Viva La Vida E!

Vida E Caffe's 10 year anniversary is coming up shortly and to celebrate this they called on creatives to submit ideas for their coffee sleeves. Here's my entry dedicated to Vida's roots - I illustrated a city scene with a Portuguese feel to it (Pasteis shop, Portuguese flag), as well as hinted at Vida E icons (soldier is based on Joao Estrela the Vida E mascot, the gramophone hints at the icon used for the Vida E music link where you can purchase signature Vida E music and there is an Obrigado sign, which celebrates Vida E's awesome magazine).

Illustration Friday - Launch

For this week's IF I was inspired by my childhood - when I was young, I was convinced that I could build a fully functioning helicopter out of cardboard boxes! This inspired the story of Bailey, the "flying" squirrel. 


Bailey, ambitious to fly to some exotic land far away, put his mind to it and built a plane out of his favourite chair, ironing boards and fans. Here he is signalling to one of his friends that he's ready for take-off!


Here's some of my process work :)

Here's hoping an exciting adventure finds its way to you! xoxo

Mail from Peru!

So a while back I stumbled upon Ana Menendez Fuentes' blog

(http://todoslosgarabatos.blogspot.com/) and was intrigued by her charming illustrations. It so happened that soon after I started following her blog, she held a competition, in which the lucky winner would receive one of her awesome illustrations. That lucky winner was me! :D

On 8 June I received this awesome mail in the post from her, all the way from Peru!

After opening the envelope, I was surprised to find another envelope 

- a beautifully illustrated one!

Ana's gorgeous illustration :) She also wrote a very sweet note! 

Here's a close-up of Ana's illustration, which is entitled "Duet".

Thanks so much for sending this my way Ana! I absolutely LOVE it!! Receiving your mail really made my day! I can't wait to go get it framed! :D

xoxo

Grafitti - London

Some cool grafitti we spotted while exploring the streets of London :)

Urban Outfitter's window design - nearby Oxford Station

White fox - next to the famous Beatle's zebra crossing on Abbey Road

Black and white photo of random guy on Soho/Mayfair sign - somewhere around Long Acre, Covent Garden

Face - by All Saints shop

Peg on chimney, and Monkey - nearby St James' Tavern, Great Windmill Street

Illustration Friday - Shadows

So this is my first I.F. since coming back from overseas (what an amazing, inspiring trip!) For this illustration I was really inspired by the interesting graffiti we saw on the buildings and streets of Paris (a lot found in very hard to reach places, which made them even more intriguing!). I was also inspired by those monkey's with clanging cymbals - they always seem quite freaky! Coupled with a shadow it should seem even more freakier, but it seems I'm unable to draw unfriendly characters ;) It's still very much a work in progress :) I'll post some pics of the grafitti I saw in Paris when I get a chance :)