Oh look! February!

February is a short month, so I'm excused for spilling this over into March...

Knobs // Marmalade making

And finishing // New sketchbook

And some pleasing arty things I've seen this month:

Daniel Danger is tumblr-ing the progress of his latest illustration (which I'm hoping is zombies). His commitment to one image is pretty inspiring.

Some useful drawing tutorials.

Loosely related to illustration... it shouldn't really be surprising to learn that Dr. Seuss was an avid hat-collector.

Oh, look! January!

New year's resolution: I'm going to try and do one of these towards the end of each month this year, rather than just when I remember...

So, this past month has included...

The ballet // Lots and lots of boxes//

Coming home in the snow // Real fire!

And some lovely arty links:

Ian Sidaway's sketches of Vienna appeared just as I was reading The Hare with Amber Eyes. Apt.

John Hendrix on how to find your voice as an illustrator.

Kate Bingaman-Burt has drawn what she buys everyday since 2006... (via lostateminor)

A little bit eery, but beautiful - images from Daniel Danger.

Oh, look! #17

Christmastagram!

Bond Street / View from Waterloo Bridge

Poinsettia / Christmas soup

And some inspiring links:

Wonderful tattoo illustrations, with the stories behind them.

Always draw.

Beautiful fairy tales.

Dashing through the snow.

It's December, so my self-imposed thinking about Christmas ban is over!

I think this is going to be our Christmas card this year. I was feeling quite uninspired until I came across two images on Pinterest that just seemed to be asking to be combined... this one and this one.

Obviously, it's an entirely realistic depiction of Nick's and my tree-selection process. Staines is bound to be covered in snow, and is of course surrounded by deep pine forests... I do have some furry black snow boots, though!

It's beginning to look a bit like...

... the month before you can start thinking about Christmas. But certainly wintery and festive, thanks to issue six of Wrap magazine with its 'Nordic Lights' theme.

Cover art by Rjorn Rune Lie

Darling Clementine

Lotta Nieminen

Riikka Sormunen

Oh, look! #16

Recent nice things...

Book sculpture in a gallery on the King's Road // Baking bread

Curling up on the sofa // Festive lights

I think Quentin Blake's probably one of the few illustrators whose work almost everyone in the country would recognise, and there was a really interesting interview with him on Monday's Front Row on Radio 4.

A thought-provoking post from Jillian Tamaki on the difference between drawing and illustrating.

Useful drawing tips from Gary Panter (via Drawn).

CPSH October Favourites

As the picker of the topics for this month, I also get to choose my favourite photos from each category.

Inspiration

Sally's beautiful snowy shot

Something I Made

The lovely colours in S's garland.

Cosy

Margot's thermos of tea!

Hallowe'en

Rach's as-yet uncarved pumpkins.

Supplies

And Emma's beautiful bath salts.

Emma's picking the topics for November, so visit The Gift Shed over the next few days to see what they are and let her know if you want to join in.

Oh, look! #15

Recent nice things...

Greenest of green smoothies | Road trips in the rain

Sunday morning baking | Cat, baffled by curtains

(instagram: timballoo)

I love seeing how other people make things, so this video of Phil McAndrew painting 'fear' was inspiring.

Wrap Magazine

A couple of weeks ago I saw Wrap magazine mentioned on Hazel Nicholl's blog and went off on an intrepid search to locate a copy. (Okay... down the road... to Regent Street... to Anthropologie... There were a lot of vicious and wild tourists around though.)

In their own words, Wrap is a magazine that celebrates the very best in illustration, design and creative culture, and each issue comes with five double-sided pull-out sheets of unique wrapping paper. 

Although if, like me, wrapping paper usually means something carefully recycled, flattened and de-selloptaped and which originally cost £2 for three rolls anyway, I don't think you'll be using the beautifully printed sheets in here to wrap up any disappointing bubble bath sets...

So, Wrap is lovely because it's matte, not shiny, has no adverts and just a double page like this...

... of things you might want to buy (and I like most of these particular things.)

It has big full pages of illustrations, like this...

Ella Cohen (and my ubiquitous mug)

 ...and lots of contributions from different, interesting people.

At £10.50 per issue, it's not cheap but it certainly feels better quality than a bog-standard magazine. It'd also look good on your coffee table, and bear repeat flickings-through.