Creative block?... Here's what I did

Creative block or artists block whatever you want to call it, it's been happening to me a lot lately. Aside from getting up and moving away from my work for a few hours which I highly recommend and YES it is ok to have a break it's taken me a while to allow myself to and I sometimes still feel guilty but breaks are needed! Anyways because of this I started questioning my creativity.. am I really creative? Should I really be doing this ? All these questions made me really ask myself questions about why I started doing this in the first place... This lead me to revisit my childhood.

Nas 'Memory Lane'

From when I could remember I would lock myself in my room for hours listening to music and just draw, in my teens a lot of it was drawing B2K members Omarion and J-Boog yes I was obsessed with them. But I remember just getting lost in my work never questioning myself whether it's good enough, whether people will like it or where it would fit in, I believe this is when you are most creative. So - I decided to give myself a side project. Initially I thought hmm how about I illustrate a different song for the next 365 Days then I started getting all panicky and thought let me start off small first and see where it'll take me. Whilst scrolling down my timeline I saw Lisa Congdon mention in a post that she will be started a 100 days of hands project so I decided to go ahead with my project but do it for 100 days and I called in #100DaysOfSong. 

I'm using this to really explore different styles and mediums. I overcame my fear of doing a completely digital illustration and now I absolutely love it! I have a long way to go but I'm getting there. Here is some of my favourite work so far from the project:

Common 'Unfamiliar' - This song speaks about the unknown yet amazing feeling love gives you, you don't know where it's going to take you yet you hold on and trust wherever it may take you. 

Common 'Rain' The rain is the cleanser…

 Hand lettering is something I never really tried since I was in college and so I decided to take  a short class on SkillShare called Hand Lettering for beginners and I fell in love with it again. (hover over links included)‘Rain' speaks about following your dreams and remembering that through all the pain there is a blessing.So if it is going to rain Let it rain! One of my fav songs on the ‘Black America Again’ album written in 1960’s, the song feels like a movie which inspired me to start researching movie posters of this era.

'Dying to Survive'

India Arie 'Pearls' "There is a woman scraping for pearls by the roadside
There is a force stronger than nature
Keeps her will alive

That is how she lives her life
She is dying to survive
I don't know what she's made of
But I would like to be that brain"

Lauryn Hill 'Nothing Even Matters' - In the end all that matters is LOVE

Head over to my Instagram to see more and follow the rest of my project 

x

Hourly Comic day - My visual diary

 So it was #HourlyComicDay on February 1st... this is basically a day were Illustrators and Comic artists world wide document each hour of their day. So I decided to take part in it this year! I'm just really late with posting it! I tend to always really worry about every tiny little detail in my illustrations but I really challenged myself to not worry to much and just constantly create new comic, quick and loosely. I must say I really absolutely loved it so I'll definitely be taking part in it again next year! 

Being a mother and illustrator I've had to get used to the fact that I must now work in intervals, literally! And  the days my mum isn't working.. she literally saves the day, and this day was one of them! Anywhooo click on the image gallery below to check out the full series. 

p.s. why don't you check out Kristyna Baczynskior's Hourly comic series. You can also see others by following the hashtag #HourlyComicDay

A Million In One

"Every time you see me, I come as one but I stand as 10,000" a line that has stuck with me since I watched Oprah Winfrey's uplifting speech on the empowerment stage at the Essence festival, Quoted from Maya Angelou's poem 'Our Grandmothers'. Going on to reading the poem, it inspired this illustration above, 'A Million in One.' Every time you see me it's not just me standing there,  It's my mother, my grandmother, all the women who prayed, had to make sacrifices, those who's names made the history books and those who didn't who allowed me to come as one and stand as 10,000. I don't only know who I am I know WHO'S I am. 

Like Mother Like Daughter

Like Mother Like Daughter

Hello and welcome! I've been telling myself for months that I will start a blog but I've been putting it off for so long! But here I am and I am planning to stick to it! Well I've always had a blog but i just never uploaded anything! Here's my first upload of 2017 "Like mother like daughter" which captures part of a typical day as a Mammastrator see what I done there 'Mamma' 'Illustrator' hehe. Everything we do our little ones are watching and mimicking lets be the best role models we can be.

Being a single mother and trying to balance being a mummy and pursuing your dreams can be a challenge at times, most times! However one of the things that keeps me going, that keeps me up at night whilst she's asleep is knowing that everything I do I have this little angel who's constantly watching me and looking up to me. She is my why, I want her to grow up knowing she can be anything she wants to be when she grows up as long as she has a vision and works hard towards it. I want her to say my mummy did it so can I.

x

DECEMBER DESKTOP DOWNLOAD

December is finally here guys! Favourite month of the year, Here is a desktop download for you all to get you into the festive season, let the countdown begin!

Download 'HIS' calendar

Download 'HER' calendar

xoxo