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

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

Sideshow Curiosities

I've made an artist's book about 'Sideshow Curiosities' as a collection, and am pretty pleased with it. The book below is from an edition of 6, and was originally in watercolour and then digitally printed. I'm working on a screen printed version, which should hopefully make it to the Manchester Artist's Book fair.

Also, I'm starting an Etsy site on which I'll be selling handmade (by me!) books and some artwork. Part of the profits will hopefully be going to Leicester based charity Wishes For Kids, who help very poorly children and their families. I'm hoping to get in touch with them next week and hopefully then that'll be underway.

Exciting stuff!

Bits and pieces

Pfft, got lots to say today!
I did my face painting yesterday- which, by the way, was a complete and utter shambles! The craft fair had little to no people coming to it, and even then they were mostly 40+ so didn't want their faces painted. I did my own face, my mum's and also a little girl who belonged to a stall holder anyway- so only one paying customer! I did take some photos though of my Mum and myself, and also I'm putting in a few I've done on other people too. I like face painting! The model is my little sister, she's strange but cute!

ALSO I've got to renew my passport! Rubbish! It expires before I go on holiday (Ibiza July 2010 woo woo!!!), and did you know it costs £77 just to renew it?! I have no money, I'm a poor student!

I've just remembered a LOAD of pictures that I've made in the last year at uni that I've never put online, so I'm gonna put those on flickr. It's a childrens book that I made for the final bit of my 1st year. I also did a pretty cool video (I thought so anyway!) of the character, Sockmonster Jeff, so I'll upload that tomorrow on youtube and link you to it. It's just really simple stop motion, but it took me ages! The song is Twenty Flight Rock by Tiger Army, for anyone who likes it.

Anyone here do free art? I'm well going to do some once I've finished Apricot Cat. Maybe I could leave some Apricot Cat artist's books around. If you get any free art from anyone please let me know, I'd love to see it.

Anyway got to go, Salvador seems to be shedding her skin so I'm just gonna check she's doing ok! :)

Trip to Page 45

Those of you who know Nottingham should know of Page 45 (www.page45.com), a WICKED comic book shop which is quite central, and where the staff are really friendly, happy to help, and actually know about what they're selling. Well we went today and I had to treat myself... I got 2 artists books.

One is 'Trains are... Mint 5' by Oliver East. www.rollingstockpress.co.uk

It's really good- not read it all yet but it's basically a journey that he's made and what has happened on the way, with lots of colour illustrations. I picked it because I liked the way the illustrations look full of life- there's a lovely imperfection about them which I really like in artwork. The colours are really nice too. Page 45 are selling this for £4.99 at the moment so it's an absolute bargain- it's A5 with quite a lot of pages, all in colour.

The other book is a 2-in-1 comic (you flip it over to read the other story), 'Peanut Butter and Marshmallows/ Cat Hearts' by Lizz Lunney. www.lizzlizz.com

The illustrations in that one are really cool and above all the stories made me laugh :) I like the way she's coloured it too- there's only one colour and white for each story. Also, all the stories are about animals which I think will help give me ideas for 'Apricot Cat' and 'Animools'. Page 45 sold this one for only £2 so I recommend that one too if you're a bit short of money like me and you'd like something to make you laugh!

I spent aaaaaages in there trying to decide because they've got this whole massive shelf now dedicated to artist's books which I've not seen before- although I probably haven't been in for over a year because of being in Birmingham. Anyway you should go and look it's really good, and because it's an independent shop I don't mind them having my money :)

Animools

Starting on a series of drawings of animals, titled 'Animools'; so called because it's my own slant on drawing them and is apparently (according to Haydn) how I say that word. (And 'chemicools' instead of 'chemicals'.)


Have you heard of Apricot Cat? It's my new project. (See above) It's how I came about with the idea of Animools. The idea is that a cat eats an apricot stone and... you'll have to see what happens! I think it's going to end up as an artists book so contact me if you're interested in following the progress and getting a copy once it's done.

chloe.cook@students.bcu.ac.uk

Keep up to date with my images at www.flickr.com/photos/start_today and also follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/starttoday89

Hello!

Hello everyone!


I'm new to blogging so bear with me whilst I get used to it all! I'm planning on keeping up to date with this blog and posting all sorts other than just about my own illustration work; like interesting things I find and think that people will like to look at/ read about... For now though, if you wanna see what I do you can have a look at my work here:

I keep that as up-to-date as I can do but some of the work on it is quite old at the moment, and some are just snapshots that I have taken- I quite like photography too. Most of my work is painting, with either watercolours or acrylic paints, and sometimes inks.
You can follow me on twitter at:
I also make clothes and accessories, which you can find here:


Enjoy! :) And feel free to drop me a comment or something, I love to hear from people.


Chloe x