Personal Work | Anorexia [Part two]

Last week, i posted about a collage i created based on the anorexic thoughts I experience. This is a second collage I have created; this one focuses on recognising all the negative aspects of the eating disorder; both the negative characteristics of the anorexic voice, and the negative physical effects of the illness itself. These are often very obvious to everyone else, but are overlooked by those who are struggling with the illness themselves. In many cases, the feelings of safety and security far outweigh the negatives, so this piece of work serves as a reminder that, despite what she may tell me, anorexia is not my friend.

The secondary idea behind this collage was to use it as a way to try to remove some of the fear I experience surrounding my eating disorder, and to take away some of the power she has over me. In order to achieve this, i attempted to make her look silly - hence the hat and the Dweeb sweater - so that I can ridicule her, instead of being scared of her. I also surrounded the anorexia with cakes and desserts, to make her feel threatened and out of control for once, instead of allowing her to make me feel that way.

Whilst creating this collage, i tried to remain rational, despite feeling that posting any negative aspects of my anorexia was going against her, and she was screaming at me to stop. I think it will be helpful to look back at on the days when i'm struggling to keep myself motivated to want to get better; it will remind me that there are loads of negatives to my eating disorder, and not just the positives she wants me to believe, so that i'll keep clinging onto her. As always, if anyone has any comments or questions, I'd love to read them. - just leave them in the box below. :)

Communication Arts | Award of Excellence.

You may remember that earlier this year, i announced that my Monster Alphabet hand-created typography had been chosen as one of the winning entries for Communication Arts' Typography Annual 3. The annual was published in January, and my collage typography was featured inside. I was also informed that, in addition to receiving a copy of the annual, each winning entrant would receive an Award of Excellence; an actual trophy! I was pretty excited to receive this beauty in the post this morning;

Eeeeee! An actual shiny trophy engraved with my name! Now i just have to find somewhere to put it...

GETINCASED | Illustrated phone cases.

My illustrated iPhone cases have been available from my Society6 shop for a while, and during that time i've recieved various queries as to whether my phone case designs were available for other makes of phones too. Unfortunately they weren't at the time and, as I hated to disappoint people, i've always been looking into away to make this possible.

I'm now very excited to announce that my illustrated phone cases are available from GETINCASED! Yay! There are lots of different designs available for a range of phones - iPhones, Samsungs and Blackberrys!

I actually ordered a couple of my own designs; my favourites - the squirrel and the hedgehog; for my own phone; a Samsung Galaxy S2. It probably makes me a littttle bit of loser parading about with my own illustrated case adorning my phone, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try the cases out for myself so I could review the quality, plus I reallyyy wanted a cute woodland creature case for my phone! :)

I was very excited as my phone cases were delivered super quickly, and i'm very pleased with them. The quality of the cases are lovely - they seem fairly flexible but also feel very durable and strong. The cases themselves fit my phone perfectly and were very easy to fit, and the image quality is very high, which means the illustrations are beautifully clear, even all the tiny details! I'd definitely recommend them. :)

You can have a peek at my full range of phone case designs here! There's free shipping on all orders for all you lovelies who live in the UK, plus there's currently 10% off ALL your orders for my illustrated phone cases - yippee! Just use the code madiillustration at the checkout.

My phone is now encased in a super cute illustrated squirrel phone case! Love it!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may be aware that I am currently an inpatient at an eating disorder unit. In Autumn 2011, I posted an image I created about my visualisation and interpretation of the meaning of the term recovery - i remember feeling very nervous about posting it and revealing the fact that I suffered from anorexia, but the post received some lovely, supportive comments and made me glad i'd opened up about my eating disorder; i felt much less judged than i feared i would be.

With this previous positive experience in mind, i've decided ttto post some of the collage artwork I have been creating during my hospital admission, relating to my anorexia. A few days ago, one of the nurses suggested i create a piece of artwork showing how i visualise my anorexia, and how i imagine she looks. I also used cut-up magazines to surround her with the horrid words and phrases she screams at me constantly.

It was quite a release to get all the thoughts out of my head and onto paper, although it was quite upsetting to see such vicious words stuck all over the paper as it made the abuse that's in my head constantly seem much more real. I apologise for the offensive language in some of the images - this work is very personal, and much more expressive and emotive than the illustrations i usually post on here.

I will admit it was lovely to be surrounded by magazines and paper again - i felt more like myself than i have done in a long time. I managed to make my hospital bedroom as messy as my studio at home! Ooops!

I hope that posting this work will provide an insight into how it feels to struggle with an eating disorder, or even help someone out there who's struggling themselves. If any of you have any comments or questions, I'd love to read them. :)

Dorset Libraries | I'm A Little Bit Scared Of...

A few weeks before Christmas, I decided to drop a copy of my children's picture book I'm A Little Bit Scared Of... into my local library in the little town of Blandford. I thought it would a way to share the book with a wider audience of children who may not otherwise have a chance to enjoy it, and also it would be pretty awesome to know that my book would be available to borrow by little ones throughout Dorset.

I was told that before the book could be borrowed, it would have to be added to the library catalogue, so i've been waiting, a little impatiently, until earlier this week when i found out that it had been added. Eeeee!

My book can now be found in, and borrowed from, the children's section at Blandford Library. It can also be requested from other Dorset libraries, so if you live in the area, why not have a peek?

If you're not local, and would like to borrow my book from your local library, you could always suggest it as a book they may like to purchase - if they get enough requests, you never know!

Earlier this week, I discovered illustrator Stephanie O'Hearne's lovely blog. I was having a little read through her posts, and amongst them I came across an awesome little post all about creating your own handwritten font! I have always wanted to design my own font, but quite honestly, I had absolutely no idea how. When I saw a link to a free online tool that makes it possible to design your own unique font using your handwriting, I was desperate to have a little try!

Yesterday afternoon was the perfect opportunity to try it out, and the process turned out to be incredibly straightforward. All you have to do is pop over to this website, print out a copy of the template, and fill in all the letters with a medium-thick black pen. Once finished, you scan the completed template, upload it, wait a few minutes and BOOM your very own font all ready to download! The best part is that, because it's based on your handwriting, it's guaranteed to be totally original. Yay!

[Yes, I even really did create little heart and star symbols as part of my font, I'm cool like that. Ha.]

I recommend experimenting with the thickness of pen you use to fill in the template, as it affects the boldness of the resulting font. My first font was originally written out using a medium-thick black marker pen; for the second, I used a fine-line black rollerball pen. I prefer the second font that I created, as the first is a little too heavy, although it may be useful if I require a bolder font one day.

I often struggle to incorporate text into an illustration, not in terms of composition, but because I usually find it difficult an appropriate font. The fonts I try never seem to suit the illustrations they are accompanying. I think this was a big part of the reason I originally began creating my own typography by hand; it was a way to create a style of text that I felt fit with the style of the imagery, as both were hand-created using a similar process. I tend to prefer the appearance of a more hand-created font, as it gives an illustration a sense of fluidity if image and text are of a similar style. Hand-created lettering has become my favourite way of adding text to an image, but there are occasions when cut-out or hand-drawn fonts are really suitable. I think this is a tool that I would definitely consider using if I required a proper printed font; it would be especially appropriate adding text to a children's picture book, as it has a fairly formal appearance, whilst still retaining a playful, handwritten appearance. 

Illustration Friday | Storm.

I'm a little bit scared of thunder when it's loud and crashy.

I haven't submitted an illustration for Illustration Friday for a super long time, but after popping over to the website earlier today, I noticed that this week's topic is storm. Admittedly, I created the full-version of this image quite a while ago - it's a section of one of the double-page spreads in my illustrated children's picture book I'm A Little Bit Scared Of... - but it just seemed to fit the them perfectly. 

Peeking through the window, watching a storm crash and rage outside whilst you're all safe and snuggled inside is definitely the best way to spend a storm; it's easy to run and hide if it gets a little bit too loud and crashy...