Nakkid Owls - Behance Served Gallery Feature - Character Design

Screen Shot from Character Design Served Gallery

I have been very much neglecting my Behance portfolio and focusing more on Etsy as of late, so it was a nice surprise to wake up to an e-mail from Behance letting me know one of my projects was featured. This will be the 7th Behance feature for me (yay!). 

You should for sure go and have a look and 'appreciate' it.

View the gallery.

View the project: Nakkid Owls

View my behance portfolio

A Day in the Life of Moi - Makers Boutique

Hopefully you have already seen and ready this over at Makers Boutique... But just incase... I wanted to post up the text and images over here too!

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It's Saturday morning and I'm up early because I cannot bear to sleep in ever. I always check my email and social medias first. Sometimes its hard to keep up with them all (Facebook x2, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogger, Behance! Plus my website and Etsy!).

I have an order for a custom set of Russian Owls for Southsea Coffee Co. in Porstmouth, which I have been dying to get started on all week. I work a 9-5 during the week, which doesn't leave a ton of time during the week to get creative. So I make breakfast and get organized to get started.

I start by collecting some images/colour palette for inspiration into a folder on my computer for when I get stuck on what next to do. Sometimes I pull inspiration from some of my old favorites.

I am a huge image hoarder and have been collecting inspiration sources since university. I am also slight obessive and label each image correctly for easy finding later.

I start sketching some basic lines and details for the owls and then get some colours mixed while I eat breakfast (banana & egg pancake).

My most favorite thing to do:

I'm using Stevenson acrylic inks and have been since university. They are what was suggested in my first year and have gotten so used to this brand it's hard to change. The only problem is I can only get them when I'm back home in Canada.

I get a colour palette decided, trying to stick with the shop's colours. 

 After painting the grey on this owl about 4 times, I think I have the right shade.

It's time for a break and I always have more than one project on the go. And today's task is doing a little stock take of my products after last weekend's fair at Fabric for Craftaganza.

                                

My 9-5 job gives me access to all kinds of printing equipment which allows me to produce all of my products.

I have an etsy store which I'm still new at and trying to build it up a little more, so I take some photos of some new products which I printed last week.

My husband is always a big help to me when doing fairs especially, but sometimes he is busy so I have to get creative.

I do a little bit of photo editing so they are ready to go up on Etsy.

It's time for a change of scenery, so I walk into town (chichester) which is literally a 3 minute walk.

It's not Friday but I put out a print for Free Art Friday anyways as I didn't have time last night. I hope it makes someone's day awesome.

I have decided to treat myself and buy some new paintbrushes and white paint.

I go back to the Russian Owls, desperate to get them finished sooner than later so that I can go deliver them to Southsea Coffee and drink coffee and eat some of their cake. Cake is my weakness. My husband and I avoid all grains, legumes and dairy and anything processed, but I can never say no to cake. Ever.

For now almonds and dried pineapple will have to do.

A few more hours of works:

I feel satisfied with my progress today, so I call it a day. I eat a late dinner and spend some time with my husband watching a movie until I don't feel guilty about going to bed early.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Southsea Coffee Russian Owls

A few weeks ago Southsea Coffee got in touch for a commission for some Russian Owls for their shop. I gladly accepted. Here they are in all their glory.

I dropped them off at the shop on a Saturday and we stayed and had lunch. It was one of the most delicious sandwiches I have eaten in a long while. We also had some cake which was equally as delicious. 

I would definitely suggest that if you are in the Southsea vicinity that you go down and eat some cake. Or maybe have coffee... but you probably won't be able to resist the cake.

Southsea Coffee @ Twitter

Southsea Coffee @ Tumblr

South Sea Cofee @ Facebook

The end

Etsy Shop on caleigh-ill.com

So I have been planning to have a proper shop on my own website for ever now. Tom is currently trying to work out the kinks, but it's a super long process and a bit of a pain in the ass. For ages I had an under construction note on the holding page for the shop, then I updated with some links and images. Etsy has some really great tools for you to use, such as Etsy mini... which is just some basic code for Etsy users to use. So I have replaced my under construction note with some actual products. I think it looks really good and hopefully will bring more people to my Etsy shop.

caleigh-ill.com/shop screen shot

The end.

All about me! Etsy

I have finally got around to creating the about page on my Etsy shop. It didn't take long once I started, obviously, as it is just a couple of paragraphs; I just find it incredibly difficult to write paragraphs on the topic of myself or my art. So procrastination was key in it never getting done until now.

Anyways its all done and I'm pleased. A little image of my face and a link to the page now appears on all my listings.

Etsy Listing Screen Shot

Here's the text if you don't fancy clicking the link to the page.

There's Always Time to Eat Cake

I have been drawing and painting as far back as I can remember and always told my parents I wanted to be an Artist. After leaving University I moved to the UK and acquired a full time job working in print. One day I started hand painting robots onto a set of wooden coasters that had been damaged at my job. I created a few of these sets before my cousin asked why I didn't print them instead. Light bulb. I began printing my artwork and designs onto the printable coasters. This gave me a product that was easily re-produced, which led me to start selling at craft markets. Since then I have expanded to phone cases, prints, and mugs. All of which I print and assemble myself.

The products are great and can be sold at an affordable price which allows my art to reach many more people than I ever could have previously. I now sometimes find myself creating artwork specifically for coasters in mind.

A lot of my original illustrations had many 10s of hours put in to them and I felt the asking price was a little too high for markets and fairs, but I still wanted to sell original items instead of just reproductions. I began painting small wooden boxes, ceramic owl figures, then sets or Russian Dolls as owls, and thus Russian Owls were born.

To this date I have created 24 individual and unique sets of my Russian Owls, some of which were custom requests.

I am still a drawer/painted at heart and I enjoy nothing more than spending an entire weekend starting and finishing a new painting or drawing. Having the ability to create other products from originals and selling them through Etsy or markets is just icing on the cake. 

Etsy About Page - Screen Shot

The end

Nakkid Owl Tshirts

2 colour screen print of the Tuque Nakkid Owl. 

I brought a bunch to my last fair at the Makers Boutique and sold every last one. 

A Day in the Life of Me - Makers Boutique Feature

Last week I was asked by the Makers Boutique to be apart of their 'Day in the Life' feature on their blog. I had some projects to do on that Saturday so choose that day to document.

The post went up on the their page early last week and I am so happy with the little write up they took the time to do.

Screen shot from Makers Boutique Tumblr

Read the full post here. 

I really enjoyed the process of the whole thing and got to dig out my wide angle lens which is collecting dust these days. My camera is pretty much 100% used for product and art photos. 

The end.

Strong Island Feature

Russian owls made a little appearance over at Strong Island a few weeks ago. Which was super exciting. I'm so pleased with the little write up and the images that were chosen. 

Screen shot from Strong Island

The end.