Jon McNaught

Plant for the Planet

Aren't these incredible? These leaf cuts were the genius idea of Leagas Delaney for Plant for the Planet. The the illustrations within the leaves symbolises the leaves ability to absorb CO2. Beautiful.

(Via thisiscolossal)

This time tomorrow...

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Eeeek! Its finally here! This time tomorrow I'll be on my way to Heathrow airport with my lovely friend Leanne for 3 weeks in New Zealand!  I'll still be doing the blog posts as I've already lined them up and they are scheduled to post on their own so don't worry I haven't forgotten about you guys! :) So I'll be seeing you when I get back. Bye! :) x

Thumbtack Press

A little while ago I mistakenly marked an email for junk when in fact it was from a lovely little web site that supports a selected group of illustrators and offers beautiful yet affordable art! Care to know a little more? Then Barry from Thumbtack Press has kindly done an interview with Origami Chicken! Please read on:

Where did the idea for Thumbtack Press come from?

TTP was conceived a few years ago by a passionate illustrator intent on making art accessible to everyone. I admired the site for years and ended up purchasing it last year.

What is the thinking behind the name?

I love the name. I think the idea of something physical, our Thumbtack, is a beautiful symbol in the internet art age where everything seems ephemeral and digital. And not that I don’t love the ephemeral and digital aspects of art on the internet (I mean, we’re a part of it too), but in the end when you take art into your home and space it’s a physical act. There’s a tangible real piece of living art that you hang into your life.

I think the image of the Thumbtack, and the pressing of the Thumbtack, is a wonderful image for 21st century art. We wrote some more on our name, if you’re still interested, back in January here <http://www.thumbtackpress.com/blog/2012/01/26/whats-in-a-name-steve-seeley-martha-rich-oksana-badrak/> .

In the future, can you see your company expanding and selling more than prints? Say for example portable art, iPhone covers or t-shirts. A bit like Society6 you could say?

It’s a good question. We definitely don’t want our art or artists to become commercialized or objectified, so there’s a balance. I love badass skins and t-shirts and everything, but there’s a danger of simply jumping into what everyone else is doing, when Thumbtack Press has always been about something unique and distinctive.

That’s maybe a long way of saying that we wouldn’t rule it out, but that there are other ways to diversify without doing what everyone else is and we are working on those plans now. Kind of like trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up.

How many artists do you represent?

Around 100.

Are there any pieces which are particularly popular?

There are pieces that sell more than others, sure, but I love all the TTP artists. I don’t know that anyone is more popular than others because, for example, some pieces get passed around the internet more than others and clicked on a bunch but for any number of reasons won’t be purchased as much as others.

Are you a creative yourself Barry? If so, what are you into?

I’d like to think I am. First, I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life, which I consider creative in a much different sense than, say, any kind of technical artistry. But also, in how I think and how I visualize things. I find myself constantly seeking to understand, express, and affect the contours of pop culture and have a real passion for it.

Now, if you're asking or wondering if I'm an artist, well, that's a different story. From a technical standpoint, I don’t have anywhere near the talent of the artists we represent on TTP, but I am always dabbling in something – painting, sculpting, photography, doodling.

If any of our creative readers wanted to take part, are you currently accepting submissions?

Yes yes of course. We’re always accepting submissions but I must stress that as a curated site we turn down far more people than we eventually sell on the site. That said we’d love to see everybody’s work and please feel free to submit to info@thumbtackpress.com

Finally hit us with your links!
Page: thumbtackpress.com
Twitter: twitter.com/thumbtackpress
Facebook: facebook.com/thumbtackpressart
Tumblr: thumbtackpress.tumblr.com
Blog: thumbtackpress.com/blog 

Society6 - Free Shipping

Once again Society6 has FREE shipping until Sunday! So why not pop over to my shop and make my day? You can treat yourself to prints, iphone cases or skins, laptop skins, cards and even hoodies and t-shirts! If not then you can always have a little peek and maybe press a few promote buttons instead :) Don't forget to check out my latest Mountains print!

Creative Insight - Anika Starmer

This is going to be the last Creative Insight for a couple of weeks because as I have said before I am off on my holidays! So this week we have the wonderful work of Anika Starmer who creates beautiful hand painted geometric patterns! Here we go:

I'm Anika Starmer, a graphic designer and artist living in Maryland in the US. When I'm not building websites or creating logos, I spend time in my studio painting and drawing as much as possible.

At the start of 2012 I rearranged my studio, adding an extra desk, and establishing some much needed storage.

I have one table that is raised up so it's comfortable to stand at, or I can perch on my stool if I feel like sitting.

I have another shorter and smaller table against another wall. This is where I do most of my computer work, although I'll also write, or work on art if I feel like sitting in a more traditional-height chair.

The biggest overhaul happened in the closet.

It might not look like the most amazingly organized closet of all time, but trust me when I say that it is a far, far better solution than I had before. True, the contents of the boxes are kind of a jumble, but having the boxes themselves with various categories like "drawing," "painting," "art in progress," "scrap paper," etc. has made a world of difference for me. Now I can actually find specific art supplies in a timely manner instead of having to wonder where they might be and search through various spots all over the house where I had art stuff tucked away before.

I work on a variety of creative endeavors in my studio. I do my design work on the computer, I draw, doodle, paint, collage, prepare mail art, and more!

In June 2011, I did a painting every weekday to celebrate my birthday month (and also to practice my fine-line painting skills!). Each painting turned out very different, but the process in creating them was often similar.

I painted all 20 paintings with Holbein Acryla Gouache on thick watercolor paper. Several of the paintings were on Arches watercolor paper, but a few ended up on Fabriano Artistico paper--all 180lb weight.

When I get ready to start a painting, the first thing I do is get out all the supplies I think I'll need.

I hadn't painted in a while, so once I got going, I had to add to the supplies pictured above: water, paint brushes, and a paper towel for drying off the brushes and palette knife.

Also notice in the photo above, there is a stack of smallish sized pieces of paper that I like to keep on hand, so I don't have to cut a piece each time I want to paint. I can just thumb through the stack and find the size and shape I want to work with.

Once I've chosen my paper, I decide what kind of pencil guidelines I'm going to draw.

At a minimum, I'll draw in my margin lines. For smaller pieces I generally go with 1/2 inch margins. The other guide lines I may choose to draw would be the two center lines so I can find the center point of the paper (this is handy when I'm doing a radial style design and I want to keep it relatively centered on the page), or a full grid of lines, spaced out at even intervals.

Tip: I love using a clear O'lipfa ruler with a gridded cutting mat. It makes it so easy to line up the lines on the clear ruler with those on the mat–I can draw a full grid across my paper in no time!

For this painting, I decided to draw margins and the center guide lines.

The next step was choosing a color to start with.

I first mixed a green color that I wasn't terribly excited about, so I moved on from that and mixed a new bright berry pink instead.

With most of the paintings I create, I usually have an idea of a starting point in mind, such as a shape, or a series of lines, or whether I want the composition to be asymmetrical, or if the center point should be clearly defined or not. I know how I want to begin, but I don't necessarily have an idea of where I want the painting to end up. Instead I work intuitively, adding shapes or colors as I am inspired to do so as I'm working on it.

For this painting, I chose to start with a simple pink diamond shape.

From there, I continued adding shapes that I think will enhance the central shape, choosing colors and placement of the elements step by step as I'm working.

When I got to the 4th color for this particular painting, I not only drew in the next shapes, but I also started adding a few detail lines to some of the shapes.

I don't find it necessary to create and color in all the basic shapes and then go back and add detail. Instead, if I have an idea for details I want to add, I'll go for it right away. It's that spontaneity and the evolution of the painting that I love! I continue working in this manner, adding shapes and details as they occur to me until I reach a stopping point.

Once I hit a stopping point, it doesn't necessarily mean the piece is finished. There's a chance it might be done, but what I usually do is step away for a while. Even if I just take a half hour break to have lunch or go for a walk, I can then come back to the painting with a fresh perspective. At that point, I might see something that i want to add, but it's also possible that the painting is complete.

For this painting, I saw a perfect opportunity to add more purple triangles, which add weight to the edges of the overall form, creating a more balanced motif.

When I'm finally finished, I sit back and admire the mess I made and start coming up with ideas for my next painting!

The end!

Thank you for sharing your creative process Anika! Such beautiful work and an incredibly steady hand! Should you to want to follow Anika or check out some more of her lovely work take a look at some of the links below!

@aisforanika on twitter ( http://twitter.com/aisforanika )
instagram: aisforanika
blog: http://www.aisforanika.com/b/
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anikamari/
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aisforanika

Inspiration Monday - Home

1. Home is wherever I'm with you - Cheeky Prints
2. Home - Anonymouse
3. Flying House Earrings - Cissy Pixie
4. Yellow Wooden Houses - Old New Again
5. Home Sweet Home - Dek Animal
6. Fairy House Locket - A Pocket of Posies
7. Home - Rae Snyder 

As you may or may not know this will be the last Inspiration Monday post for a couple of weeks because I'm off to the other side of the world for a little bit! New Zealand to be precise. I chose to do this post on the theme of home because you don't really realise what home means until your away from it for a number of days and no matter where you have been its always nice to be home!

I can name a few things that I will definitely miss! English tea for one! My mums cooking, being lazy in my onesie, having my own proper cosy bed and the smell of my house when you walk through the door.

I particularly like the 'Home is wherever I'm with you' print because it is actually song lyrics from Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros which is a song that I love and reminds me of summer :)
What do you miss about your home when you're away?

No reason to stay...

What a rubbish two weeks at work. I get back from holiday to find that my area at work hadn't been finished so I spend the first week doing 6 days worth of work in 3 and a half. I then go in on monday to find out the girl who had been looking after it didn't bother to do it properly and it was super behind. Tuesday I get yelled at in front of the boss for my earrings despite the fact all the other girls have been wearing banned earrings all season. And then today I get moaned at for something which isn't my fault and is result of the girl not doing my area properly. *Sigh*. I actually wish that I didn't come back from my holiday. Which may I add, I can't stop dreaming about. Its been nearly two weeks since I came back and my dreams are still full of snow and mountains.

I saw this piece of typography earlier on Pinterest and annoyingly I can't go back to the original uploader as it goes one repinner at a time and unfortunately its had so many repins that I'm not even going to bother to attempt it but if you really want to find out you can go back through and have a search yourself.

As soon as I saw this it made me think of my naff job which is going nowhere. There is only 2 pros about working there. 1. I can cycle there and 2. They are pretty lenient on holidays. And to be honest that isn't a good enough reason to stay. So I should go. One of my new years resolutions this year was to act on my dreams instead of simply dreaming about them. So when I get back from New Zealand I am going on a mega job hunt and ditching my current job. So thank you random piece of typography :)

Etsy Shop - Closing down

Today I am going to announce the closure of my etsy shop. Unfortunately it had never done as well as I had of hoped and so no longer wish to continue with it. In the coming months I hope to replace it with something new and different.

The shop will close when the last listing expires. I will still keep my account as I like to see what other people are putting up and what others have favourited and for inspiration.

As a little goodbye I've giving everyone 10% off in my shop up until it closes. Simply enter the code: BYEBYE at the checkout to receive your 10% off :)

Mountains Illustration

This is the last post regarding mountains for a long time. I promise! As you may have seen from my Twitter feed I have been drawing some mountains. This post is just to show you that it is now on my Society6 page where you can purchase it as a print, phone cover/skin, laptop skin, canvas print or greeting card. If anyone has a Society6 account and wants to press the promote button then I'll love you forever! 

Next weekend I'm off to New Zealand for 3 weeks so any doodling and creating and such will be put on hold for a little while. BUT when I get back I plan on opening a 'not on the high street' store. I'll be getting my own prints made (so they'll be cheaper than Society6 and I get more control over the money side of it!) Hopefully one of those prints will be a version of the mountains above. 

I discovered a quote by Dr Seuss which I thought was very apt as it can be interpreted in many ways and thought it would work well with this image. I haven't put this on Society6 because I didn't want two images that were almost the same so this one should be exclusive to my new shop soon! I also found that Society6 didn't offer a good view of the detail in the texture so I have made a zoomed view so that you can see the texture that would have otherwise been easily missed.

Here you can see the graph paper background and canvas texture on the mountains which is missed on the Society6 preview. I am a great fan of texture within my work so I thought it was important to show you! I hope you like it! :)

Click here to visit my Society6 page!

Creative Insight - Katie Chappell

This week we have Katie Chappell giving us an Insight into how she works! So here we go :)

Hello! I'm Katie Chappell, an illustrator and designer living in Newcastle upon Tyne with a cat and a boy.  I've been freelancing for just over 18 months now, and I am about to graduate with a BA(hons) degree in Illustration & Design.  I've always loved drawing and being paid to do it is rather nice.  I also have a Foundation Degree in animation, and enjoy travelling and cooking.  I have been told i'd make a good wife. Hah.

I'm going to show you how I create children's book illustrations. I'm currently doing some work for a client in Portugal, and have been asked to create characters to go to a presentation.

So... when I'm working my studio gets messier and messier. I usually need to do a good tidy up before starting on a new project.  Here's a before and after so you can see the contrast, haha.

1. It almost always starts with an email. In this case I've been asked to create a Finnish little boy called Kai. This client is particularly nice and sends me a reference image.

2. Once i've received the image I get started on some pencil linework. A good old mechanical pencil does the job nicely. I'll then go over it in pen. My personal favourite pen is the Uniball Fine Eye in fade-proof black. It's got a good inkyness level.

3. I'll then rub out the pencil lines (if they're visible under the pen) and colour up using my graphic markers. 

4. Once that's all done it's scanner time (I've just got a super basic A4 Kodak all-in-one jobby. It works well and the ink is dirt cheap).  I scan in at 600dpi so the image is nice and clear and big. Pooki the kitten is always chilling out on my knee absorbing my body heat. 

5. On Photoshop i'll rotate and crop the image.

6. Then i'll edit the levels to get a white background and clear crisp black lines, with punchy colour.

7. Finally, i'll unlock the layer and delete the background by using the magic wand at a tolerance of 15.  This makes the background transparent so it's easier to use alongside other images.

8. I save a .tiff file for myself and keep all the layers, and make sure I check save transparency. This is my own copy :)

9.  I save two versions to email to the client. A high resolution version for print, which is 300dpi, using a CMYK colour space, and a low resolution version for web at 72dpi using RGB. 

And that's it! Here is 12 year old Kai, ready to go to his presentation in Portugal. 

And that was Katie's Insight! I had no idea you could get that kind of effect with Copic Markers! Now I want some... Thank you so much for sharing Katie!

Fancy following Katie's work? Take a look at some of these links!

Twitter

Facebook

Website 

Portfolio

Inspiration Monday - Bonjour!

1. Alps - Bekah
2. Bonjour Mademoiselle - Prêt à Voyager
3. France - Steebz
4. DIY 'Je t'aime' coffee cup wrappers - Eat Drink Chic - Amy Moss
5. Bonjour! - Steph Says Hello
6. Typography Prints - Forever 500 Francs

I suspect many of you are bored of me wanging on about my holiday by now. Unfortunately for you this post is indeed about France. I've almost become obsessed with it to be honest. I love the language and have attempted to start learning it but I always seem to get side tracked and don't get very far. Whilst I there on holiday I attempted to use some of my rubbish skills but pretty much as soon as I said Bonjour! They guessed I was English and just spoke to me in my own language instead. I also had a French ski instructor and he constantly spoke in french to the other girl in my group who didn't speak a word of English so I found myself trying to listen in and make sense of the conversation but I managed to work out that it was going to snow on wednesday, and then rain lower down and that he has two kids, one who is 6 and one who is 8!

I can't see my current obsession with France dying down any time soon. I have spent some of the weekend making a mountains illustration (which you can see in the previous post) which will be going on Society6 later this evening. Weirdly, I can't stop dreaming about it either! Almost every dream for the last week or so has had something to do with France and the Alps. I think my brain is trying to tell me to man up and get a job in a ski resort for a season. I know it would do wonders for my confidence (as I'm quite a shy person) but I don't have to guts to actually go ahead with it. It wouldn't be so bad if I already knew someone out there but doing the whole thing on my own would be utterly terrifying! I barely survived the first week of uni let alone moving abroad alone. Maybe one day I'll get there. If not then I'll just have to visit on holidays and carry on living in my dreams.

Mountain Wallpaper

I spent most of yesterday trying to make a mountain illustration that I am happy with. I got there in the end! The final illustration will have a quote by Dr Seuss on it but that is not being revealed just yet as I have a few more things I need to do to it before I plonk it on my Society6.

I also only just realised that the calendar on my desktop background had actually ran out so rather than do the usual (waste many hours looking for a new background) I decided to turn my mountain illustration into one. The mountains are quite textured and that is difficult to see in the final illustration so here I decided to make them a little bigger so that the focus is more on the mountains than the would be quote.

Expect to see many more illustrations of mountains because since my latest trip I have become quite obsessed...

Colour Challenge!

For all those designers and illustrators that like a little design based challenge this is for you! All you have to do is put the colours in order of their hue. My eyes are being a bit naughty today which leads me to believe that I need to visit the optician but I keep putting it off. After a while the straight lines became snakey and it became quite difficult but it was a good challenge none the less and of course its not meant to be easy! I got a score of 24, I probably could have got less if I tried harder but I didn't want to give myself a headache! So why don't you have a go and beat my score for me! :) Its good fun and can be found over on x-rite.