Washi tape

I designed a washi tape! To be honest I wasn't sure whether to save posting this until I can show the finished manufactured product, but I worked too long and too hard on it and want to shout about it as much as I can.

As I was wrapping some parcels for my shop I thought how fun and 'on brand' it would be if I had my own washi tape I could use to secure everything (I currently use a generic patterned one I bought in Japan). I knew it would involve creating a long, run on image, and I immediately thought of my Folktale Week drawings, which to this day are still some of my favorite illustrations I've ever created (all of my work from 2018/2019 is to be honest, I feel like that was when I peaked 😭) As much as I love that artwork, it doesn't all make sense because it was following a prompt list, so I decided to create a new version and this time really commit to the theme of Russian folktales instead of just being inspired by the general aesthetic.

There's not a huge amount of characters, partly because I wanted to keep it identifiable to a global audience so didn't want to go for anything too obscure, and I didn't want it to look too crowded, it's mostly just supposed to be a forest with a few magical elements.

Obviously I had to include Baba Yaga and her hut, which is probably the most iconic character to people from around the world, and I also included the Firebird which crops up in a few different Slavic tales. And a bear, because it's the Russian forest, and they do crop up in folktales (plus I just love bears OK)

Now I just hope it comes out OK! I put a lot of detail in and I hope it isn't too pointless for such a small product. It'll eventually be sold in a set with another tape, and I'll be sure to update when it's ready!

Angel of Music

I hadn't even thought about The Phantom of the Opera in years when I suddenly had the urge from nowhere to draw this. I listened to the soundtrack as I drew it, decided to book a ticket and go see it for old times sake, and it's kind of all snowballed from there.

Poor fool, he makes me laugh!

Carlotta Giudicelli from The Phantom of the Opera.

The Phantom of the Opera was my OG musical obsession and is really what got me interested in musical theatre and going regularly, and was what lead me onto discovering other productions as I followed my favourite actors careers after they moved on from the roles. So I have a lot to thank it for! I haven't paid it much attention for a while, but I gave the 25th Anniversary concert a listen a few weeks ago and have been on a bit of a Phantom kick ever since. I really want to re-read the book again this year!

Carlotta has always been one of my favourite characters, and it always saddens me how much she's overlooked or dismissed as nothing but a 'diva' and pitted against Christine. Carlotta is quite a lot older than 16 year old Christine - she's probably in her 30s or 40s and would have dedicated her life to working damn hard to win the role of lead soprano at one of the biggest opera house's in Paris. And like so often happens to women in the entertainment industry, her hard work and dedication to her craft is being overlooked as she's passed over for a younger actress who, as far as Carlotta is concerned, hasn't had any proper vocal training nor worked her way up through the lower ranks and gained that experience. And if that isn't insulting enough, she then has her performance sabotaged in front of a full house which would have impacted her reputation. She's a tragic character! Her throwing a few bitchy comments Christine's way doesn't make her a bad person when you consider everything she's being put through, her upset is valid!

I also love her relationship with Piangi. As much as I love Phantom of the Opera, the two main relationships of Christine and Raoul and Christine and the Phantom are BOTH toxic as hell, and then in the background barely noticed you've got Carlotta and Piangi showing what a healthy, supportive relationship looks like. Piangi isn't initially being targeted by the 'Opera Ghost' and his job is safe, but he still takes a stand and backs Carlotta at every opportunity, and is always behind her for moral support when she's being treated unfairly. What a gem!

Oz

A catch up with all of my Oz related illustrations this past year. Some of these are super recent so I show no signs of stopping yet!

I've been wanting to draw something from Return to Oz for ages. It's actually my favourite Oz related movie - I can take or leave the Judy Garland movie to be honest, I don't know if that's controversial but it's the book of the Wizard of Oz that captivated me rather than the movie version. I grew up watching Return to Oz and I think it's what gave me such a love of horror as scenes like the Wheelers and Mombi's hallway of decapitated heads both terrified and enthralled me! And as an adult I was so excited when I picked up Baum's books for the first time and realised they were much more in keeping with Return To Oz rather than the overly saccharine MGM movie. I want to draw more from Return to Oz at some point, but here's a start! Princess Mombi and a few of her heads.

After I first read The Wizard of Oz I drew the scene of Dorothy meeting the Scarecrow and it's what catapulted me down this whole art journey I've been on these past two years. My style has developed a lot since then as I was still very much finding my feet back then, and it's a scene I wanted to revisit. I'd love to know which version you prefer! I had to make references to the Scarecrow being Fiyero because this is me drawing it after all!

And I figured I'd draw the following scene where they meet Boq the Tin Man! He was a lot more of a challenge to draw than I realised he'd be, and whilst I originally wanted to do my own take I did end up taking a lot of inspiration from Denslow's original illustrations. Most of the difficulty came because a tin man would obviously be very rigid, whereas my art style is much more fluid and I wanted him to look stuck, not stiff and lifeless.

Drawing Wicked characters is my happy comfort place. I've been playing around with trying to give Fiyero his blue diamond tattoos he has in the books to try and give him back some of his cultural identity that they took away in the musical, but it's difficult not to make them look crap.

I can't believe it took me this long to draw this scene honestly!

This is a really old drawing that I did for Inktober of 2019, and I've been wanting to colour it for ages and finally got around to it last week! So this literally brings everything bang up to date. I don't know if you can even really tell, but I've been trying with a slightly more painterly style as my colouring process was starting to feel a little formulaic and dull. It's always really intrigued me with how many story possibilities there are with Fiyero turning into a Scarecrow and how that would effect him, his relationships, and how he interacts with the world around him. But unfortunately no one else seems to care about anything beyond "Gelphie" and I'm not a writer, so I just try and touch on it in my illustrations as best I can.

Inside my sketchbook

I haven't been posting here much because I've got so much art to post and catch you up on that it's a little overwhelming tbh! I've been feeling similarly about Instagram - I hear everyone say about how it's good for engagement to post every day so I saved a whole bunch of work up, but I can't say posting every day has made a jot of difference to my engagement whatsoever, and being less spontaneous about it all has sucked all the fun from my account. I was scrolling back through my feed and I honestly think I was doing better before I started overanalysing it, so once I've caught up it'll be back to basics for me! Sharing things I'm excited about as soon as I've created them.

So this is going to be a bit of a catch up post!

I'm still getting used to trying to draw backgrounds and perspective and stuff, but also in a more simplified way. I don't know if it's because I draw realism as well, but when I draw a location I tend to get caught up in all of the little details rather than catching a mood or energy of a place and it's something I'm trying to work on as it's a style I really admire. I also think it would be a really nice practice to get into for my travels too. I drew this from a photograph and I was quite pleased with how it came out!

I originally wanted to digitalise this, but I also drew it so long ago that I've kind of lost all motivation and would rather work on new ideas ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ When the world first went into lockdown a year ago (OMG!) I had a ton of ideas, more illustrations than I could keep up with and so many that I wanted to colour digitally and turn into "proper" works, but I ended up with such a backlog that it began to feel like a chore and I've given up on a lot of them for now at least. I at least painted this one so the idea is still kind of there! I had wanted to incorporate some of their key lyrics into their clothing and background.

I kept working at my ballpoint illustrations, and here's one of Mika I did last summer before I went to Kyoto. Stations in Japan have all different stamps and I love how they looked in my sketchbook.

I realised I never drew the Cowardly Lion! I'm very out of practice with drawing animals so they're always a challenge for me.

Of course I've still been drawing Aaron.

And the Joker too! I tried before to colour the Joker's makeup after I drew it, and last time I used Copics which turned out way too vivid and kind of killed the drawing. I still really wanted to try the idea though, so I used coloured pencils this time which I think worked out much better! And I did the blood in gouache to make it really stand out.

I had this idea of a friendly bear for a while, I kind of want to put it on a shirt? 'Goddag' is just a way of saying Hello in Danish, I'm trying to incorporate more of it into my work to show a bit more of my cultural identity instead of defaulting to English all of the time.

It was autumn and I wanted to draw something cozy! This is like, my ideal day to me. Books, candles, music, cookies, and a raging storm outside. If you zoom right in the books on the shelf are some of my favourites I grew up with!

Branching out in my musicals, ey? XD Les Mis is one of my original musical obsessions way back and I wanted to show it a little love. I tried to blend Enjolras's stage and movie costumes - I had to do the vest because it's iconic, but I prefer the movie's pants and blond wig.

I have a whole bunch of Oz illustrations too, but I'll add them to their own post!

Godt Nytår

Happy New Year!
Wishing you all the best for 2021 🎉

The Snow Queen

I've got such a backlog of artwork to share that it's difficult to know which order to even go in! I've written out a list and there's literally 20 things on it that I need to post here, so buckle up I guess as I'll try and post as much of it as I can over the coming weeks.

My recently completed Snow Queen project feels like the most natural place to start, as it's been occupying a large part of my mind for most of the year. Back in June I shared some original sketches that I'd created back in May, and even before then it was a project that I knew was looming for me. 

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen is probably my all time favourite fairy tale, and it's something I go way back with. When I was in my foundation year of art school for my big final project I decided I wanted to illustrate my own version of The Snow Queen. The artwork is kind of cringey to me now, but it was a labour of love as The Snow Queen is an epic in length for being a fairy tale, and a lot of background research went into everything.

This feels really embarrassing to be sharing, but I also think it's really important to show that we all start somewhere as it's easy to fall into the idea that people can just magically draw like that when in fact it's taken years upon years of practise, hard work, and trial and error. I was definitely bound by the limitations of my skill level (perspective, what's that??) but when I look at all 23 illustrations I can see that I had some good ideas, and it's something I've been wanting to update for a long time. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'll recreate the whole book as like I said it's a long one, but I'm really proud of these illustrations as they stand right now and am pleased to add them to my portfolio:

You can tell that this is supposed to be a direct update of one of the old illustrations above, and I think because of that it really shows just how much I've grown as an artist. One of the biggest things I learnt at art school was the importance of backgrounds in telling the story and setting the scene - I can distinctly remember my tutor looking at my illustration of Baba Yaga and suggesting giving the fir trees a character of their own: "maybe they could look like they're leaning in and listening". And as much as I loathe backgrounds, it undeniably makes a huge difference! I did take Danish architecture into account, although I think there's so little of the buildings on show that it could also be anywhere which isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

I think my biggest struggle with this particular illustration was whether it matched the mood of the others and looked cohesive next to them as the colours are much brighter, but it's also at the very beginning of the story before the Snow Queen tries to ruin Kai's life so I figured it worked in that sense. The Snow Queen is essentially a coming of age story detailing the passage between childhood and adulthood, so I wanted them to look on the cusp of that.

I've always loved this section of the tale where Kai is looking out the window at the falling snow, and suddenly the Snow Queen appears and looks at him through the window and beckons. Considering the magic mirror hadn't entered his life yet I've always found this passage a really interesting part of the narrative. This was the very last illustration I created, and it underwent the most changes from sketch to final piece as I'd originally envisioned the Snow Queen smaller, almost like a fairy, as she's described as a snowflake getting brighter and brighter until it formed the shape of a woman. But I didn't like the idea of her shifting sizes as it didn't make much sense, and as her size isn't mentioned in the book I changed it and I like it much better this way. 

The mirror falling into Kai's eye and heart while it snows. I intended this to be more of a spot illustration to be surrounded by text.

This was the first illustration I digitally painted, and it really set the mood for everything else. It's when the Snow Queen comes to take Kai away and kisses his forehead and touches his heart to freeze him where the shards of mirror are. 

I really wanted to keep some design elements of my original Snow Queen, as well as keeping it as far removed from anything to do with Elsa as possible! The character is always portrayed as a woman so white she's almost albino with equally white hair, and it's an interpretation that's never made much sense to me as I always figured she'd look more indigenous than anything else. But at the same time I didn't want to appropriate Sámi culture or identify it to any particular real world group in any way as she's a magical being and not a person. I tried to make her dress quite fantastical and kept it from following any historical period to keep that other worldly vibe, and as she lives in the mountains I figured she'd make do with the things around her such as a cloak made from the hide of a polar bear, and a crown fashioned from reindeer antlers strung together with brambles. 

Kai's design is the only subtle reference to Frozen as I wanted him to kind of resemble Prince Hans.

Again this is another illustration directly based on one of my old ones, except this time I actually used reference for a running reindeer (I think I used a reference for a horse before and it shows!) I kept the red cloak as I love the pop of colour it gives to an otherwise very muted palette. I generally made Gerda very warm toned, and Kai very cool toned which I felt matched their character arcs.

I think this one took the most work, but it paid off in the end! The hardest part was getting all of the ice to actually look like ice and not rocks or pieces of slate. I also tried to adjust Kai's skin tone to show how he's slowly freezing. I looked up pictures of frostbite but that was a bit too knarly for what I was going for! I also gave him heterochromia to signify the shard of mirror in one of his eyes.

I tried to create a selection from all different parts of the book, in the hopes that it would tell a condensed version of the story regardless of whether I expand on it. I'd love to create the whole book and self publish it, but at the same time these took so much work that I just need a break from it so I guess we'll see if that ever happens! I created these for my portfolio more than anything, as a self commissioned project to show an example of sequential illustration to any potential clients, but it seems a shame to just shove it in my portfolio and forget about it so I'm hoping to perhaps create some things for my shop out of the designs. Definitely a postcard set, but I'd like to do more with it if possible as it's all of my own original design and I want to move into selling my own characters more. 

"It's not lying...it's looking at things another way"

I'd mentioned before how I found some old art peices when sorting through some old sketchbooks recently, and decided to rework some of my ideas. This is based on what I believe is my first ever Wicked fan art from I wanna say 2011-ish? It was around the time I first discovered I liked the soundtrack after avoiding it for years due to teenage pretension (all of the other theatre geek girls loved it and I wanted to be different so avoided it like the plague only to discover it was actually really good, I think we've all been there at some point right?), but I hadn't actually seen the show yet so didn't really know how it was staged beyond photos I'd seen and what I imagined in my head when listening to it. This wasn't even really my art style of the time so I guess I was experimenting and I don't think I was feeling it back then either as I don't have anything else drawn with these big heads. I liked my general idea though, which is why I wanted to revisit it and I guess it's a bit of one of those 10 year challenges even if I didn't mean it to be! There is a certain satisfaction in seeing that the subject matter I enjoy drawing really hasn't changed in all of this time, it feels very authentic.



The original artwork, and the redrawn sketch. I don't know if I've ever shared how I work, but I like to draw traditionally then photograph the sketch with my iPad which I draw directly over in Procreate. I can sketch easily directly into the app and have done occasionally, but it gives me a use for sketchbooks and I prefer the more tactile feeling of drawing with a real pencil. Plus it gives me a definite record of before and afters, which would otherwise get lost in the layers of a digital painting.

Recent artworks

I've been drawing a lot of portraits lately as I find it fun and it's good to draw things for me, but it's something I always feel a little unsure of sharing as although I'm proud of them I don't want people thinking it's part of my 'brand' as an illustrator. It's a whole side of art business that I struggle with honestly, as it feels nowadays like you have to have your one aesthetic and stick to it but I'd get so bored! And honestly I think it's good to be versatile. But saying that, I don't think I'd ever want to do portraits as commissions as it'd no doubt lead to drawing people I don't care about which wouldn't be fun for me, so I keep them as just a hobby.

I used to draw portraits quite a lot with pencils, but because I'm a perfectionist I hated them if they weren't super photo realistic and it really sucked the fun out of it. So last year I began drawing them with ballpoint pens, something that scared me silly at the beginning as it's so permanent so there's obviously no way of erasing if you make a mistake, but it's actually really liberating and I feel I've learnt a lot from being forced to work with my mistakes. Because these are just for fun, they're all in my sketchbook. The top is Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, as it's turned out to be my favourite movie of the year and I'm lowkey obsessed. Second is Mika which is mt favourite of the three (look at those pinstripes!!), and lastly is Aaron Tveit which whilst I like, I had issues with my pen blobbing while I was drawing it (why do they do this though??)


And here's two other illustrations I've been working on. Above is from the Broadway adaptation of Moulin Rouge, and it's how they end Act 1 with Elephant Love Medley. I'm not keen on how the song has been reworked honestly, but visually it's amazing, and I had fun trying to translate specific people into my art style whilst still making it look like them, as usually I draw fictional characters so likeness isn't so important.


And this is from the finale scene of Wicked, and uh, spoiler alert? But Fiyero gets turned into the Scarecrow and I've always felt like he gets vastly overlooked within fan circles when this is a huge thing he goes through and a major sacrifice. I've always felt particularly attached to Fiyero though after reading the novel, his character is a lot more developed in that so I guess if you haven't read it it's easy not to care about what happens to him as he doesn't have a lot of stage time. This is actually a reworking of an art piece I did a year ago, which was in the midst of when I was finding my style, and because I was working on so much artwork at that time it felt outdated for how I was working even then. I really loved the concept though, and knew I wanted to revisit it at some point so I'm glad I now have a version to be proud of and feels more cohesive with my body of work.

Elphaba + Glinda

"And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend"


Available on RedBubble here.
It's rare for me, but this is one illustration I specifically drew to turn into products. Usually I work the other way around and try and figure out how to fit finished pieces into certain items. I'm very excited to get this made into what I have in mind, but in the meantime you can order it on a few bits on RedBubble. I've actually placed an order with RedBubble myself, so I'll be sure to report back with a review of their products soon!

Wicked

These are a few Wicked pieces I've been working on that I'd forgotten to update with here, and will bring my blog up to date with my current work. I like to have it all over here as I can better record my thought processes than in a simple Instagram caption.



This is fairly straight forward, a scene from the musical after 'For Good'. I don't really consider it a spoiler as it happens in The Wizard of Oz too! I just think it's incredibly sad that, as far as Glinda is aware her best friend and only true ally is dead and she has to hide and pretend she isn't there whilst it happens. Glinda's story arc is so heartbreaking, and it's sad how she's so often dismissed as just being a ditz. Elphaba and Fiyero may be fugitives, but at least they get to go on and live their own lives together. Whereas Glinda's left thinking everyone she's ever loved is dead, and has to watch everyone celebrating that fact whilst keeping the lie alive.



This was drawn from a production still. I kind of set the wrong mood for it with them smiling, as they're literally plastering on smiles over their own heartbreaks BUT I drew this whilst watching Eurovision so I think you can understand why I was distracted from the tone. Also quite frankly I drew it as I wanted something cute and pretty of my favourite characters and wasn't trying to draw anything deep. It was my first go at colouring them with my Copic markers too, so that was fun trying to translate my digital palette.

The Snow Queen

This is a bit of a throw back, but I realised when scrolling through my Instagram feed that there's a few pieces I forgot to share over here, so the next few posts will be of older pieces to get caught up.



For this post I just wanted to share this illustration from back in winter. I have a long personal history with the original story of The Snow Queen, certainly long before Frozen stole my heart. It's always been my favourite fairy tale for no deep reason other than it's a good adventure tale, and I've collected various book editions and film adaptations of it throughout the years. In my foundation degree, to finish the course we had to write our own brief and mine was to illustrate a full 32 page book of The Snow Queen. Which ended up taking me on quite an adventure, as it even involved traveling around the country to see some real life reindeer to study as well as translating and condensing Andersen's original text whilst still keeping the integrity of the original story (as it was a picture book so had to be simplified)

I still have that book somewhere, and I have a lot of mixed feelings looking at it. I put so much work into it, but obviously my style and ability has drastically improved so it's a little embarrassing in some respects. This piece was drawn straight into my iPad (I usually draw the initial sketch traditionally) and was just revisiting the character of The Snow Queen herself. I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it other than trying to improve upon my original idea, whilst also trying NOT to subconsciously make it resemble Elsa.

I'd love to finalise some designs some day, perhaps with Gerda and Kai too. Maybe I'll even redo my whole book!

Blue diamonds

Just a paint doodle that both provided practice with some different Procreate techniques, as well as exploring Fiyero's tattoo designs.

In the original novel Fiyero's marked with distinctive tattoos/body paint (it's described as both interchangeably so could be either), but other than being "a pattern of diamonds" and "sulfurous" blue and being on his face, chest and hands, there isn't much description as to what it actually looks like.

These are supposed to be tattoos that mark him to his specific tribe in the Vinkus, rather than tattooing for aesthetic purposes, and are really important to his character as it 'other's him and is one of the things he gets made fun of for. I did some research into body art in various indigenous cultures, including Native American (which I've always imagined to be Fiyero's ethnicity) and First Nations, Polynesian, Māori, and Inuit which was a little help. I couldn't find anything geometric enough to take direct inspiration from, but it certainly helped me consider placement (such as avoiding the chin which in various cultures around the world seems to be a feminine practice). Sometimes it's just really interesting the avenues art can take you down. This isn't finalised or anything, I'm just playing around and seeing what works. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be as it's so easy to make it look crap, I can see now why the musical scrapped it!

Although most of my Wicked art is based in the world of the musical, I really want to explore scenes from the book more, especially as it was what made me really fall in love with these characters more so than the musical. I want to eventually come to place where the two are kind of blended together seamlessly, which is why I still drew Fiyero in his outfit from the musical.

Poppy Fields

Elphaba: "Can I say one more thing? You could have walked away back there."
Fiyero: "So?"
Elphaba: "So no matter how shallow and self-absorbed you pretend to be—"
Fiyero: "Excuse me, there’s no pretense here: I happen to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow."
Elphaba: "No you’re not. Or you wouldn’t be so unhappy."
Fiyero: "Fine if you don’t want my help—"
Elphaba: "No, I do! ... His heart is pounding. I didn’t mean to frighten him."
Fiyero: "What did you mean to do? And why was I the only one you didn’t do it to?"
Elphaba: "Oh look, you're bleeding...it must have scratched you."
Fiyero: "Yeah...or maybe it scratched me or something."

I saw Wicked again on Saturday, and then spent Sunday in a coffee shop finishing off this drawing that's been in my drafts for about 6 months. It was actually one of the very first illustrations I did of Wicked, and spent ages as a hastily sketched thumbnail on my phone. I'd been working on it intermittently to get it finished recently, but seeing the show gave me the push I needed to get it completed. I'm trying to clear out a lot of my backlog as I have so many ideas lately and not enough time to see everything through to completion! Which isn't a situation I'm complaining about in the slightest, after the amount of art block I've had it feels great.

I really love this scene in the musical. I have a lot of feelings about Fiyero, and as much as I love it the musical really does him a huge disservice. I kind of get that they don't want to spend much stage time developing him as he's not the focus of the narrative, but there's no reason to make him a bit of a jackass at the beginning. In the book he's a tribal person of colour seeking an education so he can integrate better with the people of Oz and help his people in the modern age, and is generally a fish out of water who doesn't feel comfortable at Shiz and gets picked on for being brown and having tribal tattoos. And as much as Dancing Through Life is a bop, it's kind of insulting that he got reduced to a spoiled rich kid bouncing from boarding school to boarding school. And I like this scene because they make an attempt to tear that image down a little and show that he's a bit deeper than he seemed five minutes ago, and hint at the deep connection he and Elphaba share in the book.

Anna and Kristoff

I basically just felt like drawing something cute, and really there's nothing cuter than these two together. I also realised when drawing it that it's the first time I've ever drawn Kristoff, so that was fun. He doesn't get much love from me, but I do really like him as a character. I think the trouble with Frozen is that the characters are so strongly developed that you can't help but pick your favourites and the others end up falling by the wayside a little.

One thing I liked about drawing this is it's a much brighter colour scheme than I usually use. I realised this when I uploaded it to my grid on Instagram. I don't work with white backgrounds much, but I love how it's come out so I might have to do more of it!

Wickedness must be punished, Kill the Witch!

I kind of dreamed this up and had it as a thumbnail in my sketchbook for the longest time. I was going back through my rough drafts recently and decided to get it actually drawn up as I like the idea, even if it is a bit dark. It's difficult to imagine Elphaba and Fiyero could escape the Emerald City without the Gale Force being close behind, watching (especially if you're familiar with the book, I was definitely inspired by Fiyero's final scene)

It was harder to draw than I anticipated, mostly just trying to work out how much 'there' was just the right amount for the Gale Force. They needed to be visible enough for the viewer to see them lurking, but not clear enough that Elphaba and Fiyero just appear stupidly oblivious. Hopefully I got the balance right!

This was one of the few art pieces I've done recently where I was thinking of an end product while I was creating it, which was mostly poster design and thinking in terms of movie posters and the like. Something narrative driven, that can still be understood by those unfamiliar with the plot and exists wholly within the one illustration. Which I think is why I feel like I don't have a whole lot to say about this piece, as I intended it to talk for me and require no explanation. Hopefully it should make a nice print!

Diamonds are forever

In June this year, Moulin Rouge is opening on Broadway and I'm so excited! It's one of my all time favourite movies, and they've done such a wonderful job updating and adapting it for the stage. It's always been on my list of dreams to one day visit New York specifically for Broadway. Although I often see stuff at the West End, Broadway often has shows we don't and sometimes never get. Add to that that two of my favourite performers are the leads in Moulin Rouge and I knew I had to make 'one day' happen soon, and I'm going in August! I'm so excited, I'm going to be in New York for 6 days and so far have plans to see Moulin Rouge twice, Frozen and Wicked (I know Wicked won't be much different than London, but I have to see where my favourite show originated!). I was hoping to see Anastasia too, but unfortunately it's announced it's closing which frees up a night. I'm so excited! I never thought I'd be able to do this, and I've funded most of it by selling stuff and seeking out deals (and accepting the fact I'll be living on ramen noodles while I'm there!). I've really taught myself what I can make happen when I put my mind to it.

The wonderful Karen Olivo is going to be playing Satine, and she looks so stunning I just had to draw her!

Frozen hearts + Etsy update

Can you believe, I drew something that isn't Wicked?! Don't worry, it won't last, I'm already working on two more Wicked illustrations, but I wanted to share this Frozen drawing that I doodled while watching the movie. I'm really into Frozen at the moment, it's been my favourite Disney film for years but the Broadway show has helped it grab my interest all over again and I'm going through that phase. Hans and Elsa are my favourite characters, and as messed up as it is I do kind of ship it (only not kind of, I ship it a lot, but people can get pissy about that kind of thing so I mostly keep it to myself). This is more of a "I wonder what they'd look like in my style" than a proper illustration, but I'm really pleased with it and want to make some proper Frozen art at some point!



Also I've opened my Etsy store!🎉 I only have two items on there right now, a set of postcards and a set of stickers both based around my Wicked character illustrations, but I figured I may as well just get it open and let more and more items trickle in to my inventory otherwise I'll always have excuses not to open it!