Denzel the Miniature Dachshund

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you Denzel the miniature dachshund. A fine specimen of a sausage dog (or wiener dog, if you're from that part of the world).

Pet portraits start from £50 - I'd love to paint your furry friends. 

Get in touch (email: katiedraws.hello@gmail.com) to discuss your ideas!

Sawasdee สวัสดี From Chiang Mai, Thailand

I'm writing to you from a little air conditioned cafe in the Old Town centre of Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. 

My little travel studio that I blogged about this time last year and I are travelling around South East Asia for the next 4 months. My kit is the same except from this baby:

Yeah! It's a vintage tobacco tin and a lump of polymer clay and it is about half the size of my old beast, and even fits a pencil, sharpener and eraser too. Absolutely my proudest creation of 2016 so far.

My friend Chloë and I are travelling together right now and we've managed to make it over here with just hand-luggage. I've been Marie Kondo-ing everything lately so it made sense to set off with as little as possible. Less is more! It's really freeing to realise how little you need to survive. 

I'm spending my days going to yoga classes and cycling around the dusty side streets in search of the best sticky rice and mango.

Anyway, here's how I spent my Valentine's morning: sipping coffee in a packed diner full of Thai people eating breakfast-curry.

(There are lots more travel sketches and travel photos over on my Instagram if you like looking at photos of dogs and mangoes and bright colours)

Hope you all had a good Valentine's day. Sending you mangoes and sunshine xox

The Great North Museum (Hancock) Christmas Story Illustrations

Earlier in the year I was asked to illustrate the Hancock Musuem's Christmas story for their 'Magic at the Museum' event that happened on the 5th of December. 

Here are some of my favourite illustrations. It was so much fun to draw all the different bits of the museum collection coming to life :) 

Drawing naked ladies (and men)

A month ago I found myself in my old studio building on Pilgrim Street in Newcastle. Chris Folwell, my old studio neighbour has been putting on a series of life drawing sessions and I've been lucky enough to drop in a couple of times this summer.

Logo Design for The Dog House

This logo was created for a new dog boarding facility which will be opening soon. Who knew the word dog fitted into a dog's face!? Now you do. You're welcome. 

This version of the logo with a transparent background was designed so that it can be embroidered onto staff-members' shirts. 

Woof.

My Travel Studio

https://instagram.com/katiedraws/

It's a lovely spring morning and I am spending a week at home in North East England before I head back to Berlin. Getting back to "base" gives me time to reflect on the past 18 months of moving around, and how that has changed how I work and what I travel with.

I thought i'd take the chance to share with you my results after 18 months of trial and error! 

Traveling light (and how not to do it) By Katie Chappell.

Pigeons

Berlin pigeons - November 2014 

watercolour

Change of Address Cards

Front of the card (printed on Moo.com Luxe card stock)

The reverse of the card, featuring French Circus rescue donkeys Fleur, Nanou and Babar. (New address removed for privacy/security an' that)

I was recently asked to complete these illustrated change of address cards for a family moving from Berlin, Germany to Cornwall, England.

The cottage came complete with 3 sweet donkeys who also made it onto the card.  Hee haw.

Wedding Invites

This month Laura and Ben asked me to illustrate some wedding invites featuring places they've traveled together, their new baby Dillon, cars, hobbies and tasty food to name but a few things on there. Printed on beautiful textured watercolour paper these looked gorgeous. (See top image for printed version.)

If you'd like a personalised invite or similar illustrated then feel free to send me an email and we can have a chat about it :)

Gigi, Pip and Sally Hennypenny

Here's my latest piece of work - a portrait of tiny sisters Gigi and Pippin playing with a chicken while on holiday in Cornwall.

This original watercolour & ink illustration was given as a birthday gift from Mum to Dad.

New Mains Farm

Here's my latest bit of work - a series of illustrations for Ray and Paula at New Mains Smallholding in Northumberland.  The images are already up on the website, and will also be used in brochures and possibly for some signage too. They're vector graphics, which means they can be scaled up to any size with no loss of quality.

The farm produces British flowers, honey and beeswax products, and has a few Zwartble sheep wandering around. Paula and Ray manage to fit this in whilst also doing day jobs. Amazing! They make wool products from their sheep, green timber tools, honey and wax products from their hives, metal work, food and flowers from the garden, not to mention lambing. 

Goodbyes

After a beautiful 6 months living in Tuscany and drawing my way around Florence it's time to say goodbye.

During my time here i've been looking after two lovely children and as a little thank you present I gave the family a few drawings. I couldn't have wished for a more lovely family to work with.

In Front of the Duomo

Emily's Mum emailed me recently and asked me to do a portrait of her in Florence/Italy to have as a travel gift and souvenir. 

Here she is striking a pose in front of the Duomo in the city centre. 

2013: A Year In Pictures

January

A tentative start to the year. After the end of 2012 I didn't feel like pushing myself to do anything out of my comfort zone. Just happily went to work at Lush, drew for fun and spent the entire month talking to the cat and tending to my aloe vera plants. Highlight of the month = buying a nest of tables in a charity shop. A sign of the times.

February

Michael Lee and I organised a Newcastle sketch crawl. It was slushy, freezing and there were about 5 of us including Michael and I, but it was great to get out and draw and meet new people. If you haven't heard of Sketch Crawls, they're basically a group of people wandering around drawing/Urban Sketching. Working in a group is fun, and it takes away the self-consciousness of sitting by yourself drawing buildings. Nosy bonus: you can look at each others' sketchbooks at the end.

March

Work started trickling back in - this fluffy Pooki lookalike (Pookalike, if you will) was the first cat of many. I hereby declare 2013 the year of the cat portrait. This was also the first time i've been commissioned because of someone seeing my work on Instagram. Social media! All hail!

April

In April I designed a poster for a music festival happening in my home town, Berwick upon Tweed. During this time I was also slaving away with Chris Folwell on an animation to celebrate the Angel of the North's 15th birthday. SLAVING. That rusty angel became my life in April. 

May

We finally finished the Angel of the North animation and I celebrated by having a little sit down with a nice cup of tea. There was plenty of news coverage, and the animation was featured on Google +. I also turned 24 and went to the Lake District for a break.

June

In June I got involved with an exhibition of flip books. Scribbling all over books has never been more fun. In the aftermath of the exhibition I did some animation workshops for kids in partnership with local libraries. Highlights include trundling around Gateshead in a mobile library van, in a fashion not dissimilar to Postman Pat. 

July

Another first for me - a wedding commission. Possibly the most romantic thing i've ever heard; the groom asked for illustrations of the pub the couple got engaged in, the wedding venue, and a map of their honeymoon. These 3 framed original illustrations were given alongside a set of mugs for the wedding guests. In the future i'd like to offer more personalised mugs - they're great fun to design and make!

August

"Drawings an' That", my first ever solo exhibition went on display at Newcastle City Library. 

September

One quick building portrait for Cheryl Fitzgerald Photography (pictured), and then I sold all my stuff, quit my job, put my furniture into storage and broke up with my boyfriend of nearly-3-years. On the 21st of September I moved to Florence Italy to work for Family Nation.

October

October involved Urban Sketching alone around Florence, attending Couch Surfing events, going on a hike in the Tuscan hills, starting Italian classes, meeting other nannies and doing some graphic design for Family Nation.

November

Month 3 of living in Italy. I started working for Megan Claire cards, doing some art working in preparation for the Christmas rush. I got some more work from a PR company in Newcastle and a few pet portraits for Christmas commissions.  Also WINE.

December

Designing thank you cards and Christmas cards for Family Nation, artworking for Megan Claire cards, December was a card-orama.

Much as I love Tuscany and my current job to bits, I've decided to move to Berlin in March to teach English.  If I stay a while I'll be able to speak better German, save up for my MA and get some more inspiration from seeing new cultures and meeting new people.

Here's to adventures and quitting everything to go and eat pasta.

My Thoughts on Working For Free

Since graduating I've heard this countless times. It also comes in other guises such as:

"we can't pay, but it'll be a wonderful portfolio piece for you!"

"this is going to be really huge down the line - it'll be great for you to be a part of it."

"we'll pay you a small percentage when the book is published" (IF it gets published...)

"we haven't got a budget for this particular project, but we will DEFINITELY be in touch in the future with lots of paid work for you"

**bullshit alarm activated**

Exposure doesn't pay the bills

It's part of graduate life and i'm gradually accepting it as one of the perils of being a designer/illustrator. Learning to spot early on whether or not a client wants a freebie is a skill just as important as drawing every day, doing self-promotion and keeping up to date with the creative industry. For every 10 nice clients who give me a tasty brief to chew on and then give me some money to feed myself, there is 1 who pops out of nowhere and tries to pay me in exposure and/or empty promises. Make sure you suss out in the first few emails/phone calls/meetings whether there is any money involved. Otherwise it can be a bit of a waste of time for everyone involved. Here are some things you can do to weed out the scroungers from the genuinely nice clients who value your work and would like you to do some quality work for them...

• Get it out in the open. Either state your fee, or you can always ask "What's your budget for this project" or "Who should I send the invoice to" (before starting work, by the way) This is usually enough to put off anyone who isn't planning to pay you.
• Get an acceptance of commission form* written up, then get it signed by you and your prospective client once fees have been agreed.
• Ask for a percentage of the fee before starting and a percentage on completion. 50/50 is always a good one. Sometimes clients will even pay 100% upfront before you've even started, but they are like hen's teeth. Rare.
• If they try and seduce you with promise of exposure, a great portfolio piece, paying-you-a-percentage-later-on, or the ol' "no money now, but definitely some paid work in the future!", then politely decline and carry on with your day.

*For any more details on contracts and your rights as an illustrator, the Association of Illustrators has a wealth of information and some basic contract templates which have been invaluable to me over the past few years. See links at the bottom of this post.

Internships

In the past few years I've seen a handful of friends end up working as interns. AKA, working in design & fashion/journalist places, doing work for paying clients, but just getting pocket money to cover expenses. If they're lucky. More recently i've seen some North East design studios actually charging graduates and students to work for free. It's one thing to have an army of nearly-free workers, but disguising it as an "internship programme", giving it "modules" and plastering university-related icons all over it is taking something useful, and kicking the arse out of it (in my humble and open-to-debate opinion). I like to think romantically of internships as an exchange. You get to experience working in a studio, they get some very low cost labour. You get to beef up your creative CV and perhaps even your portfolio, they get some fresh meat in the studio and can pick your young creative brain for ideas. Do it for a set amount of time. Plump up your CV, get some good portfolio stuff, then GET OUT OF THERE. Apply for real jobs, go freelance, even move to a different place to intern (for a short, set amount of time of course) if there are no jobs or freelance things going. If a studio asks you to fork out some cash for the privilege of doing work for them for free then run away. Run far, far away. You also have my permission to tell them to fuck off.

So in summary, working for free has it's place in this economic climate but is best avoided. If you're a student or a struggling fresh graduate then perhaps do a little intern-ing to tide you over. When your Mum wants you to design a Christmas card for free, that's ok. She's your Mum. Be nice. 

If your Mum asks you to pay £500 for the privilege, it's time to find a new Mum. 

Jessica Hische has an excellent infographic/flow chart here that should clear up any doubts around working for free. 

The Association of Illustrators. Like a big helpful uncle for all illustrators. I highly recommend taking out a subscription with them, especially if you are an illustration student or a recent graduate who is unsure of anything at all. That being said, they have information for anyone at any stage in their career. Contracts, licensing, copyright, finances, etc etc etc. The £150 subscription fee may seem a bit pricey, but honestly if you have any questions they are really helpful, and you get a shiny magazine in the post every once in a while.

A Studio Portrait

Here's my latest bit of work, for Cheryl Fitzgerald, of Cheryl Fitzgerald Photography.

It was the last bit of work I completed, finishing it the day before I hopped on the plane to Italy.

If you'd like a building portrait (perhaps a drawing of someone's house as a christmas gift?) then just drop me an email. I'm still freelancing and i'm more than happy to send work to the UK.

Katie

Custom Wedding Illustration

Way back in March I was asked if I'd be able to create a set of illustrations as a wedding present for a groom to give to his bride. He was after 2 building portraits; one of the venue where he proposed, and the other of their wedding venue. In addition to these he asked for a map of their honeymoon route. Since they were traveling from Las Vegas to California, to San Francisco and then all the way to Hawaii this was no mean feat! All the illustrations were A5... fitting thousands of miles of map onto that tiny space was my challenge of the year.

Firstly, apologies for the bad (awful) photos. In the end I was just so excited to have finished them that I wanted to get them to the groom ASAP and didn't take time to wait until daylight or until I was somewhere a bit more glamorous that my kitchen.  Lesson learned!

I've recently heard from the newly-weds whilst on their honeymoon and the mugs and illustrations are said to have gone down a treat.

So anyway, on the left here is the building where they got married, and on the right is the pub where he proposed.

A work-in-progress shot

The honeymoon map! (Click to enlarge)

Packing up the illustrations for the groom to give to the bride on the morning of their wedding.

Mugs!

There were two best men and each got a personalised mug.

Then the parents of the bride and groom got their own mugs too. You get a mug! You get a mug! Everyone gets a mug!

Drawings an' That (exhibition)

Last month I was lucky enough to be able to exhibit my work in Newcastle City Library.  It was my first solo exhibition and I somehow managed to get everything printed and framed within two weeks with the help of friends and family and the friendly man at the library.

Here are some photos for anyone who didn't manage to get along. Thank you so much to everyone who went along to have a look, and especially big thanks to you marvellous people who bought prints. You are keeping Pooki in cat food, and for that she is eternally grateful. If you'd like to buy any, they are in my Etsy shop and will be there for the next month or so.

Many thanks to Melanie Kyles and Alex Davy for the photos, and Mel for writing the review on the F6.Studios blog - amidst all the excitement and flapping around I totally forgot to take any pictures.

One thing a few people suggested was to leave out a comments book and some business cards. Leaving the comments book was a bit terrifying, but I'm so glad I did it. There was some really lovely feedback and support in there and only one page that said F R E A K S !!!  Awh. Thanks guys.

p.s. Thank you to Mark Thurston and David Stockdale for making the exhibition happen. Three cheers for Newcastle City Council, hip hip... 

Summer Sounds at the Pavilion

Here is my latest bit of work - a poster for a family-friendly music festival in Berwick upon Tweed.

If you're in North East England in the middle of June it's well worth a visit! Electric Penelope is fab.

Flip Book Illustration

I am currently working on 2 flip book animations for Gateshead Library and created this little set of illustrations for them to use in the publicity.