Something Pinteresting For The Weekend...

Happy Friday!

My pinteresting picks for this weekend are sharing some of my all time favourite illustrators and some inspiring illustrations I've discovered along the way.

First up has to be Pat Hutchins and her marvellous illustrations for the book 'Rosie's Walk'.  Thinking back, these are the very first illustrations from my childhood that really stirred my interest in wanting to be an artist of some kind.  Her beautiful line drawing is everything I aspire to achieve, in my own way of course.

Rosie's Walk is still a very popular children's book, and it's been lovely to share the love of that book with my own children all these years later. Here's a link to it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosies-Walk-Pat-Hutchins/dp/1862309981

Next up, Mary Blair. A shining talent with Disney and the brains behind Disney Land & World's attraction 'Its A Small World' .  Her work is bold, colourful, ornate and extremely joyful - it ticks every box for me!  If you want to discover more, here's a link to the magic of Mary Blair site:

http://magicofmaryblair.com/Home

LOOK AT THESE TWO ILLUSTRATIONS!!!...aren't they exquisite?!...

I discovered both of these on pinterest - it's always so exciting to discover such wonderful work for the first time.

 The top one is by Japanese illustrator Hisanori Yoshida.  I love the way the image plays with light, it has a watery dream like quality that is truly beautiful. 

 I found this blog post which shares lots more of Hisanori's work:

https://fishinkblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/hisanori-yoshida-japanese-illustration/

The illustration below is by one of my favourite illustrators that I discovered not only on pinterest but also on Society 6 - Teagan White.  Teagan always has intricate details in her work which is often inspired by nature.  There is a gentle playfulness in many of her pieces, I just love looking at them and soaking it all up!

Here's a link to Teagan's Society 6:

http://society6.com/teaganwhite

I hope these illustrations inspire you as much as they inspire me.  To see more from my 'Inspiring Illustrations' collection over on pinterest, here's the link:

https://www.pinterest.com/artworkbyangie/inspiring-illustrations/

Have a lovely weekend!

Best wishes

What I've been up to so far this year - a peep at work in progress...

Hello,

The weeks seem to be flying by again and I've been struggling to slot in a regular blog update on what I've been up to.  Since the end of last year, I have been steadily working my way through a long list to fill the gaps in my occasions card range.  It's something I've been wanting to do for a while to have a more complete greetings portfolio. It's certainly something the publishing company I license my work to have been keen for me to do too.  So, with that kind of encouragement it was time to get to work, and that is what's filling my time at the moment, aside from my children, usual commission work and managing my online shops...

The additions to the range aren't quite ready to reveal altogether yet, but I'm letting you have a cheeky peep at these work in progress crops because I've shared many of these snippets on facebook and instagram as I've been working on them.... 

There has been lots of progress and I can see the collection gradually coming together nicely now.  Most importantly, I'm having great fun working on them because some of the occasions I'm designing for are taking me out of my comfort zone in terms of stretching my style, use of colours and understanding the target market...

 In particular, creating age cards for men has made me think hard and dig deep.  I always struggle to find decent occasion cards for the men in my life, so wanted to create designs that I'd want to give myself.  In the end, I surprised myself at how much I enjoyed creating these and how I was still able to make them colourful and lively without relying on my usual explosion of flowers and prettiness ...

I particularly enjoyed the rock music themed father's day card - it involved a morning listening to some great music and maybe just a little bit of air guitar with the pen of my graphics tablet! ;)...  

The other thing I've been up to is setting up a collection of phone cases with Swag My Case..

For the past 18 months I've been selling my designs on phone cases via my Society 6 shop.  Which is great, BUT as they are based in California and most of my customers are based in Britain, it's never been ideal.  

So, I am very happy to announce that I've teamed up with the London based phone case company: SwagMyCase.com They produce my designs to order onto cases for a wide variety of phone models, to very high standards in Britain. Here's a link to my collection on their site:http://swagmycase.com/collections/angela-spurgeon

As I type this, I'm a just a couple of weeks away from completing my occasions card list and then I start on some more new ranges which I'm looking forward to working on.  I've been feeling very productive lately with ideas and new designs and am embracing that feeling to make the most of it whilst I'm blessed with it, because as all creative people know, that feeling should never be taken for granted - it can go as soon as it comes.  Here's keeping everything crossed that it sticks around for a while so that I can continue enjoying creating new work.

Have a lovely weekend!

Best wishes

Something Pinteresting For The Weekend...

Happy Friday!

My 'something pinteresting for the weekend' this week gets all inspired by nature.

Nicola Slater's 'Behold the Dancing Otter' always brings a smile to my face, such a happy drawing and with lots of my family coming from Tarka country in North Devon, it's all the more joyful and resonant for me....

There are so many wonderful colours to be found in nature and the illustration above caputures some that so beautifully.  It's by Olaf Hajek  - check out the website for more jaw droppingly stunning illustation work...

http://olafhajek.de/index_illu.php?menuid=3

Finally, I've always been very fond of the early illustrative work of Andy Warhol and spent ages as an art student soaking up his work in the library.  I find his life story deeply inspiring, but before all the soup cans and screen prints he was the hottest booking when it came to commercial illustration work in 1950s New York -  and it's those examples of his distinctive drawing style that fascinates me most.

To find more colourful inspirations from nature here's a link to my 'Inspired By Nature' pinterest board.

https://www.pinterest.com/artworkbyangie/inspired-by-nature/

Have a lovely weekend everyone!