The Young Creatives.

Just a little post to bring all your attention to The Young Creatives - a lovely blog which serves as a platform for young people to showcase their work. I was lucky enough to be featured last month - you can check out the full article here.

They are always looking for more creative people (under the age of 25) to feature on their blog - so if you're interested, then it's definitely worth checking out!

In other news, my work has also recently been featured on this lovely blog - the girl who wrote it also taught me that Tartaruga Feliz means 'happy turtle' in Portuguese, which I think is pretty damn cute - and my rainbow rain print was featured on Oooh Yum. Also, you can check out a couple of my one-minute creatures on CreatureMag.

Madi Illustration now on Etsy!

Super exciting Sunday news; it's been a long time coming, but my Etsy shop is now officially OPEN! Yayyy! :]

You are all very welcome to visit and have a little look at lots of illustrated loveliness; postcards, prints and more, including the postcards featured here.

Check out my shop, and treat yourself to something pretty. ♥

Amelia's Magazine | London Fashion Week A/W 2011; Bernard Chandron.

This illustration is featured in Helen Martin's review of the Bernard Chandran show in Amelia's Magazine. The dress was a gorgeous colour, as Helen describes 'clearly unafraid of colour, Chandran’s pieces were bold; oranges, pinks, reds and electric blue, with black punctuating the pops of colours'. Beautiful.

Read the full review, illustrated by myself and Emma Block, here.

Amelia's Magazine | London Fashion Week A/W 2011; Anja Maklar.

This is another LFW illo for Amelia's Magazine of an incredibly cute little dress by Anja Maklar. It is included in the review of ones to watch, written by Florence Massey; check out the full article here.

Amelia's Magazine | London Fashion Week A/W 2011; Ziad Ghanem review.

This is an illustration which was featured today in Florence Massey's review of the Ziad Ghanem show in Amelia's Magazine. The dress itself was lovely to illustrate - the bright fuschia colour is absolutely gorgeous, and it's made of super shiny material 'so unashamedly trashy that it avoided...being either tacky or quality street wrapper-esque' as Florence describes.

I am posting these illos in the order that they go live on the Amelia's Magazine website, so they aren't necessarily in the order in which I created them. In fact, this is the most recent illustration I completed - finished only this morning! As you can see, after my inital drawn fashion illustrations, I almost immediately began incorporating papers into my work again (...did you really expect anything else?)

Check out the full review here. x

Amelia's Magazine | London Fashion Week A/W 2011; Prophetik Review.

Until this weekend, I had totally convinced myself that I couldn't do fashion illustration, so when the call outs starting coming for fashion illustrations for LFW reviews for Amelia's Magazine, my immediate thought was no way. However, I'm a girl and I like pretty dresses, so in the end I replied to a call out from Matt Bramford for a review of the Prophetik show. When the images came through, I have to admit I did panic - but after I'd calmed down, I sat down and just had a go. I've used all the LFW illos I've produced this week as a way to experiement with different ways of creating fashion illustrations, using different materials. There are some I love, and some that I'm not so sure about, but it's definitely been an expereince, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. For these two, I reverted back to pure drawing - something I have not done for quite a while.

In the article, Matt Bramford describes that the dresses 'evoked romance and elegance', which are 'two characteristics that have become Prophetik's signature', and he is absolutely right. The above dress is totally gorgeous in real-life, I definitely need it in my life!

You can read the full review of the Prophetik show here, and also check out Amelia's Magazine for amazing reviews of loads of the London Fashion Week shows, all complete with beautiful photographs, and stunning illustrations.

Hello you.

When I was little, there was a robin who lived in our garden. He lived in the holly bush and he was my favourite. Then we moved house, and I never saw him again.

Cute as a button.

I was playing around with some buttons and paper earlier today, and ended up (as usual) deciding to make some teeny tiny monsters. They ended up a little more successful than I'd imagined, so I started making little animal faces too.

I've used buttons in my work before, but I've never used them to actually form characters. I'm not completely sure how I feel about them at the moment, but I'm thinking they might be nice to develop into badges. Let me know what you think. :]

Amelia's Magazine | Pretty iced biscuits.

As you can see from the above image, a couple of my illustrations were recently included in an article in Amelia's Magazine. It was all about the beautiful hand-decorated biscuits made by Biscuiteers, which meant that I got to have fun browsing through their website, and then illustrating a selection of their amazing iced treats. I would definitely check out their woodland creatures tin, the little iced animals are gorgeous, and way too pretty to ever eat. All that's missing is a squirrel...

 All this browsing and of biscuits put me in a baking mood, so I thought I'd have a whack at icing some biscuits myself - something I probably haven't done since I was a little kid helping out Christmas. The photo below is the end result - very pink and glittery with an obvious Valentine's theme - I made them as a little surprise for my boyfriend. Nowhere near as beautiful as the gems at Biscuiteers, but I was pretty proud of my attempt.

Hello Creatures!

These little illustrations will soon be available as a set of three cute postcards in my Etsy shop. Perfect for sending cute messages, or just to make somebody smile.

A couple of these illustrations were also included as part of a Valentine's feature on Creature Mag yesterday.

Pink heart day.

A little love-inspired illustration to wish you all a lovely valentine's day. This illustration was also featured on Illustration Rally last week - I recommend you check out their website if you haven't already! Cute heart-shaped cookies and pink roses to everyone. x

Illustration Friday: Sweater.

Pesky monsters.

Edit; I found out earlier that my illustration was chosen as 'Pick of the Week' for the sweater theme on Illustration Friday. Yay! :]

Rainbow rain.

Today I've been working on a little illustration I recently discovered in an old sketchbook. I always thought it had potential, but never got round to developing it any further. It's a bit of an experimental piece, because the style is a little different from my usual work - let me know what you think!

In other news, I just created a Facebook page - feel free to check it out! :]

Mister Monkey Socks.

A little illustration for my friend who loves odd socks almost as much as I do. :]

Lovely little lovebug.

This little lovebug is especially for my lovely friend Luisa. Presumably, this is a pretty close representation of how a ladybird feels when he falls in love.

A little bit of nostalgia.

When I a kid, I went through all the usual phases of wanting to be a princess or a fairy or an acrobat, but when I was 7, I wanted to be an author and illustrator. It's kind of weird that at such a young age, I knew I wanted to be an illustrator - I just then went through a tangled route of other ambitions to get back to the start. Anyway, I was digging through some old stuff the other day and look what I found - my very first children's book! I wrote it when I was exactly 7 3/4, according to the very detailed 'about me' section inside the front cover. I actually remember sitting at the big desk in the living room and making it, then tying it all together with pink wool. Despite the hideous yellow of the cover, I thought I'd post it - a little bit of thursday night nostalgia.

The story is all about four little girls, whose school play ends in total disaster. To be honest, I do quite admire my attention to detail - I even included a price and a barcode! I'm not sure the fellas at Ladybird Books would be overly impressed at the crude attempt of their logo though. :]