Little bit of brain food.

Just to let all my followers out there know what I've been up to. I'm still working on the fairytale stuff as i'm determin to make enough to make a calender. I've been working on commissions for other people and family members, pondering on ideas for indecisive people who can't decide if they want my work or not.

Amongst this tornado of things happening i've been trying to get orginised and various projects finished so that I can get back on track with what Im supposed to be doing.

..and on the side i'm still sketching out page layouts for my next kids book.

To keep your eyes from visual starvation heres a little drawing. .. ..

.Books Fund-raising and CD's.

As usual I've been working on getting my kids book ideas out there in to the hand of publishers and hopefully one of them will jump with excitement and want to publish one of my picture books.

For now i'll let you know that the local school has decided to buy two copies of 'The Missing Spots' and asked me to sign them and possibly come in to the school to talk about it to the kids. As I have terrible stage fright this might go horribly wrong but we will see.

I have also been working on creating a new smaller picture book purely for the purpose of fund-raising money for my disabled cousin so he can have a shiny new specially built bicycle.
The book will be called 'Christian Can' and have a short but heart felt poem through the book along side some illustrations of mine.

Finaly I have gotten feedback on the cd cover design I'm having a go at, I was told the characters on the rollercoaster where a bit too childish, so i've re drawn them, the differences are like so ...

I'll keep updates coming as stuff happens, watch this space!

.SnapShot.

Ok so apart from the never ending process of researching, printing out manuscripts and posting envelopes, I've been asked to attempt a CD cover design. Seen as I always seem to be doing kids stuff these days i thought I'd give it a try.

As I'm not sure yet if they want to use it or not, I can only give you a snap shot preview in b&w and colour.





Watch this space for more news!

.Caricatures.

I seem to be drawing a lot of caricatures lately, some chi bi's and some face portraits. I think it's cause it's simple to do yet effective, also it's fun :) and it helps when I have a drawing block.

Here are my latest drawings.

.Space.Man.

I found yet another competition with a deadline that was close enough to make most people go 'NO WAY!' but I gave it a go.

The theme was 'future living in space' and there is literally a million things you can draw for this theme so I chose the one which I was most familiar with... gardening!

Also I tried a new style of keeping the same sort of tone through out the whole image and keeping it simple and fun! this is what I ended up with.

It wasn't until I read the fine print that I noticed part of the main prize was a trip to Russia to experience a weightless environment in the space center, this prize is non transferable. So yer I still hope I win, but I'm not liking the idea of a weightless experience!

.Comparing.Styles.

After re-assessing the situation and approaching water colours with a different style here is what I got as the end result.

I would appreciate feedback, good or bad as it always helps. Me myself I like this new style, it suits this purpose more and even though I also like the other style that one suits limited things but work sometimes.

.Gravity.Defying.Fluffball.

..Carrying on with 'Kidz'n'Pets this is the last image I created before I decided to give my self some time off from art to re-syke my mojo. I'm going to do an experiment with this image and paint it in a different technique to see which looks better, which ever one works best is the style i will be continuing with.

.Kidz'n'Pets.

..and just as I finish my last blog post I realise that since my last image post I have done more images!

So here's the idea, I series of images including characters and crazy creatures as pets, fun no?

Here is the first image, I have many ideas of more I can do but at the moment I have so much going on at the same time that I'm slowly getting on with everything, so watch this space for more images!

.Reading.Space.

The final acrylic on canvas painting finished! Here are a few close up shots of the picture and some of the smaller details on it, i've called the image 'Reading Space' It will eventualy be for sale somewhere if anyone is interested but for now it resides in my room waiting for me to do more painting to put with it. :)

.Current.Projects.

Here is my second idea for the FireFox competition, simple but quirky.

...And here is the acrylic picture i'm working on at the moment, lots more work to be done on it, but it's getting there :)

.sock.monsters.continued.

More sock monsters in the making, here we have a octopus which took forever to make because it has so many legs, and also a strange creature that I called a zumble-boo because it has wings, but stripes also.

.Creative.News.Updates.

I have recently started my Doodle a Day mini sketch book and have been posting each image on my website http://www.wix.com/bex_eden/bex-eden-illustration check it out! I am always updating it, adding pages and putting up new images.

Also I have decided to start making sock monsters..as I had some 'pair less' socks that looked a bit lonely and too pretty too throw away so I gave them a new life :) below is 'Freddy' the first monster to be created, As soon as I get my hands on some more stuffing I will make some more :)

.Mini.Project.

Setting myself project is one thing. Sticking to it is a whole new story!

So I've set myself a project which I will be forced to stick to as it will be in my face everyday and inexcusable. I've hand made another mini sketch book which I have labeled 'A Doodle A Day' you get the idea of the project from the title. Starting from February 1st 2011 I will be doodling one thing a day in this book until it's complete, not matter how good or bad the doodle may be I will do it.

This book is only small so it won't seem like a big task every time I doodle, also it will keep me drawing everyday and possible lead to ideas for other drawings.

.Checkmate.

Quick idea for a competition with the theme Yorkshire Wolds. When I here that phrase all i think of is fields...and I think that pretty boring. So I tried to make this idea comical to brighten things up a bit.

'Checkmate'

Water colours.

.Website.

Finlay got my website finished :) it's not my own domain yet but it's a start! So get on down there and check it out :).

http://www.wix.com/bex_eden/bex-eden-illustration

.Mr.Guitar.

Here is the line drawing of my latest idea!

Characters based on musical instruments and types of music, this is Mr.Guitar and he's strumming away.

I'm going to experiment with a digitally colouring technique and a hand painted version, depending on which looks best i will use that coloring technique for the next image.

.slowly.back.on.track.

So lately I've been focusing more on the book I'm making, it's taking a lot of organising and sorting out as well as putting together and adding information but I'll keep you all updated as it progresses.

In the meantime I've been occasionally having a break from it and adding more and more to a painting I'm doing. It's quiet a big image and will have a lot of detail but I'm only going to give you a small peek of the progress.

...Sparks, Plans and Fire...

Still the days drag on when I have nobody prodding me in the back with a big stick and telling me to get on with stuff. It's very much my own fault for not prodding myself with the big stick, but if I did how would I draw with a hand full of tree?

As my doodles lessen and my blogs become less frequent, I have been thinking over plans that I sparked to life a long while back but are not yet on fire. The end of the year draws closer and I am going to stick by my saying of 'Starting Fresh' on new years day, all the 2010 and before illustrations and work are going on to hard drive never to be seen again unless I am in dire illustration starvation.

One of the bigger plans I am kindling is an almost biographical book of all the illustrations/art I have done before and up to 2010. All sorted in order by date and accompanied on pages by descriptions, explanations and comments of each piece. Once this book is complete (which will take a long time) I will purchase only one which I can then take around and show people as I need to, and make available to anyone who wants a copy.

Then a blank canvas, new page, fresh coat of paint and a mesmerizing, dazzling plain shimmers of new ideas will come flooding in and create a new, better and more productive me in 2011!

Wish me luck in my search for fire!!!!!

.Illogical.

After going back to basics and taking up good old fashioned pencil drawing once again, it has inspired me to start working on another picture book. Usually I write the story, research elements, re-write and work parts THEN do the illustration. This technique seems the logical way of doing things and most people would take this route, but I'm not most people and love to be illogical :) so I'm doing it backwards..

The plan is, continue drawing pencil sketches relating each one to the previous drawing there for creating a story line by letting it fall in to it's own path. Once I think the images have reached an end i will organise them in to a story line and add text if necessary and see what the end product looks like!

Here are a few of the drawings and doodles I've done in the last few days...

.Back.To.Basics.

After a long time of no inspiration I decided to go back to the basics and have another go at simple pencil drawings, here are a few I've done recently.