I start this blog with, I know been on the quiet side since started this website. So, for that reason I will start with a little update on me. Covid had hit the household, the mix of poorly children and back to home-schooling wasn’t ideal. I had a nasty fall and fractured my hand and nearly broke my leg. Lego was to blame for the fall! Lucky was nothing serious, just time to heal and a bit of a bruised ego.
My family and I celebrate Christmas and for 2021 we had a lovely quiet Christmas, spent with friends and family around the festive period. The greatest gift is spending it with my children (and husband); I did, however, get some lovely creative gifts.
I have finished yet another unit of my illustration degree and getting closer and closer to the finished line. (Hoping to have completed by Summer of 2023) I’ve finished this unit with an assignment based on the Penguin 2022 cover design award. I designed my cover based on the children’s category. Doing this I am reminded how far I’ve come in a year as last year submission looking back was somewhat lacking. (Still had a lot to learn and I did rush it a little) The greatest challenge that I’ve found was writing my first ever critical review, I wrote about “facial expressions and the importance of the details in cartoon characters”. Comparing famous paintings, research based upon Scott McCloud, Disney and my own independent survey results. While working on this I found that I’ve started to pay more attention to how I express myself within the written format. I cannot deny that was hard, reason being as I was deaf child in mainstream school there is a lot of my education I’ve missed out on. While I got my GCSE’s, reality is that I feel core parts of information are missing. If there was something additional, I’ve learnt doing my degree and having access to an education that meets my needs is that for most of my life I wasn’t taught in the way I needed. So, this writing completely pushed me outside my comfort zone, I’ve had to quickly adapt and evolve. During the month of December, I have had the most exciting news, news of an opportunity of a lifetime for me. Something which I hope to share very soon in more details. Guess I cannot quite believe it and do not want to count my chickens before my eggs hatch. I am humbled to have this chance of a lifetime, so, I cannot wait to share more with people in due time! I am not big on the whole new year and new me, I feel it can set yourself up for something big and when do not meet this standard are faced with failure. So bigger believer that you work all year around on smaller goals. Here are some creative things I like to work on in 2022. *Work on backgrounds, I want to try some new techniques. *Hand lettering. Continue to push myself, take additional classes and master this skillset. * This year only filled one of my personal sketchbooks. So would like to find a healthier creative balance between university work and my personal projects.
*Draw more *Play more *I want to build my portfolio pieces to really showcase what I have to offer, blog often and be more visible online as a growing illustrator.
Lastly, I am wishing everyone that 2022 will be kind to them.
Happy new year.
