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! :)

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!

Back!

Phew, all moved into the new house in Birmingham, all settled in and we have internet etc... I've been moving house so I couldn't come online for a while- hence the lack of blog posts. I will keep up to date, I promise!

So anyway, I've finished the painting part of my Apricot Cat artist's book! :D Woo woo! I want to do the lettering so badly but I need a grey fineliner, and I can't find one that I like. I was going to order online but I'd prefer to try it before I buy it, so I'm gonna try and get one from uni tomorrow (first day back!). Anyway, here are the Apricot Cat pics:

I need to put the writing in but am struggling to fine a grey fineliner that I like, so once I've done that it'll be finished and I'll see about making it into an artist's book.

I've been doing a few other drawings which I've put on flickr and making a few bits to sell on Etsy, which can be found here:

flickr.com/photos/start_today/

shootemupclothing.etsy.com

I've been doing lots of animal drawings since I found the book below for only £2.99 at Waterstones, and it's got loads of animal pics in it!

(It's by Alice Tomsett and is usually £5.99)

Also on Flickr I found this really cool group called Free Art Friday, where people make free art and leave it lying around for people to pick up, in the street for example. I really wanna get doing some :) Do any of you guys do free art? I'd like to see it! You can find that group here. I think it's a really cool thing to do because it'd make my day to get some free art and I'm sure other people will appreciate it too.

Anyway, as ever I'd appreciate constructive criticism on any and all work, so let me know what you think!

And keep up to date with me not only here, but at:

flickr

twitter

Do any of you grow your own veggies?!

We're moving into our student house at the end of this month in Birmingham and have quite a big garden, and it already has an allotment at the end of it. It needs a really good tidy up so there's a lot of work to be done, but we were thinking of growing our own veg. It'd hopefully save us quite a bit of money, me even more so because I'm a vegetarian and I try to eat quite healthily, so most of my food shopping is vegetables. Does anyone here know what kinds of things we should be planting now? We're absolutely 100% new at this so we're a bit confused by all the terminology! This is the website I've been looking at:
http://www.ideashelper.com/easy-to-grow-vegetable-ideas-12.htm

Go see my video for Sockmonster Jeff- featuring the aforementioned song!- at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI9MMtSJKPc

Just click the link and it'll start playing. It has music with it too so make sure your computer's not set to really loud!

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! :)