Wallop Illustration : tea time blog spot

New Wallop Website & Blog

2010-05-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

The new Wallop Illustration website has now launched, incorporating this blog along with Wallop information, gallery, contact details and 'Rubbish Pictures'. Check it out here: www.wallop.co.uk and please continue to follow me there as I will be winding down this blogger blog to concentrate on the one central site. Thanks for all your support so far and see you over there!

Get animated with 'Animates'

2010-03-31T06:46:00.000-07:00

If you have children and happen to go into newsagent shops, chances are you'll have seen the new 'Top Dogs' from Animates. If you haven't, but you have children or just happen to go into newsagents shops, chances are that you soon will.
Dusted Design have just launched the newly designed Animates website, a fun environment for children to explore further the 'Top Dogs' world, with online voting, competitions, videos and a shop.

Dusted commissioned me to illustrate a series of doggy buildings, backgrounds and interiors and of course what every doggy needs: street furniture for those little doggy urges... Whilst it was quite an unusual brief, it's been a fun project to work on and I'm delighted to see the end results online. Check out the Animates website here to see the doggyness in all it's glory :-)

Self Promotion is key (I know, I know but it's a little cringey)

2010-03-16T04:31:00.000-07:00

It's Spring time. I'm feeling motivated, I really am. Amazing what a bit of sunshine can do. With the new Wallop website launching very soon, it's the time to up things a notch and get out there promoting and marketing and all that stuff. Lovely new interesting clients and projects - here I am!

It's a tad overwhelming though.... huh?

It's all too easy I find, to stick with what you know best and to stay within your comfort zone when it comes to freelancing. So. This week, I downloaded a copy of the new e book from the Red Lemon Club, called :
'10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion', an inspired wedge of advice from a freelance illustrator and designer, Alex Mathers, who also writes for the contemporary illustration blog: Ape on the moon. It's good. Straightforward advise on proven techniques. It's what you need to do and how you can do it. So, I've read. I've digested. Watch this space and let's see if it works...

Go get yourself a copy here, if you too need a bit of a kick up the bum on the promotional front. :-)

Ancient Greece recreated in Papier Mache ...and other things

2010-03-12T05:03:00.000-08:00

This term I have been teaching weekly art workshops to a bunch of year 5 artists in the making. The theme this time around has been 'Ancient Greece' and we have had a whole lot of fun exploring everything from myths and legends, to Gods and monsters, to what on earth an Ancient Greek would have painted his shield with, and why...
We've made our own life sized replica Hoplite shields and designed family emblems to decorate them with, we've created a virtual treasure chest of 'ceramic' artefacts, decorated with mythical characters and stories. We researched and designed our own pack of Greek Legends Top Trumps cards and as a grand finale we created a vast Medusa head sculpture, complete with an array of 3D snakes.
I think we can safely say ' we did Ancient Greece justice this term.... and most of all we had a whole bundle of fun. I just hope the children enjoyed the sessions as much as I did... (follow this link to see the School website's photo gallery of some of the artists with their creations)

The Big Team Scribble

2010-02-26T02:36:00.000-08:00

The Scribble project thinks that Doodling should be a team sport and a lot of doodlers seem to think so too!
The Big Team Scribble is a collaborative project where illustrators submit their doodles to create a large scale black and white scene, ready for colouring. I sent off my train carriages this morning, I was cutting it a bit fine as the last date for submissions is today.... ( A few hours left if anyone reading this is still keen to have a go!) but it's such a lovely idea, I couldn't not submit a quick doodle.
Last project over 100 people contributed to a giant totem pole and this time around its a long string of train carriages which will be produced as a zine. Keep an eye on the Big Team Scribble blog for first views of all the amazing entries flooding in...

My favourites so far include these glorious works of art by Uberkraft and Muxxi. Simply wonderful.

Annotate the Weekend

2010-02-21T02:48:00.000-08:00

As 'WallopArt', I follow a lot of very creative and slightly bonkers arty type people on Twitter. One of whom is 'Mokuroku' aka Joe List, the creator of The Annotated Weekender : an awesome blog that does just what it says. It presents Annotations & doodles on The Gaurdian's Weekender magazine with some spectacular results. Check it out and I defy you not to have the urge for a quick doodle yourself. It's fun! (and cheaper than therapy).

Seeing as in our house, all copies of The Gaurdian end up as either 'Rubbish Pictures' or at the bottom of the Guinea pig cage, I think it's nothing less than a good thing to create one more stage in between the recycling process.

These pics are my day late doodles over this morning's coffee, but for a look at some quality annotations, go visit the blog, The Annotated Weekender. Great stuff.

Liberty Open Call. 'Best of British'

2010-02-07T05:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday saw the latest Open Call for Designers at Liberty's in London.
Entitled the 'Best of British' the day was an opportunity for artists & designers in all fields to showcase their ideas and designs to an expert panel of designers and buyers from the Liberty store and gain an insight into how to progress and market their wares. There was obviously also the very real opportunity to impress the buyers and for some the glimmer of hope that maybe one of their products might get noticed and snapped up.

Liberty, unfortunately isn't the most ideal market place for my own particular line of work, so I was not expecting too much. A rare opportunity for constructive advice from such experts for redirecting my Wallop Design work was just too good to miss though so I gathered up a selection of my Rubbish Pictures and a portfolio of my children's book mock ups using those same pictures and with a little trepidation set off to Regent Street.

The doors did not open until 10.00am but the grapevine whispered that queues would be long. It was right. As I arrived at 7.30am, at least 20 people were stood in the freezing cold already and the queue just grew and grew from that point on. The Starbucks opposite must have made a roaring trade from people clutching lattes just to keep their hands warm.

Queue time wasn't wasted time though. I was fortunate enough to be stood chatting with a fantastically talented pair of textile designers from Glasgow, PringleMurray who I have a feeling, will most definitely be featuring strongly on the Liberty shelves in the future, plus a couple of jewelry designers with a very beautiful and I'd say unique product for ladies, named 'shy' which I can definitely say had a certain buzz about it ;-)

We finally moved inside to the lovely union jack bunting bedecked upper gallery area of the store itself, where row upon row of gold chairs awaited, for a further (seated at least - phew) queue before we met our designated panel of experts.

After the somewhat nerve wracking wait, the actual designated presentation time went in a flash. The feedback I was given however, was very positive, the advice of which direction to head in next for optimum market appeal, just what I needed to hear and all in all - I left feeling very positive and encouraged.

Had I not been concentrating hard on lugging a ruddy great peacock against the tide on Oxford Street on a Saturday lunchtime, I may even have had a small skip in my step....

I believe Liberty hold Open Calls annually, for more information on the next one keep an eye on their blog http://blog.liberty.co.uk/

The day will also be featured on 'The buying Game' by Maverick TV, due to air on BBC2 this Autumn following the rise of the various designers who Liberty took on. I'll be watching, fascinated, to see how everybody gets on.

An Expedition...to an exhibition. 'Is this us, or WHAT?'

2009-12-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

To add to the whirlwind of stuff that's been going on this last few weeks, I have been privileged enough to have spent a chunk of time each week running some art workshops for the 32 very talented young artists who make up Year 6 at my local primary school.

This series of lessons were all based loosely around the subject of 'Me' and included self portraits in realist, surrealist, cubist and pop art style. We have created life sized angels with 3d feathered wings and encapsulated an emotion in a Lichtenstein-esque bubble. It's been fun. The end of term has sprung up, oh so soon, and so we celebrated a culmination of our efforts with an exhibition, or expedition, as some of our artists have been calling it, entitled 'Is this us, or what?'

I'm currently enjoying that warm fuzzy feeling of a real achievement (and slight exhaustion) and looking forward to more workshops with Year 5 next term. Ancient Greece I do believe, bring it on..... :-)

A Rubbish Popcorn Dog

2009-12-04T05:10:00.001-08:00

In the midst of the crazy pre Christmas season, This week there has been a little beam of sunshine in the form of a project commissioned for the aptly named 'Sonny'.
This latest Rubbish Picture has been created to commemorate the naming ceremony of the very gorgeous young man whose face can be seen peeking through the camouflage of blue hues in the background.
Rubbish Dog is made out of popcorn wrappings, (just the right shade of brown) a Fat Face Christmas gift catalog and appropriately, a bag of Wagg Dog food. The background consists of packaging; from tea bags, Marks & Spencers Salt and Vinegar crisps, Rich Tea biscuits and some random NHS Swine Flu leaflets which the paper boy obviously got bored with delivering and just shoved in their entirety through my door instead.

Rubbish Zebra

2009-11-27T05:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, someone shoved a Christmas Marks & Spencer's meat catalogue through my door. Being a vegetarian I made it into a nice Zebra instead.

I've been a bit rubbish at keeping on top of the Rubbish Pictures of late, busy with some standard issue graphic design as well as teaching some lovely art workshops to primary school kids (more on that later) so the Wallop shop over at Folksy is emptier than usual, yet still has some bargains on sale should you be interested in a nice christmas gift?!

This weeks rubbish picture then, is the lovely zebra, whose body is made up of aforementioned meats catalogue, and is stood upon a mound of pea and soya bean packet grasses. The beautiful blue sky consists of all those annoying bits that fell out of last Sundays paper supplements, as well as a few ingredients panels from various reconstituted frozen potato products boxes....well, its a busy time of year, and junk food always keeps the kids happy!

Doodle Addict T shirt Project

2009-10-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

My Doodle Addict Tshirt results have been added to the Gallery over at Doodlers Anonymous, it's such a great project and already the responses have been hugely varied and inspirational. Go over to Doodlers anonymous here and check it out. :-)

Invited to enter the Man Photography prize 2009

2009-10-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

It's very cool being a part of the Royal College of Art Alumni. Even though I spent the entire 2 years I was there doing my Masters Degree, feeling overwhelmed and in awe and never quite got over the feeling of not being worthy, now I get to sit back knowing that I've done it, I've been there, I've marched through the Royal Albert Hall wearing the fake ermine and the silly hat and now I get to relax and be sent all the interesting stuff via email. :-) I feel very fortunate.
The latest of the interesting stuff, was an invitation to enter the Man Photography Prize - a competition open to all current and past, RCA students. The title this year is 'Word On The Streets', and it seemed like a fun thing to do at a weekend, 'Why not' I thought to myself. My girls were very willing models and we were walking around London anyway, so my answer to the brief was based upon using the first line of one of their nursery rhymes split across the 5 required images, and hidden in the very ordinary, street scenes. (click on the images to see bigger versions)

My models enjoyed the end results so it was time well spent, whether it gets anywhere in the competition or not. I am, however, really looking forward to seeing all the shortlisted entries to the competition in an exhibition at the college gallery from 17th to 19th November. I'm intrigued to see what everyone else came up with, no doubt it will be an awesome collection and well worth a visit.

Doodle anonymously. (But put your name on it!)

2009-10-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

Hello. My name is Katie and I am a doodle addict. It's been 10 minutes or so now since my last doodle. I do like a distraction, as I'm sure most people who work alone do.... it's always nice to have something more fun to do that the actual something that you're meant to be doing. And so it was this week when I received my pristine t shirt through the post from Doodlers anonymous with the invite to scribble all over it and post the results to their gallery.

I gave myself an hour. There had to be a time limit or I'd have been there all day - but it was such a fun hour! Once you've got over the initial 'hmmm, what to draw, don't want to ruin it' thoughts - and just doodle, doodle, doodle.... it's fun. Therapy, I think.

Here's the results - odd that my doodles turned into a kind of bonkers town, complete with resident mermaid and one lone cow. Must say something about my inner self.... ;-)

For all those in need of some doodle therapy, (and I would recommend it to many of my friends!) get yourself a tshirt from here and start doodling!

A day of Mariscal inspired character design

2009-10-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

There are days when it's particularly useful to have children of a certain age, as you get to go to certain events that you'd look pretty sad going to by yourself. One of those such days was the family workshop that we went along to yesterday at The Design Museum. To run alongside the fantastic Mariscal - drawing Life exhibition currently showing on the second floor, families are invited to join in a character building workshop in the Design Museum 'Space', using Mariscal as inspiration to concoct, design and draw new characters and then transform them into 3D.

My two apprentices had a fun afternoon and came up with some fantastic creations, 'Time Dog' and 'Mr Pink' the scary spider, to name just two. Plus they got to use a squillion felt tip pens that all actually worked and had their first glue gun experiences. An art education happening without anyone actually realizing - lovely stuff.

The exhibition continues until November and I would thoroughly recommend a visit.

A seaside summer remembered in paint

2009-09-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

My most enthusiastic apprentice and I today finished off a project that has taken several days to complete and an awful lot of patience for someone who is seven and three quarters. It happens to coincide with her starting Brownies and wanting to get her 'Artist' badge and me wanting something interesting to go on an otherwise bare bathroom wall.
With the chosen subject being the sea, experimenting with acrylics for the first time to achieve that lovely textured look and immortalize our summer holidays in paint form, seemed to be the way to go.
It's taken a while! (enthusiastically delivered-half-an-inch-deep acrylic paint takes some considerable time to dry) But turned out really quite nice. First we stuck our collection of seashells onto the canvas. Then we painted the entire surface in several layers and shades of blue. Next there was the fun hand printing for extra 'whooshy' sea texture, and finally - just to add a teeny element of a 'rubbish picture' I dropped 3 small boats, snipped out of an old Boden catalogue, onto the horizon.Memories of a seaside summer successfully immortalized and more memories of a fun few days with paints and glue and mess, created in the process.
Got to be worth that Brownie badge, surely?!

A book to make you say 'Ooooh' out loud

2009-09-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit rubbish at trying to keep up with the weekly blogs regarding awesome children's books I'm pining after, but this one, THIS one is a no-brainer. I saw it today and knew immediately it was blog worthy.
ABC in 3D by Marion Bataille is a kids pop up book that is pretty much definitely not really for kids. It's so simple it's beautiful, and is aimed I'd say fairly and squarely at the grown ups. In fact, even more fairly and squarley at the grown ups who also happen to be Graphic Designers.

Almost every letter has a three-dimensional aspect, with simple yet hugely effective paper engineering techniques used throughout. I may well give in to my urges and have to buy a copy for my kids... purely for the educational content you understand. But I'll keep it on my desk. So it's safe...

Wallop. Fresh new start with a crash, a bang and a badger or two.

2009-09-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

Well, the summer is officially over, schools are back. All 3 of my apprentices have been despatched to their various '9 till 3 places' which means Wallop can get back to business, routine and normality. Yay for September!
The first job in hand is a fun one. Scuba diving badgers no less, a series of character designs for The Archaeological Divers Association - a non-profit organisation that specialises in the unique sub-discipline of Underwater Archaeology, and includes archaeologists trained in the use of SCUBA equipment for the purposes of survey and recording of archaeological sites.

Scubadger, in his various forms will be emerging from the deep very soon... In the meantime, for more information on underwater archaeology - find out more from the ADA here.

A truly wise owl is made only from rubbish

2009-08-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

Todays rubbish picture is a wise owl perching on a 'Raw Cola' cardboard packaging branch. The Owl consists of various articles from an old Living etc magazine, a lawn seed box and a fertilizer bag. The sky is a plethora of food packaging - embarrassingly mostly microwave popcorn and fish fingers - the staple diet of school holidays ;-)

In awe of alphabet books

2009-08-10T02:43:00.000-07:00

Today's post is a combination of 'the children's book that I'd really really like, for me and not the children' thread that I've been attempting to update weekly of late AND the result of some online research into Alphabet books.
An Alphabet book is something I'd really like to do. To complete an entire 26 letters in rubbish would be a pretty cool achievement but ridiculously time consuming at a period of my life where time seems to be sucked out of the air in some kind of black hole every time I turn on the computer. Still. It's on the Wallop 'To Do list' and so I've enjoyed seeing whats already out there and how they compare.
Every child needs an alphabet book, so they're an ever present feature on the book shop shelves and rightly so. The good ones are just.... beautiful and inspiring and wonderful objects that will be kept and treasured and passed on down the generations. The bad ones are shockingly so and pumped out to feed the ever growing heap of cheap and nasty looking books that sit next to the sprouts in supermarkets these days. Having said that, even the 'bad' alphabet books are still to be admired on many levels. They've achieved publication for starters! They must be marketable objects, and it's simply because children can't fail to find something in those 26 letters, to relate to and love and seek out time after time. Even if's just 'their own' letter.
Alphabet books therefore, absolutely, my latest inspiration.
My very favourite at the moment, (I keep finding more) is Christopher Wormells beautiful Alphabet of Animals. It was his first book for children, apparently An Alphabet of Animals, started as a series of simple and colourful illustrations for his son, and eventually grew into a book that took the prestigious Graphics Prize at the Bologna International Children's Book Fair in 1991.

Moon Rabbit

2009-08-01T01:50:00.001-07:00

New for August: Another rubbish rabbit, this time a whimsical nightime bunny.
Todays rubbish picture is created entirely out of household recycled rubbish.
The background consists of fish finger boxes, a swimming pool timetable, and a couple of magazine pages. The moon is almost entirely created from a Poppy day information leaflet from last November and the rabbit consists of an article all about wooden floors, with a couple of wallpaper samples and a habitat kitchen brochure chucked in for good measure.

Rubbish Robins

2009-07-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

My apprentice is leaving Robins class tomorrow. It's a sad day, but she's looking forward to spreading her wings and becoming a kestrel in September ;-)
What better teachers gift could she think of, than a pile of old rubbish?! So Mrs Campbell and Mrs Doran will be the recipients of a couple of rubbish robins as soon as they're dried, which hopefully will be before the morning or there's going to be one heck of a sticky mess in the book bag!

Todays rubbish pictures are made entirely out of discarded household junk. They consist of a Silver Spoon sugar bag, Pepsi Raw cardboard packaging, old copies of Living etc magazine and a couple of Fruitella wrappers for the red tummy.

A Rubbish Mermaid

2009-07-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

I've had a rubbish mermaid propped up behind my desk for far too long while I've been getting around to adding her to the shop over at Folksy. I've added her today, where she sits in all her glory next to a rubbish giraffe and a rubbish nice cup of tea :-)
Mermaids have proved popular characters for my rubbish pictures, one has even swam as far afield as New Zealand. There have only been a few made to date though because of the amount of time involved in cutting out all the individual scales on the tail: A detail which I think makes a big difference in the final outcome of the picture, but which also makes me cross eyed, sticks my fingers together with pva and basically sends me to the brink of insanity...

A cat called Fat Pig.

2009-07-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit up to my eyes in other things of late, so the Rubbish Pictures have taken a back seat. But I was recently commissioned to make a new one and with a subject like a cat called fatpig, how could I resist?
FatPig is created mostly out of magazine articles and pet food wrappings. He's a grey cat and it's amazing how little recycled stuff is actually coloured grey. You don't notice until you're looking for it! The background is blue and was much easier to find material for. It consists of newspapers, a washing powder box, yoghurt tops, sweet wrappers and coloured photocopies of the cats owners camouflaged amongst the debris...

As for other news: the Great to be Green shop in Holt are planning a change of direction with their latest stock update so any remaining Rubbish Pictures will soon be added to the Wallop shop on Folksy, instead. Watch out for some exciting new additions coming soon!

A particularly animated experience

2009-06-26T05:42:00.001-07:00

Last week I was privileged to have been involved in Arts week at my local primary school. While I was preparing, I thought back over my own arts education and recalled that probably the most fun was had back at University where we produced, as a class, a short animated movie based on a field trip to Berlin. I don't actually recall many individual projects set at Uni, (most of it passed in a blur of fun and Snakebite n' blacks in the union bar), but that one I certainly do. It was hard work, that's for sure. Hours of drawing and aching fingers. Frame after frame of 2 o' clock in the morning tedium. BUT, the result was awesome. A huge diverse range of animations joined together that represented our trip exactly. The fact that I remember it so well, suggested to me that of all the projects I could set my Year 4 group of children during Arts week, learning traditional animation would be a particularly enjoyable and rewarding one.

We went over the basics, the theory and the 'perception of vision', we created storyboards, we designed characters and we studied how many movements would need to be made to make one second of animation for each child. And boy, we had fun. What a fantastic experience to spend 2 days with such an enthusiastic, upbeat, creative group of little people. They were unexpectedly prolific and by the end of the project we had between us created a huge stack of cells to be scanned in and sequenced together. The results though, speak for themselves. 24 children, who had never animated anything before managed to produce a beautiful sequence including characters, movement and morphs.

I am incredibly proud of their achievements and would love to do more of this kind of thing. I can so see why teachers are teachers. To feel so proud of a bunch of children, who do not actually belong to you, is just inspirational.

Loitering in bookshops. Not necessarily but most likely Waterstones. Part 2

2009-06-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week this week. I've actually not had half as much loitering time as I would have liked. But having said that... This week, the book that I think is most gorgeous and would really, really, really like, (for myself, not my kids, obviously) IS... actually a set of books.
The 'This is...' set of books by Miroslav Sasek are just gorgeousness in paper form. Bold, funky graphics, muted retro feeling colours. I want them all. They are simply lovely.

The Aesthetica Annual Creative Works Competition

2009-06-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

Aesthetica Magazine "engages with contemporary art, contextualising it within the larger cultural framework. Founded in 2002, Aesthetica Magazine is one of Britain's leading art publications.

Exploring the varied nature of the arts and recognising the dynamics of contemporary culture, Aesthetica pushes the boundaries and evokes debate around today's most important topics. Bringing a fresh perspective to the national forum, Aesthetica is at the forefront of contemporary arts by critically engaging with visual arts, music, film, literature and theatre."

and at the moment they're taking submissions for their annual Creative Works comp etition. So, I've gone for it and entered some Rubbish Pictures. I'm not very good at entering competitions. In fact, I'm rubbish at pretty much all promotion. It makes me a cringe a little. But it needs to be done! Who knows, it can't do any harm and it might get me a little exposure... Fingers crossed...

I spend far too much time loitering in Waterstones...

2009-06-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have a list. It's as long as my arm. If I were an exceptionally long armed orangutan, that is. I love children's books. They're why I wanted to become an illustrator and why I still DO want to be an illustrator! So my thoughts are that each week here on the teatime blog I'll chose my current favourite and share. It's going to be difficult. Theres one at elbow position I'd love to discuss at some point and a whole host around the nobbly wrist bone area.... but we'll get there. A whole long arms worth, week by week. That is so long as they stop publishing more....

This week, the book that I think is most gorgeous and would really, really, really like, (for myself, not my kids, obviously) IS... 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet.

It's a very lovely object full of funky flat graphics and a bonkers storyline of being overrun by penguins.

This then wins the first ever 'Wallop Gorgeous book o' the week' prize. Hurrah for penguins. And amazing french artist types.

Family time at the Design Museum

2009-06-09T04:58:00.001-07:00

A note for this years family day at the Design Museum has just popped into my inbox and I was very pleased to see it. We've taken part in various other family events run at the Design Museum and they're generally a good day out. Last year, we made 3 dimensional models out of.... anything and everything, ( a 3d rubbish picture no less?!) and then filled up one of the design gallery spaces with our newly created 3d cityscape. It was inspirational. Kids have no limit to their imaginations and are willing to get stuck in straight away with none of the reserve that us adults carry around with us so much. It was a delight to see and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with on this next family design day.

We walked for LIFE! :-)

2009-06-08T08:15:00.001-07:00

I know, I know... this is an arty blog. I should be sticking to arty things and discussing rubbish pictures...But just as an aside, just this once, I've got to mention yesterdays Walk For Life in aid of Crusaid. What a fun day we had, walking the 10k route around London, from Tower Bridge to St Pauls Cathedral, round via Holburn to Waterloo bridge and back along the South Bank passing Tate Modern to return to Potters Field and a very welcome beer tent. This is an annual event, ideal for families and lots of fun, AND we managed to raise over £500 for Crusaid - a very worthwhile cause. So if you feel inspired, do join in same time next year!

A nice cream tea for hungry orphans?!

2009-06-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

I've just put the finishing touches on a quick poster for my absolute worthiest client, The Lunchbowl Network - a wonderful school based charity who support orphans in the Kibera slums of Nairobi.
Once again Lunchbowl are raising funds, and it's time again for their annual 'Cream Tea weekend' where they provide delicious cream teas in return for a small donation to their funds. Previous years events have been a huge success even attracting visits from a host of celebrities. (Cbeebies presenters were particularly welcomed and appreciated by the younger visitors) Heres hoping this years event is just as big as a success and raises lots of money for a worthwhile cause. If you happen to be in the New Malden area do drop by and enjoy!

Sculpture (not entirely rubbish for once) in the sunshine

2009-06-01T04:08:00.000-07:00

I'm not generally a huge fan of sculpture per se, I'm normally more of a flat-art-on-a-wall fan, but a weekend visit to the amazing Yorkshire Sculpture Park may well have changed all that. We popped in on our way down the M1 to see the exhibition by Sophie Ryder, currently showing in the lower fields area and we weren't disappointed.

'Ryder’s work draws on human, animal and mythological forms, melding the attitudes and instincts of each to create a series of hybrids. Ryder has developed a narrative around the Lady-Hare; a creature with a hare’s head and the artist’s own female body. Through this character the artist examines the human condition and plays out her own emotions'.

What the official blurb fails to mention is the sculptures are also awesome. They're huge, they're half rabbit half person, they're bonkers and they're just ... lovely. Best of all for me, there's a rubbish link here too... Ryder's works from a distance appear to be simple cast metal but on closer inspection, just like my own pieces, theres a whole wealth of discarded household 'stuff' in there to be found! Bike chains, bits of machinary, old toys. What a selection of truly great things to gawp at.

Rubbish Portraits

2009-05-19T03:14:00.000-07:00

I've tried something new this week. It was 'im indoors birthday and seeing as hand made cards are generally the way to go in our house, was seeking inspiration... and what better inspiration than the rubbish pile that is sat in the corner of my office, threatening to topple at any moment and overwhelm half of Hampshire. So. I decided to try my hand at a rubbish portrait. Theres got to be a first time for everything! As for the result - I'm not sure Jonathan Yeo needs to quake in his boots unduly about his position in the circles of high art, but for a first attempt it's not all that..... rubbish?! And spookily, it does actually look just like him.... well a version of him after hitching a lift in the back of the recycling lorry to a skin grafts appointment....maybe ;-)

Today's rubbish picture is made of junk mail leaflets, the local swimming pools' Spring timetable, a Saturday supplement magazine and last years habitat catalogue.

Everyone loves a giraffe...

2009-05-13T01:39:00.001-07:00

Today is a giraffe day. No particular reason. I just like 'em. They make me laugh. Laughing at a giraffe is reason enough to blog in my books.

Today's rubbish picture consists of herbal tea bags wrappings, food packaging, an old Junior magazine, Sunday's Observer, and a holiday brochure which was quickly ripped up before I could drool all over it thereby ruining perfectly good bits of blue....

Coffee o' clock

2009-05-07T03:04:00.000-07:00

This year I turned over a new leaf. In theory I am now a green, lean, healthy, recycling artist machine. I don't smoke, I don't drink... erm much, I don't eat meat, I practise aikido every week, I'm marching daily around the fields of Hampshire with the dog whether he wants to or not, breathing in deep lungfuls of clean crisp country air, I have become zen like in the art of recycling. The leaf has been well and truly turned over to good living. However I have discovered a flaw in my plan. A little hiccup.

It seems I have a major addiction. This morning I thought I'd up things a notch and y'know just give up coffee too. Why not, I thought.... Well here's why not;
My head came close to imploding. My brain throbbed. The goldfish irritated me intensely just by it's very existence. I tsked and tutted my way through my morning routine ... and I lasted until 09.33

Coffee o' clock.
Just a small one.
Oh dear, there's only the pint mug clean out of the dishwasher. That'll have to do then. And then.... aaaaaaaaaah. All is well in the world once more.

ok so I may not have managed complete good living but life is good.

Todays rubbish picture consists of plastic fruit bags. (why put fruit in plastic bags?) Some junk mail and a Boden catalogue. They always seem to send me 3. I should just ask them not to but they do use such nice colours...

Day of the Triffids

2009-05-06T02:09:00.000-07:00

I have a giant triffid growing in my garden. It looks like innocent rhubarb (but of the enormously massive freaky sized variety) and I swear it grows an inch every time you turn your back on it.
This winter it disappeared completely and since it's re emergence from the depths (The vigorous stamping on the spot where it had been last autumn didn't get rid of it for good as I'd thought....) it's grown to a whopping shoulder height already.... in just a matter of weeks!
I'm ever so slightly concerned it may well turn out to be carnivorous, the kids are looking particularly healthy and outdoorsey at the moment - am I tempting fate by leaving it be within striking distance of the sandpit?!

Anyone who knows Alan Titchmarsh or indeed anyone who knows anything about freaky giant potentially carnivorous rhubarb please feel free to get in touch with some tips n' tricks.

I swear it growled at the dog this morning....

Today's blog rubbish picture is a hastily put together watchdog-esque look a like Triffid consisting rather appropriately of a garden centre catalogue and various scraps of recycled food packaging and fabric.

Where have all the lost kites gone?

2009-04-30T01:52:00.000-07:00

As a child I seem to remember it was a pretty standard feature of the countryside and parks to see old tattered tangled kites hanging in trees, alongside deflated footballs, the odd plimsole... Is it just me, or do trees these days seem remarkably bare of these things?
I have some theories, exasperated by walking the dog through woods crying out for a few oddities to be dangled in the branches, this morning.

The Wallop ponderings of the day then;

1. Children are taller these days. Or have evolved longer arms.
2. Children do not play out. Ever. especially near trees due to health and safety tree-might-fall-on-them issues.
3. Kites are not for children anymore. They have DS lites. Kites are for dads. Dads don't abandon them when they get stuck in trees because they're ridiculously expensive titanium clad whizzy ones from 'Iwantoneofthose.com' or some such and dads would rather chainsaw (probably also purchased from the same site) the tree down than leave their 'toy' for some snotty nosed kid to get hold of.

Regardless of the reason for their disappearance. I'd like to see more kites. Think I may force, ahem ... sorry, encourage my kids to make one this weekend even if just for the right of passage in watching it crash several times before getting stuck in a tree. For old times sake.

Todays Rubbish Picture is 'Lost Kite' and consists of frozen pea packaging, a Weetos box, a garden centre catalogue which was very timely shoved through my letter box just as I was looking for some more 'green'. The little girl is dressed in the lid of a Dunkin Doughnuts drive through box and a fetching pair of Ellas kitchen smoothie pouch boots.

Walkin' walkin' walkin'

2009-04-27T06:04:00.001-07:00

Today I have received all the paperwork for the Crusaid Walk for life, a 10k walk around London raising money and awareness for HIV and Aids charity, Crusaid which I signed up for last week on a whimsical notion of doing good and keeping fit. Not only will I be walking it myself, but I have also roped in my family, including my 3 children who have absolutely no concept of how long 10 k actually is and are, at present, very excited....
I'm beginning to wonder now however, how many steps we will manage before the 'are we nearly there yet' begins.... but hopefully it will be a lovely day, we shall see the sights of London that we normally just whizz by in the car / bus or miss completely by travelling underground and it will be fun ! really... it will....

Crusaid is a wonderful charity which deserves as much support as possible, so if you're in the London area why not come along and join in? The Walk for Life is on June 7th. Or if you'd rather not suffer the blisters yourself (or hear my groans as I alternatly cajole / carry my children along the route) - you can always do a good turn and sponsor us instead without ever having to leave your computer!

Do a wonderful thing today and Sponsor family Wall here, whether it be tuppence and a cheery message to say hello, to a hefty donation from a mysterious millionaire who likes rubbish art and lurks secretly on my blog - we'd be delighted and very grateful for your support.

Today's featured blog picture in honour of the occasion, is 'Love those rubbish shoes' and is made from recycled chocolate wrappers, jelly baby boxes, (I was having a sugar crisis that day) plus an old copy of Living etc magzine and some quorn packaging.

Happy St. Georges day

2009-04-23T02:00:00.001-07:00

Todays Rubbish Picture is in honour of it being St. George's day today.
This dragon was produced entirely out of a frozen peas packet, (which it turns out are very fiddly to cut into tiny scales!) sweet wrappers, the cover of The Gaurdians' weekly TV Guide magazine and he's sat upon dogfoodbox mountain!

It was produced for a little boy Theo, for his birthday, and as a little extra, I made sure there were some blue tinted photographs of the young man himself incorporated into the sky.
He's now immortalized in Rubbish!

Spring views...

2009-04-22T09:24:00.001-07:00

Another day, another Rubbish picture. Todays is inspired by Spring and the view out of my window.... the leaves are finally on the trees, the sky is blue and as my apprentice loves to point out, the bunnies are so happy they just can't stop cuddling each other...

Running dogs

2009-04-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

I have a very dull dog. Don't get me wrong he's beautiful, he's friendly, he's quiet, he's great with kids and is very low maintenance. I love him to bits and in most ways, he is the perfect pet in fact. But in the interest stakes.... he'd rate pretty low.
He sleeps a lot does our Ned. You give him a ball, he might raise one eyebrow at you briefly, you give him a chewy, he'll bury it for later....when he's less tired.
My dog does....nothing. Official. He sleeps for approximately 23.5 hours of the day.
So why is it I wonder that Ned has his very own fan club of adoring friends and neighbours? Why do complete strangers chat to me every single morning whilst we're out on a daily walk (The 0.5 hour of the day not accounted for above)
It's because Ned is a whippet that's why. People, I have discovered, just love whippets (or maybe people actually love greyhounds and a whippet is just a mini me greyhound so it kind of counts). These dogs have something about them that makes folk go 'awwwww'.

Testament to that is the new range of Rubbish Pictures I am making up at the moment to restock my Folksy shop. Folksy allows you to manage your items. Once you have added an item you can see how many hits it has had. Within minutes of this latest rubbish picture entitled 'running whippet', Seven people had checked it out and one had even been so kind as to make it one of their favourite items. More than one per minute?! How very lovely and it proves my theory , you just gotta love a whippet.
The first few of the new series of pictures will focus on the running variety as that is when they're at their most impressive, but I think I may have to add at least one or two at some point, of their natural state which is illustrated by Ned right now. Spark out. With a big doggy smile on his chops.

Wallop Relaunches

2009-04-20T05:13:00.001-07:00

Wallop has been here, there and all over the place of late. I have been juggling illustration projects, graphic design projects, branching out into Rubbish Pictures and trying to keep up with this Blog and of course, all the scribbles and doodles that just get done as a hobby too...It's about time then, that the whole lot got sorted out and put back into one spot and so I'm very happy to announce that Wallop the website has relaunched officially today! The site now includes a new fonts for fun area where my fonts can be downloaded for free, the usual illustration gallery, with stills of previous projects as well as examples of animation. Oodles of Doodles gets it's own area of the website where you can flip the pages of the virtual sketchbook and see all the odds and ends and doodles that would otherwise just get lost in a sea of sketchbooks and scraps of paper that litters the floor of my workroom. Rubbish Pictures now gets it's own area too - with a gallery of images produced so far, and a link to my Folksy shop, and last but not least this very blog is now filtering through to appear on the site. (Which might look a little odd on this occasion, as the site will be featured....on the site.... but hopefully it'll work out well in the long run.
Bish bosh. All eggs back in one basket. All fingers back in one pie. A one stop shop stopping at this shop. All metaphors back in one metaphor erm ...thing. You get the picture.
Hope you enjoy it. If you're not already looking at the site right now, go check it out at www.wallop.co.uk

A rubbish Easter

2009-04-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!
Can't blog now...
Wallopsville is drowning in chocolate

Beach Huts

2009-04-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hooray - I sold a Rubbish Chicken this week! Which left a little hole in my Folksy shop, just big enough for this latest Rubbish Picture of beach huts. My stash of blue rubbish bits has now been replenished, since the dog bit through the kids paddling pool. It's a nice translucent blue plastic and will be very handy in seaside scenes. Sorry kids. Your loss my gain!

'Rubbish artists'

2009-04-09T07:46:00.001-07:00

Tim Noble and Sue Webster are just the first of many amazing British artists who I have come across whilst stumbling around on the web looking for....rubbish.
Their apparent heaps of debris collected from London Streets becomes something magical and gobsmackingly real as a silhouette from a strategically positioned light.
Their work is just stunning and completely inspirational for a fellow rubbish artist.

Not just me and the Wombles...

2009-04-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

I used to think it was just me and the Wombles who made stuff out of rubbish, but I went to see Mark Watson doing a show the other night. He's a very amusing fella so I brought his book and lo and behold, it turns out he's not only very amusing but also may well also be a link to a whole load of other womble-esque characters out there in the big wide world.
Mark Watson is crap at the environment. Official.

He even runs 'CATE'. The project started with the intention of 'saving the world , despite not being very good at it'. It aims to promote amateur environmentalism. I thought Rubbish Pictures was a pretty obscure way of being eco friendly but it seems there are a few more of us out there than first thought, trying to do our bit in our own little, slightly odd, way.... CATE encourages ordinary folk to small challenges, little things to change in your everyday life that will result in some environmental benefit. So if you want to know how to pimp your plant pot or create a bubble wrap dress - or just want to nose at slightly odd people doing amazing things in the name of saving the world. Go check out CATE.

A house on a hill

2009-03-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-03-26T16:26:00.001-07:00

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...

2009-03-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-03-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-03-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-03-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

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.....

A rubbish cup of tea to celebrate good news

2009-02-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

Well it had to be done...
Heres the rubbish picture I should've done to start with to set this blog off in tea slurping style...
But better late than never, eh?
Amusingly I have discovered that it's not just me that finds themselves very tea-centric, it seems half the folk on Folksy are too!
Heres just a few of the many examples you'll find there if you pop over for a visit

My particular favourite is one of a great set of prints by 'Sparklehen'... the funkiest teapot in town, you gotta love it :-)

So anyway, I digress.... what's all this merry midweek tea slurping indulgence in aid of you might ask...well, a few posts ago, I mentioned that I was sending off a new batch of Rubbish pictures to Great to be Green, the lovely eco friendly emporium, well I did...and Hooray! they've all sold already! It's a Wallop record. So I'm preparing for another week of rummaging through the bin and covering the kids with pva glue every time they need their cardi's zipping up, for a whole new set of pictures for March. In the meantime though - I reckon a party ring or two is called for to celebrate and mark the event in the tea blog style. Cheers! :-)

You can never have too many bunnys

2009-02-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

It's easter in 48 days! As if you hadn't noticed the shops filling up with creme eggs...
To celebrate and try to actually add some stock to the Wallop shop on Folksy, todays additions being uploaded this very morning are Easter bunny cards.
More to follow... when I've unstuck my fingers. These guys maybe small but the mess to product ratio is not relative! :-)

Not only is it rubbish. It's also going to be a whole load of poo.

2009-02-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

I've been gazumped from my own drawing table by my particularly enthusiastic, self styled apprentice 7 year old daughter... A situation with it's downsides (ie trying to persuade her not to steal all the best bits of green packaging for her flower picture or we'll be eating soya beans for the rest of the week so that I can finish off my own latest creation...) but also advantages. Firstly, it takes a 7 year old to tell you, very honestly indeed, whats working and what just like soooo isn't. Plus she thinks the whole rubbish picture should be recycled including the base sheet the collage sits on, not just the materials used to create the actual image itself. She's got a point. So I set myself a little research project as to what I could use... Besides what else can I do but surf the net for ideas when I can't get elbow room at the workbench or glue pot?

It's amazing what you can just stumble across on the internet isn't it. I was thinking about making my own sheets of paper from mulching the food packaging that I don't use in the collages... but I think this is something more suitable for the summer and looks particularly messy and not compatible with my compulsively tidy husband, so that idea is on the back burner and whilst googling all sorts of paper products and recycling methods. I think I've found the best solution. POO.

How brilliant is that? Paper made out of poo. And not just any old poo. Elephant poo. No sh*t. well actually, yes sh*t. Lots of it. From real life big old flappy eared Sri Lanken elephants.

My googling has led me to Paper High, a Brighton based company providing eco-friendly handmade paper products from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. They describe their paper production as:

All handmade paper is made using a fibreous material, and is boiled and beaten to make the fibre pulp. With elephant dung paper, the elephant has done the pulping for us, leaving us to collect the dung, clean it by boiling and steaming so all bacteria are killed, then putting the pulp in a shallow mould as usual. The coarseness of the paper is entirely dependent on the elephants diet, again making no two sheets identical.

I was delighted to find Paper High and they have been very helpful so are going to be the new official suppliers to Wallop for all my new poo requirements! :-)
I'm looking forward to my first batch of paper arriving so that I can crack on and create my first completely recycled Rubbish-picture-onto-Poo masterpiece. I can see the by line now: Perfect to be hung in the smallest room in the house?

And the best bit of this latest addition to my eco plan? My apprentice is now so busy rolling around on the floor laughing, I can get my desk back.

Open for business - The Wallop online shop on Folksy

2009-02-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

I haven't had so much fun playing shops in such a very long time.... but this last couple of weeks have been a joy.
I've discovered the world of Folksy.

"Folksy champions cool crafts and design talent. We marry up designers and crafters with buyers who want individual, quality stuff that's made with love"

What a great idea, and what an amazing bunch of people there are selling their handmade creations on that site.... Definitely worth checking out. Especially now that the Wallop shop is up and running and open for business!
All illustration commission work will still as ever be available through my usual website, but now I also have this handy arena to sell my existing gallery of rubbish pictures and the like.

In honour of the occasion and in line with my current general hippy urges, the latest addition to go in the shop is this little piccy, titled 'Treehugger'. It's the first time I've tried adding a child character into one of these collages and I'm quite pleased with how she turned out. Especially considering she's made out of carrier bags and a teabag box!

Great to be green

2009-02-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

Today I am putting together the latest offerings of rubbish pictures which will be going on sale next week in Great To Be Green, a lovely independant eco gift shop in Holt, Norfolk.
It's been an interesting challenge as Clare Wheeler, the shop owner has asked this time for images to feature local birds for the bird spotting tourists that tend to pass through her shop... Not being particularly knowledgable on local Norfolk birds was one thing, then making them out of recycled stuff was another! Still, it's amazing the amount of black and grey food packaging one notices when one is half way through a particularly tricky 'avocet wading across marshland' :-)

Now I'm quite looking forward to easter, when I'll be back to chickens and eggs. Lots of eggs. Eggs are nice and easy!

A nice cup of tea and a sit down

2009-02-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

As, obviously, tea drinking is close to my heart and this blog is something I'm going to be doing whilst slurping the good stuff... I've got to mention this lovely site:
a nice cup of tea and a sit down

and for those of you who are really trying to fill some time when you should be working....
Try the classic biscuit quiz!

Flair Illustration

2009-02-13T03:20:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd have a bash at entering the Flair competition this month. It's something I always intend to do and normally chicken out of at the last minute. The standard is always so high, with some amazing artists featuring their work. Well worth taking a look to see what's new and going on in the illustration world.
So... this is my entry: 'A rubbish hare day''

Seeing as I'm going through my rubbish phase at the moment, it seemed a good idea to choose one of these artworks to feature!

Flair is a competition run every month for illustrators, photographers, and typographers on the Creative Match website and is a great insight into whats new in the various industries at any given time.

What a load of Rubbish!

2009-02-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

Second post... and quite enjoying this blogging malarky. It's the same feeling as I got as a kid every year when I got a new diary for Christmas and would long for the 1st of January to arrive so I could start writing all about my exhilarating life. I was 6 or 7 or maybe 8 and life wasn't hugely exhilarating to be truthful so the feeling generally wore off by about.... February. Still. I remember it well and this is it. Hopefully it won't wear off quite so quickly now I'm a grown up.

So today I'm working on my latest set of creations. I have recently started to try to be more eco friendly as and when I can, and this led to 'Rubbish Pictures' being born.

Rubbish Pictures are collages, of varying sizes ranging from A4 right up to big imposing poster sizes, made entirely of recycled household waste. Mostly food packaging and junk mail, but also old magazines and newspapers, all the irritating bits that fall out of your sunday papers into your corn flakes.... anything really that would otherwise go directly to the recycling bin or landfill.

I started with a picture or our dog Ned, created out of cheesy wotsits bags and moved on to a mermaid with a tail made of pink fruitella wrappers.... the mermaid led to another mermaid, which became a birthday gift. One birthday present led to a few more and before I knew it I was up to my elbows in glue and old stamps making an enormous ... peacock.

Now believe me, I have at several times stopped and wondered whether that 6 years of arts training, really should have led to this.... I may be turning slightly bonkers, eyeing up that 3 kilo tin of quality Street even before Christmas... not for the delights of a green triangle within, but the wonderful crinkly green foil it was clothed in and yes, I admit here I am, dishing out pink fruitellas till my kids teeth go furry all for the sake of finishing off just ....one more mermaids tail.

Its a strange life indeed.

crash bang WALLOP!

2009-02-11T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well.... heres a thing. Me with my own blog. A new Years resolution ticked off! I'm new to this so I guess the best thing to do to get the ball rolling is to introduce myself.

I'm an illustrator, you can visit my website, Wallop! to see lots of my work and more background information, but I'll summarize again just to save you lifting that finger....just yet anyway...

I trained as a graphic designer, graduated from the University of Westminster and the Royal college of Art and spent many years working at some lovely places, from Peter Gabriels' Realworld Studios, to the weather dept at the BBC!

Now I am Wallop Illustration, I produce illustrations and animations for websites, for books, for magazines, it varies from job to job and keeps life interesting.

My most recent project has been to start up 'Rubbish Pictures' a collection of eco collages, created entirely out of recycled household rubbish, junk mail, food packaging, all those annoying bits that fall out of the sunday papers every week.... you know the kind of thing.

More on those later....

First tea / blog break officially over - bfn.