Saturday 15 December 2012

Hand printed Christmas cards

So I had a little bit of spare time in between projects so I thought I should probably use the time to get some Christmas cards printed. This year I have gone for the Christmas jumper type design and incorporated some 'LA' things into the more traditional pattern. Only did a quick run of 15, using stencils, sponges and paint instead doing of my usual screen prints. Still building my kit over here!











Wednesday 5 December 2012

Christmas Wish List Item #1


MARI INUKAI - SEKAISEIFUKUDAN FIGURE.
Photographed in Giant Robot2015 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025
He glows in the dark. 'Nuff said.




Tuesday 4 December 2012

Holiday doodle


Happy Holidays!

So the festive season seems to be in full swing here in LA. Not an advent calendar in sight though - so glad I brought a Cadbury's one with me! We have been to buy our Christmas tree and in true American style, strapped it to the roof of the car! Was quite surreal driving along Sunset Boulevard. 

After perusing the Christmas tree lot for a longer than necessary amount of time (lots of 'squeeing' in between), and being told 'That's not going to fit in the car...' numerous times by Gaz, we made our decision. This is actually my first real Christmas tree, all previous trees have been artificial. It's a Noble fir, 6-7 ft tall which looks and smells amazing, and thanks to some very lovely Martha Stewart decorations - he turned out very smart indeed! American readers - check out her range at Home Depot. Beautiful selections for such a reasonable price. Only gripe was that the ornaments didn't come with hooks or thread to hang them...grrr.  








Monday 3 December 2012

New December title - Big Dinosaur Sticker Book


One of the last books I designed in-house for Usborne is now available to buy. I worked on this dino title with the very talented Paul Nicholls. With over 250 stickers to stick on 11 scenes. Not a bad stocking filler for young dinosaur enthusiasts! 
Available at www.usborne.com



 





All images ©Usborne



Tuesday 13 November 2012

Cool wallpaper






Had to take a picture of this wallpaper whilst visiting the little ladies room at The Malibu Inn, in Malibu. Very funky!

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Happy Halloween!

Ta-dah! My finished pumpkin as promised and a picture of my very put-together-last-minute halloween costume that I wore to the Monsterpalooza after-show party. My costume was pretty lame compared to some of the amazing efforts made by the make-up and prosthetics folk who work in the industry, but it was fun to dress up all the same! Happy trick or treating everyone!



Tuesday 23 October 2012

Halloween LA style!

Halloween is such a big holiday here in the US. When I left the UK, the shelves where becoming packed with Christmas things - but not here! So exciting to see people decorating their yards and choosing prime pumpkins for carving! I have this beast to get going on!...Got an evening of sketching some designs tonight. Will be sure to post the after shot when it's done!



So in the spirit of Halloween, I did a doodle of course! Will be Twitter pic until the end of the month.


New chapter, new home.

Quite a lot has happened over the last few weeks, which has resulted in me being a little quiet on the old blog front. I left my job and I left London to embark on a new adventure, to try new things and make new art. I packed my computer and my trusty screen printing screen and headed out to live with some family in Los Angeles. I'm living in an environment where you can't not feel creative and get creative and learn more about being creative! We are surrounded by people whom we can learn a great deal from and I hope to tell you all about it on here as I go along! 



Before Gaz and I moved here, we were very lucky to stay with our friends up in Liverpool for a few weeks to catch up and say bye to family etc. I meant to blog about Amy and Dan's house while I was there but Frankfurt book fair got in the way! According to Dan, Amy has a borderline unhealthy obsession for anything with hearts on and very cute vintage looking items. I say there is no such thing! Their house is lovely and on it's way to becoming extremely stylish. I snapped some picks and did some doodles of a few items dotted around the house, for inspiration.














 

Thursday 6 September 2012

Ta-dah! Introducing you to vicky-barker.co.uk

So after 5 and a half years, I left my job at Usborne Publishing last week. It was a great 5 and a half years in which I learned lots, worked on some beautiful books and made some wonderful friends. I take with me a great deal of knowledge, which I hope will help me as I embark on this new freelance life...

To begin the freelance ball rolling, I now have a website which I can finally show to everyone. It showcases some of the lovely titles that I worked on for Usborne (only a select few - I worked out that I had worked on over 80 books in one way or another, during my time there. We'd be here all night if I used all of them!!) - and also some bits and pieces I have been working on in my own time. 

Take a look next time you are having a cuppa break and let me know your thoughts! You'll find it here at vicky-barker.co.uk











Wednesday 29 August 2012

Back to School

*Spotted in Waterstones*

Summer holidays are coming to a close and the start of term is looming! For your little ones, why not buy this new Sticker Dolly Dressing title, designed by myself and illustrated by Steven Wood! Available in bookshops now or at www.usborne.com

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Trip to the beach

So Gaz and I took a trip out to Herne Bay on our day off. Was lovely to be by the coast. Munched good pub food and doodled on the beach. 

Really loved the cute coloured beach huts that lined the shore.














Sunday 5 August 2012

Sunday doodles



Did anyone else notice how bloomin' HUGE the raindrops were this morning?! 
They were GIANT, I tell you!

Sunday 8 July 2012

Super screen printing stuff

Been a tad quiet on the blog front recently, so apologies. Preparing to leave your job and move to America leaves no time for fun stuff!

Thought I would share these two sets of screen printed cards I've done in my kitchen recently. Enjoy! Hopefully available to buy from my Etsy shop shortly.












All designs and photos Copyright ©vickydoodles