My Illustrated alphabet

For the past few weeks I've been busy creating my illustrated alphabet, which is to do with all things British and quirky. I've really enjoyed working on this project as its one of the biggest ones I have undertaken. It was great to be able to have the time to create a full alphabet of illustrations, a real indulgence. What things do you do that are uniquely British? Are there any in my illustrations that you can relate to let me know.

Fairytale Inspiration

One of my greatest loves and inspirations are fairytales, I thought I would share a few images which I have been gathering for a recent project I'm doing at University. I think these images all have a beautiful atmosphere. 

 cenotaph to the memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds- John Constable 

The Lady of Shallot -John William Waterhouse 

 sleeping beauty - christian lacroix

Little Red riding Hood- Daniel Egneus

Little Red riding Hood- Daniel Egneus 

Little Red riding Hood- Daniel Egneus 

Su Blackwell

Su Blackwell

Su Blackwell 

Su Blackwell 

Su Blackwell 

Daniel Egneus

Lauren Child

Helen Musselwhite

Helen Musselwhite 

Vogue Article

I had another play around with creating a different composition for the Vogue article illustrations. I think they now have a much more collaged feel to them. I think there a bit more dramatic then then previous ones too, thats something that I always love when working on my illustrations that I can always come back to them and change elements if I need to. This project has been one of my favourites as I really enjoy the fact that its about an important issue and has an age about it. Its relevant to its time.

Textured background (brown paper)

Plain Background

Poppy Loves Book club in Lancaster

I'm currently trying to set up a Poppy Loves book club in Lancaster. It would involve a group of us meeting on the last wednesday of every month in a venue in Lancaster (a cafe or pub) to chat about the current book we are reading. We can then chat to the Poppy loves book Club on the group Facebook, so we would have to try and find somewhere with Wi-Fi. A few authors of the Books sometimes participate in the online discussions! which is great. The last book was The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. If your interested in joining or know anyone who might be please let me know!! Im sure it will be lots of fun and a great way to make a new bunch of friends.

My email address is; Jess-holden@hotmail.com if you have any questions or would like to join up! 

What I'm reading this week

At the moment I'm working on my dissertation so thats my main focus, but I have been reading this great book which I bought from amazon the other day. Its a really good read! It basically tells you about every area of illustration you would want to know about and has great tips on finance and dealing with clients. It also has a good section on how to deal with self promotion and the pros and cons of having an agent. I would recommend this to any students studying illustration or anyone interested in this field. Really great book! the go to guide for an illustrator.

Heres a link to it on Amazon 

Vogue Article

This semester at University we got to pick our own projects, for my first one I decided I wanted to illustrate a magazine article. I love fashion so I thought I would look in the library at the old 1960's/1970's vogue magazines. I wanted to illustrate an issue rather than just a plain article. I found an article which was about womens liberation which was perfect in a 1975 issue of vogue. It spoke of the sex discrimination bill as it had just been enforced. This bill therefore forbid all sexual bias in services and employment which made a huge difference at that time. Baroness Betty Lockwood was the main focus of the article, who is a labour party activist who promoted equal opportunities for women.

Thursdays Illustration

Every Thursday I've set myself the challenge of creating an illustration which depicts the month, so at the end of this project I will be able to put together a calendar in 12 weeks. My inspiration for this piece after researching about January was the idea of the Wolf Moon, The fact that january is Janus the God of gateways and doors, who is represented as two faces looking into opposite directions.