MOVE!

I've moved my blog to a new site now. This will stay open and I will be checking it for comments and the like, but please pop over to http://starttoday.tumblr.com to see my new and improved blog :) 


Thank You for passing by!

=^.^=

Competitions On The Way

I've been looking around for competitions to enter lately, just for something different to do from university work that's still creative and still counts towards me becoming a better illustrator. Anyway, thought I'd share some of my favourite looking ones with you, in chronological order, how about that!

Lloyds TSB 'The Art Of Nurture':

Basically make anything you want that can go on a wall in a bank, with considerable cash prizes! Last years winner by Karolina Raczynski is above.

http://www.lloydstsb-recruitmentfinance.com/art-of-nurture/index.html

Competition closes 31st JANUARY 2010

Nobrow:

This competition is based on the themes of "People I've Never Met and Conversations I've Never Had", based around Nick White's new Nobrow book under the same name. The original book looks really interesting, and you can see and buy it here: http://www.nobrow.net/nobrow-press

The description of the competition on the Flickr page reads:

"So Nobrow asks you to submit one image of a person you've never met, and one other image illustrating a conversation you've never had. This can be a drawing, photograph, collage, etching, or whatever medium you want. A selection of the submissions will then be compiled and made into a book published by Nobrow Press."

Find the flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1185256@N25/

It's a really broad topic and I think really interesting. There are some beautiful submissions already on the group for it on Flickr (where they're accepting submissions). I think it's well worth having a go at this whether you're entering or not.

Competition closes on FEBRUARY 15TH 2010.

Banner above taken from the Nobrow site.

Create for Tate:

Again a very open brief, looks pretty interesting. If you've ever been to any of the Tate galleries you'll know they sell all kinds of weird and wonderful wares promoting them and creativity in general... and you can design one of them! Again, some already lovely entries so get in now!

http://release.culturelabel.com/

Competition closes 26th FEBRUARY 2010.

Good luck, let me know how it goes!

Cut Click Mail Art

Hey all!

I've entered a mail art exhibition in Grimsby run by Cut Click, there's loads of really cool entries on the Flickr group for the exhibition, which can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutclickmailartexhibition/

I made a postcard (above), a Jacob's ladder book from an envelope (below) and also decorated the envelope it all went in :) It was really inspiring! You can see the postcard on the top of this post; the rest can be seen in the group linked above or at my own Flickr, at www.flickr.com/photos/start_today

Jacob's Ladder Book

My cat obsession has recently got much worse and I've been drawing cats all the time. I love it and hate it at the same time! Other news... I'm making 'Apricot Cat' into a proper book for university, which I'm really pleased about. Got lots to crack on with now but I'm hoping to make a moveable book from it. Wish me luck!

Few New Images...

Been looking at Beatrix Potter a lot for inspiration. Did you know she was very respected in the field of Mycology (study of fungi)?!

Anyway more at: www.flickr.com/photos/start_today

Follow me at: www.twitter.com/starttoday89

Please donate!!!

The NHS are absolutely desperate for blood donations at the moment. What annoys me the most is that only about 4% of the people that can give blood actually do*, and it's such an easy thing to do! I know there will be lots of people who can't or who are scared of needles etc, and I think that's fair enough for them not to donate, but for the rest of us there's no excuse. I donate as regularly as I can because I pretty much lived on a pediatric cancer ward when my sister was ill for 6 months, and I saw just how much the blood helped all the people there- some were having 3+ transfusions a week to keep them alive. So PLEASE give blood, it's so helpful and really won't take you long. You can register here: www.blood.co.uk and that site also allows you to make appointments for your donations and view your donation history, and to look up lots of the information you need if you're a new donor. Instead if you'd like to talk to a real person you can ring 0300 123 23 23, or arrange for them to call you.

And if you don't do it for any other reason, there's free squash and tea and biscuits!

Give blood, give everything

*from blood.co.uk

Image: Photo of me taken by Haydn Robinson

Artist Book, Etsy Shop, Children's Books, Cafe Royal...

Sorry I haven't been on in so long, been very busy!

Anyway, first to tell you about is the Manchester Book Fair. Here are some pictures of it, taken by Chiu Man (from www.artistsbookcollective.blogspot.com):

Wirral Metropolitan College- some beautiful work (as you can see!).

Cafe Royal- will mention again later!

Borbonesa- Really loved the typography going on here!

It was amazing! There were so many different types of work there that I felt really inspired. I also sold 6 copies of my book, pictured below. I ended up screen printing it in 2 colours on brown paper (which gave me a 3rd colour). I'm going to have another look at other ways to do it too, I feel that I've lost a lot of detail from my drawings doing it like this.

It's currently for sale/trade on Etsy too: www.starttoday89.etsy.com

I've started a new project at uni on children's books, in preparation for the Macmillan's Childrens Book competition. It's a VERY high standard and as a second year student I'm not sure I have what it takes yet, but I'm working really hard already and hopefully it'll pay off!

More info here: http://www.panmacmillan.com/About%20Us/displayPage.asp?PageTitle=Macmillan%20Prize

I also noticed on the Macmillan site there are exciting job vacancies for graduates so that's something for everyone to look at.

Cafe Royal again! Craig Atkinson is coming into uni next week to do a kind of workshop with us on zines, which I'm SO excited about! Take a look at the website, I think it's really interesting: http://www.caferoyal.org/

Here's an example of his work:

So keep your eyes peeled for my first zine! It's going to be about a week of my life...

Anyway sorry this was so long! Just had a lot to say...

Remember you can follow me at:

www.twitter.com/starttoday89

Shop:

www.starttoday89.etsy.com

Email:

start_today@rocketmail.com

Not strictly illustration related...

...but I wanted to let you all know about my other Etsy Shop, "Shoot 'em up!"

I hand make all the clothes, bags, hair slides, bow tie sets, brooches... and anything else you see on there (usually apart from the supplies destash).

I also have a competition on at the minute giving away a massive stash of goodies from several other DIY shops, just look on the shop announcement, located at the top of my shop.

If you'd like to have a look then please go to www.shootemupclothing.etsy.com

Some examples of my work are below, and all these items can be found in the shop along with LOADS more! :)