Jenni Sparks Illustration

Music Monday

2012-03-05T12:50:00.002-08:00

Hello again, cannot believe it's been a week! Anyway, this Music Monday I'm illustrating the song "Whoomp! There It Is" by Tag Team. I just can't get enough 90s stuff at the moment. This week I've been mainly drawing, and exploring London. I'm slowly getting settled into London life, and I'll be starting my job at Pick Me Up at Somerset House in a week or so, which is going to be SO bloody exciting, I can't wait to meet more people!

Music Monday

2012-02-27T10:34:00.002-08:00

Music Monday is back! Been a bit busy recently, see previous post. However, here is an illustration, and this week I'm doing 'Let's Make Love' by CSS. Quite simply this song would be in my top 5 songs ever. I first heard it when I was about 17 and it blew my mind, it's just such a fun song, a real dancing tune. The video is just so cool as well...I wish I was them.

London, baby.

2012-02-27T10:18:00.002-08:00

Hello! Long time no blog. Well as you well know (if you have been following my blog) I finally made the big move to London! The first week was mainly spent cleaning and sorting out all my stuff, and then me and my flatmate got ill, so it was all a bit tiring, as moving in usually is. However, during the last few days I got better and managed to go and explore. Exciting!

On Saturday I went to the David Shrigley / Jeremy Deller exhibition at the Hayward gallery. It was AMAZING. You couldn't take photos there, but here are a couple of pics of the stuff that I bought from the shop. Definitely worth a visit, both exhibitions were great and they also worked well seeing them both together in the same venue.

Oh, and on my third day of living in London, I managed to get myself locked out the flat, and ended up bumping into Little Mix and JLS. We're now best mates.

I had an amazing week last week, as I found out that I am going to be both exhibiting and working at Pick Me Up graphic art fair at Somerset House. Words can't express how excited I am, so if you're about please come and see me! I'll probably be in the corner, having an illustration-induced fit.

Finally, I also found out last week that I won Don't Panic's poster competition! Thanks to everyone for putting up with my constant hustling for votes, you are just the BEST. My poster will be distributed throughout the UK in Don't Panic packs, and will also be up for sale in their online poster shop. I might even do a giveaway or something to say ta!

Jane Kim

2012-02-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

I had to blog about Jane Kim. I found her work through Flickr, and she is a very talented (and elusive, I can barely get any info about her) artist. She works in many different mediums, digital, paint, crayon, plastic, found objects, even obscure screenshots of 90s TV shows. I'd love to get in her mind and see what was going on, her work is such a mish-mash of kitsch and the surreal, all finished off with a nod to the early days of clipart and the internet. Check out her Flickr, it's brilliant.

Music Monday

2012-02-06T12:08:00.000-08:00

Vanilla Ice wants to take your mum out to dinner. Filthy bastard.

It's Monday again, and here I am, consistently illustrating song lyrics and stuff. I'm continuing the 90s vibe that I started last week and doing 'Ice Ice Baby' by Vanilla Ice.

I moved my stuff into my new flat yesterday in the snow, which was comical in so many ways. I'm moving in properly at the end of this week, so after I've settled in and made it look like the home of a struggling artist, I'll take some photies.

BYE

Music Monday

2012-01-30T04:33:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-18T04:21:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-16T07:15:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-12T06:31:00.000-08:00

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

Kenya, Part 2: Things I Saw and Did

2012-01-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

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.

Music Monday

2011-12-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas! And following on with that theme, here's my favourite Christmas song all nice and illustrated for you. This is going to be my last Music Monday for a couple of weeks as I'm flying out to Kenya just after Christmas and then going through the fun and not-at-all stressful* process of moving house.

So watch loads of telly, eat your body weight in roast potatoes, get REALLY hammered, and thoroughly embarrass yourself in front of your family. After all, isn't that what this time of year is about?

*Totally not-fun and well stressful.

University Of Plymouth Commission

2011-12-15T07:13:00.000-08:00

I was recently commissioned by The University of Plymouth to create an image to be sent to their alumni, wishing them season's greetings. As the University will be celebrating it's 150th year in 2012 we decided to add that element to the illustration. It was a great commission to work on, and it was nice to tackle a Christmassy project, it got me in the mood for mince pies!

Music Monday

2011-12-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

This week I've listened to and illustrated 'Cheap and Cheerful' by The Kills. I've loved this song for a long time and it's well good to dance to when you've had a couple too many shandies.

In other news, this week I have been packing to move away from Devon, going back to my shitty seaside hometown for a month or so over xmas, then in the New Year I'm moving to the big city (London). I'm going to need a job there so if anyone wants to employ me that would be nice.

Oh and I'm also going on holiday to Kenya for New Year with my family to help a charity that we work with over there. My parents go all the time but I haven't been yet, and I've heard very good things and I'm proper excited. I'll take loadsa photos to share with you all.

INC Gift Voucher

2011-12-09T09:46:00.001-08:00

I was recently commissioned by INC to create a range of gift vouchers for the shop. I also designed a card to accompany the vouchers, and here are the results! I was asked to create vouchers that had a bank-note theme to them, and to incorporate the shop logo.

Music Monday

2011-12-05T12:45:00.001-08:00

Hellooooo, it's another Music Monday! Christ, the weeks are just flying by. This week I've decided to illustrate "Only You Can Make You Happy" by Au Revoir Simone. I love the original version, but the one I usually listen to is the Punches remix that I've linked to below, as it has more of a fun, upbeat vibe to it. I picked this particular phrase as it's repeated over and over in the song, and it's a pretty good piece of advice to bear in mind.

Listen to the song it's great.

New Stuff

2011-12-01T05:29:00.001-08:00

Hello, been so busy recently that I forgot to mention that I've been hand silk-screening some t-shirts and sweatshirts! If you like the look of them, have a peek at my SHOP and buy one for yourself, or as a gift to someone for Christmas!

Music Monday

2011-11-28T12:09:00.001-08:00

Music Monday! YAY! This week I'm illustrating one of my favourite songs, 'Pro Nails' by Kid Sister feat. Kanye West. The video is below if you want to watch, it's really good.

No Guts No Glory

2011-11-23T12:12:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! I'm now selling some tote bags in No Guts No Glory in Exeter. It's an amazing shop and they sell some awesome prints, t-shirts, cards and zines there. If you're near, definitely go and check it out!

And as always, these totes are also available online in my SHOP.

Music Monday

2011-11-21T08:10:00.001-08:00

Hey. Apologies for the lack of Music Monday last week, it was my birthday weekend and I was a little too fragile to be doing any drawing!

This weeks song choice is the classic "No Limit" by 2 Unlimited. What. A. Song. If you haven't heard it, then you suck. It contains one of the most poignant and groundbreaking lyrics of the 20th Century: "No no, no no no no, no no no no, no no - there's no limits", and this is a mantra that I think that everyone should live their lives by.

The video is great too - the duo are stuck in a pinball machine, wearing lots of PVC and waving their arms around frantically. In this situation, I would be terrified, but 2 Unlimited embrace it and use the opportunity to go on about how much they love techno. Truly inspiring stuff.

My Jewellery Goes On Holiday

2011-11-17T02:35:00.001-08:00

A selection of my necklaces are now being sold in Hyphen in Brussels, Belgium. Click on the name if you want to check out their Facebook page, it's a fantastic shop! And if any of you are from Brussels, why on Earth are you not there RIGHT NOW?

In other news, I've now got the jewellery boxes that go with the necklaces as you can see in the images above, which makes them pretty sweet Christmas presents. You can buy them HERE. And there is some more stuff to come very soon, I've been going mental in the screen printing studio.

Music Monday

2011-11-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

Monday again. This week (because I'm gearing up for my birthday at the weekend) it's 'This Is How We Do It' by Montell Jordan. Classic party tune.

New Website

2011-11-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

I've just finished my new website. Have a quick look if you want, it will make all the swearing and crying in frustration worth it. www.jennisparks.com

Music Monday

2011-10-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

It's Music Monday again! This week as it's Halloween I've decided to pick a vaguely haunting song to draw to. I chose 'Nightcall' by Kavinsky feat. Lovefoxx. Love this song a lot. Creepy as anything.

And apparently it's on the soundtrack to that Ryan Gosling film 'Drive'. But I heard it wayyyy before it became mainstream. Obviously. *scoffs*

Retro Weather Necklace

2011-10-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one to let you know you can now buy my Retro Weather Necklace over at my ETSY SHOP. My sister volunteered to model it after a lot of bickering and persuasion. She's a beaut.

Music Monday

2011-10-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

My eyes well hurt after drawing this.

Here it is, the second edition of Music Monday - where I draw something in response to some song or other that I've been listening to. This week, I've been listening to M83's new album 'Hurry up, we're dreaming'. I personally really like it, it's had a lot of flack in music blogs for it being pretentious but where would we be without a bit of pretentiousness? Plus they're French so it's ok.

Anyway, I'm a bit of a shallow one when it comes to songs, because I usually just buy singles and this is the first time in ages that I've appreciated an album in full. This illustration was done in response to the first track on the album, "Intro", featuring Zola Jesus who I also like.

You can download the album HERE and I suggest you do. A good one to listen to in a dark room before bed.

SALE

2011-10-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

Click on here to be taken to my shop.

Music Monday

2011-10-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm drawing I constantly have to have music on - I don't understand those people who have to have in silence in order to get anything done. Anyway, to keep me drawing regularly and to tell you about the music I like, I've decided to do this new thing where I do a quick drawing based on a song that I love. And I'm going to do it on a Monday. Therefore, it's MUSIC MONDAY.

This first one is a line from "Why Even Try" by Theophilus London.

I'm really not sure of the meaning of this song, but all I know is it sounds great, has an 80s vibe to it, there's a lot of rapping going on and it's really catchy. And I often catch myself accidentally dancing to it. Here's the video.

Computer Arts Projects

2011-10-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, I'm in the latest issue of Computer Arts Projects magazine. The issue is all about how to sell things you make and it's well good so you should probably buy it if you're into that kind of stuff.

Click on the image if you wanna read the bit about me.

Hey

2011-10-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

So I buggered off to get drunk in Plymouth for a couple of days, came back and my 'Things That Hipsters Like' illustration is doing the rounds on Tumblr. Awesome, and hello new followers!

I got these giclee prints done before I went, and I like money, so if you want one head on over to my Etsy shop. They're £25 and printed up all posh on nice paper and signed and that.

Help.

2011-10-07T04:34:00.000-07:00

Hey you. Here's a design what I done for All Tropical's "Ghosts Of Gone Birds" t-shirt competition.

This is a super important and special and cool competition because the shirts will be sold at the Ghosts Of Gone Birds exhibition in London, which is raising awareness for conservation of birds. A load of well famous artists, musicians and artists have been commissioned to produce work for the event, which is being held from the 2nd-23rd November at the Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, Shoreditch.

I need your help. Please can you vote for my design HERE.

You may have to register with All Tropical before you vote but it only takes like 2 seconds.

The best 10 designs will then be taken to the next stage where Guy Garvey from the band Elbow, Jimi Goodwin from the band Doves and Marc Riley, the DJ from BBC 6 music will choose their fave 2 designs to be printed.

New Stuff Coming Soon...

2011-09-19T15:03:00.001-07:00

INC

2011-09-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hello! Here's a few photographs of some of my stuff that is currently being sold at INC in Exmouth, Devon. It's an amazing shop, run by the lovely Emma Houlding which also sells stuff from Rob Ryan and Gemma Correll, two of my favourite illustrators! If I could buy everything in there I would.

Emma asked me to create a window design for the shop, and I spent a day using chalk pens to draw a load of colourful things onto the shop window. It was quite weird having lots of strangers stare at me, but I got used to it and I had a great time. Here's a picture of me squinting outside the finished window!

One of my necklaces.

Close-up of the drawing.

A load of badges.

So if you're ever in Exmouth (you should go, it's an awesome place) pop in!

Exciting Stuff

2011-09-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

Helloooo. Sorry for the lack of blogging, I've been really busy recently with work and also doing lots of other bits and pieces that will be revealed soon! I've currently got a stall on the fantastic website Blog and Buy Sale, click on the image below to take a look at it. I'm also going to be drawing on the window over at INC in Exmouth, Devon, as I'm going to be selling some of my jewellery and other bits and pieces there. If you are around that area on Wednesday 14th September, pop in!

Drawing.

2011-08-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

A Peek At My Sketchbook

2011-08-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

I carry a really lovely leather sketchbook with multicoloured pages in it to use as a sort-of memory bank for all my ideas, things I need to do, etc. Sometimes I doodle in it, and I thought I'd show a few pages that I've done.

My Sister's 21st

2011-08-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

Bit late to be posting about this, as it happened about 3 weeks ago, but anyway I've been meaning to write! My little sister turned 21 and as it is an important birthday, I decided to make her present really fun. I bought a selection of small, fun birthday presents ranging from bath bombs, to stickers, to a Swatch watch, wrapped the presents up in different colour paper, and wrapped the whole lot up in inconspicuous brown paper. I bloody LOVE brown paper.

I also bought a card which had a dog dressed up as a rapper on it, because that's just hilarious. I decided to jazz it up a bit by making awful jokes, drawing bottles of booze, and writing THUG LIFE on his paws (I was going to write PUG LIFE but it's not a pug and that's just silly.)

Here's what was inside the mysterious brown paper parcel. On each of the different presents I attached colourful tags and wrote "Happy 21st Suzy" in different fonts on one side. On the other side, I wrote different memories from when we were kids. It took me about 2 hours to do all of this, but it was cool because I had a lot of fun doing it.

For her birthday cake, me and my mum wanted to do a photo cake so I had a look on the internet and came across PHOTO CUPCAKES from a website called Caketoppers. Anyway, after getting really excited we ordered 21 of them and put 4 different photographs on them from different parts of her childhood (sob).

She well liked them.

And here's me (on the left) and her. I'm not actually crying here, by the way. The rest of the weekend involved a lot of drinking with some good friends and a cheese fight. The clean up afterwards was horrific. Brie is difficult to get out of the carpet!

Repetition

2011-08-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Usually I'm a big fan of repetition, especially in my illustration. However at the moment I'm not really loving the repetitive nature of my day. I took this line from the Black Ghost's song 'Repetition Kills You', which has a fun video with lots of trendy people doing stuff in it.

Postcard #3

2011-07-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

Official summer holidays start tomorrow.

Buy My Stuff.

2011-07-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, I've just updated my Etsy shop with a ton of stuff that you can buy if you want. Here's a couple of photos of what's on there but there's a whole load more HERE.

Postcard #2

2011-07-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Whole load of rain today. It's all people ever talk about.

Long Time No Blog

2011-07-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't blogged for so long, I'm sure that you've been sobbing uncontrollably missing me...Anyway, I managed to finish the degree show, then went off to London for D&AD New Blood, which was brilliant!

Anyway, I was very happy to receive a 2:1 for my degree last week, and then I moved to Exmouth in Devon to start work. I'm working on a holiday park again and I feel like I've always been involved in the wonderful - if sometimes unpredictable - British tourist industry in some way or another, and this summer I've decided to do a little project on one of the things I know best!

So here's the first postcard from sunny (?) Sandy Bay, and I'll endeavour to send some more about the things I've been up to and the goings-on at the park. Happy summer!

The Winner of Giveaway #1 is...

2011-06-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

...My Twitter follower @PennyPoorly! AKA Poorly Drawn Things (Although this is rubbish because she draws really well)

I will be sending the badges over to her soon.

While you're here, have a gander at her blog.

Giveaway: Part One

2011-06-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

To celebrate reaching 500 followers on Twitter, I've decided to do a giveaway. I'm going to be running it this week, and there will be different things given away every couple of days. The first prize is a packet of badges, featuring illustrations of alcopops, cigarettes, guns, computers and stuff. I'm also going to be giving away later in the week a limited edition, signed screenprint and a limited edition acrylic necklace.

Here's what you have to do if you want these badges:

1. Follow me on Twitter (if you don't already)

2. Tweet or retweet this: "Give me some badges @jennisparks jennisparks.blogspot.com"

3. Make sure you mention me in the tweet, otherwise I won't know about it!

4. On Wednesday I will use a random number generator to pick and announce the winner of the badges and send a direct message to the winner asking for their details.

5. You can enter as many times as you like, so get tweeting!

Good News & Degree Show

2011-06-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

I had SUCH a good night at the degree show private view, in part due to the 5 glasses of wine I drank, but mainly due to the great atmosphere. Everyone on my course was so pleased that we managed to finally get everything done and sorted, and everyone's work looked great! We then all went out and got very drunk. The degree show is running for two weeks until the 26th of July, at the Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth.

I also received the news of Friday that I won All Tropical's "Dead as the Night" themed t-shirt design competition with this design above. My t-shirts will be printed (possibly in glow-in-the-dark ink) and sold in Camden and online very soon!

Degree Show Preparations

2011-06-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

So my whole illustration class have been stressing out to the max trying to get all the work done and hang our degree show in the last two weeks. Honestly, it has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do and I'd never been so sleep deprived in my life! Here's my friend Rosie Harbottle finishing painting her boards. She's made this amazing cuckoo clock which has an animation about waiting playing on the inside.

Here's my friend Pippa Stewart hanging her show. She's made a really cool hand-screenprinted book on a crash guide to the Tour de France. All those hours I saw her in the screenprint room have really paid off, it looks awesome!

And here's me painting my sign for my board. I was very very tired at this point.

Here's the work I put up for assessment, with everything laid out on the table for my tutors to mark. If you live anywhere in the South West, feel free to come along to the degree show. It runs from the 11th till the 23rd of June at the Roland Levinsky building, University of Plymouth.

I've also made some acrylic jewellery based on cartoon noises as part of my Final Major Project. I'm going to be selling it at the degree show and I'm going to sell some on my Etsy shop after then.

Me wearing a 'ZAP' necklace out on the town!

Plagiarism

2011-06-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

So if you follow me on Twitter, then you will know by now that I recently had some of my work plagiarised. My friend found this rip-off on someone's Facebook and I thought that was the end of it, but I Googled it and found out that the image had been reblogged 25,000 times! I am a bit annoyed, the worst thing is the font is HORRIBLE, it's randomly about tits, and whoever made it (I haven't got to the bottom of it) literally just slapped their text over the top and didn't even bother to make it look like they'd done it themselves.

I'm well aware of the issue of plagiarism in illustration, what with the recent Urban Outfitters hoo-hah, but unfortunately I don't think that there is anything I can really do about it, and if there would be any real point in taking action anyway, at least the person hasn't profited from it (to my knowledge). I'd rather be concentrating on making new work and enjoying the summer weather. And it's a pretty First World problem anyway.

Awesome Stuff In The Post and Carpaccio Magazine

2011-06-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

Hello, I've been soooo soooo busy with my degree recently and haven't had time to blog much. So tonight I'm going to write three posts! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I got tweeting with the awesome illustrator and zine maker iamanoctopus, who ever so kindly sent me this Chuckle Brothers print and awesome zine in exchange for some of my badges. Check out his amazing website for more stuff.

Secondly, I recently bought a gorgeous little zine 'A Million City Lights Issue Two from Beverly Ealdama's Etsy shop, which is packed full of lovely colourful typography pieces. I've been a long time fan of Beverly's work, and it has loads of cute inspirational phrases in it, which was useful when I was stressing out over my Final Major Project. Lovely.

Finally, I got my copy of the Carpaccio Guide to Emerging Illustrators, Photographers & Artists Volume 5 in the post the other week. My 'Beautiful Mess' illustration was featured in it, and it's a really wonderful compilation of different artists. You can also read it online HERE.

Business Time

2011-05-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

Hello there. I've had a great week, namely because my business cards and postcards from moo.com arrived! Here are a few photos of them, with my leather sofa as a background.

I also spent Wednesday in the screenprint room, frantically trying to print these t-shirts. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, normally I tend to fuck up with these things, but each one came out perfect!

Here's a film poster that I created for my final major project. I love Flashdance.

Finally, here's a poster for a fictional club night. The thing is, the names are pretty silly but I could imagine them being used in real life!

Crunch Time

2011-05-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

After a busy Easter, I've been trying to work really hard on my Final Major Project. We had a meeting about our degree show the other day and it's really scary and overwhelming but should be really fun and exciting as well. Anyway, I've come up with this t-shirt design above that I will hopefully be screenprinting next week.

As part of my final major project I wanted to include some work about all those trashy celebrity magazines that you see. I actually buy them a lot, I find the headlines and the garishness of them very appealing and funny!

Patterns Patterns Patterns

2011-04-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a bit of an obsession with patterns recently, I find it quite relaxing to sit there drawing the same thing over and over.

I'm really enjoying being in Exmouth, and I've been going for lots of lovely walks with my sister to the beach after work. Here is a tourist-y photo of me.

Easter

2011-04-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hello! I've been enjoying the sunshine in Exmouth working on a holiday park over easter. I got the chance to do some blackboard signs for work which was fun. I've also been trying to fit in other bits of work for uni after coming home from work, which is difficult but at least it forces me to manage my time! There's an awesome beach down here which is really lovely and I can see the sea from my kitchen window! More stuff to come soon :)

Portraits and Suitcases

2011-04-09T16:52:00.001-07:00

This is a picture my sister wanted me to draw for her. She honks when she laughs too much.

Royal wedding soon!

This was a redesign of an album cover that I did for a competition. This album is pretty great!

Procrastination.

2011-03-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hello, here are some images that are nothing to do with any of the work I should have been doing today.

Editorial

2011-03-10T05:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here's my final piece for my editorial project. The article was called 'How To Be A Cookery Show Judge' and was taken from the Guardian website. It was a pretty good article actually, and talked about how all of the famous TV chef judges are portrayed as being ridiculously intimidating. I found this a bit of a struggle, thank god for Photoshop because I spent ages playing around with the composition. I'm pretty happy with the end result though!

Eye Candy

2011-03-08T17:57:00.000-08:00

Loving the sleazy neon sign look right now. Had to draw a bit of type, it's almost like a therapeutic thing for me, same goes for drawing repetitive patterns. Anyway, I'm working on an editorial piece for uni at the moment, and finding it a bit challenging, hopefully if all goes well I'll post it on here really soon. I'm also giving blood for the 11th time tomorrow, wish me luck...

Please vote!

2011-03-01T05:50:00.000-08:00

You can now vote for this image to win the Mambo Surf Deluxe New Artist Search, if you fancy it.

Click HERE

You have to 'like' Mambo Surf Deluxe first, but please do it, I'll be extremely grateful!

Website and Etsy

2011-02-27T16:28:00.000-08:00

Oh look, it's my friend Rachael debuting her modelling skills!

Anyway, after many, many, hours of frustration and constant emails to the web hosting support man, I've finally finished my website! I've also linked to my Etsy shop on there, I've put the tote bags and badges that I made up for sale on there if you fancy taking a look:

Jenni Sparks Illustration

My Etsy Shop

Competitions and Brain Overload

2011-02-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

This is my entry for the Mambo Surf De Luxe new artist search. I'd like to think that any surfer's diet comprises mainly of Fabs and cider lollies.

This is my entry for our degree show poster competition. The degree show covers a variety of different arts subjects and decided to try to capture the processes and amount of effort that will have gone into it.

And this was me just getting bored and wanting to draw a picture of a brain. After I drew it, I got a massive headache from all the patterns and even now my eyes hurt. Oh the irony!

Album Cover

2011-02-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

Here's the outcome of my first mini-project. I decided to do an album cover for a fictional band. I even did terrible sketches of what I thought the band would look like, which I will not be posting on here. One of the band members resembled a fat Tinie Tempah, and all the others just looked like the culmination of everything hipster, all empty framed glasses, plaid and an overwhelming sense of superiority. Sheesh.

Screenprinting and Studio

2011-02-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd take some pictures of my studio workspace as I enjoy being nosy at other people's studios. Recently I've been trying to work on a series of small projects that will hopefully make up my final major project, all the while getting distracted by wanting to do other stuff such as printing tote bags. Anyway, here are a few photographs of what I have been doing!

I totally screwed up the orange bag, you can't really see it here though. I'm going to sell these tote bags really soon on Etsy (they are currently drying in the print room) along with some badges, prints and bits and pieces.

In other news, I've been doing a couple of posters recently. This one above was for the Peninsula Arts Dominion festival, which is linked my to uni.

This poster was for our Illustration French Party. Unfortunately I didn't go to it because I got mugged (I'm fine now though!). I hear everyone had a great time though!

Royal Family

2011-02-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

Tote Bag Designs

2011-01-30T12:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a bunch of tote bag designs that I've been working on recently, I'm going to screen print them in black onto some coloured tote bags this week, with my friend Rosie Harbottle (check out her blog, some really cool stuff on there!). Then I'll hopefully be selling them on Etsy, providing I manage not to fuck it up. Other than that I've been working on my terrifying Final Major Project, which I've decided to do on pop culture as I'm addicted to trashy magazines and daytime telly. Now I can watch Jeremy Kyle and not feel guilty as I'll consider it 'research'.

Vive La France

2011-01-24T14:33:00.000-08:00

I went to Paris two weeks ago with my course and it was amazing, so beautiful. We managed to visit loads of places, I was knackered by the end of the trip! My favourite places were the Notre Dame and Montmartre, in the picture below I tried to draw the view of Paris from the Sacre Coeur but there was too much to see. Definitely go and visit if you've never been before, we did it on a serious student budget, basically eating bread and cheese for every meal and drinking 1€ wine in the evening from Carrefour. Awesome.

Playing Around With The Wacom

2011-01-03T03:49:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year! I've spent my time eating Quality Street and having arguments with my siblings, like any respectable 22 year old should. Father Christmas and his elves manages to manufacture me a Wacom Bamboo tablet as a present, so thank you very much to them. Here's me fucking about with it.

Today

2010-12-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

I've been crazy busy recently trying to get my project finished for my degree. I made an almost completely wordless book called 'Today: One Day Told Using 100 Objects'. Basically I drew every object that I used during the day and compiled a narrative using the drawings to describe it. It was pretty horrific at times because every time I'd thought I finished, I remembered other objects that I'd used! Anyway, here's some of the illustrations, hopefully over Christmas I will be designing some zines to sell.

Click on the pictures to see the bigger versions, or there are some single images on my Flickr.

Dress

2010-12-08T20:07:00.000-08:00

I'm in Anorak Magazine

2010-11-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

It's a brilliant magazine. Get your copy HERE.

My CD Collection

2010-11-24T14:53:00.000-08:00

Etsy

2010-11-22T14:46:00.000-08:00

I'm now sorting out my Etsy shop. Just a couple of things on there right now, but will be updating shortly!

Jenni Sparks on Etsy

Drake Circus Art Sale

2010-11-19T07:43:00.001-08:00

Yesterday our illustration course took over Drake Circus Shopping Centre for the switching on of the Christmas lights. It was a really fun experience and altogether we made about £550 quid, which is definitely not bad! I also got to watch Lemar croon like there was no tomorrow.

My Stuff

2010-11-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

Here's some work that I've been doing for my degree. I'm doing a project called "The Diary of..." and I've decided to look at my personal objects and the meaning that I inadvertently attach to them.

Badges! Anorak Magazine! Hyperlinks!

2010-11-03T12:34:00.001-07:00

Yay!

The badges I designed last week arrived today. Thanks to Big Wow Badges for doing such a great job!

I'm gonna be selling these, with some other stuff that I'm in the process of making at the Art Fair in Drake Circus, Plymouth around the 18th November and at the DEVONMADE christmas market on the 12th December. I'll also be putting these up for sale online soon with some t-shirts and things once I get everything printed and sorted.

I also found out last week that the drawings I did on balloons for a competition on Doodlers Anonymous will be featured in the winter issue of Anorak Magazine, I'm so happy! It's a great magazine for kids (and adults) with a great focus on creativity and has loads of fun stuff in it.

Anyway, I've gone a bit crazy with the hyperlinks in this post. I'm going to go and do some stuff (watch naff television).

Balloon Fun

2010-10-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hey, look at the fun you can have with some cheap balloons and a Sharpie! I did this for a competition on the Doodlers Anonymous website, where you basically had to draw on balloons. I've submitted my image, and you can vote for me to win HERE.

I Been Learnin'.

2010-10-13T08:52:00.001-07:00

T Shirt Designs

2010-10-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hello, long time no post. Apologies, I've just moved into my new flat and we still have no internet so I'm in the studio posting this. Here's a couple of new t-shirt designs that my flatmates keep nagging me to make so I will be sorting these out and putting a bunch up to sell very soon. Before they hurt me.

Whole lot o' summer

2010-08-16T13:59:00.001-07:00

I finally managed to get some pictures up on here. I've been spending the last couple of months in a caravan in Exmouth, desperately relying on a 'dongle' to contact the outside world. However, I have now discovered that this provides better internet than I had in my old student house! Pfft. Anyway, in between making frappuccinos for tourists, enjoying the trailer trash lifestyle and watching repeats of Road Wars, Airport Wars, Bin Wars, and any other dull sort of 'war' on tv with my caravan-mate Rachael, I have also been drawing. Here are the results.

T-Shirts Coming Soon...

2010-05-31T05:33:00.000-07:00

Finally I have got round to designing some t-shirts. These are the first 4 designs to be printed, and they will be available in July (its taking ages for them to be delivered). They will be £10 and at the moment there are only men's medium and large sizes. However I will make some ladies' ones soon!

The Scribble Project Colouring Book

2010-05-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, I've been featured in a colouring book by The Scribble Project which features the work of over 100 illustrators. You can buy it here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/48184995/big-team-scribble-colouring-book-pre

Sunny Days and Exhibition

2010-05-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Hello. It's been lovely and sunny here in Plymouth for the last few days. Therefore I have spent a bit of time drawing while sitting outside. Also, we had our BA Hons Illustration exhibition last night which was awesome! Here's some stuff I've been drawing.

I really love daisies!

Some silly drawings of my housemates who were sat in the lounge at the time, minding their own business.

This is a photo of me with my work at our exhibition (sorry for the poor picture quality - my friend Rachael took it on her £10 Tesco camera!)

This is me trying to draw some stuff. My friend Rachael decided to thrust her crotch in my face.

Buy My Book!

2010-05-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Yes! Finally...made...my...book...

Horrific. I will never get my head around InDesign I swear. Anyway, here she is!

Basically, I made a book called 'Never Judge A Book By It's Cover', and it is a collection of some sayings and idioms that I have illustrated. It's printed on sexy thick paper and underneath the rather plain dust jacket has a secret colourful real front cover...get it?

It also comes free with a badge you can literally 'wear on your sleeve'. I'm full of the jokes.

If anyone wants to buy it, I have 5 copies for sale, should be on Etsy in the next few days for $5.50 (about 4 quid if my estimations are correct).

Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JenniSparks

Editions Project

2010-05-05T08:46:00.001-07:00

I'm currently doing a project on editions at uni. I've decided to make a book based on old fashioned saying and idioms. These are a few pieces in progress! I'm also kind of working out how to use Photoshop, 'bout time really.

Kiss With A Fist Typography Animation

2010-05-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is an animation I made for uni. The song is 'Kiss With A Fist' by Florence and the Machine.

Stufffffff

2010-05-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

Easter Stuff

2010-04-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Over the easter break from university I attempted to do some more drawing, although I didn't manage to do as much as I wanted to. Anyway, here it is.

This image above was inspired by the highly underrated songwriting talents of Culture Beat, a bunch of 90s 'DJs'. The song is called (if you couldn't guess) Mr. Vain.
I'm sure he is.

Below are some feather tattoo designs I'm working on for my friend.

My guiltiest pleasure is reading Take A Break, etc. These drawings below were inspired by the cutting edge journalism of those magazines.

WTF?

I went shopping in Bristol, and found these fucking amazing stickers in Paperchase.
Who doesn't like faces on stuff?

Newer Stuffffff

2010-03-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

Why hello there...here is some newer stuff that I've been getting up to.

So much work to do, at the moment I am making an animation for uni, which is nice.

Old sketchbook

2010-01-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

Exmouth and Summer Sketchbook

2009-10-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

Doodles

2009-10-07T03:36:00.000-07:00

Older stuff

2009-03-27T10:40:00.001-07:00