What I’m doing now…

For quite some time I have been taking a break from Illustration not for any other reason then that I fancied a change and a new challenge.

So I took up needle felting in August this year and haven’t looked back! I even reopened my Etsy store – under an alter ego name there is a link to my shop here , as I did want to keep it separate form my illustrations but so far so good. Although I will be adding some paper goodies in the next week or so, cant keep up with orders at the minute and I love it!

Here is a look at whats up in my shop at the moment:

When baad Christmas Jumpers happen to goo Guinea Pigs

Lovely Lady LLama

Guinea Pig Fairy

Guinea Pig Angel

Hippopotamus Fairy

New Ilustrations

I love it when that flow of ideas happens and everything I draw seems to turn out right. So here are some new illustrations which have developed from that flow. You can view some of my sketches from my recent work too, under my ‘From the sketch book’ tab. Its so nice to share work in progress and see how it differs or doesn’t differ from the final illustration. Enjoy! xx

The perfect way to spend a Sunday. Gardening

Ahh, nothing better than kicking off your shoes an having a snooze in the sunshine.

Washing day is a fun day i this garden

Pug Love, and leopard print leggings perfect.

Yummy cakes and Tea, after shopping of course.

Ah the lovely British summer

I likey the black and white version too.

 

Peggy and Curly say ‘Hello’

Its not secret that I love paper dolls,  such a versatile little craft product.

From an A4 sheet you can create a whole new world – whats not to like. I am always creating characters and worlds but to be able to hold them in your hand and dress them and take them with you was something that I naturally progressed to and Peggy and Curly became my perfect companions with paper dolls being my go to format. They really are more than just a dress up doll they are friends – best friends, and we get to join them on their many outings and adventures.

Activity paper doll

Camping Paper doll

In time I want to add more narrative to the A4 sheets so they do read more like a story with each sheet being a new tale to collect, I would like to add more little fold out items or pop ups too – such as the map on the Camping doll.

Here are are the finished results thus far.

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Would love any feedback you may have or where you would like Peggy and Curly to go next.

Charlotte x

Meet Ella & Earl

I always love to think of new characters, it isn’t enough just to draw a picture I really need to be part of a world. So with out further ado here are 2 new faces.

Ella & Earl, it was going to be Ted and Ella but somewhere Earl snuck in and it’s just stuck.

I like to make my characters into paper dolls so I can play with them and dress them up. It also helps me to think of a narrative.

A trip to the each was my first thought so here they are…

Ella and Earl waiting for their clothes

Earl wears: Lime print shorts, retro T and sandals

Ella wears little blue sailor dress and orange sandals

Earl wears: Green swimming costume and arm-bands

Ella and Earl are ready for the beach

Here are some other illustrations from their day at the beach.

Ella – Ice cream stop

Earl – Shark in the water!

I’m so excited to be working with 2 new characters, more to come…..

Birthdays and Babies…….

always a time for celebration.

I am working on some new illustration which is something I haven’t done for a while. For no other reason that life just being very busy and hectic leaving little time for inspiration and relaxation.

But somehow its has happened despite life not actually changing all that much. Really enjoying creating something without an agenda, its just for me. Going to re-vamp my Etsy shop and just enjoy creating what I like and hopefully others will too.

I am also not going to rush which is something I always do, as I feel once I have ideas they will run out so I use my moment of inspiration to get as much done as possible, not this time though just going to go with the flow.

All sounds good in theory doesn’t it…..lets see how I go!

Here are some works thus far, more under the ‘Illustration’ tab.

Twirl skirt

Baby bum!

I’m Here for the Party.

Peek a boo

Winter has arrived……….

A few sketches I have been working on today..

Winter boy

winter boy study

cosy toes sippers

and here are the finished illustrations.

Winter hat..

Winter boots

Winter Coat

Winter mittens…winter done

Cosy Toesy

Even more Cosy toes

Its all about wrapping up and keeping warm Brrr.

Pickling Peaches……

Oglin Tales

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How it all began…

I have just set up a new Blog site oglintales.wordpress.com , so in honor of this I thought I would explain a little about how my Oglins came to be.

I was having a pretty rubbish time personally so had begun to be more creative again as a way of escape. It all was part of my grand scheme to try to rediscover myself underneath the layers of submissiveness and difficulties life had brought me. Somewhere along the way I had lost my artist self and I was trying to find her/it again.

Anyway, many bad drawings followed along with half baked ideas and stories that I got bored of as quickly as I thought them up, then one night I had a dream – stay with me here people I’m not about to get all crazy, but I had a dream I was in huge street parade. I was chasing this massive balloon. I don’t know why? but I needed to catch it in order to give it back to someone. There was also another person, a man chasing after the balloon too. Anyway I caught the balloon first, gave it to this family then all fireworks, streamers and confetti rained down on us. When I woke up I still had the image of this balloon in my head as clear as day and this is what it looked like.

 

Hmm, I thought what is this? This is different. Not drawn this before, and I immediately wanted to draw more, ideas flooded in and quite quickly I had created this whole world on an Island called Ogin. I gave all my characters names and they all had different personalities. I had finally created the type of world I longed to discover, I suppose it had always been there just waiting to be found.

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So after lots of drawing, making up strange words, hating it & loving it. I decided to let others see my work too. That’s why I started this blog and took my first little steps onto twitter. The response was lovely, so supportive. I thought I would be trolled after 5 mins and I would have to scurry back to the safety of my kitchen table, but it wasn’t the case.

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I embraced the Oglins whole heartedly  and so did others but something just wouldn’t let them just be them selves I kept trying to fit them into all manor of guises (cards, purses, bags etc…) rather than just let them live on the Island as I had planned. Everything suddenly felt silly, what if people didn’t like it? I didn’t feel brave enough to be myself or let them be themselves.

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But now I’m feeling brave, so brave I’ve started a whole new blog all about Ogin Island the people who live there and everything in between. I’ve packed away my purses and greetings cards just for the time being and I’m letting the Oglins live as nature intended. Which is a bit like how I feel about myself now. I like and accept myself again and I am happy being who I am, just  as nature intended.

http://oglintales.wordpress.com/

 

Because I’m self taught, does that mean I’m not an artist?

This question has plagued my creative life. Sometimes its just a fleeting thought, other times its a loud nagging unhelpful voice in my head as I set to work on something new, or just before I submit work.

There are plenty of self taught artist/illustrators out there who are very successful, Edward Ardizzone, Maurice Sendrick , Petra Mathers, to name but a few.

So, if i have these great role models, who more or less prove that having an actual qualification needn’t matter. Then why do i feel as if I do? Is it just me?

Speaking to other artist of all different genres, it would it appear that it isn’t just me. We all have a crisis of confidence at times whether we have studied in our creative profession or not, whether we are successful or not. So lets makes this clear – I have some excellent self taught illustrator role models, and know that any artist trained or not can feel at times exactly the same way as me. But what about agents and publishers, what will they think? I asked a publisher this very thing recently and this is what they said ‘It really wouldn’t matter at all. If they like the work they like the work, and are not going to turn you down just because you are self taught’ So Far so Good.

The Season of Change has begun..

Autumn, is my most favorite season.Its often seen as the beginning of natures decline before the Winter fully digs its heels in, but for me its much more about new beginnings.  After the activity of Summer and before the madness of Christmas, Autumn brings a different kind of pace where I can slow down take stock and re-evaluate a few things. Much like shedding the weight of heavy unwanted  leaves.

The first of these leaves has been my old website, which wasn’t really doing me a great deal of justice illustration wise or was even that interesting. I have been making quite a few changes and I hope you are enjoying the new look as much as I am. I want my site to be personal and a true reflection of myself.

Walk in the woods – Autumn

On another note,  I am moving home – this Friday to be precise. Its a strange time as we make the transition from one house to another. Pack things up, throw things out, but more than that, I have been excavating the past , which has helped me to make some bigger decisions about my future, where I want to go, how I’m going to get there and inspired lots of my recent illustrations. Yes, I thoroughly recommend moving home to get you thinking, unfortunately it is quite stressful, but I have found solace as always in my art, which makes me feel quite fortunate to have such a fab escape route.

So ,its off to the new house we go to begin again both seasonally and personally. Don’t know why, but I really feel liking making some bread as soon as I get in , (which I haven’t done in ages) to fill the house with a smell of comforting lovelyness, is to make our house a home.