Prickly things

As part of my Mexican project I've been playing about with patterns and typography inspired by cacti (although my housemate tells me these are more like little wriggly caterpillars!).

I really like this pattern and "Prick" typography, so I've made them available in my Society6 Store.

Finally on Society6

I finally got myself a Society6 account! You can check out my shop here. So far I mostly have the Maneki Neko Meme series up but I'll be adding more over the next few weeks. You can also get Maneki Neko greetings cards on my Etsy Shop.

Here are a few of the items you can get on my new Society6 shop:

Desk of the Day - Clowns & Cats

I finished my first year of uni yesterday! So today I'm getting back to illustrating just for fun, and it feels good.
Obviously I started off with one of my fav subjects, cats. This is going to be part of my sushi cats series.

Remake & Remodel - finally a catch up!

Hey guys, long time no speak! I'm sorry last week was a little empty on the blog. This term at uni is whizzing past and I feel like I haven't even shared any of it with you yet! I'm hoping to organize my time a little better this next couple of weeks so I can share some more work and London life with you.

This term I have two big projects, one named "Remake - Remodel". I'm not going to go into any crazy detail with it yet as I've been sat at a computer for 12 hours today! So here's some dodecahedron patterns that I made for the project. Hopefully I'll get to explain the project to you some more in some future posts, but for now I'm off home to sunny Preston! I can't wait to finally get some fat cat and crazy doggy cuddles! Can you believe I've been away from them almost 2 months now?

Maneki Neki-NO - Grumpy cat and his buddies

Today you're finally getting to see where my obsession with internet cat memes and why I was doing so many Cat Meme Treasuries. 

A few months ago a customer introduced me to Maneki Nekos (Lucky cats) which lead to me having the idea to combine this with my fav famous cats; Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat and Lil Bub.

It's been a while since I've been able to work on a project for myself, and I've loved doing these cuties. I'm thinking of making them in to stickers and greetings cards, what do you think?

Lizzie and Jaqueline - Two more designs for Yull Footwear

As I'd explained in my previous Yull Footwear post, I entered a British themed footwear competition at Yull. My first design was based around the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly, these two are more regal and feminine. I think these fit the feminine and classic Yull Footwear style really well. I wanted to name them very british names, so Lizzie is named after good old Queen Liz. And Jaqueline is a female version of the Union Jack.

You can see more of my shoe designs here.

High Top Boots Pattern Design

A few months ago I had an interview at Dr Martens for an internship. I knew I wanted to put some docs friendly designs in my portfolio, so I designed some fabric with high top boots on it.

I'm really happy with how these turned out, my original intention was to put them on some boot designs (I'll post these at a later date). But I like the way these turned out as just a pattern.

I'm thinking of making them available on Spoonflower soon, what do you think?

More of my illustration work.

The Bridesmaids - Digital illustrations

A couple of weeks ago I got asked to do some of my digital illustrations for a lady who's getting married soon. She wanted an illustration of each of her bridesmaids to give them as a gift. I have the say, these girls are probably the coolest bridesmaids ever. I've really enjoyed illustrating their fun hats, hair styles and make up.

Each of the frames was based around an object that represented the relationship the bride had with each bridesmaid.

You can see the work in progress of a couple of the illustrations here.

If you'd like your own custom illustration, check out my shop. I also do completely custom wedding invitations.

More of my illustration work.

Desk of the Day 29/08/2013

This week I've had a realllly fun digital portrait order to work on, and I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of it. I've been working on 5 portraits of some girls with really rad style. It's always so fun when I get to illustrate people with unusual hair, make up and fun hats.

If you'd like your own digital portrait, check out my Etsy Shop or email me at ponychopsshop@gmail.com for illustration enquiries.

Matryoshka Wedding Invitations

I've finally decided to set up a listing for custom wedding invitations on my shop. After being asked to do some wedding invitations a few weeks ago, I enjoyed them so much that I want to do more! I can do them in any theme (the wackier the better, obviously!).

Here are the finished invitations from a couple of weeks ago, I'm so happy with how they turned out. The brief was Matryoshka Dolls and swallows on brown paper. It worked out better to fill the background with a brown paper texture and print on white card so I could keep all the detail of the bride's white dress.

Parents & the City - Blog Design

Well guys, It's finally here! The design of Parents & the City is finished and live. This blog design has taught me so much. Mainly that I need to try out wordpress before designing the blog, oops! But it's been one of the most fun projects I've done in a long time.

Since I'm passionate about bright and colourful patterns, I was stoked when Diana gave me free reign to design a New York and baby themed pattern! I was even more excited when she wanted to have a statue of liberty themed logo. Baby Liberty is definitely one of my fav things about this design.

You can find my work in progress on this design here, here and here.

If you would to contact me about blog, logo or pattern design email me at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com

Here's some more details of the new design:

Desk of the Day - 29/06/13 - I Love NY

Phew, it feels like forever since I've posted on my blog. I've been crazy busy with painting shoes and illustrating some fun projects. I'm hoping I'll have a little more time to update my blog over the next week.

Today I'm working on a few orders, but mostly I'll be working on this New York & Baby themed pattern. This is for the same project I've been working on for a while now, you can see some more work in progress shots from the same project here and here. I got kind of carried away on this project. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be using Little Baby Liberty as a part of this design now, which sucks. I had originally designed the blog around him but stupidly hadn't realised just how restrictive wordpress can be with editing. So I think i'll be sticking with a basic blog template with a bright patterned background. I've definitely learned my lesson for next time!

Desk of the Day - 22/06/13 - Wedding bells

A couple of weeks ago a girl I used to work with asked me to design her wedding invitations. I feel so honored to have been asked to do this, and it's certainly been a fun project to work on. I've enjoyed it so much I'm considering taking on more work like this in the future.

The above picture is just a sneak peek of the invitations so far. The bride asked me to illustrate her and her future hubby as matryoshka dolls. Today I'm working on adding some extra details and figuring out the composition ready to print some samples tomorrow.

If you're interested in any design/illustration work or invitations send me an email at ponychopsshop@gmail.com

Warthog Russian Dolls!

I got a really fun custom order a couple of weeks ago from a family who love Warthogs! They wanted the family painted as warthogs.
I love getting imaginative orders like this! Especially when it means so much to the people receiving them. The Mum & Dad of this family like to call the kids "their little warthogs" - I think that is so sweet!

If you want your own set of custom Russian Dolls, check out my Etsy Shop or email me at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com

Check out more of my Russian Doll designs here.

Alex & Arthur

 Remember my Desk of the Day from Sunday? Well here is the finished illustration!

This has been my absolute favorite digital portraits so far. It's for Alex & Arthur, one of my fav blogs! I actually did some Arthur shoes for Alex a few months ago too. It never feels like work when you get to look at the adorable Arthur for reference pictures!

This felt like a super easy portrait to do because I already felt like I knew Alex's style and the kind of colours she likes. Alex asked me to include her dinosaur necklace, which I think works well. I wanted to find a way to make it a feature but not to over power the illustration.

You can get your own custom portrait here. Or if you don't have an Etsy account you can contact me about custom orders at: ponychopsshop@gmail.com

Adventure Time Russian Dolls!

Remember my Work In Progress photos from a couple of weeks ago? Well, I've finally finished the Adventure Time Matryoshka and got around to photographing them. Unfortunately Tofu wasn't around to "help out" this time.

These have been my all time favorite thing to paint so far!! I could stare at the Ice King's worried and handsome face all day long.

These Russian Dolls won't be up for grabs for a few months yet, sorry! They're going to be a prize for an exciting giveaway I have planned in August.

If you'd like your own set of customised Russian Dolls check out my Etsy Shop. Don't forget to enter the code "PCBLOG15" at the checkout to get 15% off for being a PonyChops the Blog reader! If you don't have an Etsy account you can contact me about orders at: ponychopsshop@gmail.com

All of the characters here are copyright of © Cartoon Network. This is just my own fan art & I am not associated with Adventure Time or Cartoon Network in any way.

Desk of the Day - 02/05/13

Today I'm working on a digital portrait. I'm loving doing this girls hair and make up! I need to make her lips a little smilier and add some more tone to the hair. I can't wait to start adding her accessories & her little doggy friend.

Desk of the Day 21/05/13 - Little Baby Liberty

There's still a ton of shading work left to do (especially on the bottom half). And I'm not sure whether to give Little Baby Liberty some nipples, to me it just seems wrong to give a cartoon baby nipples haha. I also spent ages trying to think up ideas of how to have the baby holding a torch without it looking dangerous. So I added a smiley face the the flames to make it look more like a rattle.

This is a logo idea for the New York parenting blog - Parents and the City which is run by my friend Diana. I'm so excited to work with Diana on this project because she's such a creative person and is always great to bounce ideas off. She's also a very skilled writer, so it's going to be great to try and match a blog and logo design to her fun and witty writing style.

Desk of the day 18/5/13

I love seeing other artists and crafter's work in progress shots, and I'm always posting mine on instagram, but sometimes I wish I could take more time to take proper photos of what I'm working on. So, inspired by Cart Before the Horse who take the most wonderful work in progress photos, I've decided to start posting some better quality photos of the things I'm currently working on.

This isn't technically desk of the day, because it's yesterdays desk. I've been working on these Adventure time dolls for a while now, today they're finally ready for me to add the details and varnish them!

As you can see, the matryoshka photo shoot soon turned into a Tofu photo shoot. He's such an attention seeker!

All of the characters here are copyright of © Cartoon Network (except for Tofu, he is a real life cat!). This is just my own fan art & I am not associated with Adventure Time or Cartoon Network in any way.

Phoebe & Rei

Do you remember a few months ago I painted some Justin Bieber sneakers and Persian Cat Sneakers? I painted them for the Canadian Much Music host Phoebe Dykstra.

Phoebe is a super cool lady, she has rad fashion sense and she's such a sweet person. Plus she has an adorable persian kitty named Rei. I just had to do an illustration of them both!

This was my first time illustrating tattoos in one of my digital portraits, and I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Here's the portrait of Phoebe & Rei, If you'd like your own portrait doing check out my custom listing on Etsy.

And here's a couple of photos of Phoebe & Rei. Look at Rei next to PonyChops sneakers!

You can find Phoebe on Twitter, Instagram & Tumblr. And Rei even has her own Instagram now!