Candy Pop and the Candy Dolls

Hello darlings! It's been a while since my last post, but if you follow me via facebook or twitter you may have noticed that for the past few weeks i've been working furiously to sort everything for my end of year exhibition at college

if you've followed the blog for a while you also might have noticed a serious decline in the amount of personal work posts since last year. The truth is that i've had plenty of work to share with you all, I just haven't chosen to post it on here like i usually do.

for example, in regard to my most recent project, i wanted to keep everything TOP SECRET and hidden until my actual exhibition :)

anyway, the exhibition opened on Thursday night so now i see no reason to keep the stuff under wraps, so on that note, i'd like you all to meet... the Candy Dolls

Love Is The Drug

Pretty In Pink

You Should Be Dancing

Just Can't Get Enough

In The Summertime

Sweeter Than Candy

Go Chasing Rabbits

I Put A Spell On You

Where Is My Mind

there are nine of them altogether and in case you couldn't guess from the cryptic titles, they're all based on various song lyrics.

the new term at college required me to set a new project brief for myself. i knew that i wanted to do something bright and colourful but very girly and maybe a little edgier than my usual work.

i'd been toying with the idea of producing a set of kawaii inspired figurative illustrations for a while, then a few months ago Ballad Of magazine set their new issue theme which just happened to be 'Candy Pop'. i'd long since begun sketching out a few girls so the timing seemed perfect. working towards the submissions brief gave me the chance to create a set of work for my college portfolio as well as a possible opportunity to get the work published.

anyway, i submitted 5 very basic girls, the early stages of the 'dolls' i guess and kept my fingers crossed bit unfortunately none of my illustrations made the final cut due to being deemed too sweet. i only found that out about a week and a half ago so in the time since i sent the early versions the 'dolls' have changed and developed quite a bit.

for starters, most of them now sport a serious amount of ink! tattoo art has always fascinated me but i have a massive phobia of needles so since covering myself with tattoos was out of the question, i covered my illustrations with them instead.

and inspired by the candy pop culture, i ended up fusing a bit of Kawaii with a bit of Rockabilly to create a bunch of pastel haired, pin-up style lovelies :)

 there's a lot more to them than initially meets the eye but i'll save all that rambling for the next post.

tomorrow night i'll be posting pics of the actual exhibition + the little paintings i did to accompany the digital designs, but in the meantime you can check out prints, postcards and booklets featuring the Candy Dolls, currently on sale in my BigCartel Store and my Etsy Shop

so until tomorrow (hopefully!), that's all folks... xX

All images featured in this post belong to Jade Boylan © do not claim, use, distribute, reproduce or copy ANY of my work without my express written consent (or else i will find you!!!) . All Rights Reserved.