Workspace

Day 3 of #MarchMeetTheMaker and the topic today is Workspace.

I have 2 workspaces that I have been using recently... 

          - A little desk in the sitting room. Which is where I'm typing this. It's one I've had since I was small. Just deep enough for the laptop to sit on, and with 4 draws to keep the essentials by my side. The desk is against the wall which gives me a handy place to prop things up and see how they look, or for cards to dry when I'm working on another. I often work here in the evening, under a lovely bright light so I can see what I'm drawing.

          - The coffee table / sofa combo. This is guaranteed to be terrible for my back. But it's often in the sunshine, is mobile - so if I have my huge sketchbook out I can push the table out into the room so the book doesn't lean against anything else. It's a lovely wooden table that's also good for photography. Incidentally it is also in line with the television if I happen to put a well loved film on - usually more to listen to than watch as I'm normally looking at the page. 

However, depending on what I'm doing I could also have everything out on the floor, or on the kitchen table... and I'm really looking forward to it being warm and dry enough to sit out for long enough to draw (a quick sketch is possible at any time of the year!). 

Me!

For Day 2 of #MarchMeetTheMaker the challenge is 'You' (me!)!

I've recently written a bit about me on my 'Joining the Dots' post...

March Meet The Maker

Today I stumbled across a hashtag on Instagram that sounded like it might be just right for me to get involved with. Let me explain - over on her blog, illustrator Joanne Hawker (http://www.joannehawker.co.uk/) decided to create #MarchMeetTheMaker 

She writes; After getting a little frustrated that I couldn't find an Instagram Challenge that I wanted to take part in, I decided to make my own instead! This is how #MarchMeetTheMaker was born. 

This challenge is to help small businesses such as myself to tell the story behind the brand. It also aims to give an insight into the face, process and hard work that goes into creating all of the beautiful products we have to offer.

(see it all here)

So, for the month of March, she has suggested the following:

http://www.joannehawker.co.uk/2016/02/marchmeetthemaker-instagram-challenge.html

Being a brand new small business I thought it might be a really useful exercise for me to participate in. I'm not sure how far I'll get but here it goes! 

1. Brand Image

I have chosen to use my hand lettering, using my dip pen to write 'Alice Draws The Line' and my illustrations of cones to be my brand image. This works best as my website header (above) and e-mail footer when I use it in full like this...

It is a little Larch cone, a Black Pine cone and a Douglas Fir Cone (working left to right from the left!). These I drew at Christmas for one of my Christmas Card designs (which you can see here!) and I like the fact that it combines my love of both the woods and illustration.

However, the long thin brand image doesn't suit all formats so, on my shop image there is a reduced-cone version! I'm working on a version for my Instagram and Twitter accounts. 

Pistachio!

I have to confess, I'm not sure where many of these National Days come from, but today is 'National Pistachio Day'! ... and here are a few to help us celebrate!

Spring is Springing

I love this time of year as everything slowly turns green and comes into leaf. 

For my Drawing A Day this week I've been looking at different tree species - drawing their buds as a sketchbook study. I'm a bit of a tree geek and love how you can play detective and work out which trees are which. At this time of year the buds are one of the ways to identify the species (as well as the bark, remaining seeds and silhouette). I'm hoping to draw a few more this week and build up my collection. 

I also really like being able to tell what time of year it is in my Drawing a Day book when I flick through - maybe one year I'll manage to do a whole year as a nature journal...

Here is the process...

These studies are the starting point for another project I'm working on... but that's for another day!

Nuts about You!

This design is now available as a card... perfect for Valentine's Day! or any Anniversary... or just because!

For sale in the shop - go straight there by clicking... Nuts About You! 

The original is there too, you can find that by clicking... Nuts About You!-Original

A new range

I've started working on a new range of cards that combine my love of trees with my love of illustration and hand lettering. At present I'm affectionately referring to them as my TreeGeek range. This is one I've been tinkering with today...