Personlised colouring books

Last year I had an idea! (March to be exact)  Well I had a few but time really didn't help on getting many done! Well my idea was to create personlised colouring sheets which would combine my portraits and my illustrations.  So over the rest of the year I created a variety of different images, each containing a child.  The children on the pages were headless!  I'm sorry, yes that sound a bit brutal! But it was a necessity!

So why headless?  Well I needed to be able to draw the heads on seperatly so that all the children in the colouring book would be the same child!  (hence the personlised bit!)

So I can now create colouring books where the child is the focus of every picture, they are exploring and enjoying all sorts of environments from deep sea diving to  riding giraffes.

I really have had lots of fun with this project and I can now offer these colouring books for £20.
Fancy a look in one I was commissioned to complete for Christmas?  This one only has 16 images and also has 20 plain sheets at the back.

If the video doesn't work here is the link.

Here are a few other images.

If you want to order one of these books then please pop me a message.  I havn't got these live on my site yet.

Well I will be popping by Handmade Monday to see what other crafty bloggers have been up to, I do hope you will pop by and have a look too!

Jen xx

Being a little creative!

Well, I know it has been a while!  The last year really has been manic.  Juggling work and children (don't actually juggle children, it's very frowned on).

In order to escape a little from all the various pressures I have forced myself to get creative! 

I was finding it so hard to find time to just do.  So in order to try to retain what little sanity I had left (not a lot!) I got making and I thought you, or at least those that are still around to read my musings, would like to see what I have been up to!

So I have been working on a lot of illustrating projects recently and it reminded me that I had a book I had written but I wasn't at all happy with the illustrations.  I have drawn and redrawn this little character so many times and this is the latest version.  she has gone from a baby to a preschooler! Why? Well, apparently , you should use characters the same age as the audience you are targeting.  Makes a lot of sense, I mean no preschooler wants to be outdone by a baby do they!

This little girl is called Pigley. (we used to call my second little one Pigley when she was little).  Pigley is the perfect age to explore the world an in the first book she is learning all about apples and how trees grow. 

Here you can see various different versions I have tried in the past.

Once I had settled on a illustration for her I decided to give modelling a go.  Now this is not something I will be repeating, at least not commercially.  I have never been able to model very well but I have to say I am rather pleased with her.  What do you think?

I have also been working on a colouring book for children.  Once these are released they will actually be personlised to the child so they can in effect colour themselves in lots of different environments!  I will also be doing a generic one which will be cheaper. More about this in the new year but until then I thought you might like a sneaky peek at one of the illustrations.

In other illustration news I have nearly finished a really exciting project for a local poet! This image is for a poem all about the torture of car journeys with siblings!I really love this illustration and the whole book is coming along amazingly!  This book of nonsense poems will be available to buy after Christmas so I will keep you posted!  

Lastly, for now!  (don't want to bore you!) I have been brushing up on my illustrating skill with an online course and this is one of my pieces of homework!  I'm so thrilled with this one!  I wonder if I should make him into a greeting card?

So, for now, I will say byeeeeee.  

I will be stopping by Handmade Monday to say hi as it really is my fav bloggy place to hang out on a Monday!

Hope you have a fantastic week and fingers crossed I will have new and exciting things to sho you next time!  Maybe a tutorial of how I did the model?

Jen xx

Bit of a doodle!

Well this week has been a little creative,  but more as I had intended.  I've had quite the busy work load this week and by the evening it was all I could do to collapse on the sofa.  I have been craving to draw for ages and often carry my sketchbook around but been too tired to draw.  OH suggested just drawing without intention or need for perfection.  Oddly enough this little gem of advice made such a difference,  I started to doddle... Houses. (no idea why).
Here is my little creation.

Once I stopped worrying about the outcome I had so much fun,  I stayed in the bottom left with the little house,  each house got more elaborate as I went along.  I started using pencil and working my way back into the distance.  Here are some progress shots add I started to ink in the details.  

Last night I thought I would try something else,  I'd seen a video on Pinterest to draw a similar colouring sheet,  I took it as inspiration and created this... 

It's so mesmerising!!  The video suggested adding patterns to sumsome of the loops bit I loved it like this and thought playing around any further would ruin it. 

What do you think??  Do you love to doodle? Do you enjoy colouring?

I have also been expanding my portrait idea and I'm offering a personalised photo booth illustration to the winner of my colouring competition!! 

So if you fancy winning, message me and I will send you a pdf to colour in anyway you wish.  Entries need to be in by 30th September. I will create a collage of them and put it to my lovely likers and followers on fb, instagram, twitter and of course on here to choose the winner!!  

Hope you have a lovely week folks and remember that sometimes lovely things happen when you stop trying!  

Xxx 

I'm popping over to

Handmade Monday to see what lovely things fellow bloggers have been up to this week.  Why not discover some new blogs and pop along.