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.

Desk of the Day - 12/01/2014 Such Wow

It's no secret that I'm a big meme geek. The doge meme still has me in fits of giggles on an almost daily basis.. I can't even explain why I find it so funny. It's pretty much taking over my life and I find it hard to write like a normal person these days. So naturally, I've gotta draw that cute little shibe.

Follow my journey from average person to incomprehensible meme addict here.

Desk of the Day 09/01/2014 More sushi cats

I'm back in London after a relaxing couple of weeks back up north. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things with uni work, I'm so excited that I get to make my first whole pair of shoes this term! Today I'm taking a little time to relax and work on some personal illustration work. Yep you guessed it, more sushi cats!

Here's a close up of some of the details I've been working on. You can find my first sushi cat post here.

Desk of the Day - The land of Ooo

This is my newest Adventure Time order I've been working on. The main theme I was given was "The Land of Ooo" so I've tried to include as many featured of Ooo as possible.

It's been fun to think about the background and surroundings of the characters more in this pair of shoes. I'd love to do a Candy Kingdom themed pair one day.

You can see more of my Adventure Time shoes here, and my other shoes here.

Desk of the Day - Can you guess who it is?

I'm currently working on some Russian Dolls for Chris Simpsons Artist, if you don't know who this guy is check him out. His comedic illustrations and stories always make me laugh. I'm painting these dolls in Chris's infamous illustration style but with a bit of a PonyChops twist.

Can you guess which celebrities I've painted on these dolls? Here's some hints:

1. I'm dead and I like milk.
2. I like corgis.
3. I made art of funny clocks.
4. My nickname is Chewie.
5. Doh!

Desk of the Day - 23/10/2013 - Marceline & Finn rock out

It's been forever since I posted a Desk of the Day post, so I figured this would be a great time to share my newest pair of shoes I'm working on. I'm really excited to be painting a pair of Marceline themed shoes.

I realize since moving to London (almost 2 months ago now!) I've never actually posted a proper update about my move. Life has been even busier since I've moved here but I will get around to it soon! I'm loving uni and have met some amazing people and had so much inspiration since moving here.

More Adventure Time shoes here.

Desk of the Day - 01/07/2013 - Fluff & Stuff

This is by far the craziest/coolest theme I've been asked for. I bet you won't even be able to guess what's on the other side of the right shoe! Here's a hint, it's NOT Marshmallow Fluff.

These Marshmallow Fluff & tentacle inspired shoes are just awaiting a few more finished details and some neatening up before they're ready to photograph. This project has pushed me to do a much different style to normal, and I feel I've learned and improved through painting them. It's always fun to do something different.

Customised High Tops are available in my Etsy Shop. If you don't have Etsy you can contact me about orders at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com

Marshmallow Fluff is copyright of Durkee-Mower Inc. These are just my own fan art of their retro packaging and I am not associated with them in any way.

Desk of the Day - 30/06/2013 - Pretty in Pink

I managed to get my hands on some pretty awesome stilettos a few weeks ago and have been dying to get painting them. I think they look pretty dramatic without the paint on. They started off baby blue, but after a few coats of paint are now striped in different shades of pink. I love how well the baby blue inside the shoe matches the baby pink paint so perfectly.

This particular set of shoes are going to have a really girly and fun theme, I won't tell you the exact theme just yet though!

If you'd like some custom painted stilettos email me at ponychopsshop @ gmail . com
These are new in so not even in the PonyChops shop just yet!

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 17/6/13 - Superga x House of Holland

A couple of weeks ago a customer sent me her Superga x House of Holland platforms. Last week I painted some pink clouds on them and today I'll be adding some cute little cats.

Desk of the Day 13/06/13 - The Little Bear

Hey everyone! I have some awesome custom orders I'm working on at the moment that I'm really excited about. I'm hoping I'll get chance to post lots of Desks of the Day over the next week or two! Over the past few weeks I seem to have had so many fun projects to work on. I'm so greatful my customers have such fun ideas for me to work on!

This is a project I've been working on a little while, it's for my friend Diana's blog Parents and the City. Remember Little Baby Liberty? This is for the same project. It's taking me a while to finish this project because it's the first blog design I'm doing for someone other than myself, so I want to make it perfect.

This bear is going to be way smaller and may not even make it in to the final design, but I wanted to show you it in a little more detail. Either way it's good practise to be doing more work on illustrator. This guy's not quite finished yet, he needs a few more highlights to make him pop and then we'll see how he looks next to Little Baby Liberty.

Oh and DON'T forget to enter my Pet Portrait giveaway for a chance to win a portrait of your pet by Chopstitch! Only 10 hours left!

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 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.

Work in Progress & an Instagram catch up

It feels like it's been forever since I did a proper catch up post with pictures. Here's what I've been working on lately, and a couple of pictures of Tofu thrown in for good measure! He's such a little hansy man.

1-4. Some work in progress on my latest projects. So excited to share the shoes with you! They're one of my fav themes yet.

5&6. Tofu enjoyed playing Hobbit Monopoly, his favorite thing to do was to sit in the middle of the board and knock over everything. And a picture of him being a silly cat as usual.

7. Miss Chopstitch sent me a photo of the Russian Dolls I painted for her on her shelf <3

8. I finally made room for the awesome Jeff Soto toy that Ash got me for my birthday. I love having it in my studio, it's inspiring me so much right now.

9&10. Playing around with some designs for the blog & patterns.

11&12. Oh gosh, I'm so so in love with my new Lazy Oaf socks. Especially when combined with my Vegan docs!

Update time

This week has been a pretty busy and emotional week.

Other than that, I've had a ton of orders! Which is very exciting. So I've been working none stop. Here are some of my works in progress:

On Friday me and Ash went to see Frisky and Mannish in Lancaster with a couple of our friends. For those of you who don't know who Frisky and mannish are, you need to find them on YouTube. They're a comedic musical duo and they're absolutely hilarious, even my boyfriend who is a comedy snob thinks they're amazing.
I didn't get any pictures but here's a picture of Frisky and Mannish looking fabulous:

Saturday and Sunday were full of tears and goodbyes as I said farewell to one of my best friends who's moving to New Zealand. And on Sunday we drove Ash's little sister down to London for her first year of Uni. Life is gonna seem so strange without seeing those girls on a regular basis!

Here's some Effy love! She's such a baby. She's spent most of the week following me around the house watching me.

I also dyed my hair purple! And realised I'm a bit of a hair dye hoarder. I can't wait for the purple to fade and go all lilacy.

 And here's some cool tops I bought that I forgot to show you:

The cat one is from ebay & the bunny one is from Asda.

Update time

 Last weekends photo shoot was cancelled due to awful weather! We're rearranging the beach shoot for September and we're going to photograph my dress designs on the beach instead of the shoes. And we will be doing a separate photo shoot for the shoes too :) so lots to look forward to next month!

On thursday morning, me and Ashley are setting off to New York to visit some friends! I can't wait. We have a week of yummy food, friends, drinking & side shows planned. I hope I manage to get on the internet on my laptop so I can share my adventures with you all while I'm there. I'm currently trying to pack my suitcase while Effy keeps bouncing around and insisting she wants to be packed too. Silly poodle!


Here are my latest bundle of photos:

1 & 2. A sneak peak of some geometrics shoes that I've yet to photograph properly and stick on the shop. And a work in progress of the Ladybug mocassins.

3 & 4. Freshly dyed hair, and I bought some jeans to match both my hair and my poodle mocassins. I've decided that I'm changing my alter ego name from Quinoa girl to Turquoise titties.

5. I made some nummy homemade rustic guacamole (recipe soon to come) to go with some delicious tofu enchiladas that Ash made.

6. Pretty new shoes that I gone and bought.

7 & 8. As the photo shoot was cancelled, me and Ash spent the day goofing about in The Mystery Teahouse in Preston. If you are ever in Preston get yourself there. They have about a million teas to choose from. They do an awesome vegan kezelt and OMG the cactus juice is heaven.

9 & 10. Some top secret projects I've been working on. All will be revealed in a few days :)

Instagram Overload

Hi guys, It's been a while since I did a proper update. Life is pretty busy at the moment. I'm preparing for an awesome photo shoot at the beginning of August, which is very exciting but I'm painting shoes & bags like crazy for it!

I've finally stopped carrying a brick around with me, got with the real world and bought a phone with internet on it & a camera, and discovered instagram.
I'm on there as ponychops, add me, and as soon as I discover how to I'll add you back :)

Here's my latest bombardment of pictures:

1 & 2. I dyed my hair turquoise, I love it when it fades all pastelly. In the second pic I'm wearing my awesome Gusosos brooch. She has so much cute stuff in her store, check it out!

3 & 4. My babies, Holly the wolfy dog and Effy the scruffy poodle. Holly always sulks when I get the camera out.

5. My boyfriends cat Mojo enjoying a cuddle, with a creepy old man ghost behind him on the telly.

6. I was getting too impatient for my own designed fabrics to arrive, so I bought some creepy teddy fabric, some cowboy fabric and some pretty floral stuff to satisfy my sewing craving.

7. My shoes all organised in clear boxes. I wonder how long my studio will stay tidy for??

8. Working on a reference sheet for the make up at the photo shoot. My inspiration was ice cream vans and marshmallows. Soft and sickly pastel colours. I've ordered some amazing pastel Lime Crime lipsticks for the shoot. Their make up is cruelty free so I love them lots :)

9, 10, 11 & 12. Work in progress on some custom orders. You can see the mint green bones shoes finished here.