Cry Baby ❤️

Hello dearhearts, I've gone a bit AWOL again recently haven't I?! A lot has been happening and I just haven't found the time to write a blog about it.

And i'm still not going to!

so instead, here's my latest new illustration, it's a new addition to the Candy Doll Club (obviously!) and it's an illustration of one of my favourite singers... Melanie Martinez

for those of you unfamiliar with her work, Melanie is an American singer/songwriter/artist with this gorgeous voice and a candy coloured electropop feel to her music! The look is all sugar and light with sweet feminine pastels and lacy frills, but the sound is often deliciously sinister in contrast. 

 I love her music and performance style because it's a reminder that just because something looks sweet and innocent, doesn't mean it is. It says don't judge by appearances; evil can be pleasant and pretty on the outside. Just like poisoned candy.

it isn't hard to see why I like her so much! If you know my work at all then you'll known that Melanie is basically like a real life 'Candy Doll' complete with pastel hair, sweet tattoos and the 'don't mess with me' attitude that every Candy Doll embodies.

Her debut album has just been released and it's called 'Cry Baby' and I absolutely LOVE it! Melanie's songs are like a Mark Ryden pop surrealist painting come to life, with fairytale/nursery rhyme themes laced with darker messages and a much more sinister vibe lurking under the sugary sweet surface.

here's the title song from the album (there's some swearing in this one! so don't say I didn't warn you)

I particularly like the song because it's kind of empowering!

When I was younger I was quite an emotional girl, clumsy and quick to cry whenever I got a bruise or a scrape (which was often!), because of this the other students used to tease me and call me 'cry baby'. By the time I was fourteen most of my yeargroup + the ones above and below would shout 'cry baby' or 'cry me a river' at me whenever they saw me whether it was in class or not they'd yell it repeatedly at me until I walked out or inevitably burst into tears. So of all the things I COULD have been bullied for, this is what they picked.

Obviously looking back now it seems utterly ridiculous and laughable, but at the time it felt upsetting and interminable. I didn't want to go to school, I couldn't concentrate in class, even my so called 'best friends' used to join in with the rest of the bullies in an attempt to avoid being picked on themselves. It might seem petty and unimportant but it ultimately led to depression, anxiety and a life-long inability to exhibit emotions properly unless they become overpowering. I didn't cry for years, it wasn't until I started treatment for depression in February 2014 that I began to realise that it was OKAY to cry sometimes. That there was in fact nothing wrong with it!

So to hear a song like this with the lyrics 'You're one of a kind, And no one understands, But those cry baby tears, Keep coming back again' is kind of inspiring. I wish this song had been around ten years ago when I was being bullied. My favourite part of the song is the chorus,

'They call you cry baby, Cry baby... But you don't fucking care' 

anyway, inspired by the lovely Miss Martinez's new album and general AMAZINGNESS, I decided it was about time I had a go at drawing her!

 

she's always updating her look so although her hair doesn't look like this at the moment, it's one of my fave hairstyles that she's had and I don't think i've EVER drawn a Candy Doll with a bob before! 

The Cry Baby pennant flag was just a little addition to include the album title and one of Melanie's tattoos.

she has quite a few lovely candy hued tattoos including this pretty pastel Carousel horse.



as well as ice creams and other cute characters and designs.

the dress is inspired by Japanese Lolita culture but with some of my own designs to fill out the detail on the full skirt.

It was lots of fun to draw this one. I rarely draw the Candy Dolls based on real people so it was cool to recreate Melanie's actual existing tattoo designs and stuff.

right well I can't think of anything else to talk about so i'll leave it there I think. Thanks for reading, I hope you like the new illustration! I should have some more to show you again soon.

BIG THANKS to Melanie Martinez for being so fabulous and inspiring! you can check out her official website with links to buy her album HERE

and if you like what you see, then here's another of her songs with a twisted candy coloured music video!



bye for now!

New Painting + Stickers ♥

Hello dearhearts, I've been terribly neglectful lately, in fact it has been over a month since I last posted anything on here. I keep visiting the blog trying to conjure up post ideas but I always invariably end up clicking away without any new thoughts. So this afternoon (while I attempt to write this) i'm going to force myself to pull something together and actually publish a post! For once.

As i've mentioned time and time again, I really don't live a particularly interesting life; I spend almost all of my time alone in my room reading, drawing or trawling the internet on my macbook and if i'm not cooped up in my room you'll occasionally find me painting in my poky studio down the hall or wandering around the garden listening to music. The point is, I usually leave my home maybe twice a week at most for appointments or lunch with friends (if I can talk myself into actually going).

I've thought about other ways I could share content on here, I read a lot so book reviews seem like the obvious choice but i've never been particularly good at writing those, I tend to get carried away with gushing, syrupy comments and declarations of how much I adore whatever book it is I just happen to have read. The same goes for movie reviews.

So instead i'm going to do what I usually do, and recount a little about what i've been up to recently, regardless of whether or not it comes across as boring.

If you follow me on Instagram you might have noticed that I recently went across to Coventry to visit my family for a week (I might even write a blog post about that at some point), but right before I went away I rustled up a brand new Candy Doll painting. 

it's kind of difficult to snap a photo of since it's on a 24x24" board, so excusing the shoddy colour quality this is what the finished piece looks like. 

 as per usual I posted a stack of candy coloured progress shots to my Instagram as I worked on the painting. See, this is why you should really follow me on Instagram if you don't already! I always remember to post stuff on there, even when I forget to post stuff anywhere else!

early painting progress, colour blocking using liquitex and crafter's acrylic + posca pens.

paint shots! mucky brushes and my chosen messy method of mixing colours in plastic shot glasses.

my favourite part! starting to add in the lineart with Sharpie pens and permanent markers.

lineart complete, time for the background. The Lace very nearly killed me but I got there in the end!

after the lineart was done I taped up the painting and used a mixture of acrylic and spray paint for the background to give it a nice contrasting texture to the smoothness of the posca and acrylic I used for the girl. I always like to keep the colour flat on my work and the only blending I do is usually for whatever rainbow hued hair i've given the latest Candy Doll because blending is fiddly and because that's just how I like to paint!

also, as per usual, I completed the digital version of the design first before I began working on the painting. Here's the full digital version...

so yeah, there you have it, a new painting. Fun times! I'm not sure what to do with her yet, for the time being she's perched on my desk to keep me company while I work but i'll probably try and sell her if I can.

* * *

in other Candy Doll Club News, I recently designed a new sticker to sell in my Etsy Shop

Yes they're food themed! So Feast your eyes on these Girl Gang inspired beauties!
Fries Before Guys x 100% Fresh Boy Tears

the stickers measure 69mm across and are currently for sale in the shop at the bargain price of just £1 + postage for 3 tasty stickers! Get yours HERE

I've already sent a bunch of these babeful stickers off to the UK, America, Australia and Japan! So if you fancy a trio for yourself or to share with your best babes, then go grab some NOW.

* * *

and on that note i'll sign off for now, i'm currently on book number 27 of 2015 (an anthology of H. P. Lovecraft stories, if you're interested) and it's calling to me so i'd better go

cheerio chums! Hopefully it won't be a month before I bother to post again...

Candy Girl

Hello dearhearts! If you read the last post then you'll know i've been away for a week. I actually got back last Wednesday evening but i've been verrrrrry busy trying to organize my room (and my life) as well as attempting a massive clear-out of old stuff I no longer need!

Anyway it's taken me since then to think up a new blog post + to conjure up another new member of the Candy Doll Club... sort of

here she is

i know, i know... she's tooth achingly sweet! What did you expect?!

now when I say 'new' what I mean is 'reworked', since this one is technically a re-working of an old Xmas Candy Doll illustration I completed last December.

Back when I drew the lineart (and yes, I did DRAW most of this one on paper first) I couldn't think of a theme or colour palette for her so I ended up coming up with the Candy Cane polka dotted madness that you can see above.

So yesterday evening I was scrolling through some old illustrations and I thought about how much I liked the pose so wouldn't it be fun to turn her into a proper CANDY girl?!

So I did.

For this radical redesign, I was actually inspired by v brilliant French Blogger and style maven extraordinaire Katia aka LazyKat

I've followed (in a non stalkerish sense) most of her online profiles for a few years now (her Instagram is particularly epic - iamlazykat) and i'm always amazed by and insanely jealous of her pastel pretty style and very gorgeous (and highly enviable) wardrobe of clothes and accessories!

She always posts fabulously put together outfits and she's basically a real live human version of a 'Candy Doll'!

As well as being an all round Pastel Babe, Kat also has heaps of candy cute tattoos including a few My Little Pony ones, hence why the latest illustrated member of the Candy Doll Club has her two fave Ponies on her arms + another on her shirt.

And i chose My Little Pony because come on... who doesn't love some classic My Little Pony?!i grew up with stacks of the toys (i've probably got some up in the attic still) and i used to love watching the cartoons on TV.

so BIG thanks for the pastel inspiration Kat! merci beaucoup, tu es magnifique!

* * *

in other slightly less colourful news, i had a WONDERFUL time away visiting family in Coventry, a really lovely week which included a particularly laughter filled visit to Leamington with my two darling nieces Madison and Daisy

i managed to snap this pic of them in a Fancy Dress shop, they always cheer me up no matter what!

and... i can't think of anything else to talk about so that'll have to do for now!

so until next time, whenever that may be, cheerio and thanks for reading!

One Year Later...

Hello again, wow i'm really starting to get back into this blogging malarkey, here's hoping the enthusiasm lasts! This one will be kind of a personal post but hey, I never said it would all be fun and games and delicious cakes! Before you start reading the rest I feel I should probably warn you that this post is rather heavy on the old parentheses. (enjoy)

Okay so yesterday morning I got a rather groovy email from a chap I haven't spoken to in over a year (hence the title of the post) but it's nothing overly dramatic or particularly too exciting (at least probably not to you, I mean obviously it is to me or I wouldn't be blogging about it would I) it's just that he bought some big ol' paintings from me last summer and wanted to send me an update on their current whereabouts.

For those of you that follow me on my various social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest (shameless plugs I know but this is a blog after all!) you might remember that around this time last year I was just wrapping up my BA degree in Fine Art and showing my work in the degree exhibition. 

Although I took a lot of progress shots for my degree file (and for Instagram) I was going through my prolonged 'no blogging' spell so I never actually documented the process on here. Obviously i'm not about to regale you with a whole start-to-finish essay about something I did a year ago, but I am going to at least explain a bit about what I did.

For my final pieces, I produced four large scale acrylic and posca paintings for the show on 1819 x 607mm (about 6 x 2 foot each) boards and in case you missed it last year, this is what they looked like up on the wall in the exhibition space.

 

The paintings were pretty big, a real pain in the patootie to move anywhere and even more fun to actually put up on the wall. But once they were up in the space they were kind of striking enough that people paused to look at them, which is all I could ask for really! If you can't quite visualise the sizes mentioned, here's a snap of one of the exhibition visitors gazing up in adoring wonder at one of the paintings (actually she's my friend Porscha but I did NOT pay her to pose for the photo, honest!).

Followed by the only photo of me with the paintings in existence, a slightly blurred farce of a photo. Unfortunately i'm blinking like a total moron in the pic, but ignore the fact that I look like a bewildered sloth and focus instead on the paintings in comparison to my height (i'm wearing heels by the way). Now you'll understand why they were such a chore to lug about and why they took me so ruddy long to paint (a full week on each board from start to finish in case you were wondering).

Well, since the degree show was held during the TT festival (more about that HERE) in a public space (a local shopping centre) we got all sorts of wonderful visitors from all over the world and as luck would have it, one afternoon I got a call saying that someone had been in to the exhibition requesting to buy my work.

Initially I didn't think much of this since i've had people ask to buy my work before and then I never hear from them again. I mean I was kind of attached the paintings at this point, i'd spent the last month huddled over my kitchen table slaving away at them night and day. I drank so much Red Bull through curly straws during the painting process that I now can't even look at a can without shuddering or immediately thinking of Lana Del Rey (her music set on repeat pretty much fueled the entire month of painting).

I'd coated aforementioned table in spatters of paint and for a solid month my flatmate couldn't actually use the table at all because it was so covered in pots of paint, brushes and massive flipping wooden boards! They were the biggest paintings i'd ever attempted and I wasn't even sure that I wanted to actually sell them. They were, and still are, incredibly personal pieces of work.

Then I began to realise that if I didn't sell them I would no doubt be stuck with them forever. Which means I would probably either damage them by accident or get really angry one night and set fire to one, or all, of them while screaming insults at the flames. 

I have a strange relationship with my work but these paintings were 'my girls' and however much I loved them (and I did) I knew it would be easier if they weren't cluttering up the place. I was undeniably flattered that someone had even momentarily considered buying my work so I got in touch with the prospective buyer and quickly realised that he was actually serious!

Obviously I was SUPER excited by this news, it's nice to know that someone likes your work enough to want to actually pay money for it! A few emails later and the deal was secured (as it were) and a few weeks after that, I shipped the paintings over to England and met the buyer off the boat (yes it was as thrilling as it sounds). Anyway, at the time when I sold the paintings I genuinely didn't know what was going to happen to them. The buyer said he planned to hang them in his house and that he'd send me a photo, but months went by and I had other things to think about so I just sort of began to forget about 'my girls'. 

The last time I saw them all together side by side was about a fortnight after the exhibition came down, stacked in my kitchen the day I packaged them up for their trip overseas. I bought a funk-load of parcel paper as well as 100m of bubble wrap (possibly the best purchase i've ever made in my life as there are literally hours of fun to be had with a roll of bubble wrap that is 100m long) and I carefully wrapped up the paintings ready to set sail for Heysham.

When we docked in England I met the guy that was buying the paintings and just over a month after i'd first set brush to board I handed them all over and they were no longer my responsibility. Which is probably a good thing since they'd have undoubtedly ended up stacked next to my fridge if i'd have kept them, or more likely plonked behind the sofa gathering dust.

Anyway since then I haven't thought much about them, like I said i've had other things to think about. But over the past few days i've found myself pondering over their sale and wondering whatever became of them in their new home in Cambridgeshire. Did they get put up in a house, did they get sold on, were they shoved away in a garage? So in true nosy-parker style I messaged the buyer just to try and find out what happened to them.

 Well as luck would have it, as I said at the start of the post (before I started wittering on uncontrollably) I received an email from the chap that bought them and he sent me this...

and this - "Hello Jade, I'm sorry that I never got around to sending you pictures before so here you go. As you can see they are hanging on the wall in my house. Have had no problems with them, they been very well behaved! I'm very fond of them and will not be selling them."

So now I know, and now YOU know as well. They're safe and sound in a hallway hanging above a staircase. Which is frankly pretty awesome to know! I like the idea of them keeping watch over the stairs, no doubt intimidating people with their candy coloured ferocity (at least I like to think that's what they do). It's kind of brilliant knowing that my paintings are still being displayed, now all I need to do is crack on and start painting some NEW ones.

 And on that sentimental note I think I shall draw this post to a close. Mostly because i've exhausted the '( )' buttons and I can't really think of anything else to say. Lucky you.

It's not really a great ending to a blog, it's not even a very good ending, but it's an ending all the same.

So until next time, that's all folks!

thanks for reading (or if you just looked at the pictures, thanks for that too)

bye for now... 

Goodbye Summer Giveaway

hello dearhearts! it's that time again, at long last, i'm finally running another little giveaway here on the blog! (pause for cheering and applause...)

now i know what you're all thinking, "Jade, shut up and tell us WHAT WE CAN WIN!!!"

well you don't need to shout! just give me a chance and i'll tell you!

here it is then, here's the bundle of lovely goodies i picked up during my recent trip to Ireland + a few extra bits n'bobs

pretty tasty right! you bet it is, i'll actually be v jealous of whoever wins this stack of cuteness! maybe i should keep it all for myself!!! (*evil laugh*). nah, i wouldn't do that...

allow me to break it down for you then, first up we have a trés adorable apple watch necklace on a peachy chain. yes, of course the watch really works, however it hasn't been started yet to make sure it's battery will last for the winner!

there's also a v sweet set of post earrings, perfect for the imminent Autumn + a cute summery anklet (just because it's the end of Summer doesn't mean you can't still wear a little bit of it around your ankle!) and a v pretty Hummingbird ring

there's a funky handmade 'ugly doll' type keyring charm, because you can never have too many quirky keyrings, FACT!

and a cute star bow headband + a pretty purple hair-bow clip

then there's the frankly AMAZING owl shaped strawberry lipbalm... yes, it really is owl shaped!!! really!

see!!!

 what else?! well there are some fun tutti cuti kawaii stickers + a set of fun emoticon page tabs (ideal for marking out early Christmas Gifts + for dropping major hints about gifts you would like to receive)

AND a cute Fluff luggage tag (perfect for jazzing up your suitcase) + a sweet Hello Kitty pencil (because lets face it, who doesn't like a bit of Hello Kitty!)

there's also some of my own merch stuff, two sugary sweet postcards + a cupcake pocket mirror and a cupcake badge

+ a Sugar Skull circle sticker to stick on your fridge or your laptop or your face or whatever...

and that's the prize bundle! some very luuuurvely goodies there, i'm sure you'll agree. apologies for the dire quality of the pictures but then you all know how much my camera sucks!!!

right so, enough of the rambling times, let's get to to important part, how YOU can try and get your hands on the prizes!

oh and as always, the giveaway is open to entries from anywhere in the world, seriously, don't fret about postage or anything, that's my concern not yours, if you want to try and win some stuff then go ahead and enter, doesn't matter where you live!

right then, there are lots of ways you can enter + the more entries you get = more chances of winning (yay!)

you just have to click the options on the giveaway form at the end of this post.

firstly, if you don't already follow this blog (and if you don't then why NOT?! explain yourself...) go ahead and click Follow, that's two entries already!

leave me a comment, that's one entry

then you can 'Like' my facebook page, that's another two entries

you can Follow me on twitter = two more entries

and tweet about the giveaway = another one

(if you already Like/Follow me etc, just fill in the form accordingly, but beware... if you DON'T really follow/like my pages, i can check and i will DEDUCT entries if you're fibbing!) 

the giveaway will run until midnight (UK time) on Friday 14th September and i'll email the winner over the weekend.

that's it, that's all you need to know, so what are you waiting for!!! GET THOSE ENTRIES IN!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


+ until next time, that's all folks... xX