Holly Wales came in to talk to us about her work and process, what she does and who she has worked for. I'm glad that I was introduced to her work as it is wonderfully playful and colourful. She uses hand-drawn felt tip markers and creates illustrated maps and hand-drawn type. When talking about portfolios, she said to show exactly what you can do, commissioners won't ask you to do stuff they can't see. So equally, if you don't like for example making things out of clay, don't put a photograph of something you've made out of clay just to show range, because if they ask you to do that you won't want to. She talked about making mistakes and how it is okay to make them, she actually likes some of the mistakes she makes sometimes, something that I need to get into my head! 

Heres some examples of how I tried to make my paintings stand out more and what worked and what didn't. So this first picture is an example of what didn't work! Painting and then drawing over in pen…it just doesn't look good and I really didn't like the look of this at all!

Here is an example of using stencils and doing the layers separately. It works so much better and there is no other outline needed. Waiting for the paint to dry before starting to paint over is really important too, that sounds really obvious and simple but I kept just doing it all in one go and the paints would all run but I just went with it, I didn't realise how much better it could look, just takes patience! 

Again, just another example…the first is using no stencils and not waiting for the paint to dry...

And here, I've used stencils and waited for the paint to dry before adding more to it, this still needs a little more colour I think but just the top looks a lot better than the previous I think!

Today we had a workshop on how to set up a website/buy a domain etc. I got mine on godaddy.com and chose the name corinafay to have as my website. I also chose cargocollective.com as the place I'd like to have my website on. Still got to get the hang of re-sizing my images and working out how to edit my website but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon!

www.cargocollective.com/corinafay

Whilst (again) searching through Pinterest for inspiration, I came across some illustrations that I really liked. The artists name is Lucile Prache and she creates these beautiful illustrated recipes made with watercolour, which of course is what attracted me in the first place. Also, because I'm starting now to look at drawing/painting the recipes of cakes/biscuits etc, her work really inspired me. I went on her website and she also does these amazing fashion illustrations?! It just gets better. I like her combination of fine lines and watercolour and how her way of painting is not super neat or strictly staying in the lines (kind of the look I try and go for!)

I feel like seeing her work has given me more confidence somehow and I actually can't wait to go and do some more painting now!

Ps; I want everything on her Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lucileskitchen

This is some of the work I've produced since changing my project. I'm quite happy with the outcome so far and enjoying working with this subject. I've also started getting into type and I'm really liking the effect that is left when done with letter stencils and watercolour. One thing I need to work on though is some of the watercolour paintings are very light, some just look like a first wash of colour has been applied when they are intended to be the finished painting. I need to figure out a way of making them stand out more without losing the watercolour effect, I don't want to just draw over them as they will look to heavy, I need to find something in between that works, because at the moment they just seem to disappear. And also invest in some watercolour paper, it makes all the difference. Gary and Ian suggested I make my own stencils so I'm going to have a go at doing that and see what happens!

Since choosing to do the Cath Kidston brief that I was initially really looking forward to starting, I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall with it. I feel a little confused as to what the brief is actually asking for and its stopping me from getting on and I just don't feel its the right thing to carry on with anymore. So after a talk with one of my tutors I've decided to base my project around sweet treats, so anything from cakes to pastries to biscuits and anything in between. Looking at things like packaging also, cake stands, recipes etc. I think this is something my style of working is suited to and I feel a lot more positive about what I'm doing and confident that I can go and get on with things now! (Also, my research involves buying said sweet treats to draw from which I'm definitely not complaining about)

I took to Pinterest to have a look at some existing illustrations to inspire me;

Somehow the time has come to start my final major project, pretty sure someone has sped the time up because I can't believe this is happening already! I've chosen to do two different projects as I think I would lose interest with one. The first one I'll be starting is the Cath Kidston competition brief for YCN. The brief is to design one new conversational print taking into account their brand values and print style. It states that their target customer is female, 29, she likes festivals, vintage shopping, the idea of country life and making stuff. I thought one of them themes I could start exploring could be summer festivals? Country kitchen? Something like that. Heres some of my first rough sketches…