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!

Doodle Tote Bags

Hello my dears, hope you're all fine and well this sunny Thursday evening. At least, it's sunny here, obviously I can't be sure that it's sunny wherever YOU are.

Lets stop talking about the weather.

So yesterday morning I got a sudden urgent need to draw something, anything, everything!

This happens to me from time to time and I usually just scribble out something halfheartedly on a nearby sheet of A4.

However this time paper and pencils didn't seem to hold the solution, nor did sketching out a design for a new painting, so instead I sorted out some plain cotton tote bags (that have sat unused in a box for well over a year) and thought i'd have a go at doodling straight onto the bags instead of anything else. Like the walls.

This was the result...

Now it's not the first time i've drawn onto fabric, nor will it probably be the last, but every single time I sit down to do it I somehow always forget how much FUN it is!

I mean yeah it's true that the pens dry out super fast and the slightest nudge sends the line wavering into a wobbly mess but still, there's something very gratifying about drawing on fabric. To me anyway. I don't know maybe it just felt good to be drawing anything at all.

I tried not to over think the  drawings too much so tried to work on them quickly before my mind could talk me out of it or come up with some other spontaneous scheme.

The first design I drew out quickly turned into a bunch of Sailor Moon doodles. Yes i'm still very much stuck in Sailor Moon mode, and I don't think i'll be leaving the obsession behind just yet, especially not now that I have the new cartoon to watch (which is utterly brilliant by the way).

Then I took a break because my wrist was protesting achily at the unexpected need for it to actually do something other than turn a page in a book or pick up a fork.

THEN I came back to my desk and drew out another 5 designs. After which my wrist really REALLY wasn't happy.

Next came a very sweet design, as in the doodles are so sweet they'll rot your teeth! Everyone loves cakes though right?! I know I do. And sweeties. And DONUTS! So this was probably the easiest one to draw.

Next there was a Summertime themed bag, lots of fun Summery type things. I'm not much of a beach fan (growing up on an island has forever lessened the excitement that a beach and the sea usually instills in people. I see the sea several times a day and I went to school opposite a beach. I like them, but I do not love them) but I was obviously thinking of lazy days on the sun drenched sand when I doodled this one.

After that it was a slightly less cluttered one, simple but nice (probably my favourite in fact) a slightly 'Sailor Larry' tattoo inspired bag. The text was the most fun bit to do.

 Then after another break for water and sweeties, there was a slightly Lolita inspired bag. I'm currently re-reading Lolita so it seemed like a good idea to throw in some bits n' bobs from the book (and the movies) and this doodle was the result.

And last but certainly not least, I drew out one of my 'dolls', in fact she was one of the first ever 'Candy Doll' girls I ever drew (way back in 2012) so I thought it might be nice to plonk her and her judging stare onto the side of a bag.

The bags were super fun to doodle on and since each design was different, it didn't get too boring. In fact i'd probably have carried on decorating more bags if i'd had any!

Anyway, all of these 100% unique and one-of-a-kind work of art tote bags are now up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Y'all will probably think they're too pricey, in which case oh well, I guess i'll just never sell any! You see, as much as i'd like to slap on a super cheap bargain price, I drew each one by hand, literally until my hand ached, they took about half-an-hour each!

That's three hours altogether, three hours I could've spent reading or staring at the ceiling.

Well they're there anyway, and if they don't sell i'll just have 6 nifty new tote bags to shove all my books and stuff in. 

To sweeten the deal, each bag comes with a very sepcial handmade limited edition ribbon rosette and matching button badge.

If you've been a long-time admirer of the Candy Doll girls then this is your chance to officially become one of them by joining the Candy Doll Club.

The rosettes are super sweet and perfectly candy coloured! They look great on the tote bags but if you still want a limited edition rosette (and badge) for your very own self, they're available separately HERE.

Okay so that's that. Recent spurt of creativity. Not much else to tell.

I seem to be getting worse at finishing these posts so maybe I should end on a song!

Don't worry i'm not about to start serenading you, but here's a video of a new-ish song I really kind of like. The lyrics are brilliant and it's impossible for me to not love every scene of the video as it is SO VERY VERY VERY candy coloured!

If my Candy Doll girls were real (which they are, obviously...) then I think this is what they'd listen to. A Candy Pop pop song. perfect



so until next time, cheerio folks, thanks for reading!

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.

♥ curiouser and curiouser...

 so i've been a little quiet this week blog wise, i have a lovely new creative café post for you tomorrow but in the meantime i thought i'd share what i've been working on recently

i was looking at some of my old 'Where's Charlie?' picture book characters and i thought i'd have a go at re-inventing and altering some of the characters

so i ended up drawing two little princess style girls, and kind of like the last princess image i worked on, i imagined that these two were sisters, one very girly and pretty, the other a little bit more gothic

but as i coloured them i realised that they actually reminded me of something else... and so this was the next result!  with the lovely Ballaglass Glen acting as a makeshift Wonderland!

i'm not sure why, but as i coloured them it made me think of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, so i tweaked them a bit and added in a re-vamped 'cupcake princess' as the Red Queen!

i'm not gonna lie, they were a lot of fun to work on! i haven't really done any fan art for a while so it was nice to incorporate colours and details from existing characters for a change! 

* * *

a short but sweet post today, like i said i haven't been up to much!

look out for the creative café post tomorrow!

but until then, that's all folks... ★ ◕‿◕ xX

T-shirt Feature + other stuff ★

so... i'm all alone at Chateau Boylan keeping myself occupied by watching near endless 80's/90's movie marathons, reading stacks of magazines and books + drinking a hell of a lot of tea

my parents have gone away for 2 weeks so i'm looking after the house/plants/birds/fish

i've also spent most of the past few days on 'Google +' sorting out my links and circles, if you have a G+ account be sure to add me on there - Jade on Google +

oh and if you DO have a G+ account don't forget to hit the +1 button at the bottom of the post

anyway, i remember last Saturday or Sunday or whenever it was that i said i'd show you my new Princess design

well as you can see, she's based on the big sister of the little Cupcake Princess and is as girly and as pink as ever!!!

but i also did a variation, this one is a little on the dark side though! 

who knows, maybe they're sisters and one's Kawaii and girly while the other is all Gothic lolita!

I have been listening to the 'Wicked' soundtrack a lot lately though so i'm guessing that i've maybe been a little inspired by Glinda and Elphaba!!!

but today i spent most of the afternoon on Society 6 putting things in my shop on there, but the groovy thing about it is that as well as prints and stretched canvases, you can also upload your designs to be sold on iPhone and iPod cases/skins, macbook/laptop/iPad skins and t-shirts/hoodies

check out my stuff on some of these bits and bobs... 

funky stuff right! hhhm, kind of makes me wish i had an iPhone JUST so i could get one of my designs on a case/skin (sad but true!)

* * *

in other news, today my work was featured on the super duper Tee Gazette site!!!

the lovely Jared over at Tee Gazette and Design Juices asked me last week if i'd be up for a feature on the site for my tee designs from red bubble and all tropical

so of course i said YES!!!

it's a nice feature and i was very chuffed to be asked to take part in it :)

you can see my red bubble shop here - Red Bubble

anyway to read the full feature + see all the tee designs you can check it out here - Artist Spotlight: Jade Boylan

oh and if by chance you have an 'All Tropical' account, could you be a star and vote for my pinwheels design on there??? - RATE RATE RATE

* * *

not much else to report for today, i'm hoping to actually leave the house tomorrow, providing my friend Jenny can come and pick me up!

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