The Magnificent Olympic Park

Creatively wise not much to show.  My desk space is just a mass of rough pencil sketches which hopefully will develop into something worth showing and printing soon.

The Aquatic Centre

After the truly wonderful Olympic opening ceremony on Friday (what a visual delight!), Mr B, my girlies and me went to visit the Olympic Park the next day.  We were so lucky with the weather, not a drop of rain.  We were greeted with constant smiles from the many volunteers, soldiers who are working at the park.  The park itself is magnificent. The first building you pass is the Aquatic centre, I love this building. A beautiful design by Zaha Hadid, designed before London had even secured the Olympic bid back in 2004.

The Stadium

The Velodrome

The Velodrome with its sweeping roof is dramatic.  But the most beautiful thing about the park is the meadows of beautiful flowers scattered everywhere. Mr.B and myself remember the area pre-olympic bid and its hard to work out where certain places were before.

We spent the whole day at the park from 10am till 9pm.  We managed to get tickets to see the ladies basketball a sport that I know nothing about but still the atmosphere of being in a stadium is electric and you cannot help but be drawn in.

A colourful walkway.

A wonderful day and I have to say I feel, like many others very proud of London 2012 but to be honest I wouldn't expect anything less from such a great city!

Recycled doors of old London telephone boxes

Nanna Poole's 100th

Well another long gap between posts.  How has this happened?  Busy times always at the end of the school year.  A cold/virus that knocked me back a few days.  Now the children's holidays have begun (hooray) and I have finished my child minding career.  I now look forward to a few weeks of relaxed times before September when I have to work out a way of making a sort of living from this.  I'm very excited at the prospect and am looking forward to getting more prints and cards done.

The commissions are coming in at a steady pace which has been a joy, although I do have to be more confident in not under pricing myself.  I'm getting slowly better at this, but its not easy.  I completed an illustration for my good friend Kim's Nanna.  She will be 100 in a weeks time, wow some feat!  When asking what she would like in the picture, Kim suggested a garden theme as gardening had been a love of Nannas when more able.  Instead of an straight forward illustration of a garden I decided to draw a collection of many flowers into a plant pot.  Kim has since told me that she had also been a keen flower arranger in her time so the arrangement had been a good choice.  I do hope she enjoys the picture when she gets it next week.  I really loved doing this illustration, it has to be one of the most intricate ones I have done so far yet was completed the fastest.  I think in total a days work.

A card for a friends wedding last week.

I'm hoping that now I am more settled the posts will be more frequent again.  I aim to get more work done to show. Hey, the Olympics are almost here, holiday to Corfu is booked, Bradley Wiggins is going to win the Tour de France and the sun has finally appeared, this is all good!

Its been a while

Well it has been a long time since my last blog.  What have I been doing in that time? Creativity - mainly working on my latest commission that has been a bit of a stop, start affair.  Two free days a week get quickly filled with my daughters sports day, orthodontic appointments, making three cushion covers for a friend and the usual major de-cluttering of the house which is a constant battle! Nevertheless it's almost finished.  Cinzia (the client) wanted a few of the leaves coloured olive green and the names to have a little silver on them, I will complete these little bits this week. Cinzia requested an olive tree and the sun in her picture, she is from Italy so perfectly apt. All the names of her nearest and dearest amongst the branches.  The latin words at the bottom I added, which mean family, together, forever.

I've been looking into card printing companies again.  I have found a company that seem reasonable but again I find the scanning of the images so difficult.  The colours never look right on the screen, so an on going challenge for me.  I would gladly do a course in "scanning for printing" if one existed as it completely baffles me.  I am a trained Graphic designer but was trained pre-computers - soooo out of date.  The trouble is that it takes so much time!  I would like to get the cards printed soon also business cards or even better postcards.  Time, time, time is needed!