Christmas Market 10th December!

On the 10th December I have a table at a Christmas market at Soup Kitchen in Manchester. The market is being run by the very talented Lisa Stannard (see links below for her website) and will feature a wide variety of stalls selling clothing, prints, accessories, food, vinyl, cards and gifts, perfect for Christmas presents. I will be selling my usual stock; bags, cards, prints, badges plus some special new Christmas cards featuring new designs (see previous blog entries for a peek at the designs) everything on my stall is priced under £6 and it's all original illustrations by me so you can pick up a bargain!

The stall starts at 12pm and ends at 6pm. All the details can be found on the poster below though:


There is also a Facebook event page for the market: https://www.facebook.com/events/285521118154215/

and you can visit Lisa's website here: http://www.lisastannard.com/

Grotto

Throughout December I have some work for sale in Grotto Shop at the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester. The Grotto is a pop up shop selling work by local artists, designers and creatives including prints, t shirts, bags, cushions and various other handmade pieces. I'm selling my Crufts print, the Curious Streets print, the fox bag and 4 different badges. All of my items are under £6 so perfect for stocking fillers for Christmas! The centre is open 10-5 Tuesday to Saturday so pop down to see what else is for sale, there's some really lovely work available.

Here are some images of the items that I have for sale:


and here's a link to the Grotto Facebook page: GROTTO

'Tis the season....

Over the past couple of weeks I've been working on some Christmas card designs as I'm doing another stall in a few weeks (more about that soon!) and I wanted some Christmassy editions to add to the rest of my stock. As I have quite a predominant animal/bird theme throughout a lot of my work it would seem weird not to continue with that so I chose some Christmas themed birds as my starting point. I wanted the colours to be festive without being forced and luckily all of the birds had very warm coloured feathers. I developed them further as I wanted something a bit more fun and more obviously wintery so I added some hats and scarves to the little birds. Here are some screenshots of some of the patterns I'm considering for my final card designs:


The cards that I'm printing using these patterns will be miniatures (approx 7.5 x 10.5cm) if you're interested in buying any of the cards please don't hesitate to contact me! My contact details are on my website.

Yorkshire

Last week I stayed in a cottage for a few days near Settle in Yorkshire. It was such a lovely holiday as I was outside so much walking and enjoying the countryside. It made a great change from sitting in my studio (my room) all cooped up with about a whole house worth of stuff in one room with me.

I took some photos to hopefully use as a bit of inspiration for some drawing, the colours alone make me excited to do something based on the images. I love the dark and gloomy looking grey skies contrasted with the burnt orange and murky greens of the hills. Here's a selection of the photos, I started to use a giant roll of paper as a new sort of sketchbook today so hopefully I can use it to capture some elements of from the photos, I've already been playing around with some inky dry stone wall paintings.

Flamingo Magazine

So today I finally managed to get hold of my copy of Issue of Flamingo Magazine (postal deliveries never go well for me). The issue contains a page about me! Or more specifically about the dog drawings that I did earlier in the year. I was really pleased that Flamingo asked to use the images, they even asked me to write a few words about why I chose to draw so many detailed little pups. I took some photos of the page (the light is terrible so I apologise) but if you want to read it properly then order one from their website. It's a really lovely magazine as there's a good mixture of articles about various areas of creativity and it's only £4.95! Also just as a reminder the Flamingo Arts Project Shop is still open and my hedgehog-crow animal merge is still available to buy!


Flamingo Arts Project Shop: http://flamingoartsproject.com/
Buy the magazine! http://flamingoartsproject.bigcartel.com/product/flamingo-magazine-2

The Young Creatives and Postcards for Europe

Last month I was featured on the Young Creatives blog. The blog features young and fresh creative talent and I was lucky enough to be interviewed by them. Read it here: http://theyoungcreatives.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/emma-brown/

Also THIS month I have a postcard in the Postcards for Europe exhibition at Wem Town Hall in Wem, Shropshire. The project (which I've blogged about previously) was set up by my very good friend Katrina Currie with Rosie Gainsborough, Lucy Biddle and Chloe Byron. The project aimed to unite creatives from all over Europe by encouraging them to send a postcard interpreting the place where they live and work. The exhibition is the display of the postcards that were received. It's on until November 12th so if you're in the area pop in for a look or check the website: http://www.postcardsfromeurope.org/

Mill Co Annual Exhibition

I've been unbelievably busy for the past few weeks which is why my blog has been slightly neglected but I'm back with some new work!

During the end of September/beginning of October I created a piece for the Mill Co Annual Exhibition which is currently open in London at the Mill Co Project (Vyner Street, London E2) the brief was a huge challenge for me as it was purely typographical as the exhibition is part of a collaboration with Monotype. The brief was basically to do whatever I wanted with a choice of 3 typefaces: Akko/Akko Rounded, Rotis II Sans and Neue-haas-grotesk. Each typeface had a description by the designer and various weights and the rest was upto me! I chose to work with Akko Rounded and concentrated on creating something that encapsulated the designers view of the typeface through illustration. The final piece was a series of 4 A5 illustrated pieces based on a poem entitled 'The Feather' (by Lilian Bowes-Lyon) which I believe united the typeface, its description and the imagery. I wanted to create something soft and delicate that used the type as an extension of the images. The piece is currently for sale on the Mill Co website and is being shown at the exhibition until November 24th. Here are a couple of the pieces from the series:



Shop: http://www.millcostore.co.uk/category/illustration
Mill Co: http://www.millco.co.uk

Hot Pots and Pies

I recently submitted an illustration for the Wrap Paper 'Hot Pots and Pies' brief (unfortunately the feature got pulled from the issue) the brief was to illustrate your favourite wintery meal, the aim was to get 40 different illustrations. My meal could never be called a recipe because it is all ready bought things but it's possible to make it all from scratch. It's a good Saturday lunch if you feel like eating LOADS and one of my dads favourites: the pie in soup. The best combo is a butter pie in tomato soup as they go perfectly together. Anyway I didn't want the image to go to waste so here is my entry.

Another Whitby Drawing

One more Whitby painting/drawing:

Postcards from Europe

This week Postcards from Europe blogged about me! Read the post here: http://postcardsfromeurope.tumblr.com/day/2011/09/8/ I very much appreciate the mention!

Whitby Drawings

Some more paintings/drawings from my photographs of Whitby. I'm really enjoying working on greyboard with watercolours and pens, the paint and ink spread into the board because of the texture and I love the muted colours that it produces.

The Mill Press

Last week I did some work for the new issue of the Mill Press journal, a publication produced by the Mill Press which is an independent publishing house based in Manchester and London. The theme of the issue was Nude, I won't reveal what I did but I have a couple of snippets of the pieces to tempt you to buy the issue when it comes out! I'm also involved with the Manchester Print Fair which is being organised by the Mill Press. It takes place on the 25th September at Night and Day Cafe in Manchester. There's going to be stalls and an exhibition (I have half a table booked so the Emma Brown Owl goods will be for sale!) so have a peep at the website for more information.

http://www.themillpress.co.uk/

Here's the previews of the new work:

The Flamingo Arts Project

I'm currently involved in the Flamingo Arts Project, an exhibition taking place in London at Betty's Cafe in Dalston. The exhibition is a showcase of the work of 8 illustrators that have been/are soon to be featured in Flamingo Magazine. If you can't make it down to the exhibition though DO NOT DESPAIR! As the prints are all available to buy here:

http://flamingoartsproject.com/

The opening night of the exhibition was a huge success, packed until the end and I managed to speak to a few lovely creatives throughout the evening!

AN EXCITING EXHIBITION

If you're in London in the next couple of weeks (or if you live there of course!) then pop down to the Flamingo Arts Project, it's an exhibition showcasing the work of various fantastic illustrators (I am one of them) it's run by Flamingo magazine who have been very supportive of my work which I very much appreciate. It opens to the public on the 26th August (or you can email the magazine about the private view on 25th August) and most importantly it's on at Betty's Coffee Shop, 510b Kingsland Rd, London, E8 4AE.

Read more about the exhibition here: http://www.flamingomagazine.com/the-flamingo-arts-project

Whitby Drawings

This week I had a few free moments so I decided to do some paintings/drawings from the photographs I took in Whitby earlier in the year. I found a few bits of greyboard in my drawers and thought I'd use them rather than paper, I think the rough texture works well with the seaside imagery. Here's the 4 that I've done so far, I might try and do some more in the future but from tomorrow onwards I am BUSY so it'll have to wait.

Postcards from Europe

Today I sent off my postcard for Postcards for Europe, a project my good friend Kat is involved in, the brief was to create a postcard based on the place where you live and work. I was a bit stumped about what to do, most of my time is split between home (Warrington) and Manchester where I work part time and spend nearly all of my free time, I have to do my creative work at home though. I wanted to try and capture the two 'worlds' in 2 simple images, the tracks for all of the travelling (this is probably when I think the most!) and the old garage is the view from my desk. I've never used it in my work before but it's something that I've always been fascinated by since I was a little girl and I have a really vivid memory of being told off by the owner of the garage for playing behind it. As I always find myself staring out of the window at it willing for something to come and inspire me, the garage seemed like the perfect item to sum up my working home. Anyway here is the postcard:


I just hope it arrives in time!

Here's the project blog: http://postcardsfromeurope.tumblr.com/

Stall Stall Stall!

Last weekend I took part in a 2 day craft fair at Fred Aldous in Manchester selling my illustrated goods. It was quite a mixed experience really, I managed to sell a few bits, I was selling cards, postcards, prints, badge, bags etc. but overall it was a pretty quiet event. I got a lot of good feedback about my work though which was really lovely and a lot of people seemed interested which is always a good sign! I also spoke to some of the other stall holders who had some useful advice. I'm on the look out for another fair to take part in as I think it's a great way to get hand out business cards and display some of my work and I'm also working on opening an online shop selling the prints and bags etc so keep an eye out for that!

Here's a few images of the stall (taken on a phone unfortunately!)

I also bought myself a little treat from the stall next to me which was ran by Naoco Greenhalgh, she works with felt and had some really fantastic pieces for sale, I picked up a beautiful orange toadstool (which I will photograph soon and put on here!), Naoco was even making items during the 2 days and it was a fascinating to watch. Here is a link to her blog: http://naocolove.blogspot.com/

Next weekend...

I have a stall selling some illustrated goods at Fred Aldous, for more details about the event here is the flyer:

Please come along!

FOUND

I found this illustration/collage of the Vancouver city skyline that I made aaaages ago, I was so excited after I went that I wanted to celebrate it with a project but I never got around to finishing it. I really like it though, lovely colours.

Fantastica

The prints that I designed for Fantastica London are now available to buy! The Spring collection is available here:

http://www.fantasticalondon.com/NEW-IN%282373112%29.htm

The drawings are all fruit based and really fun, I absolutely LOVE the strawberry so get buying!

Sneak Preview!

Sneak preview of a work in progress..I won't say much more but I'm enjoying working in a collage-y way again! It's so nice to be able to paint the colours yourself and create all the textures in the papers for the backgrounds. (BTW this is not an Easter themed piece of work as much as it may look that way..)

Whitby

I recently went to Whitby for a little weekend break and it has provided me with some fresh inspiration and ideas! There was so much beautiful scenery and being by the sea gave me some ideas for an animation, I took a lot of photos of the sea and the waves moving backwards and forwards that I want to use as a starting point for some new stop frame work. I also visited Robin Hood's Bay which had loads of tiny back streets with crooked houses and shops with colourful doors which I loved. Here are a few of the photos I took, I'm excited to start planning some Whitby inspired work; I think the traditional seaside town is a great starting point for some fun illustration/animation work.