Handmade bag.

I wanted to create something unique and cute for my mum for  mothers day and wanted to use skills I had learnt in the past, so I decided to make this bag. I know it isn't an influence as such, but it felt good to connect back to skills learnt in the past and practice these. I like the very simplistic nature of it, and definitely wanted to keep it for myself. The technique of felting was also very good for creating a soft texture to work with to match the theme of cute and soft. This has inspired me to make more of these little bags and possibly sell them on my etsy account. If I was to do this however I would take up their complexity by possibly adding  hand painted motifs of flowers and natural patterns upon them.

Lisa Solomon

I also discovered Lisa Solomon in "Illustration Play" and her work immediately stood out to me as it was in the similar style to the way that I had drawn my heart in my sketchbook for the current visual problem solving module. Her work shows that combining drawing and stitching can be very effective and I love her simplistic use of drawing with the stitching used for bolder outlines. I like the image above (top one) of hers due to the simplistic and decorative quality of a subject which can be drawn so grotesquely. I decided to include an image of my own work beneath to show the similar method of working which I had been doing. I feel that mine however is slightly less pretty and decorative. It's still got the simplistic nature but a little more detail and more colour range to try and define. I may try working with just a simple drawing or pattern to work over the top of and see if her way of combining stitching is effective for me, or if I should stick to this method of working and keep some of the linear qualities I have added to mine. 

Megan Wilson

I discovered her work recently in the book "Illustration Play". I like the inventive idea of creating artwork on the bigger mediums than what paper sticks to. The use of the entire corner of a room being used for this piece is inspiring to me as it shows it doesn't just have to always be small with it being illustration. The thing that attracted me at first was the nature themes as this is a common interest of mine. I also like the mixed media combination of paint and textiles as I like to work in a fairly similar way with incorporating textiles or other ways of working than just the traditional. I would love the opportunity to create a piece to these scale at some point within the future as I feel I would have much more expressive mark-making techniques and more freedom.

Cool Animation

I found this animation a year ago and it has stuck with me since. I find the timing within this animation incredible as it fits perfectly to the beats of the music. I like the collaboration of the illustrator and animator and would like to do something similar to this within the future.

Random Blog Finding

http://saturnonastick.deviantart.com/art/Growth-106494518?q=boost:popular+in:traditional/drawings/abstract&qo=53

I discovered this image on a blog which led to this deviant art. I love the use of linear lines with the washes of paint over the top. I also feel the colour blends are really effective. This reminds me of the work of alex pardee with the linear lines and washes. It also links well to the image I have created for my visual communication project of the army of rioters as a chasm, as these are very linear too with washes of colour over them.

Cherry Blossom

It's spring, which means the blossom is appearing again. I intend to go out with my camera and photograph this whilst it is available for reference to future projects as I find it very pretty and can make very interesting visual images.

Absinthe Adverts (Art Nouveau)

I love the art nouveau style and the style of these images. The lines are natural flowing and no harsh edges so I love this natural element and the use of a simplistic colour pallet. The use of faint outlines is pretty effective in my opinion in making the subjects stand out from the background.