Merry Christmas to youuu!

I'm feeling all festive today! We've had lots of snow where I live (at least a foot!) so everything is looking very pretty and christmassy. I've got huuuge icicles hanging from my bedroom window too!

I didn't think I would get this illustration finished in time for christmas, I've been really busy at work and with christmas shopping (which I stupidly left to the last minute!). I managed to finish it this evening though just in time to wish everyone a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS! Thank you so much to everyone for following me on both my blog and my twitter this year, I really appreciate all your comments and support!!

Happy christmas and best wishes for 2011!!
























(Illustration Friday link...! Badger and Rabbit had received lots of lovely christmas presents in the mail!)

Some new work...

Hello!

So sorry I haven't posted for such a long time...over a month now! I have been busy busy, been working lots of extra shifts at my work to make some extra christmas money and I have now taken on a full time job until March. I will still be illustrating though! Typically, as soon as I accepted my full time job I received a couple of emails about commissions! So I think the next few weeks are going to be crazy busy and I won't be getting much sleep! I've been working on a small commission for Scholastic over the past week and have got another fun commission lined up for the next month or so, which I am really excited about! Hopefully 2011 will be a good year for me!

Here's a few bits and bobs I've been painting recently ^

Recent sketches...

Just a quick post to show you some characters/storyboards I've been working on for a development project. It's a story about two dogs Dig and Doug who are fighting over a yummy bone! Hopefully, I will get some of these done in colour soon!

Hope everyone has a good end to the week!

A sneaky peek...

Here is a quick preview of how Liberty Art Fabrics have used my "Owl and the Pussycat" illustration! I can't show more at the moment, but I have been included in their new Spring / Summer 2011 Storybook Collection! My work is included alongside some incredible illustrators including Mr Benn illustrator David Mckee, Lauren Child, Jane Ray (whose work I adore!), Emma Chichester Clark, Brian Wildsmith, and one of my heroes Quentin Blake! It's an exciting project to be included in and will share some more photos soon!

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend! :o)

Illustration Friday: Transportation

The best way to travel is by pea-green boat!

An illustration from my portfolio for this weeks IF, an oldie but a goodie! I painted this in my final year of uni and it is part of the Falmouth Book of Illustrated Quotes & Sayings (check out www.fcaillustration.co.uk for more fantastic Falmouth illustrators!). It is also being used by Liberty of London for a fabric collection, which I think will be avaliable in early 2011.

Have a great week everyone!

New thiiiings!

There have been a few changes to my Folksy shop recently and I have listed lots more goodies (A3 + A4 prints/greetings cards/etc), which you can find here. This is a little sneak peek...




































































































I have also ordered some shiny, new business cards from Moo, which look ace! I can highly recommend them, great quality and reasonable prices too!















































Hope everyone is having a good week! :o)

Dog doodles!

Just a quick peek at some sketchbook work from the past week. I'm working on a couple of development projects with my agent to get some new illustrations for my portfolio.

Blueberry Girl

I bought a copy of Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman this weekend. Neil is my favourite author and I've been wanting a copy of this since it was published! The poem (a dedication to a friend's new baby daughter) is beautiful and the illustrations (by Charles Vess) are stunning...lovely and whimsical. I can highly recommend it!! Here's a short video of Neil Gaiman reading Blueberry Girl and a preview of the illustrations if you are interested...

Illustration Friday: Old Fashioned

L-R: Mr Bear, Mrs Bear and Ted!

The Bear Family decided to have an old fashioned family portrait taken to frame on their wall. My quick attempt at IF this week...let me know what you think! Mr Bear looks very smart in his shirt and tie haha!

I've got a couple of development projects lined up to work on in the next couple of weeks to boost my portfolio. My agents have been wonderful with helping me to develop my work and really push myself. Hopefully, I will get some good images to add to my folio and send to some publishers!

I've also been trying to sort out getting lots of things printed/made for my Folksy shop. I've ordered some A4 and A3 prints and am planning to make some greetings cards/bookmarks/etc! Does anyone know of a good place/website to get greetings cards printed?

Hope everyone has a lovely week :o)

Website updates!

I've updated my website with all my recent work and given it a slight makeover! Nothing too major though! Check it out here.

Lets go fly a kite!

Ted rides a bicycle!

Some more development work...I'm trying to get some more movement into my illustrations and characters. I have discovered that bicycles are really hard to draw!

Tweet Tweet!

Well I finally got round to signing up to Twitter! I will hopefully be updating it with lots of exciting illustration news! Here's the link!

I've been working on some more new samples/character development so will hopefully be posting something a bit more interesting soon. :o)

Illustration Mundo - Spotlight!

I've been blogged over at Illustration Mundo as a Spotlight illustrator...a real honour! Check out the post here.

New sample...

Just another image of Ted, this time playing with butterflies in the garden! Think I'm going to get stuck into something a little bigger next week and get lots more work done for my portfolio. I might try and create a narrative for little Ted and make a mini book... :o)

Illustration Friday: Star Gazing

A quick illustration for IF this week. Let me know what you think! :o)

New Character Designs!

I have been working on my characters recently and have been drawing lots of bears, which resulted in this little guy! He hasn't got a name yet so any suggestions would be welcome!

Fairytale Book Cover

Just working on a few more bits and pieces for my portfolio. This is obviously a book jacket for a children's fairtytale treasury. I will probably work on a few spot illustrations for inside at some point soon! Let me know what you think!

Illustration Friday: Linked

Twin sheep! Kind of linked...!? Not sure which one is the evil twin though? I need to try and get my IF done over the weekend instead of leaving it to the last minute everytime!! x

Neil Gaiman's "Instructions" - love this!

My fave author, Neil Gaiman, has a new children's book out soon called Instructions. It is beautifully illustrated by Charles Vess and in this video you can see how his illustrations go from pencil roughs to final images. Neil also does a reading of the story, I love his voice it's so relaxing!
Check it out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRvqO1MjIsqO1MjIs

Illustration Friday: Dip

A really quick entry for IF this week. Mrs Rabbit having a lovely dip in the bath!

Some new work...!

Well I haven't kept to my New Years Resolution to blog more often! I've been really slack recently, I don't know why, I seem to have lost all of my inspiration. I've been working on a few things over the last month or so...a couple of children's maps for an American educational publisher, and I started working on a picture book, which has unfortunately now been put on hold. I'm now trying to get lots of new work done for my portfolio, any suggestions are welcome! Just need to get the creative juices flowing again, I'm feeling rusty!

I'm trying to make my portfolio more diverse, I've been working on some human characters and think I will experiment with some images for an older audience. This is an image of the nativity:
























Hopefully I will be posting a lot more from now on!

Illustration Friday: Clumsy

My contribution to this weeks IF...
























Ellie wasn't the most talented waitress ever. She was a very clumsy elephant!

Hey diddle diddle!

New sample...

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

New Website!

I have finally managed to finish the revamping of my website! It's got a slightly different look and I've added some new work. I'm very proud of myself for doing this (I'm not very clued up when it comes to computers!), with help from Becca (my sister), Phil and Vicki. Thank you guys! I've also set up my Etsy store, but at the moment there is nothing for sale!

Please take a look, I would love some feedback: http://www.lucyboden.com/

White Rabbit

New sample:

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to everybody! I haven't updated for weeks now, I've had too many other distractions! I've got some plans for this year though, which I hope to get into motion soon. I want to get into the habit of blogging more often and get more involved in Illustration Friday. I also want to set up an Etsy shop so I can sell some prints of my work.

I am currently working on revamping my website, not my favourite thing to do, but it's going quite well at the moment. Fingers crossed!

My Agency are having a charity auction of original illustrations later on this year, here's my contribution...