Monkey: Journey to the West

On Tuesday night James and I went to see Monkey: Journey to the West, at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! The music was composed by Damon Albarn and all the costumes, set design, illustrations and animations were designed by Jamie Hewlett, who both worked together on the Gorillaz. (Sorry if you already knew that!) It tells the story of Monkey who accompanies characters Tripitaka, Pigsy, Sandy on the road to enlightenment. They encounter gods, demons and lots of weird creatures on their way.
A combination of opera, martial arts, music, animation and circus acrobatics, it was truly spectacular. The performers were unbelievably agile and there were so many jaw dropping things going on you didn't know where to look in case you missed something else. Giant unicycles, back flips-a-plenty, contortionists, cast members flying through the air, spider women, buddhas, sea creatures, people balancing on eachothers heads- some using only one hand for support, imaginitive, funny and gorgeous costumes and magical music.
Haha, I haven't been paid to write this but was very impressed. It really is worth going to see- last night tomorrow then it moves on to Paris.

A lovely gift

A prettily packaged gift arrived for me this morning from Penny, Toby and Lawrence. A beautiful golden brown button, the same as the green one I have! Thanks so much xx

Button ring

James bought me this cool, knitted ring to cheer me up as I've been feeling down lately.
It combines two of my favourite things- a big, bold ring, and a funky button! Because of the way the button is cut, it sparkles in the light too as you can see in the top photo. Thanks James x

Mermaid revisited

This is a mermaid illustration I did last autumn. I was very pleased with her but didn't really work on the background. Today I've done the sea and the seaweed at the bottom. I don't usually like revisiting old work but she deserved an environment to live in. I think she's ready to go on my website now.

Retro Boutique

Just look at this *fabulous* shop! James and I discovered Retro Boutique at the weekend. It's a big shop on Hyde Park Corner in Leeds (for anyone who may want to visit.) I'm a total sucker for retro and vintage shops, and if someone slaps the word 'vintage' on anything it instantly looks 10 times more attractive to me! I think a lot of shops know this trick now, so finding a genuine vintage shop is a treat. Everything was set out beautifully with gorgeous furniture and clothes, fabrics and jewellery. Delicious.

Before and after

I did these card designs which I was happy with but after talking to the very helpful Penny, I decided to re-design them to make sure more of the 'action' was happening in the top third of the cards. I think the designs below are ready to be sent out to publishers now.

Ideas

Here are two card ideas with the same girl but different coloured outfits. I need to put text on them so that they'll be ready to send out but apart from that they're finished. Think I prefer the red and pink girl myself. Bright pink is my favourite colour to use in my work and yet I would never ever wear anything in any shade of pink! It's just not me. Weird.