Foxgloves and running out of time

There's only one day left of bidding on the charity auction now!


You can still get your mits on one of these yummy looking limited edition screenprints and be helping out a good cause at the same time!  BID HERE!

Thank you so much to everyone who's bid and helped promote the auction so far, you're all brilliant and if I could I'd send you all presents. Yup.


In new news! 


I drew a pretty fox wearing foxgloves for socks after the Laura Ashley twitter posted a tweet saying about an old folks tale as to why foxgloves are named as such is because foxes used to slip them on their feet so they could sneak around silently.  Naughty foxies.


But a very inspiring tale indeed.


This has turned out to be one of my favourite illustrations I've done in a while, and it's up on Society 6 as a print now too if you like it as much as me! http://society6.com/emmelinedraws/The-fox-loves-his-foxglove-socks_Print

I'll have a very tasty (actually tasty looking enough to make you hungry) illustration up and a floral bag design I've done for Serco to show you soon! :-)

Noticed how everything I've illustrated recently is orange and pink? Interesting.

I'm sleepy now! 

Goodnight blogreading lovelies.

Remember to bid ;-)

Riot Clean Up illustration auction. Prints and Press.

Hi!


How are you? Haven't spoken to you in ages.


Yeah I'm okay too, I only just dragged myself out of bed though so I'm a little bit of a sleepyhead.


Yeah, classic Monday feeling.


Oh really? That's great.


I've got some cool news too.


Yeah!




Well...


In short.
I illustrated a poster responding to the riot clean up efforts, it got jaw-droppingly successful on Twitter, I contacted RiotCleanUpManc and suggested we get the illustration printed up and auctioned for charities.  


This happened.
Now 75 beautiful A2 screen-prints of the illustration have been printed by Savwo (50 auctioned, 25 donated to people that have helped out with the riot clean up)  the money for the screenprints donated by Pop, Bubble, Rock, Jez Myers from RiotCleanUpManchester has done lots of press and organising, and 100% of the money raised from the auction ( on now! ) will be going to Reclaim and Leap Confronting Conflict young people's charities.


Hurray!

Copyright Emmeline Pidgen 2011

In long:

Like many I was shocked to see the scenes of violence and rioting on the streets that dominated our media. But in the midst of the destruction what stood out to me were images of local communities of all ages and backgrounds working together to restore their neighbourhoods. It showed real strength of purpose and hope for a better future.

I felt inspired by the positive attitude of the riot clean ups and tried to capture these feelings as a personal expression through illustration. I posted the artwork on Twitter to share it with my followers and friends, receiving an overwhelming response of over 19,000 views in two days.

As a result of the interest, I got in touch with Riot Clean Up Manchester. I suggested the idea that the illustration could be made into prints to be auctioned in support of the community and charities. They were extremely encouraging and so far we've had fantastic support with a number of local businesses donating their time, money and goods to get things going with the printing.

I felt it was important the money raised from the sale of the posters should go to young people's charities.

Leap Confronting Conflict are a fantastic charity working with young people nationwide to aid understanding of the causes and consequences of youth conflict; whilst sharing skills in handling and transforming it, preventing escalation into violence.

I hope the poster can help spread that feeling of positivity, encouragement, hope and community spirit that can be applicable not only to the riot clean up, but globally.

Photo by Christopher Bethell

So far there's been a lot of press about the auction/illustration (some of them here) 

Manchester Confidential - http://tinyurl.com/3sb3fo9
The Mirror- http://tinyurl.com/3ez5vrr
Manchester City Council- http://tinyurl.com/3gkyo4p

I've even appeared on the radio (Allfm) on Saturday to talk about it (bit the bullet and buried my shyness for that one!).

I really hope people dig deep to support this and we raise a lot of money for the charities.

You can bid here! 

http://tinyurl.com/rcuprintauction

Spread the word!

BIG NEWS!

Freshly served up for your eye palletes today - the first look at the fully printed children's book I've illustrated! 'The Flyaway Blanket' is officially published on 15th November 2011, by Magination Press - part of the American Psychological Association.

It was quite a long, bumpy road for a first picture book commission - but I think it looks great.

There's always that feeling of 'ohh it doesn't look as good as the real thing!' but I'll have to put those perfectionistic feelings away in a drawer somewhere and accept that printed illustrations never look exactly the same....still looks great though!

You can pre-order it now from the Magination Press website http://tinyurl.com/3jqs522 or Amazon http://tinyurl.com/3k9wlkc (softcover or hardcover)


Hurray!


In other news!


I hurt my wrist from going a bit over the top with work - hours and hours of using a wacom tablet/ drawing/ painting is not good for little wrists.  I took a few days off and enjoyed the sunshine, forests and cities - saw the new Ghibli film Arrietty at the cinema - it was so beautiful, it's a shame the english dub was a bit annoying!  I usually opt for the subtitled version but there was no choice in the matter this time.


Since my wrist's been feeling better I've been working hard on character designs.  Partly for fun, partly to show off the different expressions and poses of characters I can draw, and partly for a brand new children's book I'm writing and illustrating!

I've also been working on some drawings of a feisty warrior lady - but they're not quite ready to show you yet!

I hope you're all having a great start to the week.

Don't be shy, let me know what you think of my work :-)