What Birds are REALLY Thinking...... 2!

Although I am trying to buy a flat in London with my husband and am therefore filled with a constant gut tearing terror and dispair, there are good and exciting things happening which are good and exciting. 

Mostly I am happy and excited that I have finished the second edition of What Birds Are Really Thinking. Here exclusively and for the first time I will show you some pictures. 

This has been in the pipeline for a while, moving between back and front burners to make way for aforementioned housing angst and other exciting projects such as those detailed in my last post.

The first edition of What Birds Are Really Thinking, including spoonbills thinking about Britney Spears and starlings thinking about soft furnishings is my all time bestselling thing that I have made (apart from the Magpies print). In addition to being one of the very first things I made after moving to London to seek my fortune as an illustrator back in 2008.

 And this edition is soooooooo much better.

 I decided to revisit the topic in 2015 as an excuse to make some multimedia work and draw birds (my favourite things) and as a promotional follow up to the launch of my new website (jennyrobins.com). Much as I have a fondness for the original zine, this second issue really does show how far I've come in terms of skill and design. I will be sending these out as a mailer in the next month with a few postcards I also have in the pipeworks. 

 If you fancy owning your own copy, they are available here, or pop me an email if you can think of a good reason why I should send you one for free.  

In other good news, the event June and I organised for the Big Draw back in October/November 2014 has won a runners up award in the Drawing Inspiration Awards. That's good eh? We are going to the awards ceremony and will probably wear nice dresses, definitely do some live drawing and possibly make a speech (appropriatness of speech not yet confirmed.) I've announced the news officially on the Storyhands site here. 

This is me taking a short break from running the Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt in my F(Art)S T-shirt. This is what it looks like to be AWARD WINNING. 

OFFICIAL WEBSITE LAUNCH AND COMPETITION

YES I am officially launching my revamped and moved website. 

FANFARE AND PARADE

(Literally: Ooooh I should draw a quick sketch of a bird parade here that would be fun! But the physiology of birds marching and playing brass instruments is just fundamentally inaccurate. Which I cannot refrain from pointing out. That would be irresponsible.)

SO, THE NEW WEBSITE

Not the most flashy upgrade in the world, but it does have a lot of my work on it, organised into nice posts and pages where you can see it nice and clearly.

Work like this:

It has, like, an about section, and a press section, and 6 separate portfolios of my work plus a bonus sketchbook section. AND different banner designs and a feed of this blog, so you can go back and forth between the two all day if you like. 

Coincidentally, I noticed that this very blog has almost reached the exciting milestone of 25,000 views! Sadly there doesn't seem to be a way for me to see who exactly my 25,000th viewer will be/has been or I could give them a prize. So instead I will have another competition to help you lovely people celebrate these two lovely milestones with me, and to give you the exciting opportunity to share them with your friends.

WHAT CAN I WIN?

To keep this simples, I'm offering 2 people a straight up commission of my drawing time up to 3 hours. I will draw something of your choice for you, and post you the original and the digital versions. This can be a portrait of you or of someone or something dear to you, or something a bit more inventive like a scene you'd like to see, a dream you had or a celebrity in a compromising position. The winners will also get a selection of my promotional bumf including stickers and zines.

I may send out some runners up envelopes of bumf if I get a large response to this.

(These celebrities are all talking about this epic competition.)

HOW CAN I WIN?

One winner will be the thing that I most want to draw.
The second will be chosen using a random number generator.

1. Make sure you like my facbook project page and/or follow me on twitter, and/or instagram or follow this blog.

2. Add a comment to this post, or send me an email at jennyrobins[at]gmail.com saying what you would like me to draw for you if you win.

3. Share this blog post on as many platforms as you like using the #jennyrobinsillustration - the more times you share the more likely you are to win, although if you have high privacy settings on facebook please note I may not see your shares so let me know you have sent them.

This competition will run until the 1st of March.

Good luck n'est pas?

And don't forget to visit my improved and new site of web.

SUPER EXCITING VALENTINES VOTE COMPETITION

HELLO

So I've been making alternative collage valentines on and off since moving to London 5 years ago (wow, really? 5 years?)

After a few years of this I compiled my favourites into a mini-zine which I have been selling online and at various real life venues ever since. I also did a limited edition entirely pink version of this to use up the excess ink in my broken printer, as something special for you guys. 

I've made 7 new designs this week, but I want to step up this little corner of my 'practice' you know. As well as offering the originals for sale and making a second issue of the Love mini-zine, I want to print 100 Valentines cards to sell using some of the best designs from all 5 years, and sell them at a much cheaper price point (£1.70). I want to send these to print this Sunday in order to have a few weeks of optimal Valentines selling time, 

but this is where I NEED YOUR HELP.

I'm not sure which designs are the best to print. 

So I thought I'd ask for some help, and throw in a cheeky little competition to make it worth your while. I'll run this here and facebook too, to make it super easy. 

WHAT YOU COULD WIN:

one randomly selected entrant will win: a copy of both old and new Love zines, and a printed Valentines card of their choice. And a two finger KitKat. 

Two additional entrants will win their chosen printed Valentine card. 

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO:

In order to be in with a chance of winning, please tell me which designs (up to 6) you think I should print, 

be sure to say which design you would want to be sent to you if you win. 

you can do this in a comment on this blog post, or on the corresponding facebook photo album. 

Deadline is Saturday 18th January

HERE ARE THE CARDS

I've narrowed it down to the 23 designs below - go click through them and see what you think

I advise you to make sure you read all of the words on the card before deciding you like it, because some of them have a bit of a kick in the tail. If that's the expression that makes sense. 

competition winner and more gift ideas

To select the winner of the christmas card competition I used the entirely non-scientific method of alocating the enterers numbers and asking my boyfriend to pick one of them.

the winner is Abby Wright! she does drawings to, check them out.

congratulations.

I very enjoyed the answers everyone gave, mostly concerning lovingly handmade personalised gifts, and much big up of the hand-made in general. What this says about my er, online networking demographic, is that they are awesome obviously. but also arty. And there were some purchasing suggestions for the less endowed with craftiness or time.

this man shaped sleeping bag snug item is a joyfull pick, altho on the pricey lovers and very close relitives side of the spectrum.

Clare Bear cannily suggested her own handmade jewelery which is of course allways to be encouraged. The amount of awesome handmade accessories now available on the net ought to be able to fulfil any rellies tastes.
Illustrated calendars is another brilliant way to support your creatives in a christmas gift mode, this example is a delight suggested by it's maker Obara
I also wanted to post this although it is not for sale which Alice used as her example of personal handmade gift, it is a papercut based on a postcard i think, super beautiful. she should really be encouraged to make more things given how speedily her lovely fox purses sold.