Tea & Crayons featured on Creature Mag!

Exciting news! The lovely people over at Creature Mag have featured Tea & Crayons this week - take a look!

"Creature loves this kind of co-operation, support and pro-activity among artists. we probably wouldn’t have discovered all these talents if they only represented themselves. It’s certainly a worthwhile endeavour, each illustrator brings their own skills, knowledge and contacts to the group, the whole collective benefits. Keep up the great work, ladies."

Such lovely words; and so true! T&C is going from strength to strength, and I'm so proud to be a part of it. Our self promo campaign is coming together, in the next few weeks we should be able to start the process of mailing things out!

xx

New from Rachel P

Hello! Happy friday!
Hope you all are well. Its been a while since I blogged on T&C so I just thought I'd share a little bit of new work I'd been scribbling away at

This is potentially for some new promotional material we're working on, haven't decided if this one will go to print yet I'm still playing with some ideas.

Have a good weekend!

x

Kayleigh's work in Cellardoor magazine

Hi there guys and gals. This is just a brief post to show you one of my illustrations that is featured in the latest issue of Cellardoor magazine - Issue 5, The Magic of Winter.

I was asked to illustrate the promo image for the film 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist' for an interview with author Rachel Cohn. It's great seeing your hard work put into context, so please check out the latest issue of Cellardoor magazine to see for yourself!

You are just my type

 

Do you love Valentines or hate it? Think its just a silly commercial holiday? I'm a bit torn..

I love it, but  I do think its a bit silly that you should force someone to show they 'love you' on a certain day a year..why not say it/show it unexpectedly on another day in the year?
When I worked in retail I used to get hundreds of guys come into the shop at about 4.30 on Valentines day panicking about cards and presents..well that doesn't show someone you love them..that shows someone that you are supposed to buy them a card because everyone else is doing it..that doesn't really mean anything I don't think..

But I did end up doing these silly little cute cards..I am a bit of a sucker for 'cute' haha

This year we are going to Barcelona a few days before Valentines..that will be our Valentines and then Feb 14th will just be another day :) I cant wait! xoxo

Cat and Fox

Cat and Fox - Me xoxo
Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! 

Inspiration: Michael Hirshon

I've just come across the work of American illustrator Michael Hirson and had to post about it. Considering all the posts recently about style, this seems fitting; I absolutely love his. Perfect blend of line work, texture and silhouette shapes, all within extremely strong concepts and ideas.

http://hirshon.blogspot.com/

I just wish I had his command of colour, and knowing when to balance strong silhouette with detailed linework. So so good.

Pretty Rubbish

Hello wonderful followers!

This week myself and Fritha have been busy doing illustrations for Amelia's Magazine. We illustrated the wonderful designs of recycled fashion label Pretty Rubbish.

The article is beautifully written by Hels Martin and I think you'll agree all the illustrations in the article are fabulous! You can read the whole article here.

I know that Fritha has been experimenting with a new style in this piece, and I for one think they look stunning!

These are the two illustration Fritha produced for the article. Beautiful, no?

And here is my illustration, I was very happy with the results!

Abby x

Love Letters

Hey mon pals!

I thought I might just share with you some recent illos of mine. As soon as I heard the brief I wanted to do it as I love the hand written letter. There is just something so special about them, don't you agree?

These were a commission for the latest edition of Joie magazine, hope you like! oxox

Special Tea

Is it me or does tea taste better when you can have it in a special cup from a special teapot?

Have a lovely Sunday! :)

everyone loves TEA

inspired by lovely Fritha's super cute post about crayons i thought i'd share some of the beautiful tea images i've collected in my flickr and weheartit faves! my favourite tea is English Breakfast tea, although i've been more adventurous of late and started drinking peppermint & rose tea! my cup of choice is a big Cath Kidston one ♥ what's your tea and tea cup of choice?
image credits: 1. ♥ 2. ♥ ♥ 3. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 4. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 5. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 6. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Should I work for free? By Jessica Hische

Brilliant piece of design by the amazingly talented Jessica Hische. Asks the eternal question all us illustrators and graphic designers ask ourselves; Should I work for free?

(The answer is generally a resounding No. Something I suspected all along...)

My favourite part? "Did they promise you 'exposure' or a 'good portfolio piece'? Yes? This is the most toxic line of bullshit anyone will ever feed you."

I perhaps wouldn't have put it so strongly, but essentially, it's true. Will it stop me working for free? Probably not. It's the old 'If I don't do it, someone else will...'

(The whole 'we are killing our own industry' discussion could be left for another day...)

Everyone Loves Crayons

The trouble with having crayons this pretty is I would never want to use them!
Hope your all keeping cosy! xoxo
via Cafe Cartonlina

Natasha Illustrates...ABBY ♥

this is my illustrated depiction of Abby ♥ i picked this picture because i think her hair is awesome in her photo and she has that sweet smile on her face reminding me how lovely it is to be friends with her and a fellow illustrator! it's a candy pastel pink as Abby's work is delicate and feminine just like her :) hope you like this one Abby ♥
love Natasha! x x

Personal Illustration Style?

All these posts are getting me thinking too! Being in my final year I am finding contradicting views from my tutors. I'm told I must demonstrate a consistent personal visual signature but I'm also being encouraged to continue experimenting. Hmm. I'm trying to do both these things - I've been doing some experimental print work (with I hope to incorporate into some new illustrations!), as well as breaking away from my love of fashion illustration. I hope these new pieces are still recognisable as my work.

I feel the line work, colours and use of textures have become quite recognisable as my work. Anyway, with a presentation of all my work so far this year coming up next week, we will see if the tutors agree! One thing for sure though, this year has taught me how important networking is, and I hope my tutors will appreciate the amount of work I have put in. If nothing else, networking introduced me to Fritha, Rachel, Natasha, Kayleigh and Rachel, and starting Tea and Crayons has certainly kept me happy and excited about the future, so proud to be here!

Anyway, here are my latest illustrations. I decided to try my hand at floral illustrations after finding this competition over on the Tigerprint blog! I'm very pleased with the results and have started work on some others because I enjoyed it so much!

Here is the early stages of my next one!

I'll post them when they're done so you can see! Hope everyone is well!

Abby x

Identity Crisis - Tigerlilly Quinn

I think we are all having an identity crisis here at tea and crayons! Our promo packs are certainly giving us food for thought haha :) I think Rachel puts it so well in the post below but in this world of SO MANY talented illustrators it is hard to find out what your distinctive style is..

Also the one thing that often concerns me is that if people associate me with a certain style does that mean I have to continue in that style forever more? If at the moment I only work in ink and pen does that mean I cannot start using collage for example? I have to admit I am a bit of a fickle person and so I can often get over exited about a new method or style of drawing before discovering something new and being crazy about that.

I think it is so important to have a distinctive style. If I was to see an illustration by Ashley G..

I would know straight away it was by her. And even when she does realistic portrait commissions you can still tell a mile off they are by her.
If I was to show you a few different illustrations by me would you recognize they all had my style?

I am holding a little survey over at my blog to try and figure it all out :) I would love it if you could help me out! (It is a giveaway too) Thanks for your time xoxo

Rachel's thoughts on the importance of Personal Style

Hey T&C fans. Hope you've all had a great weekend... they go so fast don't they? Sunday night again :(

This weekend I've been thinking a lot about Personal Style, what it means, and how important it is. It's been on my mind because we're gearing up for a big promotional campaign, and I've been thinking about how to sum up my work with one or two great, strong images. It's harder than you think.

I wrote a blog post all about my thoughts over on my personal site - click here to have a read of my thoughts on style, and let me know your thoughts on the subject. I genuinely want to know people's opinions, it's a tricky one I think.

“A personal style is like a handwriting—it happens as the byproduct of
our way of seeing things, enriched by the experiences of everything around us.”
—Massimo Vignelli

 Rach L xx

Rachel L illustrates... Rachel P!

Morning all! What an amazing sunny sunday this is!

Here is my illustration of the lovely Rachel Price; I've started experimenting with block colours recently, I think it's worked quite well for this. I put a lil bird on her shoulder because birds remind me of Rachel - she's always drawing them! I think this photo was when she was in fancy dress but I loved the red, and I think it's made it quite fairytale looking. Hope she likes it!

Rach L x

Rachel P illustrates... Natasha

My turn to illustrate a lovely T&C member! The gorgeous Natasha.

I know Natasha is a huge fan of all things pink so I added a little splash of colour to keep it pretty and soft :) Hope you like it!
x

Fritha Illustrates... Kayleigh

Oh my gosh I was so nervous about getting this right. I envisioned Kay really hating it or offending her..thank god she likes it (or is a good liar). Hope you like it too! XO

Kayleigh illustrates... Rachel L

Well hello! As you will already know from Abby's post, us Tea and Crayons ladies have been busy illustrating eachother. I was given the very lovely Rachel Lewis to illustrate - and here she is!

I included the 'r' for Rachel that is part of her own personal logo on her blog and twitter as seeing it just makes me think of her :)
I really enjoyed illustrating this piece and am so excited to see everyone else's contributions.

Abby illustrates... Fritha!

We decided recently that, as a fun side project, we would all illustrate another member of Tea & Crayons. After literally pulling names from a hat (well teapot), I was given Fritha to draw.


This was really fun and I really enjoyed drawing Fritha, she's a very pretty lady indeed and hopefully my illustration shows this! :)

 

I want to draw all the others now, it was so fun! Maybe i'll just go ahead and do that for the fun of it anyway! Keep an eye out for everyone elses illustrations, I think we'll have six wonderful pieces to show! Have a nice weekend everyone!

Self-promotion Ideas and Inspiration

I'm pleased to say that Tea and Crayons are back to work for 2011, batting ideas to and fro, getting very excitable about the possibilities (and that's just me!).
At the minute we are looking in to self-promotional ideas to get noticed as a collective.


Self-promotion can be tricky to get right, so us Tea and Crayons ladies have been doing a little research in the area to see what advice is out there. We thought that this might be of interest to our followers too, so have pulled the best bits of advice from the 'net to share with you.

The fab 'Escape From Illustration Island' offers some great tips. You can read their post here. Here I have picked out some of what I consider to be the most useful tips:

• Be unique

Imagine the amount of promotional work sent to art directors day-in, day-out. It must become tedious seeing the same sort of thing in the post everyday. If you are different you'll stand out from the crowd, which will in turn make your work more memorable.

• Be consistent

Don't just send out your promotional material and expect the work to come to you. You need to follow it up, whether that's with a phone call or an email is up to you.

• Stay on the radar

Similar to being consistent, don't simply send out your promo work and leave it at that. Keep the people you are targeting in the loop with any new work you do. However...

• Don't overdo it

It's good to keep potential clients up-to-date with your latest work, but it isn't good to be a pest. Don't send out too much, too often.

Another fabulous resource for all things illustration (not just self-promotion) is the book 'How to be an Illustrator' by Darrel Rees and Nicholas Blechman. Grab yourself a copy because it is definitely worth a read, I recommend it highly.

I also took a look on google and flickr to find some examples of self-promotional work done well. Here are a few of my favourites:

These gorgeous examples of promotional work are by Thereza Rowe, found on her flickr photostream. I love how bright and eye-catching they are. Also, Thereza has made great use of shapes with her circular cards - not at all what you would expect.

This self-promotional material is by Kotryna Zakauskaite a.k.a Kata Illustration, also found on her flickr photostream. Kotryna has designed a cd envelope, covering letter envelope, and business card. I think something like the cd envelope is less relevant now as many people simply view portfolios online, but I love the strong sense of identity throughout the design, and once again love the use of shape - particularly the rounded edges.

Also found on flickr are these fabulous postcards by Barbarana. Barbarana has used her promotional material to introduce herself on a personal level, and I love the vintage feel to the reverse side of the postcard. Such a lovely and unique idea.

More postcards, this time by the wonderful Jo Cheung - also found on her flickr photostream. The little box is a great idea which will keep the postcards safe, as well as looking smart and professional.

I love this promotional pack by Charline Giffard which I found online here. It's very well designed, and like Kotryna's promo material, there is a strong sense of identity to the pack.

And here we have a folded mini portfolio by Lesley Barnes, which can be found on her flickr photostream. It's a simple idea, but when done well like Lesley's, the results can be really effective.

Our very own Rachel L has blogged about self-promotional work. You can read her post about when she made a mini portfolio concertina book here.

I hope this is a useful post for those of you starting self-promotional work of your own. Tea and Crayons will most certainly be using the tips we have found, so watch this space as to what we come up with.