In the name of the Moon...

Hello dearhearts, here I am, back again. And guess what, today's post is going to be about a drawing that I did! That's right, I ACTUALLY drew something!

But not just anything, oh no... I drew something so candy coloured and eye achingly sweet that it deserved its very own blog post.

I drew...

SAILOR MOON!

But obviously I drew her as if she were one of my Candy Doll girls, so she's totally fierce, looking fresh to death in her kick-ass uniform and is utterly slathered in tattoos!

Sailor Moon is the ultimate Magical Girl so i'm pretty sure that it was only a matter of time until i felt compelled to draw her. I guess it was sooner rather than later though.
 

 I'm not going to pretend that I didn't have absolute HEAPS of fun working on this piece. I spent so long working on it in fact that I started to neglect other things, so had to give it a break for a day or two.

Initially I was just going to draw her without any tattoos or anything but then I thought... nah! That's not as much fun. To me anyway. So I suppose she's a kind of 'Girl Gang' version of Sailor Moon, hence the shredded gloves to show off the inked arms!

I sat down one day about a fortnight ago and thought 'hhm, I want to draw Sailor Moon'. So this was the result. It's hard to tell without zooming way in on the illustration but every single one of the tattoos is linked to 'Sailor Moon' in some way. You'd have to be a fan of the show and the characters to spot them all, but they're there.

For those of you not familiar with the magic that is Sailor Moon, it's a Japanese creation, originally a Manga first produced in 1992. However my first experience of the world of Sailor Moon came from the Animated series from the mid 90's.

Sailor Moon was probably the first anime I ever saw as a kid, in fact I first saw the cartoons in Spanish during my annual visits to Andorra. I didn't have a clue what the characters were saying (at that point I was years away from even starting Spanish language lessons) but I would sit enraptured, glued to the grainy TV watching the adventures of Usagi and co + their senshi counterparts unfold on the screen before me.

I remember later visiting a toy shop in Andorra and spotting a bunch of 'Sailor Moon' dolls. Back then I was obsessed with any dolls that had brown hair and green eyes (the closest to my own hair and eye colour) so it goes without saying that my favourite Sailor Soldier back then was Sailor Jupiter (in fact, I might have to draw her as well at some point).

She even had green in her uniform and back then, aged nine-and-a-half, green was my absolute favourite colour ever, so show me a doll with brown hair (and a fringe/bangs not too disimilar to my own) green eyes AND a green skirt and well... lets just say my parents had difficulty dragging me away from the shop that day.

I look at them now and wonder what I was thinking, but at the time I was desperate for one (or several). I'm sad to say that I never got the doll. Or in fact ANY 'Sailor Moon' doll. I feel that my late 90's childhood self definitely missed out on swathing her bedroom with Sailor Moon merch. But alas, until I build my time machine, that'll never change.

So instead, my twenty-three-year-old self got this.

Yes. I bought another toy to add to the collection crammed onto my desk. BUT HOW COULD I NOT?! Don't answer that. I don't need you to judge me, I can do that all by myself.

Ignore the blu-tack shoes, but look she also comes with swappable faces (not creepy) and hands and wands and stuff! She is actually brilliant.

Sailor Moon herself + a little Luna as well (Luna is the cat, in case you didn't know. And honestly if you didn't know, you should just go and educate yourself and watch Sailor Moon already. Go on then!)

I had to get her. I mean, I just had to, you know. Look at how badass she is! She'll beat you up if you mess with her!  

Fighting Evil by Moonlight, winning Love by Daylight, never running from a real fight! (that's the theme song by the way i've not just gone barmy, not completely anyway). 

For now she's perched on the desk (on top of my Washi tape collection) along with all the other funky stuff that seems to be gathering around me day by day, you might be able to spot her if you look carefully...

Back to the illustration for a moment though, in case you were wondering 'why now?' it was massively inspired by the Moon Crisis show, which is this totally brilliant tribute art show about to launch in Anaheim, CA (on Saturday). I've been keeping up to date with all of the new pieces via their instagram profile and if you want to see some truly BRILLIANT Sailor Moon inspired art then i definitely encourage you to go have a look (here).

Sadly I found out about it way too late to submit a piece but i'm excited to see the full collection once it's open to the public, not that i'll make it out to Anaheim myself of course, but i'm hoping lots of photos will be posted on their facebook page. + if they decide to do another show next year i'll definitely try my best to get a piece entered for consideration.

Also, my timing isn't a coincidence, very exciting things are afoot because on July 5th a BRAND NEW anime series of Sailor Moon is due to begin! (cue extreme fangirling), this is a HUGE deal, like a really massive deal. Okay i'll shut up and pop the trailer below.



and on that magical note, i'll say my goodbyes.

so until next time, cheerio folks!


ps - what's also exciting is that fact that EatSleepDraw one of my favourite Tumblr art blogs featured my Sailor Moon candy doll this morning on their site! So this really seemed like the perfect day to run this blog post!

pps - totally forgot to mention it above but you can also get prints and bags and phone cases and stuff with my Sailor Moon fan art on, check the stuff out here and here.

Coventry Times ★

phew! it's been a busy few days, trying to get everything sorted for going away + finishing off some commissions and stuff

i haven't slept properly since yesterday morning when i woke up... i always seem to stay awake 24hrs when i'm about to catch a boat anywhere... so i'm a little highly strung at the moment, to say the least

anyway, we (myself + my dear mama) finally made it to Coventry late this afternoon, it's been miserable weather lately but there was a colourful welcome waiting for us as we reached our destination

the picture really doesn't do it justice, it was such an incredible rainbow! a double one, and the arcs reached right back into 2 full rainbows, brilliant stuff!

i also have 2 new drawing things to share with you

i got bored in the small hours of this morning while a big thunder/lightning storm raged outside and so i drew some little Kokeshi dolls...

i also wanted to do something with my Matryoshka dolls but i'm not too sure of the result...

i think i prefer them by themselves!

other than that there's also the first in a series of 'possible' xmas card designs

i started the drawings for them all back in August just after i got back from my trip to Ireland, but despite listening to my 'Christmas Music' playlist on repeat all day, i just couldn't really get into the festive spirit so i abandoned them!

i'm attempting to take them up again now but i may end up leaving it, not sure yet!

* * *

oh oh AND when i arrived in Coventry i found an email waiting for me directing me to a nice little feature of my work from 'The Young Creatives'

Meet 20-year-old freelancerJADE BOYLAN.

When she’s not illsustrating/blogging/writing/designing, Jade can be found reading/baking/collecting/watching Formula 1. ‘I kind of suck at proper hobbies,’ she says although we could not disagree more.

Jade spends most of her money buying books. ‘When I’m not buying or reading books, I’ll probably be drawing, watching movies, or writing books of my own! Books, books, books!’

Oh, and one last thing: she just can’t STAND celery...

these are just the images from it, the actual interview bit was v fun to do, you can see the full feature + read it all here - TYC

* * *

right and i think that's it for now, tonight i plan to sit in my hotel room and sleep... lots! 

tomorrow i think i'm off to see my big sister + my nieces and nephew so that should be suuuuper!

so until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Silly Little Strawberries ★

so today i have been very VERY busy

i woke up early (early for me!) and finished off a logo commission for a local company, then i edited a packaging design for another local business, then i locked myself away in my sewing cave (aka my bedroom) which is where i've been cooped up for the rest of the day

but look at what i made!!!

i finally used some of the flower patterned felt i bought aaaaages ago + some lovely little scrap fabric bits and pieces to make this little kimono

it took forever to make though since i sew everything by hand, my mum attempted to set up the old sewing machine for me but it just won't work, i wasted a good hour this morning on it but it just keeps jamming and making scary buzzing noises so i gave up!

anyway this little lovely is called 'Kimiko' and i hope you like her

i made another new little doll as well, little being the operative word since i messed up the templates a bit and ended up with much smaller body parts, the plus side was that she's so small the little blue dress i made yesterday actually fits her

but that's not all folks because as you may have gathered from today's blog title, i've not JUST been sewing dolls . . .

thaaaaat's right! i've been making some strawberry charms

quite a few in fact since i actually ended up making seven!!!

i made them all this afternoon after drawing some strawberries for a clients logo design, i guess it inspired me!

these are very similar to the first strawberry charm i made

you know . . . this one

only this time i used tiny glass seed beads for the pips instead of french knots, mainly to save my sanity but also because a little bit of sparkle is nice

what do you think?

tomorrow i'm heading into college to try and catch up on everything that i've missed + get some more sewing done, i'm thinking maybe cupcakes or toadstools for tomorrow!

tata for now 

that's all folks ◕‿◕ ★ xX