Festive Plants

A little out of season, here are my Christmas cards from last year! I went with simple botanical paintings, and I honestly wasn't sure how they were going to turn out as I hadn't done any botanical art in a while. In the end I was really pleased with them! The originals all went out to friends and family members as usual, but I'd like to try some different plants and flowers in this style now that I know how to do it.

The four at the bottom are my favourites from the set, I think if I had to pick one favourite it would be the Hellebore. I was so pleased with that one when I finished it!

Book Wyrm

Another birthday card! This one was for a friend who likes dragons and books. With any luck she also likes puns, since I can't seem to resist writing them on the card when I think of them.

White Horses

Is there still time for one more Mermay picture? This one is another birthday card, for a friend who loves the sea (despite not being able to swim). I really enjoy drawing the 'white horses' on waves.

A Garden Party

This was my little sister's birthday card this year. I almost always draw her a Spring flower fairy, since Spring flowers are one of her favourite things, but this year I was inspired by some strange illustrations of personified flowers from the late 19th century and tried something a little different.

Christmas Card Sets

Remember those Christmas cards I posted last year? I decided to have a go at selling them in these little sets. I'll have these at Thought Bubble this weekend, but I've also put them on my Etsy shop.

It took quite a while to put these all in cellophane like that so I hope I can sell at least a few!

Windflower

I heard my Grandma has shingles, so I whipped up a get-well-soon card for her. I hope it cheers her up until she feels better.

These... may not be the most botanically accurate windflowers I've ever drawn...

2013 Highlights

It's that time again! I thought I'd put together another collection of the work I'm most proud of from the past year. In chronological order (I think):

The Mystery of the Roofrunner, this year's free Patience mini-comic. I thought the story was a little weaker than The Mystery of the Night Boy (2012), but I really tried my hardest on the environments, and I think they're miles better than my backgrounds had been before.

Children of the Night, the goth anthology I made with my bestie Sammy Borras this Summer. This was by far the biggest project I've ever cranked out, we did about 30 pages each! It was divided into shorter stories, but it really gave my a feel of how much work a long comic project would be. I'm also really pleased with my writing on all three of my comics!

A couple of pictures to represent Inktober as a whole. Last year I had no time to do Inktober, so I was really proud of myself for not only finishing it, but actually getting some good work out of it. Also I learned to do ink wash.

Finally, right at the end of the year, the twelve Christmas cards I made for my friends and family this year. I had the idea for these last year, but had no time to get them done for Christmas. I'm so pleased to have managed it this year.

I confess, it was... much harder to find things I was proud of this year. (Only Children of the Night leapt to mind.) Mostly because I didn't finish most of the things I'd planned to do by 2014. I had a portfolio review in... February? and got some excellent advice, but I did the same thing I did last year and got caught up in a lot of smaller projects and didn't manage implement any of that advice. I feel very foolish for allowing that to happen even when I'd identified it as a problem at the end of last year.

Obviously I fall into this trap very easily when I don't have some sort of structure in place, so this time I've made a to-do list for the WHOLE OF 2014. Complete with month-by-month breakdowns of which projects need to be started when. If I can't get the stuff on that list done by 2015 (barring major life problems) then it will only be because I lack discipline!

Bring on 2014! I can do better this year!

Christmas Cards - Set Two

These six are all plant-themed, and went to my friends. There's conifer, dogwood, hellebore, holly, mistletoe and rosehip. (I know rosehip is more of an Autumn thing, but I've seen it used in wreaths so I thought I could get away with it.)

I can't decide if dogwood or hellebore is my favourite from this set.

Christmas Cards - Set One

Now that it's safely after Christmas, I can show off the cards I made this year! I did twelve angels themed around different Christmas motifs, these six went to my family.

These are baubles, bells, candles, ice, nuts and oranges, and the Star of Bethlehem. I think ice is my favourite from this set.

Thank-you Letters

I’m terrible at remembering to write thank you letters, so this year I decided to draw some postcards instead, in the hopes that it would make up for how late they usually are. It was actually a lot easier to get round to it when I was drawing them, so they’re not even that late this time!