it's the most wonderful time of the year again.

I went to the Solipsistic Pop launch party, cos I'm in it and all that. Few weeks ago. Nice night, drew Owl and Mouse on a postit. I always have postits about my person as a rule now. It's a thing. Anyway I gave it to them so you can't see it sorry.

I had to leave before the end cos it was a school night, I was well grumpy about this, although thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I mostly used to leave these things about 10 o'clock before I was a teacher as well.

This week sees the launch of the The memories project although I'm not sure if I'll make it to that one.

Check out this sweet commission I did for Ellie from Bristol (not the smelly one) inspired by my friendship alphabet, but with a food/kitchen vintagey theme,

here are some of the paintings a bit bigger for your eyes to see. I will probably be doing this as a prints series at some point - let me know if you are interested and I'll make sure your in the know you know.

here is a joyful pop triptych of Emma for the facebook project, slowly getting there. Facebook just recently made it so photos go backwards in time, instead of forward. What will they think of next eh? Jackanapes.

here is a consumer rage anecdote. Two days ago, I was seduced into GAP by their 30% off of everything sandwich board attack strategy. I tried on some stuff, apparently I am a size 8 in there now, which is not to say I am a size 8 anywhere else, just that Americans are fat. Anyway I enjoyed some purchases which I was looking forward to wearing about my person, but when I got up in the morning I discovered that they still had the security tags attached.

Instantly, I was consumed by consumer rage. I felt righteously wronged and wrongfully denied my new clothes experience of the day. Forced to go to school in clothes I had already owned. I'm over it now. When I went back in the girl on the till wordlessly removed them for me barely glancing at my receipt. I'm now not sure why I was so angry. It probably says something profound about our society. Or my state of mind. There was this interesting speech by Ben Hammersley that is not really relevant but you should go read it anyway.

HELLO, long time no blog. Sorry. Teaching is eating my life.

Anyway. There are some overdue reasons to be famous I need to tell you about. So there it is.

To whet your wimple, here are some recent(ish) portraits from the facebook project of friends beginning with the letter E.

Emily

Emily

Ellie (interactive!)

The memories project, an art book about the experiences of poetic cancer survivors to raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres, and including an illustration from yours truly and a number of tear jerking accounts, is now available for pre-order! good idea for christmas je ponse. Here is a snippet of my illustration, i cannot reveal the entirety obvs.

Read the sentence above, does it make sense? add the correct punctuation.

An even more exciting preview, here is a panel from my comic in the upcoming Solipsistic Pop, also available for pre-order and various other activities here,

as well as a talking cat, my contribution also includes zombies, dresses, butterflies, metaphors, water pistols, dance routines... basically I just frew what I fancied drawing and made it into a sort of story. The other comics in the anthology (and yes I have seen proofs) are the expected mix of extreme awesomosity, with spectaculazing artists such as Joe Decie, John Cei Douglas, Phillipa Rice (I've met her twice, i just put that in cos it rhymes), Lizz Lunney, Anna Saunders, besides many more acecakers.

There's also going to be a launch party, I went to the launch party of a previous issue, and failed to draw Robin Ince, that was very good so I expect this will be too.

The They Draw and Cook Book is also now officially available another great christmas gift option for all of your friends and family who enjoy food and/or art. In this video you see my page twice, I am practically the star.

That's How for Now.

blog blog blog blog blog

obviously I am a bad person and have not blogged recently. I could post-date and fake it now and be all like, oh you have not read my blog? well it was here, full of stuff. But because I have respect for you, and myself, and because such a rouse (sp?) would require some planning to hang together, I'm not going to do that. However. stuff has happened. so prepare for epic stuff. And probably I will forget something so will have to post again anyway.

firstlymost here is a recent TheyDrawAndCook.com design I did, I am particularly proud of the fig leaves, although why I decided to include the rhino I honestly couldn't tell you. It must have been due to some tacit knowledge (that's a pedagogical theory joke, well, not really).

In February I went to visit my darling sister Hazel in Lisbon where we were blessed with optimal tourism weather. I recommend it. Here are some drawings I did of some Fado we went to see in a restaurant in the old part of the city, where these sorts of things traditionally take place. It is a cultural thing where everyone is very depressed and grumpy and moved to sing about it.

Before this, I had some London Fashion Week fun, which I wrote up in some more depth on Amelia's Magazine here. I drew pretty things and met fashiony people. Below are some of my favourite illustrations and sketches from my A/W 2011 haul. For the non-fashionistatastic among you, that means clothes what they invented last year for next year that you can't buy yet but should be the only thing you are thinking about apparently. All for Amelia's Magazine.

Bora Aksu also featured the above illustration on their facebook page

I got to see the Jasper Conran show where I sketched at lightening speed - see my write up and sketches here, my favourite works in the show were def. these sturdy jumpsuit sort of things.

I'm pleased with the atmosphere in this Clements Ribeiro piece

Live sketches of Edward Finney and Nicole Murray with their dresses.

This is Eun Jeong, elegant innit?

In Facebook Project news, I did this manga style portrait of Danni, because she just looks like an Oh My Goddess character, and everyone is all over it. Which is nice. But, not to sound whingy, I am not a manga artist. This is not my thing. Do not expect more. Unless specifically requested. They warned me about this at illustrator school. Why it's not good to be flexible. Which really begs the question why I am posting about it if I don't want people to notice. Um. well I've written it now.

A while ago I promised to draw a free commission for my 750th twitter follower. probably a little prematurely tbh, as the flurry wasn't really going to happen till I was pretty close. Although I plan to do something similar for my 1000th follower, watch the space of hereness. The lucky winner was Acronia Lyubov (not her real name, apparently) - I lucked out here as she is stunning! (see below) and wanted me to draw her in my favourite style, so this was a joyful undertaking.

In other news, my illustration will be included in the amazing memories project, an art book about the experiences of poetic cancer survivors (when I got the story to draw from through I proper cried, this will definitely be a worthwhile purchase when it comes out - chock full of beautiful art and heart rending true stories) to raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres.

Poppy Cleopatra has featured my live portrait of her in her blog banner, looking lovely.

Also, I have been dieting. Which I have a lot of complex feelings about so I might write a blog post about that when I have finished. I'm not sure how I'll know when I've finished. I might not last past Easter. Or maybe I will just stop when i am a size zero. ha.