The Saints Festive Fair - Ipswich

Some very good friends of mine (Jess Broad and Chris Plowman) have organised a Festive Street Fair this Sunday. So if you are out and about in Ipswich this weekend pop along and get yourself some beautifully handcrafted products - a great Christmas Shopping opportunity!

I also need to plug some other very good friends of mine: Alex Catto and Selina Jackson. Alex and Selina are the owners of 'Jack the Cat', and will be selling their embroidered bags and cushions this Sunday. Featuring cute vintage owls and intricately detailed floral motifs Jack the Cat merchandise is creating quite a name for itself in Ipswich! 

Eco Owls

Wow I can't believe how long ago it is since I last post...ooops! I have been really busy over the past couple of months illustrating a series of children books. All approved now, and off to press meaning I have had time to put together some new surface pattern! Here is one to start you off, an eco inspired design..."Eco Owls'

Blog Feature - How to be a Children's Book Illustrator

The lovely people at 'How to a Children's Book Illustrator' have featured my 'Hey Pretty Kitty' Animation on their blog. I was also asked to contribute a short tutorial- view the Photoshop tutorial here.

'How to a Children's Book Illustrator' is a great read, featuring artist interviews and video tutorials.
Interesting video about Google Doodler here

Elizabeth Moad - Christmas Quilling

Over the past couple of months I have been designing a 64 page book for friend - Elizabeth Moad. Liz is a published author, who has created quite a name for herself in the world of paper-crafts. After working on a series of well received sourcebooks for prominent publishers Liz decided to take the plunge and publish her own. Christmas Quilling is the first title to be produced by EM Publishing, it is a great resource full of festive greeting ideas. The book is crammed full with 20 seasonal projects, that include annotated visual instructions, and 60 card designs.

Christmas Quilling was printed locally by Lavenham Press in Suffolk, so we were both able watch the book come off press, be guillotined, bound, laminated and packed. As a designer it is really interesting to see the processes a design goes through. - we even got to see the print plates being made! 

Christmas Quilling is available for purchase on Amazon
More of Liz's work can be see on her website here.

I Got Myself a Husband

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks....I have been busy..... getting married! Just over a week ago now me and Lloyd tied the knot! It was such a beautiful day, and the weather held out too! Here are a few pics taken by friends - waiting on the professional ones which should arrive any day soon!

Hey Pretty Kitty - Animation

An animation I have been working on...

Hey Pretty Kitty from Sarah Wade on Vimeo.

Latest Book Sample - Girl meets Seagull

The latest book illo I have been working on..

New Book Samples

I love producing book samples, whenever I have a spare moment I can't help but doodle some new characters. Here are a couple that I have worked up with colour and pattern.

Look what we have been up to! Creative Boom Banner

Design House Studios has been working with Creative Boom this week to create a banner for their Ipswich website. The brief was really open, so it was a great opportunity to have some fun with colour and line work. We are very pleased with the outcome, you can see it here

Lloyd Evans - Surface Pattern Design

My partner in crime & design Lloyd Evans was featured on Print Pattern today! We are both huge fans of the blog and it's always a great feeling to be recognised for your work, even more so by such a well respected resource. Check out the feature here.  

Creative Boom Article

Design House Studios (the umbrella company for myself and partner LLoyd Evans) has been lucky enough to be featured on Creative Boom, a regional online magazine about the creative industries in Ipswich and the rest of Suffolk.
Read the full article here

New Style

I have been experimenting with a new style this morning - drawing with pen and ink and then colouring up in Photoshop. Here is my first attempt.

Design House Studios

Our new website is now up, check it out here
http://www.designhousestudios.co.uk

Ripple - Mermaid

Tigers and Polar Bears

Book Samples - Fairies

A couple more book samples that I have been working on...

Mermaids

I have had a really busy day putting together a collection of surface patterns to be used on textiles. I sent those off about 3 this afternoon, and decided to reward myself by working on a couple of book illustrations (I have been looking forward to working on these for a couple of days).

New Facebook Fan Page!

Follow me here:

Interview with Grace Sherriff @ Style on the Run

I was interviewed by the lovely Grace Sherriff at 'Style on the Run' last week. Read the full interview here.

New Envelop Store!

Hi All
I have been busy setting up my Envelop store! The first product has gone live today - a Folk Owl Apron. Buy it here . Stay tuned, as I will be listing new products over the next couple of weeks!

Tweet Tweet! New Design

I get to start my weekend early tomorrow! Hope you have a good one. Here is a new design - until Monday!

Twitter - SarahW_Design

I have joined Twitter! Follow me here.

My Barn Owl

The lovely people at My Barn Owl have featured some of Surface Patterns.

Such a great Bank Holiday surprise!

See the full feature here. 

Recent Book Samples

Here are a couple of book samples I have been working on.

Print Pattern Feature!

I am really excited to be featured on one of my favourite blogs today.
Print Pattern!

I have been reading Print Pattern for almost 4 years now. It is packed full with lots of great inspiration - if you haven't visited the blog before check it out here!

illustration Friday - Linked

Pattern Prints - Preparation for my Etsy and Folksy Shops!

I am currently working on some designs for my 'soon to launch' Etsy and Folksy shops. They should be up and functioning in the next couple of weeks - so watch this space!

Here is one of my prints framed and ready to go!

Illustration Friday - dip

Here is this week's entry for Illustration Friday - the theme is 'dip'

A sneak peek!

Here is a quick sneak peek of a design I am working on at the moment!

Mail Me Art 2

The deadline for Mail Me Art 2 has now passed but here is what I submitted a few months back. Read more about it here.

Folk Art

I am really into the look of Folk art at the moment, here is a recent design where I used Folk Art for a reference point.

Seed Pods

Wow! today has been pretty crazy (in a monotonous kind of way) I have been battling with Microsoft Excel, working towards producing a database for our web-site. Eventually the client log-in area will have a search facility making it easier to find specific designs. Therefor, lots of key wording has been taking place today! I still have a long way to go......... I can't wait to pass it all over to my friend Kelvin (a web developer) to make it work.

I decided to have a break from it this evening to work on some surface pattern - here's what happened..

Illustration Friday - Rescue!

This is my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday - the theme is 'rescue'.

Peacocks

This is one of my surface patterns framed up - at present it decorates the white walls in our hallway along with a couple of Lloyd's paintings. Im really keen to get into wall art at the moment, infact I have been working on a design over the past couple of days. I will post it up when it's complete!

Fuzzy Fest!

I have used photographic elements in my illustrations for a while now, but I very rarely work straight on top of a photo. I thought I would have a play around with the idea after visiting a few blogs where I had seen the technique in use.

This is a photo that I took the year before last at Latitude music festival in Suffolk. It was quite an overcast day, but I have tried to brighten the scene with some fun characters.

The Exciting World of Pattern

After weeks of waiting The Exciting World of Pattern is finally available to purchase on Amazon !

I have 5 designs featured in the book. Here are some quick snaps of the selected designs!