Stacey Roscoe Illustration

NEW SITE AND BLOG

2011-07-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well I've finally got round to it and intergrated my blog and my website. Only trouble is this blog will now be going offline (waahh) but don't worry you can still follow me (huzzah!) just go to my site www.staceyroscoe.co.uk and folow the RSS feed at the bottom of the page. YEY! Hope to see you all there!

Fat Monster Sings

2011-07-05T05:29:00.001-07:00

I've recently joined an illustrators group on Deviant Art that sets a weekly challenge for various illustrators to have a go at. It's realy useful because you not only get to practice character design and use styles you've never considered before, but you get to see what, when set the same brief, other illustrators come up with.

The first challenge I decided to tackle was the monsters Inc challenge. Create yourself as a cute kid then draw what your monster would look like and what you would be doing together. There are certain rules you have to follow like the characters must be shown head to toe and be completely original to you, no exisiting characters can be used.

I decided straight away my me and my monster would be singing a merry tune, the rest came when I started designing the character, I wanted to give her horns but was thinking of an unconvential way to do it, the opera hat seemed like a really funny alternative.

Swing on a Star

2011-07-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

New puzzle for work. The theme was space. I love Spongebob and had been watching an episode on jellyfish fields, so that's where the net idea came from. I also tried to colour it a bit softer than my usual style. I think it looks more like a storybook image. Need to do 2 more now!!

Villainous doodles

2011-05-27T02:33:00.001-07:00

No radio, a slow computer and a boring job can do funny things to a gal!

Green Fingers

2011-05-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Just finished the artwork for this A4 kids menu/activity sheet and both myself and my client are really chuffed with the results. Thought I'd share it with you :-)

All the puzzles and characters are my design, the client gave me a theme to stick to and basically let me run wild (My kind of client!).

I'm looking forward to doing more of this kind of work with them, love it!!

Clown Car

2011-04-11T03:18:00.001-07:00

Most people know about my immense fear of clowns so a circus puzzle is not a great topic for me. My attempt to create a clown that doesnt scare the beejeebus out of me!!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!

2011-03-25T06:05:00.001-07:00

So I've been tryin gto get the hang of my Tria markers for a while now and I just cant seem to master it. After Drawing Rapunzel for the first time the other day I just couldn't bring myself to colour my sketch with not so great markers lol...so I took it into Photoshop and made a brush to resemble the marker effect. Maybe I'll ditch the markers and stick to Photoshop after all! Rapunzel character copyright Disney of course :-)

Activity Packs

2011-03-18T02:55:00.000-07:00

These giant activity packs include 40 pages of themed puzzles and activities for kids to colour and cut out. This was one of the first projects I was given in my new job and I am well chuffed with the results :-)

Once upon a Time 2

2011-03-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

Previous pics as a finished article! The puzzle is double sided & there are few images on there that I didn't post before so if you see it in the shops you'll just have to buy it! :-)

Once upon a Time

2011-03-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

Pics from a nursery rhyme/ fairy story puzzle I recently worked on. This was the second in a set, the first having been done by a different illustrator. So not only did I have to match their style, I had to think of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which they hadn't done. I'm quite pleased with the outcome...Little miss muffet being my fave :-) see what you think! All images copyright Stacey Roscoe

Scrooge

2011-02-23T01:16:00.000-08:00

So to make up for my total lack of blogs here's another design I did for a range of Christmas items based on 'A Christmas Carol'. Enjoy!

Busy Busy Busy

2011-02-22T02:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, I've been so busy these last few months since switching my day job that I just havent had time to update my blog. Good news is that I'm doing kids puzzles and spot characters in my new job so I've got loads more images to add!

I'm enjoying working on different things and the freedom to create whole scenes, letting my imagination run wild. In my last job there were a lot of constraints, as I was drawing safety issues and informative material. Plus the puzzles I have drawn will be in major stores including Dunelms, The Range, Primark, Asda, Morrisons, Poundland, B&M's and loads more so keep an eye out!!

Saw Tangled the other day and it was awesome, so hopefully I will have some Rapunzel inspired illustrations soon. Disney is officially back on form!!!

Stacey
x

Watercolour pencils

2010-07-15T03:56:00.001-07:00

My Nan recently paid a visit to the pencil museum in Cumbria and brought me back some watercolour pencils.

I've never really used them before but I thought i'd give them a crack and I have to say i'm really pleased with the results! I've often tried watercolours and have failed miserably but the pencils give you more control over the colour and where it's placed.

So after watching a few tutorials on YouTube on how to use them here is my first attempt at watercolour pencils...not perfect but I think I'm getting the hang of it quite quickly. It looks better in person but it makes a change from the digital colouring I'm used to and a lot easier than markers!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

2010-06-30T06:35:00.001-07:00

Last year I did the poster for a local thatre company's Panto, Mother Goose. This year they are doing 'Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs' which has proven a bit more of a challenge.

The challenge for a MASSIVE Disney fan like myself is to do a poster which in no way resembles the grained in image of Disney's Snow White'.

After a few redraws and costume & hair changes I am pleased with the result. The Disney influence is still there, especially in the witch, but I'll never get away with 27 years of watching Disney without picking up some tips. Hardly a bad thing :-)

A Very Potter Musical

2010-06-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

I was recently introduced to 'A Very Potter Musical' on Youtube by my friend Emily and I have to say It's brilliant. If you like musicals it's well worth a watch. Well done to the guys at 'StarKid'!!

To thank Emily for passing me the link I did her this very quick sketch of Draco Malfoy from the show.

Now I just have to wait for the sequel!!

Junior Whites website launched!

2010-06-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

The new Junior Whites website which I did some player and mascot illustrations for a while back has been launched today.

I've had a quick look at it and I have to say the designers at BWFC have done a lovely job on the games, especially the Kevin Davies Keepy Up one, it made me giggle!

The images look great, especially my favourite Lofty pic. All in all a top job, well done wanderers!

Visit the site at http://www.juniorwhites.co.uk

The Deadwood Stage!!!!!

2010-06-14T03:18:00.000-07:00

This is one of those times where I had no intentions of drawing anything specific, I was just doodling whilst waiting for Photoshop to open numerous large files. I just happened to have Calamity Jane, another of my favourite musicals on my ipod and ended up sketching this rather attractive version of Calamity.

There's something about sketches that I find more interesting than finished images, in sketches you can see the construction of the image and how the illustrator refined the picture.

Anyway enough rambling, back to work for me :-)

Nelson 'N' Deck Adventures

2010-04-28T02:03:00.001-07:00

After months of secrecy and hard work behind the scenes, the new children's book I have illustrated is ready for the shelves! Nelson 'N' Deck was a real pleasure to work on, the scenes of London were particularly tricky and time consuming but as they needed to be spot on it was time I needed to spend. The author Chris Gillott sent me a lovely testimonial.

"Stacey has been an absolute dream to work with. From the very first time I explained my project and artwork concepts and requirements with her - she has delivered way above my expectations. My brief was for Stacey to deliver some stunning full colour illustrations to compliment the book I had written, "Nelson 'n' Deck and Friends: How the Adventures Began". This is the first in a series of children's books I have published with the aims of making London fun for kids, educating them about all London has to offer all year round, and to help children's charities with the profits from the book. Stacey listened to my specific ideas for the styles I wanted and came up with loads of brilliant suggestions too. As you will see from the book cover artwork she has done an amazing job on not only the cover, but on all the images within the book (over 20!) for which I am eternally grateful. I also got Stacey to design my corporate logo as well for Star789 Limited. She is a totally undiscovered talent (although she is getting a lot of exposure now!) and I really look forward to continue working with her on the follow-up books in my series. All I can say is whatever your illustration needs are, give her a call and ask her to work for you - you will be more than delighted with the results!"

Chris Gillott
Owner - Star789 Limited
Author of the - Nelson 'n' Deck and Friends -series of books
www.nelson-n-deck.co.uk

You can buy the book by visiting the web address above and following the links.

I'd Do Anything Part 2

2010-04-16T03:07:00.001-07:00

Finally got it finished. Really pleased with it as well. I think it works because of the costumes and stuff. I might do more show pictures, next one is pirates of penzance so hopefully ther'll be some great pics!

Down the rabbit hole

2010-04-07T05:36:00.001-07:00

I drew this picture of Alice falling down the rabbit hole One lunchtime at work. I needed to draw something cause i was having one heck of a day!

It was done straight from memory so I'm quite happy that I got the proportions right etc. I got bored when it came time to colouring the teapot and stuff, maybe I'll go back at a later date and edit it.

Also not entirely happy with Alice's face. It's nice to do a full scene, especially one from such an iconic film, and also one that I love!

Argh these stuuupid markers!

2010-03-07T06:12:00.001-08:00

Well I've had another outing with 'the markers' and I think i'm getting the hang of them slightly, I'm happier with Tink's hair but I'm still strugling with blending the colours properly. I've seen people use coloured pencils as well as the markers to add highlights and shadow and make it pop more so I might give that a try.

I'm actually quite pleased with watercolour effect on this Tink drawing, not so much with her dress although the shadows and stuff are clearer on the original, my cruddy scanner has messed them up.

Well I suppose I can keep watching tutorials lol, hopefully I'll master them eventually!

My new markers!

2010-03-04T06:16:00.001-08:00

I've been toying with investing in some Tria markers for a while now and since I got some money for my birthday I decided to bite the bullet and give them a whirl.

Here is the first image I've ever coloured with Tria. The jasmine was drawn from memory so she's not perfect and I still need to work on the highlights, especially in the hair, but all in all I think I did okay for a first go!

If anybody has any tips on using these kind of markers it would be great to hear them!

Feed Me!!

2010-02-22T06:38:00.001-08:00

Feed me Seymour!! I was inspired whilst listening to the soundtrack for 'Little Shop of Horrors'. The famous scene where Seymour discovers it's blood Audrey 2 needs to grow.

One of my favourite musicals :-)

Birthday Caricature

2010-02-19T01:35:00.000-08:00

I had no idea what to get my friend Louisa for her birthday this month so I decided to 'cartoonize' her singing Far from the home I love in Fiddler on the Roof.

I'm quite pleased with the outcome as I had a bit of trouble making it look like her, but she was really pleased with it so that's all that matters. I printed 2 copies and layered them up for a kind of 3D effect them put them in a bordered frame. It ended up looking really nice.

Another string to my illustrator bow! At least now all my friends know what they're getting for they're birthdays :-D

Oh, it's a jolly holiday with you Tom!

2010-02-12T01:25:00.000-08:00

It's always nice when people appreciate your work, especially when it's kids. All my cartoons are so child friendly, I'm really just a big kid myself so it was especially nice when why friend told me that her 3 year old little boy had taken a shine to my illustrations.

She told me that he had seen me in the Panto I was in and was his favourite character, so she had shown him the pic I drew of myself as the fairy and now he asks every night before he goes to bed if he can look at my drawings HOW CUTE!! He rang me up the other night and I promised him I would draw him a picture, so I have lol.

I asked his mum who he liked at the minute and she said Mary Poppins, so i thought it would be cute to draw him out with Mary 'Jolly Holiday' style. The text is mirrored from the Stage Show poster. So Tom, this one's for you :-)

The Boss is on a Roll!

2010-02-01T08:12:00.000-08:00

My favourite scene from The Little Mermaid is when Ursula sings 'Poor Unfortunate Souls'. I love her as a villain, in fact she's probably my favourite disney villain, up there with the Oogie Boogie man.

Yesterday I watched The Little Mermaid for like the 100th time and decided after Ursula's song I was going to draw her. So I got my sketchbook and that's exactly what I did.

I'm quite pleased with this pic because I had no reference other than the movie that I was watching as I sketched, and as I wanted a particular part of the song, which had already passed, all I had was my memory.

"Flotsam, Jetsam, now I've got her boys, the boss is on a roll!"

Mucha Mermaid

2010-01-28T04:18:00.000-08:00

It's a little known fact that I went to Fine art school for two years in between college and Uni. Whilst there I discovered Alphonse Mucha and absolutely loved his work. The lines the flow everything.

Of course my fine art teacher not only hated disney *gasp* and all things cartoonified *double gasp* but the miserable bugger also hated Mucha...'not proper art and a cliche of a cliche' whatever the hell that means (I'm sure the guy was drunk most of the time'.

Anyway I was reviewing some of Mucha's work again after seeing Bri-Chan's Giselle on Deviantart when I stumbled across Mucha's Springtime. 'Wow' I thought 'That almost looks like shes floating about under the sea' (one of my many annoying character traits is that i refer everything back to Disney!)

So anyway a few hours later and here she is, my Mucha inspired Ariel. I am really pleased with how she came out, I wasn't sure how i was gonna do the background but i think it came out super :-D.

Fine art shmine art!!! Hehe!

Fairy Fortune

2010-01-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the pleasure of playing the good fairy, Fairy Fortune in the pantomime Mother Goose. I had a fab week and was inspired to draw a pic of moi in my costume!

If i get the inclination I may do the whole cast. Some of the costumes were well over the top and would make fantastic images!

I'm working on convincing fairy dust so the pic isn't finished yet, but I still think she looks very pretty, even if I do say so myself!

Lofty the Lion

2010-01-08T07:57:00.001-08:00

I got a phone call a few weeks back from the people at BWFC, they had seen my illustration of Lofty in my illustration gallery and wanted me to draw a cartoon of him and 5 of the players for a new Junior Whites micro site they were in the process of creating. A few weeks later and here he is, I updated him a bit from the original illustartion I did. I tried to make him a bit more 'mascotty' and cleaner. Obviously he had to be wearing the new kit as well. I has a lot of fun doing this project and found the people at BWFC really nice to work with.

Challenge Stacey!

2009-12-16T02:08:00.000-08:00

I am pretty well known around the illustration circles of Bolton for drawing all things cute and fluffy! Princesses, fairys, happy smiling children, so my illustrator friends Nigel Barnes challenged me to draw something a little less cute or 'dirtier' as he put it.

The theme was horror. My first thought were of a Dr. Finkelstein character (Nightmare Before Christmas) so thats the idea I went with.

A few hours later I had come up with this guy. I don't know if I succeeded in the challenge as I still think he's pretty cute but at least he's not a princess!!!

(F.Y.I. Nige gave him an 8/10...he wasn't 'dirty enough' haha)

I'd do Anything

2009-11-24T01:36:00.001-08:00

Last Year I was envolved in an am dram production of Oliver! it was great fun and the other day whilst thinking of things to draw I decided to sketch a little picture of our leading lady Kate Gregory and our Artful Dodger Ashley Margolis as they danced during the number I'd do Anything.

The most difficult thing to draw was Ashley's curly hair but I think in the end it's made for a great image. I'm hoping to have 5 mins spare to colour it in any time soon!

Busy busy busy

2009-10-16T05:21:00.000-07:00

Well I have been rushed off my feet the past few weeks!

All of a sudden it seems people are hiring illustrators again!

I'm currently in talks with three clients about various projects they have in the pipeline, two of which will be major, it's all very exciting!

I'm also working on a new kids book about food and healthy eating. Just in the character design stage at the minute but the finished product should be good!

Total Rehaul

2009-09-04T02:57:00.000-07:00

Just finished a complete rehaul of a company's brand.

It's taken a while but I'm really pleased with the results which you can see on my website. I redesigned the logo then went on to redesign the website, business cards, leaflets and all sorts of other promo material.

You can view the company's website here...www.pett-behaviour.co.uk

It's still a work in progress as they were in a bit of a predicament and needed something up fast, I had to upload it half finished but I think it still looks good :-)

New Website Launched

2009-09-03T04:07:00.001-07:00

Well I have launched a new website which has more information and portfolio material included. Hopefully people will be able to keep up with my illustration and I will be able to update it more easily to keep in touch with all my clients. Here's hoping!

Finished Mural

2009-08-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

So I didn't keep much of a diary....busy busy girl! But i have got some pics of the finished mural. Jack was really pleased with it and was having fun naming all the characters we had painted. It took just under a month and a half to finish, but we were only going up for a few hours at a time around work. We are both really pleased with the outcome. If you would like more info on commissioning a mural for your little one's room, drop me a line.

The start of something new?

2009-01-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

So my friend Emma and myself are always talking about new schemes and ideas which will make us famous in the world of illustration. We both work as full time and freelance illustrators, but we're frustrated in our day jobs, hence the constant talk of starting our own business.

On one of our daily MSN chats we started talking about the rubbish illustrations you see painted on the walls and windows of nurseries, and wondered if people would actually hire someone to come out and do it for them. A quick search later and it seems people paint kid's murals as a career. 'How interesting' we thought, could we paint on such a large scale, and with actual paints rather than Photoshop?

So begins the challenge.... Jack's walls are a dull brown colour, not very interesting for a little boy. So myself and Emma have been drafted in to create a bit of magic and to brighten the place up a bit. Jack's favourite characters include, Lazy Town, Mr Tumble, Fimbles, Bob the Builder and Winnie the Pooh. A small feat for such talented illustrators :-o

I'll be keeping a diary on here of the work in progress, and we'll be taking pictures every step of the way so hopefully the challenge won't prove too much for us and Jack will be left with a brilliant mural at the end of the month. Watch this space!!!!

2009-01-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

Well as my promo cards I sent out over Christmas have had no Joy in getting me any work I've had a few hours free to work on the Elphaba pic. I want to create a 'painty' look to it. I messed around with the technique a bit in Uni but haven't really kept it up so it's a trial and error thing at the minute.

It's still not finished and i think the light and dark still needs to be a bit more extreme but I'm chugging along with it anyway :-)

Toodles for now
x

Well as my

Welcome to my blog

2008-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

My first ever blog!

My works Christmas 'Do' this year was in London so I took the opportunity to sample the delights of the west end and see a show. I chose 'Wicked', it was brilliant and since I came back I have been dying to do an image based on the story. Not quite sure how it's gonna pan out but here's the first sketch I've done whilst bored at work! Whaddya think?

P.S. It's already been commented she doesn't look very Wicked but in the story she's more disgruntled than wicked so I don't know, maybe I'll change her expression, maybe I wont!