Murder Margaret Wrote (Part 2)!

Good evening!

Issue 174 of The Dolls' House magazine has been on the shelves for a little while now, and it features the second instalment of the murder mystery I mentioned a couple of posts ago!
The second part required the highlighting of more details from the text, so I opted for a poisoned needle, bottle of evil poison and an LAPD badge (which, if you have a look in the magazine itself, was very detailed). It was necessary for me to look very closely at the detail on an LAPD crest and I realised quickly that I had previously had no idea how much detail it contained. I recommend looking one up if you have a moment, they're very interesting!
 I'm thrilled to say that not only is there another part of the story to appear here soon but I have another commission to work on for the following issue! Very exciting. I adore editorial commissions in general, and this one is slightly different because I haven't had a sneaky peek at the article it accompanies yet! So watch out for more news in a month or so.

TTFN

xx

Start to Finish...

Good evening!

The Cox & Kings 'Inspiring India' bloggers challenge concluded last night with a wonderful evening at the Royal Geographical Society. There was an engaging talk from Sir Mark Tully, beautiful authentic music and lots of lovely food floating about! And of course, lots of artwork on display and open to votes! I hear that the event was also mentioned in the Telegraph newspaper on the 6th, so if anyone has a copy I would love to see! I began work on my piece with a strong design in mind, even down to the colour palette I wanted to use. I started by sketching out the main character (I rarely work without characters it seems!) of an Elephant in pencil. This was followed by some Peacock feathers...

Everything was then painted with acrylic and scanned in! The background was painted separately with a large brush to get the sweep of colour that I was hoping for, as I wanted to keep as much of the original paint texture as possible.

I also drew my own Indian inspired henna patterns which were converted to a beautiful brick red colour and applied very lightly to the background layer to add another point of interest. I'm not sure whether they are prominent enough, but I really liked them anyway! I also added a subtle image of the beautiiful Taj Mahal; it was kept consciously simple because I did not want it to steal focus.

And at the end, I finished up with this!

In between offering escorted tours and luxury holidays, the fabulous Cox & Kings had compiled a great little leaflet so that the guests could cast their votes on the night-

It was wonderful to see all of the fabulous artwork on display, and had been curated wonderfully in order to emphasise the diversity of imagery. So a huge congratulations to Cox & Kings for putting this on, and a big thanks for asking me to be involved. Here is my piece on the easel (photograph courtesy of Che Kumar)

And finally, I am proud as punch to be able to show you the winning image, again produced by my hugely talented friend, Che of cheism.com!

Isn't it gorgeous?! Well done, Che! Well, I have bombarded you with plenty of images for one day, so do check back soon for the next set of the Dolls' House Magazine's murder mystery images!

TTFN
xx

Murder Margaret Wrote!

Good evening!

I have just finished illustrating a 3 part murder mystery for The Dolls House Magazine, written by Margaret Grace (aka Camille Minichino). I really enjoy doing these editorial pieces in watercolour, mixing in a little digital colour wherever I feel it would enhance the image. Apologies for the dreadful photographs, but here's a look at the centrefold!

The first part received a little mention over on Camille's side project, http://theladykillers.typepad.com/, and you can see the individual post by clicking here. Part 2 appears in the most recent issue, which went on sale nationwide today!
 I'm currently still working away in the studio on the Cox and Kings 'Inspiring India' project! I'll have some sneaky peeks for you shortly. Cox & Kings (who are organising the event) specialise in escorted tours and luxury holidays. The bloggers challenge exhibition will take place at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) on the 10th October and will host a lecture on 'The Mind of India' by Sir Mark Tully. If you fancy attending you can purchase tickets for this event by clicking here! Check back soon for images from part 2 of 'Murder in Miniature' and sketches from the 'Inspiring India' image!

TTFN xx