New work from Abby

Hello everybody! After seeing Kayleigh's wonderful new work, I though I would share what I have been up to over the last week. I'm working on some new illustrations - subjects that I haven't tackled before but I'm really enjoying them! I'm hoping to offer custom pet illustrations soon, so have been working on example animal portraits. Here's the first, my mum's beautiful cat, Yoda.

And here are the beginning stages of a new flower and vase illustration. I loved producing such detailed line work for this piece. I will bring you the finished piece when it's, em, finished :)

New work from Kayleigh

Hey guys. Just a little Sunday post to show you my latest piece of work. I painted this canvas yesterday - it took me all afternoon/part of the evening. It's an image from the latest issue of Company Magazine - I thought it was a gorgeous picture so wanted to see if I could do it justice. 

I'm quite pleased with it considering I haven't painted on canvas in a very long time. Part of me thought I couldn't do it anymore. Here are a few images of work in progress ::

I love the 50's vibe with the polka dot shirt and pastel colour palette. Now I want to freshen up my paint box and see what I can come up with next. I think the painting bug has bitten me again...

Out & About: British Design 1948-2012 at the V&A

Last week I popped along to the V&A to check out their new British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age Exhibition.

It's an "homage to the creative spirit of Britain's design story over the past 60 years. Using the 1948 London ‘Austerity Olympics’ (the scaled-back post war games) as its starting hook, the show's buoyant, can-do attitude echoes the spirit of current Olympic anticipation.

This is the first time the subject of British post-war design and art has been tackled on such a scale. The narrative, bolstered by over 350 objects (250 harvested from the V&A’s archive collection) looks at some of the country's key design innovations, spanning everything from fashion, furniture, fine art, graphic design, photography and ceramics, to architecture and industrial products."

Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take photos while in the exhibition so I'll have to make do with ones borrowed from le interwebs.

On that note, before I continue - I think it's horribly archaic to ban photos from exhibitions these days. SLRs, ok, fine, I can understand because of copying/copyright issues as they are such high res, but tiny digitals and camera phones? Please. This is the age of the internet, of sharing, and the way in which the exhibition staff pounced on me as I got my phone out of my pocket was disgusting. "You can't take photos!!!" they yelled (loudly) "Yes, I know, I'm texting...?" (which I actually was) "Yes, well, you can't take photos in here!" What the actual frog? Seriously. It made me extremely uncomfortable. Most people have blogs or tumblrs these days, and want to post their thoughts on exhibitions etc - it's not 'revenue protection', it's out of touch and it's wrong.

So anyway, the exhibition starts in 1948, just after the war and before the coronation of Elizabeth II and the Festival of Britain. It continues chronologically, depicting most major British design successes in a fairly comprehensible layout.

 Ah, David Bowie. How we love thee.

The punk era section was one of my favourites I think. As was the Factory Records/Hacienda-esque corner, too. Nice originals from Peter Saville for great record covers from New Order and Joy Division.

 Lots of beautiful examples of great British textile designs too - we often forget we were once the world leaders in textile design and manufacturing.

 Some amazingly well preserved Mary Quant and Cecil Beaton dresses.

 V&A British Design 1948-2012 Exhibition Print Collateral by Barnbrook Design - the collage image was enough in itself to make me want to go!

I came out of the exhibition feeling thoroughly proud of this country's design heritage - everything from Grand Theft Auto (yes, a british made game) to Alexander McQueen, Jamie Reid to Concorde - it really makes you think about how much this country has done. I thoroughly recommend spending a couple of hours here. Amazing.

Shipshape Studios

Hi loves, have you all had a wonderful weekend? 

We spent the afternoon at Shipshape Studios yesterday to support our lovely Rachel Lewis chatting all things illustration with Emma Block and Alice Potter. She did us proud, and inspired a creative audience!

We had a lovely day with the Shipshape team.

We've even setting up our own Tea & Crayons shop so you can buy Rachel's prints and other crayon related goodies very soon, so stay tuned!

x

Author Shoes Launch Party

Happy Saturday crayonettes! 

We blogged last week about a little party we were invited to, the Author Shoes city wall store opening  -so we popped along for some cocktails, cupcakes and shoes! 

We stepped back in time to the glitzy 1920s and had a lovely time with the Ballad girls, Faye West, Emma Block, Chrissy Wallace and June Sees. We took a few piccies

The lovely Emma Block, Faye West and our Rachel Lewis (above)

Pretty shoes

Team crayonette1 The 2 Rachels (above)

What are you all up to this weekend?

If you're in London town - come along to Shipshape studios tomorrow, Rachel L will be chatting all things illustration xx

FRIDAY FIX: PONIES

FOREST DAY DREAM/ WHITE STALLION

EMMA AHLQVIST/ HORSE GIRL ZINE

ESOPHOBISH/ VINTAGE JEWELLERY

FOREST DAY DREAM/BREYER TOY HORSE

LYNNSRAGS/ MY LITTLE PONY VINTAGE DRESS

PONIES for your girly bedrooms, ponies on dresses, ponies in zines ♥

Illustration & Design Forum with Rachel; THIS SUNDAY

 Just a quick reminder to all our lovely friends and fans that our very own Rachel Lewis is taking part in the Shipshape Studio Illustration & Design Forum this Sunday (15th April) in Hammersmith, London!

And we've got an 15% exclusive discount on tickets for all our Tea & Crayons followers if you book now! Just click here and use the discount code RACHELTALKS.

"A panel discussion and networking event on careers in the design and illustration industry.

During this intimate event, the panel will discuss careers in illustration and design, and will cover crucial aspects such as social networking and marketing yourself. There will be a Q&A session where you will have the chance to ask any questions about careers in the creative industry.  

The artists will be exhibiting a selection of their work and it will be available to buy."

Rachel will be talking about her experiences through Uni and after graduation, getting freelance work, setting up a collective, and working as a graphic designer in the fashion retail industry; hopefully giving an insight into the different paths that you can take as a creative and the various ways you can make a living from doing what you love!

Hope to see you there! xx