Monday 5 June 2017

A Fleet of Foxes

My Soulmates screen print of a pair of foxes has been popular & people have been asking for fox greetings cards so here they are at last! I chose another clashing combination of colours & screen printed the fox cards in metallic green & red. I also created one colour screen prints and three colour screen prints using the same design, I like to get my money's worth! I've even screen printed my fox onto totebags.


Friday 2 June 2017

Cool for Cats!

April & May were busy months, as well as workshops & a challenging commission I was working on new greetings cards & limited edition prints. I really wanted to create a summery cat design with a retro feel but couldn't decide which colourway would look best. First I tried mint green & metallic blue & then took a risk by using colour clashing yellow & metallic purple! It's not a colour combination I would normally use but I really like it & hope to print a larger version of the design in similar colours. Until then I've played it safe & screen printed some one colour teal cats.

The Big Sleuth Sculpture Trail Birmingham 2017

In April I was very lucky to be invited back to Colmore Junior School to help them design & paint their sunbear sculpture for The Big Sleuth sculpture trail. I worked with a group of 16 year 4 children to explore themes relating to sunbears including their name, characteristics, habitat & countries where they live. We talked about the bears' diet, why they are endangered & environmental issues. The children drew pictures to illustrate the bear's nocturnal habits, they drew other endangered species from South East Asia as well as rain forests & even a Chinese themed bear! Inspired by the sunbear's name & the Great Bear constellation the children also drew pictures of the sun, planets & space rockets. They overwhelmingly voted on a space themed sunbear!
Once they had decided on a theme each child drew something to go on the bear. Somethings were drawn from their imagination such as space bears, planets with aliens & rockets. Others were inspired by antique maps of the stars & old astrological illustrations. There was an eclectic range of ideas & images to fit onto the bear but amazingly it all came together in the end! The children used acrylics to paint their designs onto the bear and I then added the background using metallic black acrylic paint. I'm really looking forward to seeing the bear when it is part of the sculpture trail & I think the children are too! http://thebigsleuth.co.uk/