I’ve just finished the last assignment of the MATS Bootcamp – another great collection of projects, has been super fun. Here’s all my assignments! Varied in medium, but I think maybe just maybe the style is getting more consistent even when I don’t realise it is…
I am taking a MATS Bootcamp course and this month’s topic is Vicunas in children books! too much fun….
Week 2 of the Home Decor class I am taking is on Fabric, so very well adapted to anything illustrative. Once again I am working with soft colours (but got a bit braver this week) and focused on a kid’s bedroom… Or I would possibly sneak a few of these items into my room too! These take ages but I’m finding the experience, especially of mocking things up, really invaluable to really see what works (for me at least!).
Week three of the course is on children’s book (my favourite!) though the story was a lot darker than most of the children’s books I’ve worked on. It was fun to build a dark story feel to the cover and work digitally, playing with some new Photoshop brushes I have.
So this was a bit of an experiment… The theme for this week was Staffordshire Pottery (featuring very nonchalant animals!) and I ran with a dog “Best in Show” theme, suitable for kids. I think next time I would focus on more abstract design rather than characters as they are hard to translate to a plate (!) however a great experiment for me and I’ll try again soon. 
I recently (after at least a YEAR of musing) decided to sign up for Lilla Roger’s art courses, very practical illustration courses that I’m hoping will teach me some new areas and practical skills. First class down, I’ve learnt about fabric design and I am most impressed with the class! A lot of work, but learnt a lot and I’m excited about the journey ahead. Here’s this week – fabric design based around Pyrex and pasta.
Jesses Mess 