Celebration Commissions

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I've really enjoyed working on a couple of celebration commissions this month. My client gave me several photos and a list of things that make her think of the recipients to work from. I then sketched out a suggested composition for each picture and worked closely with my client to ensure the pictures really reflected the girls' personalities.

Do get in touch via my contact page if you'd like to discuss a commission for someone you love.

A New Picture Book

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Over the past few weeks I've been starting work on my new picture book. My first book, Angel's Great Escape, was written by me but illustrated by the fabulous Kristyna Litten. At the time I didn't think I could draw at all and loved how Kristyna seemed to see things in exactly the same way as me.

Since then I have practiced drawing almost every day and my new picture book project is a way for me to practice and to challenge myself. I'll be writing several blog posts over the coming months about my process and what I learn but for now, here's a sneak peek at one of the characters I've been working on.

Colour Collective 2017

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The #colour_collective challenge has been running on Twitter for two years now. It's a lovely community of artists and illustrators and also a brilliant incentive to practice drawing each week. Lovely Penny Neville-Lee started the challenge and continues to post a new colour every Saturday. We then all create a piece inspired by that colour and post our pictures at 19:30 GMT on the following Friday evening.

The first colour of this year was Aureolin Yellow. Here's my contribution : )

Pretty Post by And So We Begin

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This week I've added a new product to my Etsy shop, Pretty Post by And So We Begin. Pretty Post is a selection pack of 8 assorted cards from my collection that you can buy at the brilliant price of just £15 AND you'll also get a little treat just for you!

I'm going to aim to produce a new collection of 8 cards every three months so you can buy Pretty Post regularly and will always have new designs to add to your collection. Then every time you need a card, you will have one to hand. The cards are suitable for birthdays and you'll find something in the pack for any occasion. Or just send a card to make someone smile.

This month's FREE little treat just for you is a pretty Stars & Ideas Notebook complete with an I Need Coffee pencil. Because we all have ideas and we all need coffee, right? : )

Pop over to my Etsy shop to have a closer look!

#illo_advent 2017

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This is the third year I've taken part in #illo_advent over on Twitter. It's what started me drawing when I was having a really tough time in my personal life. I took up the challenge of drawing a Christmas themed illustration from 1st - 24th December and it helped to distract me. I shared my drawings and become part of a lovely community of creative people. It was therapy, company and just good fun.

This year the illustrations that are being shared by everyone are absolutely beautiful. If you've got five minutes to while away I highly recommend a browse. Here are my 24 pictures for 2016.

Kristyna Litten Working With Aardman Animations

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Four years ago I started work on a project that became my passion, turning a little story I had written into something that I could share with others. Angel's Great Escape was the reason I started my little company and the start of a journey that is still winding. At the time, I hadn't really started drawing and I really wanted to work with someone who was experienced. Luckily the lovely team at Arena Illustration introduced me to Kristyna Litten who visualised the characters exactly as I saw them. Together with book designer Sarah Goodwin and app creator Stefan Nowak we created a product that could be shared around the world. (And I'm excited to say the book will soon finally be available in print but more on that later!)

I loved working with Kristyna and was so chuffed to read in the Arena newsletter this week that she was commissioned to work with Aardman Animations on the new DFS adverts. Kristyna created illustrations of DFS employees and these were then adapted by Aardman to produce animated adverts. You can read a lot more about the project and see Kristyna's drawings here. And here's the first advert. It's so cute and has all the hallmarks of Aardman's warm and cosy style. Lovely. Congratulations Kristyna!

Adding Products To Etsy

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My new cards arrived yesterday so it was time for another mini photoshoot! I'm becoming quite speedy at taking pictures now as I have more of an idea of how I'd like them to look. Adding products feels like it is really time-consuming when you first start doing it but definitely gets easier. Now I can copy previous product descriptions rather than writing them fully from scratch and I'm also able to use presets for postage costs.

My latest set of cards is all about the feel-good factor so I set up my cards with flowers and my favourite fondant fancies as props (I managed to only eat two). The light was quite gloomy so I used a white background again and then upped the exposure in Photoshop to make it seem as if it was a summer's day! I quite enjoy the methodical process of tweaking the photos and uploading them. The process also gives me a full set of images to use on social media and to promote the products.

The next challenge is to really start focusing on getting my shop *seen* by new buyers. So far my hygge print seems to be what's drawing people in and I hope some of these new cards will also start to catch people's eyes.

Mini Mirrors

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As well as cards, notebooks and prints, I'd like to sell some little stocking fillers on my stall at the craft fairs I am attending and in my Etsy shop. Today I have sent these little lovelies off to print. Each of these four designs will be printed on a little pocket mirror (just 6cm wide). I'd love to find one of these in my stocking and hope you'll enjoy giving them to your friends as a mini treat. Perfect for handbags and purses.

Cards For Kindness & Keeping Going

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With various craft fairs coming up I wanted to add to my collection of cards a little and I've been particularly thinking about offering cards that people can send 'just because'. My latest mini collection is all about kindness and keeping going and will be on sale in my Etsy shop by next week.

New Notebooks

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I'll be adding some stocking fillers to my shop very soon including these six new notebook designs. My hygge design is proving popular so I thought it would be fun to have a product with it on and the other designs are all brand new. Each notebook will have a spotty or starry inside cover to give a little extra splash of colour and 48 plain pages for notes, sketches and ideas. I really hope that you like them and will enjoy jotting your own creative ideas down in them!

I'm using Awesome Merchandise to print these. Print feels like it can be quite complicated (!!) and they have been super helpful handling my queries. They also have lots of very helpful templates so that you can ensure that you have the right dimensions and the correct amount of space at the edges of designs to ensure that they get trimmed correctly. I can't wait for the notebooks to be delivered so I can share some pictures with you!

Sophistication At All Times

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As I've mentioned, I'm busy creating lots of little stocking fillers for the upcoming craft fairs that I'll be attending. This morning, my to do list got interrupted by a sudden need to draw this little character accompanied by a phrase that I say to the little ones in my life all the time (with a cheeky smile of course). I think she'll be finding her way onto some stocking fillers very soon!

Pinch Punch Post

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I love taking part in various drawing challenges on Twitter and occasionally post a contribution to the #pinchpunchpost hashtag. Each month they name an animal to draw and everyone posts on the 1st of the month. This month the theme was an owl and although I was a little late I couldn't resist taking part. I was feeling particularly inspired by the fact that the little ones are so obsessed with Harry Potter at the moment. So this little owl has a very important delivery to make... And he's feeling a little daunted!

I sketched my owl on a bumpy train journey and sat down to draw him in Photoshop last night. I wanted to try out some Kyle T Webster brushes that I haven't used very much yet to see what I could do with them. I created the animated gif below so that you can see the layers that went into the finished piece. I'm so excited about the possibilities with the brushes. It's like a whole world of texture has opened up to me!

For those who use (or want to use) Kyle's brushes, I used the following to create my little owl.
* Gouache A-Go-Go
* Gouache Less Dry
* My New Favourite Inker

A Christmas Photoshoot

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My Christmas cards arrived super speedily from Printed.com so this morning I was able to photograph them to pop them onto my Etsy shop. The light was just right with a lovely autumnal blue sky and I had already bought some *props* (aka snacks) in preparation.

Once again I used white card as a base so that the photos had a clean, light background and I sprinkled some silver stars around to add a little bit of sparkle. I took several snaps of each card to ensure I had plenty of pictures to choose from and then tweaked them a little in Photoshop before adding my new listings to Etsy while enjoying a very yummy mince pie.

I'll soon be adding more Christmas cards and some little stocking fillers to my shop but in the meantime please enjoy a little browse around (preferably while eating a mince pie).

Let The Festivities Begin!

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This week my desk has been all about Christmas! I popped my fairy lights on and put Arthur Christmas on Netflix to get me in the mood and got started on the first of my Christmas cards. The four designs below will be in my Etsy shop and on Choosey.com late next week. There are two more designs to come, plus a little collection of Christmas stocking fillers that I am working on. I also used it as a good excuse to have my first mince pie of the season. Let the festivities begin!

Happy Fourth Birthday And So We Begin!

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I started my little business four years ago today on what would have been my nana's 100th birthday so I'm celebrating this morning with cake for breakfast! I like the fact that my nana is part of my company's story as she inspired me with kindness and creativity. She used to potter endlessly in her garden and would talk to us about the plants. If she wasn't gardening, she was baking delicious shortbread and cakes or knitting us cardigans and leg warmers or letting us play our new 7" singles on her old Dansette record player. I remember making pom poms with her and thinking it was some kind of magic that you could make this fluffy ball out of a piece of wool. And I remember sitting in the kitchen while she listened to the Archers and being told firmly to 'shush'!

Today, I find my company somewhere I didn't know it would be. My love for illustration has grown and grown over the last two years and while I still work in event management by day and write whenever the feeling grabs me, every spare moment I have is consumed by drawing. I am never without my sketchbook and have an ever growing collection of sketches for pretty little products that I am working on bringing to my shop.

I sometimes stop for a moment and wonder how I got here. It's like illustration has come out of the blue and said, "Pick me!" I find it meditative in such a good way. For me it's an antidote to the speeding world and has given me somewhere totally joyful to 'go' when I need to retreat.

As I wrote a few blog posts ago, I thought a lot about what I want my brand to be. I settled on warm, kind and cosy. I want my products and The Quiet Life blog to give people the same feeling I get when I'm drawing. One of complete contentment (often accompanied by cake).