from the graduation ceremony in November - I will not need to have to do anything with the university ever again! Blimey! What a quick three years this has been ... Anyways, now I can finally sit down and spend the rest of the week updating the blog with all of this last few months worth of work.

This was my entry for the Puffin Cover Design competition to re-design Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.


I did a sneak peak of some sketchbook work earlier, but here's some more:


Over the next week I'll be putting up more stuff that was in the degree show ...

BA (Hons) Illustration 2010, UWE

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the graduating class of 2010 BA (Hons) Illustration, University of the West of England. Go forth and illustrate! And the rest of you go forth and check out their work ...

Frank Adam
Lucy Bayley
Greg Bott
Anne Marie Callaghan
Jack Cassidy-Seed
Ashley Clarke
Charlotte Cooke
Charlotte Dawson
Jonathan Dodds
Ella Dore
Sara Dunkerton
Owen Gatley
Jennie Gyllblad
Caroline Halliwell
Adam Hancher
Charlotte Hobbs
Jack Hudson
Alice Hyde
Luke Jinks
Christine Lau
Pearl Law
Liam McAuley
Aidan Meighan
Kate Nelms
Christian Norman
Richard Partridge
Małgorzata Piątkowska
Harry Powell
Emily Rawle
Ignjat Reljic Djuric
Olly Robertson
Lewis Rowley
Harry Sankey
Gaby Selby
Mithila Shafiq
Laurie Stansfield
Tengku Adam
Kirsty Thatcher
Megan Warre
Mark Wilding
Cei Willis
Regine Yong
Francesca Lloyd

The end.

This is it folks ... 3 years (4 if you include the foundation) of blood sweat and tears ... and it all ends with some bits on a wall and some stuff on the floor ...

I am beyond tired and just need to take some time off - although we still have quite a full three weeks ahead of London shows, portfolio reviews and Junior Fellowships to apply for.

More pictures and updates once I get my life back in order ...

Here's to new beginnings!

ps, the show is still on till the 24th. All details, plus London show details on the right hand sidebar

... and it is LIVE!

Click on the image to go to the NEW and IMPROVED website!


Thank you to Sunshine who helped tremendously with code-hacking.

And in other news ... my list of things to do seems to get longer the more things I tick off!

HIGHS: Mounts cut. Website up (still not convinced about banner image Updated!). Silk mmm... . Moo stuff has arrived. Booked into portfolio review with someone from Walker Books. Got into the AOI/TFL Cyling in London competition!

LOWS: Prints still not ready yet; some other things I tried printing just didn't happen (yesterday was the first time I cried throughout this whole process ... it has been so stressful and EVERYTHING went wrong yesterday). I haven't generated nearly as much work as everyone else as I've had loads of colour/screen/print issues which means I've wasted alot of time just trying to get the colour/printing correct on the images I DO have. I have kicked myself for not getting confident cycling and driving over the last year as it would have been SO useful this past week (I must have walked MILES between the main campus - studios - printers -stationers - etc in the last two weeks). No weekend access to the studios (I'm not even going to go there - that is a story for AFTER we graduate). Have to get AOI/TFL image printed, framed and sent off to London by Degree show day (what bad timing!). AOI/TFL opening night is same as our London Degree show ... damns!

Off to whitewash the show space today and tomorrow. And then its putting up show next week! CHINKIES!

Drip feeding...

Here I am lovely peeps ... drip feeding you content to keep you interested.

Planetmithi is in full blown get-ready-for-degree-show mode. Today, postcards and mountboards were ordered. I am still making images, still have to print them, and decide what's going up on the walls at the show and what's going in my portfolio; tweeking website and all manner of other bits and bobs.

Ah, and yes, the Degree Show info is up! Lookie (click on image to go to site):

PRIVATE VIEW (invitation only)

Friday 18 June 18.00-21.00

GENERAL OPENING
Saturday 19 June 10.00-18.00
Sunday 20 June 10.00-16.00
Monday 21-Thursday 24 June 10.00-20.00

We are also going to be in LONDON twice:

D&AD New Blood 2010
(With Graphic Design, and a limited show)
The Old Truman Brewery
15 Hanbury Street
London E1 6QL

Industry Private View on Thursday 24th June 2010
Continues until Monday 28th June 2010
10am to 6pm daily

And the Coningsby Gallery,
(Just illustration so more substantial show than D&AD - but smaller than UWE show)
30 Tottenham Street
London W1T 4RJ

Private View on Monday 5th July 2010 (6:30-9pm)
Continues until 9th July 2010
10am to 6pm daily

Please come and see us!!!

Ye Olde Stuffe

Earlier this week, the lovely and very talented Miss Hattie Newman sent me this image ... its something I helped her with way back in August 2009. I'd almost forgotten about it ... its the New York skyline done with books - for a Royal Mail internal magazine. It was lovely working with Hattie ... Favourite bit had to be precariously hanging books to look like they were flying :)

Aaaaand here is a picture of the Queen ...

Hello there those lovely people who still come back to see what's up on planetmithi - almost nothing by the looks of it ... but fear not! A LOT of work is happening behind the scenes and we are T-minus 37 days to the degree show!

I've been working days, evenings, weekends ... and it feels (mostly) good. My work is finally beginning to look a bit more consistent, and I'm much happier with where it is going. Its amazing how much its moved on from just 6 months ago. They've been cracking the whip at college and you can see the reasons why as everyone's work is really coming together. There is a real buzz in the studios and I think it is going to be one hell of a good show :)

I still have a lot of images to make and work to do - and I really need to rehash this blog and my portfolio site, and design some personal stationery/business cards on top of all that. Have a look at our timetable leading up to the three (one Bristol, and two London) shows ... its manic!

I promise I'll upload all the work I'm doing now (including process sketches etc) once the show is up and I have a bit more time on my hands ... but in the meantime, here are some drawings of the Queen to keep you entertained ...

So much LOTS OF THINGS to do...

... couldn't be further from the truth ... (photo taken a the Milan Design Festival two weeks ago).

So yes, I am back - infact have been back for about a week - but its been one of the most frantic weeks on record here at planetmithi. I can't even begin to describe it ... but here is a (not-so) quick summary:

Thursday April 15th : Up at 4am, on very early flight to Milan ... Hooray! Arrive safe only to find out British airspace has been completely shut down ! Try not to worry and start enjoying the Milan International Design fair. See some things - not very impressed ... see some other things VERY impressed.

Friday April 16th : We are staying with the students in a 'hostel' (a few rooms above a restaurant) which is about 45 mins out of town. Means leaving very early every morning, and coming back on the last train every evening. Do Zona Tortona (where the photo was taken). Find our (Sunshine and mine) favourite exhibition: the MGX Materialise show ... we must have gone back there 3 times over the rest of the weekend. Still checking up on volcano stuation... trying not to panic the students.

Saturday April 17th : Visit the Milan Design Museum whilst our Italian member of staff ("The Fixer") goes off to the train station to see what's going on. Comes back to tell us there are long queues (of several hours!) at the station ... but he has a plan...

Sunday April 18th : Our Sunday evening flights definitely cancelled. Drag the kids out early o-clock in the morning to be at the train station.The Fixer takes us round to the back of the station where there are agents also selling the same train tickets - but with a fraction of the queues. Nothing to the UK for a week - but we can get to Paris the next day via the long route along the French Riviera. Try and organise 16 people buying tickets .... we get applause from the other punters when we finish and all leave the queue in one go.

Sunshine and I get to an internet cafe (bloody difficult find one of them in Milan open on a Sunday) and send off emails to family and friends wondering what's going on. I send two panicked e-mails to Macmillan and Penguin saying that I can't make it back in time - can I have an extension. Macmillan is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Trying not to feel too upset about missing it.

Wet day in Milan - everyone very tired - but relieved to at least have tickets to get out of there (just to give you a sense of perspective : the design festival attracts 300,000 people ... who were all then trying to leave en-masse).

Monday April 19th : Another early morning to train station to get on our train south to the coast; change to a French train that goes along the coast to Nice. Lunch stop. Board TGV in Nice a couple of hours later to go more along the coast, then inland near Marseille to get into Paris for about 10:30 that night. By the time we get the students to their hostel, us (me, Sunshine, and the two other staff members - The Fixer and The Boss) to our hotel, and find somewhere to have dinner - its way past midnight. I have had the worst throat ache all day - and can hardly swallow dinner my glands are so swollen.

Tuesday April 20th : The Fixer and The Boss go off to an early morning trek to the train station to find out what our next posibilities are. Sunshine and I in charge of keeping the troops entertained. We walk around Paris and end up at the Center Pompidou (only to find out it is shut on a Tuesday). Fixer and Boss meet us there having organised tickets to Calais very early the next morning. We are too tired to do much else - but manage to contact a couple of French friends who come and sit with us in a cafe. Early to bed with slightly better sore throat.

Wednesday April 21st : Don't know what day it is anymore. Up at 5am (4am UK time), on train to somewhere - then change to train for Calais. Get to Calais - apparently there is a 'special bus' that will take us to the ferry terminal and there is a huge group of people waiting for this bus. The Boss looks at his iphone... the terminal is a 15 minute walk away ... so we join the trickle of other people who have also started to walk (great coz we later found out that there were people waiting for two hours for this bus, which then also charged them 2 Euros). Get to ferry terminal just to get into ANOTHER long queue. Fixer and Boss rush on ahead to try and secure 16 tickets while Sunshine and I try and keep the slow and tired ones at the back moving. Queue is resonable size as we have got there before the bus load arrives 20 minutes later. Have tickets - and immediately onto ferry. Phew! We are all here and we are all on the way home!

Dover - group splits into two - some taking busses back to respective homes/cars-in-airport-carparks/etc. The rest of us on trains to London, then connecting on to Bristol.

Home about 6 pm... so tired... but e-mails from Macmillan and Penguin with extensions till Monday - HOOORAY! But everything is shut on the weekend ... where am I going to get everything printed??? Some e-mails later and very good friend who runs giclee printers Hello Blue across the road from our house agrees to come in on the Sunday night to colour print my final images. I need to see a tutor about a tutorial - but oh no, our studios (which are in the same building as the Arnolfini Gallery) are shut tomorrow for the Leaders Election Debate .... Noooooooo!

Thursday April 22nd : Call up tutor, slightly concerned ... she will be in main campus (not Arnolfini building) for meeting in the afternoon, so can see me there before then ... thank goodness! Rest of the day is tutorial/work/organising portfolio/organising printing/rearranging train ticket to London etc.

Friday April 23rd : Work like mad.

Saturday April 24th : We had early moring tickets to Edinburgh for some really good friends' wedding this weekend. I've had to bail - poo! Sunshine too tired to get flight. Instead mutual friend who is also going to the wedding comes and picks him up for a road trip up north. Me - work like mad till late.

Sunday April 25th : Up at 6. Very tired. Am missing the wedding. Shaking from exhaustion. No Susnhine to keep me going either. Almost in tears. Fortunately lots of facebook messages from friends (who all handed their Macmillan things in for Friday) egging me on. Work work work. Takeaway lunch/dinner. Meet Phil (whom I owe big time!) at 10:30 pm at Hello Blue studios to giclee print my images. Home at 11:30. Up till 2 cutting/mounting/making dummy book.

Monday April 26th : Up at 6 again to do last few bits-and-bobs for submissions. Walk the half hour to the train station early to pick up tickets. On 9am train to London. First stop - Kings Cross for Macmillan. Second stop - The Strand for Penguin/Puffin. Its all done. Walk to Somerset House for Pick Me Up.


Smashing! See Rob Ryan who has moved his whole studio to Somerset House for the exhibition; and also met the lovely Jez Burrows of Evening Tweed (who remembered me from Lizzy's exhibition in Bristol). Caught early train home. Sunshine got back from his roadtrip to Edinburgh. We both looked dead.

Tuesday April 27th : Sunshine's Birthday ... I haven't managed to get him anything or organise anything special. I am the worst wifey :( We both have early starts. First day back in college only to be given long list of things that need doing before the degree show in 7 weeks! So ... this manic-ness is going to continue ... Blimey!

So there you go ... blow-by-blow ... And yes, we are that close to the final show so the blog updates will be sporadic to say the least. I'm trying to keep the images I'm producing now under wraps at least until the degree show. Might give you some peeks ... but mostly it will be quite quiet here for the next couple of months ...

Wish me luck! And heeeeeeere we gooooo ..................

So much work... so little time ... AND MILAN!

So, the blog has been quiet; and it will unfortunately remain so for the forseable future. Its not like I'm not working, I'm working LOTS ... but I'd like to keep things a bit more under wraps until they are submitted for whatever competitions/submissiosn they're being prepared for. So instead, you get a wee sneaky peak at whats happening on planetmithi, above ...

I've been working so hard I don't know what day of the week it is anymore ... but for a respite, Sunshine is taking me away tomorrow (we leave at 4am!) to Milan for four days ... Yippee!!! Ok, so, we'll be staying in a hostel and chaperoning his students at the Milan Design Fair ... but hey, who cares ... its a HOLIDAY ... and I so desperately need one right now. I've got a book cover at about 95% done, and 5 spreads of a children's book each about 80-90% done. But its always the last few percent that are the hardest. Hopefully Milan will let me clear my head of work and come back refreshed for a few days of intense work before it all needs to be submitted ... then, more work as its less than two months to the degree show - yikes! I'm going to be an illustration graduate!

Milano, here I come-o!

Bearly Fezzy

Idea sketching

Much going on at PlanetMithi headquarters at the moment ... working the bulk of Easter - I don't even know what day of the week it is anymore! Thought I'd show you some of the inner workings of my illustrations when they are still in the planning/sketching/ideation stage. The top is some character developement for a children's book; and the bottom a composition plan (its changed a bit since this drawing) of a book cover ...

Fyi - the book cover is coming together nicely - but the children's book I'm struggling with ... and there's not enough hours in they day! Yikes! Back to the drawing board (or Potatoshop as the current case may be) ...

52

Sunshine and I trekked up to Room 212 in the rain to finally see the 52 show this afternoon, on its last day.

Bloody marvelous to see my work (there, in the middle, the two long horizontal giclee prints of my Polish children's book spreads) in amongst some of my heros/heroines/favs Peskimo, Lizzy Stewart, Debbie Hill, Jill Bliss, Lisa Solomon, Patrick Gildersleeves, and many more ... :D

Thank you muchly to the gorgeous Claire (left) and Camilla (right) for the opportunity ... may there be many more exciting CalmAirAllIce adventures in the future!

Exhibitions! Exhibitions! Exhibitions!

It's spring and it's exhibition time!

First off, from the 31st of March (next Wednesday) till the 3rd of April, I am part of a rather large group exhibition called "52" - 52 artists' work in one small space (Room 212 on Gloucester Road, Bristol). Curated by CalmAirAllIce, aka the lovely Milla and Claire. Have a look at the list of people they have - its looks like its going to be AMAZING! Also in the show are my gorgeous neighbours and good friends, Peskimo:

Peskimo, together with Chris Dickason are currently exhibiting at the new Start Gallery Space (part of Start The Bus on Baldwin Street, Bristol). The show is called "Tease Made" ... and its all about Tea! And Cakes! Yum!!! We were at the opening and there's some spiffing stuff there ... on till the 11th of April so do go visit ...


And speaking of the Start Gallery Space, once Tease Made is out, it will be filled by some of the 2nd year students from our course ... "We Are Fauna" is on from the 16th to the 27th of April. Nice to see the young'uns getting their act together and putting an exhibition on - we were never quite so switched on ...

But then again, some of us are a bit more together ... four of my 3rd year coursemates are exhibiting currently at the Here Gallery in Stoke's Croft, Bristol with a show called "Across The Way". Owen, Adam, Luke and Jack produce some of the loveliest work coming out of our year. Their show is on till the 3rd of April so please go and visit if you get the chance ...

Speaking of shows ... early warning: Our degree show will be Private Show-ing on the 18th of June in Bristol and 5th of July at the Conningsby in London ... keep your diaries clear! It looks like its going to be a show to remember ...

Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology vol 3 Cover

(click on image to see bigger)

This is what has preoccupied me the last couple of weeks ... Ok so it shouldn't take that long to design a book cover; but I've also had several bouts of helping with the interview process for the next batch of students coming in September; the last of my dance teaching sessions (including a intensive whole weekend workshop, and a private Charleston lesson) till July; lectures and personal tutorials with both Sarah Warburton and Gina Cross; AND it was my birthday last week :)

With all of that and also doing the illustration + design work on this - (which is a bit more involved than doing only the illustration) - the blog has been a bit quiet. But anyways, this is done and handed in. Almost the whole year have done entries for this - and they'll pick the best one to be used on the published anthology later in the summer. I'd quite like to win this, but I'm also just glad to have a good book cover in my portfolio.

Easter break is almost upon us - really looking forward to it ... but not too looking forward to the fact that I have two more book covers and two children's books to get done in three weeks ... meep!

All aboard ...

This last week has been more doing lots of different things, rather than concentrating on one project. Lots of work-in-progress ... here's a sneaky peek at some Bristol favourites :) ...

Polishhhhhhhh...

So this is what I've been working on for the last week or so. My friend and lovely Polish studio-mate, Malgosia (Malgorzata), found a Polish children's book illustration competition. You could do your own story, or go for one of the texts they provided. Considering I only started on this about 2 weeks ago, I went for one of their texts, kindly translated by Malgosia. The title is "12 Months" and each double page spread is a month with an accompanying little poem. Each one is also about a job/vocation ... We had to do the cover and two double page spreads. I chose to do January (the forester) and September (the fisherman). (click on images for larger version)

The colours are more muted from what I usually do, but I'm quite pleased with how they came out. It feels like things are finally falling into place and coming together.

I actualy started doing a dimensional version of 'January' but realised it would take too long to do all three pieces that way and have them done and posted off by the deadline. I'm still quite keen to do January and September like that ... but will take my time over it. So watch this space!

Vroom!

Also, hit a wall with work yesterday, so instead spent time making a card for our good friend J who just passed her driving test ... woo! You go girl!

Oh-deer ...

Sneaky-peek at work-in-progress: