A house on a hill

Spring is here. The sun is shining. My 'proper' work project is very nearly complete and I have 5 entire days left until school holidays and chaos reigns...
The glue is out, the stacks of old papers have been sorted into colour piles and the food cupboards have been raided for all their colourful and oooooh so unneccessary wrappings. Rubbish Pictures are GO. again.
I have been neglecting my little shop over at Folksy of late and so the first few pictures will be appearing there and I shall do my utmost to actually getting around to doing a little bit of marketing this time, rather than just leaving them to stagnate.
Heres the first:http://www.folksy.com/shops/wallop. It's made entirely out of bits of food packaging and a leaflet thrust into my hand on the way out of the local swimming pool, that would have been thrust straight back again, had it not been a rather nice shade of 'sky blue'....... ;-)

A random freaky thing I just stumbled upon...

I was just sketching the outlines of my next picture.... contemplating my options when I lost my way for a few minutes and my latest addiction to 'stumbling' took over...I'm trying to limit myself to just a few stumbles a day but it's difficult when corkers like this pop up!....
and I can guarantee that if you've read the scrawl above - you are now foot twirling and saying 'Woaaaaah' in a ridiculously amazed fashion. I am! Rubbish Pictures will have a wait a while - I just got to check to see what little delight will stumble up next....

Transforming art...

I have a snoring toddler lying across my mousehand. It's gone a bit numb and tingly but it seems such a shame to wake her and I'm quite enjoying the rare chance to sit and snuggle. Todays post must therefore be one handed and laptop based, so.... heres a thought.
A lot of my collages take a while to 'come into their own' - the first few hours of their existence is always a bit touch and go, because when I first begin work on them, they always look...well.... like random bits of rubbish stuck down with lots of glue. It can be a frustrating process, if you are a particularly impatient person such as myself, but generally it's worth carrying on and trying hard to remember the image in your head rather than what is oh so slowly appearing in front of you, until eventually the two pretty much match up. THEN, you're allowed to pop the kettle on and feel much better about yourself.
It made me grin to see this today then... http://lol.com.pk/2009/03/art-dont-miss-it/ and to think of the mixture of angst and excitement that this street artist must be feeling during the long process of making this amazing spectacle. I'm suitably humbled and have vowed not to get so irate waiting for my pictures to be finished in future. At least no one walks over mine when they're half way through!

Fonts. For FUN.

There are approximately a squillion fonts out there hanging around on the world wide web.
Beautiful ones. Funny ones. Really rather tacky ones. Obscurely licensed ones. Free ones. Shared ones. But sometimes just never quite the right ones... So as a little aside in the Wallop camp of late, I have been building up my own little library of Wallop fonts, ready to add to the new site in a couple of weeks time. I'm not planning on ever competing in the typography stakes with Jan Tschichold or Eric gill. Herb Lubalin can rest easy (although I did name my first hamster after him which I guess some might consider....odd) but if I can add a little something to the pool of original fonts out there and perchance save even just one poor soul from the evil that is comic sans with one of my very own little home grown wallops, I'll be happy.

'Fonts for fun' will be launching on the all new and improved Wallop website. Coming soon.

A 'Rubbish' Photo shoot

It's a busy time for Wallop. Rubbish Pictures are taking off and the Wallop website is growing and going through a thorough redesign, to incorporate this blog for starters, expanding the 'oodles of doodles' section and bringing everything together in one place, now that I seem to have my fingers in so many pies... it seems timely.

Todays job was the fun bit though - the marketing photographs for Rubbish Pictures which will also be featuring on the front page of the new site, now that I have purchased the domain name, www.rubbishpictures.co.uk (coming soon!)

We had a glorious afternoon leaping about in a lovely Hampshire field and I'm chuffed to bits with the results...
Thanks have to go out to our lovely friends Flair and Martin, who not only allowed us to leap about in their field, but didn't question the fact that we wanted to. Or why we turned up with a giant peacock picture.
Thanks guys. You know you've got good friends when they'll spend their afternoon off sat in Sheeps poo for you....

Proper work...

Well, playtime sticking and glue-ing has had to come to an end temporarily, the Rubbish Pictures have been put aside to dry while I put my grown up Wallop hat back on for a while and do some 'proper' work!
The Lunchbowl Network is a wonderful school based charity set up in response to the plight of orphans in the Kibera slum in Nairobi.
They are ever growing and are currently updating and rebranding. I am privileged to have been chosen to look after their Brand illustration and graphic design requirements. It's an ongoing process, but the logo is coming along nicely with a few variations being worked on this week (my favourite so far shown here) and the 'school pack' of posters and literature will be following shortly. Do visit the Lunchbowl site for more information on the fantastic things that this organisation does

The first batch of Poo and Rubbish have been delivered...

Only slightly later than planned, the latest batch of Rubbish Pictures are winging their way up to the Great to be Green shop ready for sale (and hopefully still in time for mothers day) and this time the recycled-ness hits an all time high with the additional use of the elephant poo paper backing I mentioned in my earlier posts, which allows me to include with every artwork this rather amusing certificate of endorsement... Well it made everyone under the age of 9 in our house snigger anyway... (Now I just need to find a way to incorporate some bogies and I will be officially recognized as the most hilarious mother of all time)

Teapots, bunnys, mermaids... what next?

Todays ponderings have come about through cabin fever mostly... My young apprentice is centre of attention again this week after a day in hospital on Monday having her adenoids removed. She was such a brave girl and has well deserved her entire week off school being pampered and cossetted. But, maaaaan a week is a long time when you're 7 with a sore throat and it's an even longer time when you're the one kept firmly inside away from germs and sources of infection with a boooored 7 year old. (actually.... on reflection, with 2 siblings in the house there's probably more chance of infection inside these walls than out.... but hey, I'm sticking to what it says in the leaflet!)

So.... to spare my sanity after the first 7 loops of High School Musical 3, (plus obligatory bloopers and behind the scenes hilarity), I've snuck into my den and have been creating away like a crazy lady, making the most of this enforced at home time to fulfil a new order of rubbish pictures for next week. But then here comes the dilema...
What exactly to create? An 'open order' is a wondrous thing. A customer who would like 'some pictures', similar to the last batch, but the subject can be 'whatever I fancy'. Wow. After years as 'Wallop' - illustrating for children's publishing in it's various forms, I have become very used to being dictated to exactly what is required. In this pc world we live in, each project generally requires a child of each gender, colour, height, weight, you name it and so artwork briefs are notoriously precise. When they're not, it inevitably means a reworking and so it's become ingrained to try to understand exactly the clients requirements first before ever setting pen to paper or mouse to...erm.... table.
So now I'm all of a wobble. Teetering on the edge of an 'artists block'? Dithering over the possibilities.... So far the Rubbish pictures portfolio has been pretty diverse featuring mermaids, dragons, dogs, cats all sorts... but how to know what will be a best seller? What should I do next, now that I can do....anything? I'd love to know - suggestions on a postcard please.... (or just in a comment would do and would save a stamp :-) )
In the meantime - I'm trying hard not to be distracted by the warblings of the delectable Troy Bolton and concentrating on a few more pre easter bunnys and pre mothers day teacups. Just to be safe.

The demise of Tallulah...

Well it's been a sad couple of days in Wallopsville, particularly for my apprentice who is mourning the loss of Tallulah...the goldfish. She has been unable to aid me in any creative way this week partly due to her sorrow and partly due to her sudden macabre interest in funeral directing. Our Tallulah, it has to be said, wasn't a particularly much loved pet. She was well kept of course, (by me) and regularly fed (by me) and cleaned (by me) and even occasionally given such treats as a new bit of weed or a nice looking pebble from the beach.... (by me) but on the whole she was ignored for much of her soggy life. In death however, Tallulah has come into her own. Her funeral was not far off the scale of royalty, relatively speaking of course. We had an after school procession of reluctantly rounded up neighbourhood children somberly gathered at the graveside, gallantly braving the recorder recital, the placing of daisies, the reminiscing.... before making their excuses and running home for their....ahem... fish fingers and chips...

So - especially for my bereft little apprentice, todays rubbish picture is in honour of Tallulah. A lovely orange fish made up entirely of Sainsburys nappy packaging and a few old Charlie & Lola birthday invitations. RIP old gal.

Now I must dash, apparently 'Nemo -Lulah' (and friend!) are ready for collection from Petsmart.....