Characters and Ducks

A few weeks ago I started work on making up some illustrations of cool TV characters and ducks (I really like ducks) to put up on Etsy and sell as original pieces of work. But I've been rather busy recently and so I haven't had time to complete these pieces yet, but heres some photos of what I've done so far...

This is more of a personal project for myself really, as I just REALLY wanted to draw a picture of Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote (because I love her) and then I thought of a whole bunch of characters that I wanted to draw... and ducks... I also wanted to draw ducks... so here we are!

I'm going to paint them up soon using watercolours and then they shall be up in the old Etsy store. Woo!

Hark! A Vagrant

I'm currently in awe of the work of Kate Beaton, having just read a copy of Hark! A Vagrant that I was given as a gift from a friend a few years ago now.

And I loved it, and am very much ashamed it has taken me so long to finally read it!

Kate Beaton studied history at university and started drawing comics for her local student newspaper (I hope I have my facts correct there) which were inevitably linked to her history studies.

Besides being very funny, I think these comics encourage a person to learn more about history and literature (also doing comics based on characters from famous books as well), Beaton brings the fun side of the subjects out; which I think is always a good thing!
I really enjoy Beaton's flowing almost Ronald Searle-esque style, capturing the perfect pose and facial expressions for her constructed scenes.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history and classic english literature as well as a good sense of humour! Definitely well worth a read! Love it! Can't wait to see the future work of kate Beaton!

My First Badge Collection

Over the weekend I bravely traversed my wasp graveyard of a loft to retrieve my old badge collection, which I started back in the primary school years.
I'm going to attempt to ebay or freecycle these badges, but thought I would share a few photos of them up here first.

I'm very proud to say that I didn't own this badge and that someone donated it to me - Yeah right I hear you say, well its the truth!

My sister made this one!

And I may have made the previous three.

And I think thats enough badge photos for one blog post. Phew, I'm sorry about that! Service will resume back to normal in the next blog post!

Watercolour Theodore Roosevelt Quote

A friend of mine has recently purchased her very own physical home, and I found myself with the time to make a little homemade present for her; so I decided to do a watercolour illustration of an inspirational quote to decorate her new abode.

I really enjoyed painting this little piece and I'm definitely keen to make some more - for friends and maybe for my Etsy shop as well!