Illustrations - 2018
In 2018, I worked on a few social media art ‘challenges’ and kept experimenting with watercolour paints. One project I worked on in early 2018 was the Character Design Weekly Challenge. I created characters for my book series, Tales from Brambleberry Farm, which is not yet written but still swishing around in my head.
The theme for week 1 of the Character Design Challenge was Pet and I had such fun imagining and then creating the Brambleberry family’s pet, Snowy, the jumping spider. Snowy likes to play fetch with the Brambleberry children, join the family on their daily rambles and curl up on the lounge on cold, wet days.
The theme for the second week was Toddler/Baby, which prompted me to create ‘Bethany,’ the baby of the Brambleberry Farm family. She has a tiny pet frog called Sprog that she carries around everywhere goes. Bethany loves animals and wants to be a vet when she grows up.
Later on in May, I created the work featured above, A Very Brambleberry Mouse, which is one of my favourite illustrations, even if the work is not particularly sophisticated or well-developed.
Life and morning sickness got in the way of my creativity but I managed to challenge myself with daily sketches in June. I worked on an image of a Charming Tales figurine, which I drew on print paper, traced onto baking paper and then retraced onto 300gsm watercolour paper, cut down to card size for my daily sketches. I enjoyed experimenting with different techniques and mediums for each one.
In the third week, I decided to play around with my watercolour paint and create a few pieces with a Winter and Yule theme.
My illustration work slowed down and petered out as pregnancy, and then life with a new baby overtook my creativity for a few years.