

December's inspiration
My big news this month is that my friend and fellow illustrator Wiggy Cheung and I will be at the House of Illustration in King's Cross, London, at the Illustrators' Christmas Fair this Saturday, 9th of December 2017. Stop by and say 'hello'! I've been busy drawing, folding and printing over the past weeks. I created a set of three Christmas card designs - penguins playing in the snow, hedgehogs and field mice in their burrows, and a woodland snowflake with robins, squirrels,


Vienna
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) Gustav Klimt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons In preparation for an upcoming trip to Vienna, I have been re-acquainting myself with my two of my favourite artists: Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Both formed an important part of turn-of-the-century Austria's Jugendstil movement (also known as Art Nouveau). As a teenager, I considered Klimt to be my favourite artist, but I suppose I couldn't really have articulated why that was. I wa


Cherry blossoms
I recently wrote about a trip to the Japanese gallery at the British Museum. Besides seeing some lovely prints, I was also inspired by a beautiful wedding sash with weeping cherry blossom design. I had been thinking of creating a cherry blossom print, but something was missing from my early versions. I love the way the blossoms pour down from the top of the sash, and the metallic thread elevates the natural designs to a level of elegance befitting a wedding. My photos didn't


Metallics
If you've already visited my new Etsy shop, you will have seen my owl and moon print designs which make use of silver ink and hand-drawn silver pen details. My upcoming print designs will also incorporate metallic details in gold and bronze. Late winter is an appealing time for using metallics, because they work so well against darker colours. I love silver on a cool colour palette of grey or midnight blue and gold on warm colours like plum or burgundy. The full effect of the