A word from Alice - studio stories from Alice Draws the Line

I've been really enjoying working through these prompts - it's a nice exercise to encourage reflection and time to ponder what each one means to me.

So this week I'm covering the following prompts - 

- Silver Linings

- Hands on

- Job/s

- Wrapped and packaged

- Starting point

I am working on 'seasonal special' mug editions, created to tie in with the flora at that time of year and only being available in a limited print run. The Hellebores have arrived as the first seasonal release, and there are just a few of each (enamel and China) - once these are gone I'm going to leave them until when they bloom again here.

- From the archives

Just recently I've had a lovely time looking back through old sketchbooks. Here are some pages from the sketchbook I used during my Art Foundation year (2001-2002). Line drawings and black ink were a favourite back then too, but at the time I was doing more mixed media illustration and was working towards a large textile piece with all the lines drawn with a sewing machine (freehand embroidery). 

Hello! The second March meet the maker blog post. Today I'm going to cover the posts that have happened since I was last here as I haven't been posting on Instagram this year. 

So, we have 5 prompts today - 

- Newest make

- Work in progress

- Learning curve

- Small detail

- Portrait.

Here we go!

#MarchMeetTheMaker is an excellent project set up by Joanne Hawker, a creative who lives in Somerset. Each March she shares prompts for fellow make...

It's a few weeks away still, but February 14th is on the horizon.  I know people have a huge range of views on this day. Some love it, some hate it...

At the end of 2019, in the lovely between times of Christmas and New Year I reflected on 2019 and dreamt up a list of things I might like to do in 2020 to develop the business. 

On the list included moving to a studio, saying goodbye to Shrewsbury and moving further south, having some professional photographs done at the studio, and many workshops. Sadly the latter didn't happen but they will keep and run again one day. I was also keep to blog more which I have managed... although I do acknowledge I'd let the bar fall pretty low so I had a good place to start!

I thought I'd write you a little hello this Christmas. I'd love to hand write everyone a card but that just isn't practical. Here is a means to do it another way - I've hand written a Christmas card and filmed it as I went. Here you can watch the YouTube video or read the text via images or in the text in this blog post. Happy Christmas from Alice Draws the Line.

For the December 2020 newsletter I decided to create a slightly different colouring in sheet. Usually the colouring in sheets are all botanical and made with the idea of anyone being able to colour them in, as they wish, and hopefully enjoying some calm, mindful time while doing so. For this one, I thought it would be nice to do something festive and so I've drawn orange slices that you can download and make at home.

Today is Black Friday, the first Friday after Thanksgiving, the last Friday of November. I am nor running any deals today but instead have used it as a motivation to finally list these artworks online. They are all original pieces and so once they have sold - they have sold. I wrote a blog post to document them.

I thought I'd share a few images of my 2021 Wall Calendar here - because I'm proud of it! In August 2020 I completed the year long project. Some of the bouquets I drew stem by stem as separate studies and others I drew as a compete bouquet from the start. There are some time-lapse videos of some of the drawings in progress over on my YouTube channel should you fancy a watch. So, here we have the whole calendar, page 

In September 2015 I drew some sprouts. In November these became one of my first (and still one of my favourite) Christmas Card designs - Twist and Sprout! In the December I wrote to Alice Palace - some one I had admired for a long time for how Alice had built her business and all it and she stood for. I wrote to ask if I could come and help in the build up to Christmas as work experience (as a grown up). In early 2016 I designed this Valentines card. I posted it to shops and galleries that I enjoy visiting, most were local to me. I chose just 5 and addressed them with my dip pen. I posted them and hoped for the best.