Music Monday

I've been watching a lot of Fresh Prince recently and finding that I want the majority of the cast's clothes. 

So yeah, I'm going through a 90s revival and I've decided to pick out my favourite 90s lyrics over the next few weeks and illustrate them all nice and colourful for you. Here's the first one. Enjoy.

In other news: I'm moving my stuff to London this weekend - ARGHTHVDFGTMHBBFVD!!!

Don't Panic Poster Competition

My entry for Don’t Panic’s Poster Competition. The theme was ‘spirit’, and I decided to take a rather literal view of the theme.

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designtheposter/spirit/entry/2445

If you want to be AMAZING and help me to win the competition, a) I’d really appreciate it, b) You will definitely get good karma, and c) You can tell all your friends that you are a supporter of the arts which will make you look totally cool and you might even be able to use it as a chat-up line or something.

All you have to do is click on the link above, and ‘like’ the image. None of that tedious signing-up business.

Music Monday

After a pretty long break, Music Monday is back! This week I've decided to go for one of those songs that I heard a while back but I never find boring. There's not much else to say other than it's a cracking song and if you haven't heard it, I'm sure you'll love it. The video is below and it's amazing too.

In other news, I went to see my London flat at the weekend and should be moving there in a couple of weeks, something that I am ridiculously excited about. I just need a job now!

Kenya, Part 3: Sketchbook

Here's a few odds and sods from my sketchbook while I was in Kenya.

Kenya, Part 2: Things I Saw and Did

Safari

While I was in Kenya I was lucky enough to go on Safari at Tsavo East National Park. It was a rather surreal experience, and we saw loads of elephants, plus zebra, buffalo, baboons, ostriches and many others.

WHY HELLO THERE

We were soooo lucky to visit an elephant orphanage, where they cared for baby elephants whose parents had died or been killed by poachers. The baby elephants liked being stroked on their tongues, as you can see in the photo above. One of the keepers told me that after the elephants were released back into the park, they would walk back to the orphanage every now and then to say hello!

The School

One of the main reasons I went to Kenya was because of a charity called Educate The Kids that my family are involved in over there. In Kenya if you want your child to go to school, you have to pay school fees. The charity that we work with helps to sponsor the very poorest children to get them schooling. My mum usually helps with the intake of children, which is chaos because there simply aren't enough spaces for everyone, so they are judged depending on how poor they are. 

One of the classrooms in the primary school.

Some educational posters.

I particularly like this poster.

On one of the days I helped with sorting out school uniforms for the new children going into school. It was really hot, and busy work. We also gave the children some shoes that had been donated by people to the charity, as a lot of the childrens' shoes had been completely worn away. 

The new class. Everyone was really excited and the parents were very proud to see the kids in their uniforms. Each one of these children were sponsored by people in the UK. I also sponsor a little girl called Nasra. While I was there I got to meet her and I took over some small presents for her.

This young man is called Omar, and he is a talented artist, currently living in the orphanage next to the primary school. I brought some sketchbooks and pencils over from the UK for him as they are really expensive in Kenya, and we spoke about art and illustration. It was awesome.

Kenya, Part 1: Hand Painted Signs

Well HELLO there. 

Hope you all had a great Christmas/New Year, etc. 

I had a typical Christmas (scrabble, roast potatoes, family arguments) in England and then I jetted off to Kenya for the New Year. It was an amazing trip, a combination of a holiday, adventure, and charity work, and it was a serious culture shock for me.

 While I was there we went on safari, went snorkelling, went to a New Year beach party with the locals, and helped out at the local school. I also got to meet the child that I am sponsoring through her education, which was incredible. 

There was so much to see and do that I'm going to break it all up into three blog posts, and in this first one I am going to show you some of the wonderful hand-painted lettering that I saw on shops and houses in Mombasa. 

The drive from the airport to my hotel was fantastic. We were staying in a place called Bamburi, and we drove through the city of Mombasa to get there. I noticed straight away (after I'd got used to the heat) that basically every shop sign was hand-painted. WOW.

The majority of houses and shops that were close to the road were basically branded with different products. I spoke to some of the locals and they said that residents were paid to have their homes converted into giant adverts. As someone who is obsessed with brands and lettering I found this pretty cool, but I'm not sure I would be able to live there.

I loved this building. Every shop was painted in bright colours to grab people's attention.

MY EYES

There were a lot of buildings with this sugar company painted on them. Sweet.

I've never seen steel products look so exciting.

In Kenya a shop will employ someone in the area to paint their signs. This is an advert for a sign painter. I think if I grew up in Kenya this would be the job I would be doing. 

Polyfilla, you sexy beast! I wish they did advertising like this in the UK.

Finally, out of all the wall paintings I came across, this one was my favourite. These illustrations could quite easily hang in a gallery or get published in a book, but instead they are used as beautiful, hand-painted adverts.