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!

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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

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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

Matryoshka Stuff ★

so remember a while ago when i told you all that i'd been asked to design a tattoo for the lovely Melanie, owner of the Alpine café aka my home from home, well i STILL don't have a photo of the groovy tattoo but i figured i could still share a bit of it with you all!

basically, Melanie loves all things folky so the decor of the Alpine is full of vintage books, posters, photos, cuckoo clocks, records and all manner of other funky bits and bobs

when she asked me to design the tattoo for her, she said that she wanted the main part to feature a Russian doll which i dutifully drew out for her

the finished tattoo features all sorts of stuff but the Russian doll, or Matryoshka, is my fave part of it, so this weekend, having nothing else to do, i decided to have a go at colouring the little Matryoshka (seeing as the version i gave Melanie was just black and white)

these were the results... 

(Copyright © Jade Boylan 2011. All Rights Reserved.)

this one above is the latest, or 'final' version. it's a little different to what i normally do especially seeing as the black outline has vanished! i wanted a sort of screen printed effect and i'm actually hoping to have a go at silk screening a proper version of this once i get settled back at college! fingers crossed it'll work... i'd love to see these printed up massive!!!

it seems that my current fascination with all things CMYK is still here, so naturally i had to have a go at a CMYK Matryoshka, here she is (above) looking very bright

this one here (above) was the first 'silk screen' version i came up with although now i think it looks more like a batik technique's been used or something?! 

and last but not least we have the original. this is the full line drawing coloured the way i envisioned it as a tatoo. Melanie has picked different colours for hers but when i drew it all out, this is how it looked in my mind. 

so yeah, Matryoshka times!

i finally got around to uploading the designs today so now they're available to buy on iPhone cases and t-shirts and stuff...

ok so the baby onesie colours don't quite pop as brightly but it's the redbubble colour conversion to blame, not me! god knows i try to retain colour quality but no matter how many times i use the colour conversion chart, they always end up duller :S

it's still cute though...

+ the iPhone case has made me even more desperado for an iPhone of my own :)

you can also get it on prints, postcards, canvases, guys/girls tees, baby tees, hoodies and stickers.

tees/prints/iPhone cases - Society6 

tees/prints/stickers/onesies - redbubble

feedback would be nice on this so if you like/love/loathe this design, drop me a comment/tweet/email and let me know! 

if people like it i will get some postcards/greetings cards printed up with the full blue background version

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not much else really, working on the Matryoshka also got me tweaking a few of the other tattoo designs and i ended up producing a new wallpaper for my desktop since i thought the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 'Don't Panic' had been there long enough...

it's supposed to look like a papercut... i'm not sure if it succeeds though! it's just a test piece anyway...

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yup so i think that's it! i'm off back to College tomorrow so not sure if i'll be posting tomorrow night or not, depends on how the day goes i guess!!!

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