POLAND Jigsaw Illustration for ZUZU Toys

The POLAND jigsaw arrived in shops across Poland just in time for Euro 2012!

This was by far the most intense illustration comission I've faced to date. Hair-risingly tight deadline, extensive research involved and incredible level of detail. I found the brief very exciting though, so happily took it on, stocked my kitchen with killograms of coffee beans, switched the phone off and got on with drawing.

The brief was to first research the tourist attractions and landmarks of Poland, then choose about eight from each of the16 regions of Poland and illustrate them. Then I was to create a colourful map of Poland to lay the elements on. In the end I topped it up with some native animals and plants. (it all summed up to A LOT of small drawings!)
I have learnt so much making this illustration. Aside from drawing my usual animals and people, I had to draw things I normally would not - like planes, trains, a Viking fight or buildings that needed to resemble the real life ones. And this was an incredible learning curve, one of these milestone tasks we get once in a while.
PS. And also, if you need a recommendation to see ANY possible thing in ANY corner of Poland - give me a shout :) I'm your girl!
thanks to Zuza Szelinska from ZUZU Toys for the comission!

the illustration:

  A few close-ups:

 

 This is a link to Zuzu Toys website: http://zuzutoys.pl/60-puzzle-polska-dla-dzieci.html

The Dude is here!

Making this poster was so much fun and Big Lebowski is my favourite movie of all times!
I wanted it to be fun and dynamic and slightly insane. Just like the movie itself.
The initial idea was to have the Dude surf through stormy waters on his rug and remain totally unnerved and chilled. Well, maybe a little nervous of spilling his white russian :)
Towards the end of the project, I added bobbing bowling pins for a more surreal feel.

Cappuccino Cards - Greeting Cards with a Difference

I would like to introduce a super project by Tracy Oakley and Helena Golunska - Cappuccino Cards.
Cappuccino Cards will be an online platform selling greeting cards designed by artists and illustrators, and £1 from each sale will go to the charity of your choice. Every card from Cappuccino Cards will make a little difference.

The website will go live soon, so watch this space. In the meantime - you can keep up to date with Cappuccino Cards blog here

Cappuccino Cards will be hosting greeting cards with my images too, which is absolutely fantastic, thank you!

Queen's Jubilee

We've now seen the few days of hype, gleeful street tea-parties, blue-white-red bunting stuck onto everything that would hold it up, and and all in properly british aura of drizzling rain. Fun!

And I was nicely surprised again - picked for the Saatchi Online Jubilee collection 'Jewels in the Crown'- a selection made from amongst artists residing in the UK and working across various media.
You can view the collection here .
This is the image picked for the collection: