New Business Cards and Assemble Fest

I'm painting this weekend (23rd May) at Assemble Fest down Newland avenue, so decided it was time to get some new cards just incase. I love getting new business cards, it's like a mini portfolio in my pocket!

I will be painting at the corner of Lambert Street near the new ice cream shop from about 11am till 4/5pm (I hope there's some free ice-cream tasters floating around that day ;) ) 

I haven't painted at a live event for awhile so I hope I'm not too rusty and I hope there are lots of people out and about to support the event.

Check out more about the different acts and events at http://www.assemblefest.co.uk

Toxic Avenger!

So I'm slowly but surely starting to get on a role with some new work!
I made this, this week as a little 'Get Well Soon' card to myself! Had a bit of a poorly week and who better then the Toxic Avenger to cheer people up.

It got me thinking about some other ideas for card designs, so keep tuned! :)

Illustration Advice

Good Morning!

I realise recently my blogging posts have been few and far between, I’m hoping to get back on top of this! Sometimes I feel there’s no point in blogging unless I have any solid work to show, but I know that’s just my own rubbish excuse. There are so many interesting things I come across that I could blog about, and I have been working on my own little projects but I’m just not ready to share them yet....soon though.

One of my recent finds I want to share is Andy J. Miller’s blog. I think it is the most interesting and insightful blog I have found in a long time.

Andy J.Miller is an American graphic designer/illustrator who has worked for clients such as Sony, Nickelodeon, Converse and Google! He came across the pond to the UK in 2005 to complete a BA Graphic Design course at The University of Huddersfield.

Andy is now based back in Mid West America creating his amazingly colourful and fun characters for clients across the globe.

I came across his blog when I found some Creative Pep Talk Podcasts on iTunes that he makes to talk about the ups and downs of being an illustrator/designer. He is really open about the troubles he’s faced and how he’s dealt with problems like creative block.

Andy’s blog is full of useful advice, and it resonates with a wide audience. Whether you are just starting out in the design world or you are an established designer, Andy’s blog is refreshingly honest and helpful for all.

I hope you find it as useful as I have!

http://www.andy-j-miller.com/blog/

StrawberryToo

So for the past three Fridays the lovely team at Strawberrytoo in Hull let me come in for some work experience. The purpose of this work experience for me was to see what it would be like working in a design company, because coming from an illustration background it's not something I've ever had opportunity to do so far.
The team set me up some pretty cool briefs to try my hand at, there's a few examples below of the bits I did.
It was a really good experience and I learnt a few new tricks from my time there and I met some pretty talented and interesting people!

Prints for Sale!

This morning I have set up a Bigcartel page to sell some of my latest prints! My Victorians, Vikings, Trawlermen and Trawlermen's Wives are all up for grabs!
These are perfect ideas for Christmas presents or Birthday presents once framed.

 

http://vickygreenillustration.bigcartel.com/

Demon Cat

I've been having a bit of fun today drawing a crazy demon cat. I've been working a lot recently so grabbing the chance to do a bit of illustration has proven difficult! So it's been nice to do this today!

Trawler Wives

I have finally finished my Trawler Wives/Fisherman's Wives! It seems to have taken such a long time to complete (albeit only 2ish weeks!) but I've had to fit it in amongst my new job.

So I wanted to do a partner image for my Trawlermen and thought what better then their WAGs! When I started to look into the women who stood by their men, even though they where away for such long periods of time, I was amazed at the stories I found. So I tried to incorporate a little bit of the different stories I came across into my image.

The first lady in the bottom left hand corner is holding onto quite a pretty bright and cheerful jacket. Often when Trawlermen came back onto land for a few days with their family, they would get straight down to their local tailor and get themselves an exquisite suit made up from their money earned at sea. This got them the nickname 'dockside dandy's' for their quite out there fashion. However the day the men went back to sea, their wives would form a queue to "hock" a selection of exotic suits at the local pawn shops.

The lady in the back left hand corner is themed on the idea of wives being  'three day princess's' when their Trawlermen came back from sea. They would be taken out to fancy restaurants and treated to new clothing, some would even rent a washing machine for the week to clean the families clothes.

In the middle we have a real local heroine Lillian Belloc. In 1968 Humberside witnessed a triple trawler tragedy, which lost 58 lives.
Big Lil as she was nicknamed organised a 10.000 signature petition calling for better safety condition on trawlers. She even went down to London to meet with the then Primer Minister Harold Wilson!
Big Lil's campaign received international attention and due to her new safety regulations were introduced on the trawlers.
I have depicted her here with her nice big beehive and her petition in hand!

The other two ladies I have drawn out as your general Fisherladies who worked on the docks sorting and gutting fish.

It was so interesting finding out about these amazing ladies, and I'm surprised I didn't know more about them, but I haven't really seen anything locally like in Hull Maritime about them.

Anyhow I hope I have done them some justice here. I have also tried again to show my process, to give you a little insight into how I work.