Charlotte Thomson Art & Illustration

My Art on Skin

2012-01-03T21:01:00.000Z

Over the years I've done quite a few tattoo designs, and have had a few clients surprise me by immortalizing logos or portraits as tattoos! Here are just a few!
I'm afraid I don't know all of the tattoo artists names sadly, I strongly believe in credit where credits due for tattoo artists so I apologise that I've had to post most of these without credits.

For sultry songstress Coco Malone

For animal loving Stephanie


(Queen Bee by Skullduggery Tatu) Two tattoos on the same lovely fella! Richard immortalised my pin up of his fabulous hubby Myles Away in ink and then flattered me again by having his salon logo pin up girl design tattooed aswell! If you're ever in Ireland and need a new do check out Richards salon the B-Hive

Huge thanks to the people and the tattoo artists who have put my art onto skin! I know I have more tattoo photos lurking somewhere so I'm going to have a dig around to see if I can find more over the next few weeks, watch this space!

x Charlotte

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T09:00:00.001Z

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year!

x Charlotte

Craft Artist & Ideal World

2011-12-22T08:33:00.001Z

I've mentioned a little bit about my new full time illustration job over the last few months, finally I can reveal some of what I've been working on. The images below are screen captures from my '50's Fever' Digital Scrapbooking Kit, which is designed to be used in the Serif Software 'Craft Artist'. I work exclusively on creating these digital scrapbooking kits for Craft Artist and there'll be more of my work released next year!

So what is Digital Scrapbooking I hear you cry? Well, it's like regular scrapbooking but you create everything 'in computer'. Craft projects (not just limited to scrapbooks - greetings cards, gift tags, menus, wedding stationery & favours, cupcake wrappers, cake boxes, party bags...the options are endless) can then be printed at home and embellished (personally, I like to add as much glitter as humanly possible!).

50's Fever is part of the 'Eras Collection' which is currently exclusive to Ideal World's Create and Craft channel (yes my work gets sold on the telly! how cool!) but is currently Sold Out! However, it will be released on the Serif Daisy Trail craft website in April so I will do another update then!

x Charlotte

Dapper gentleman greetings card template

Greetings card template

Greetings Card - al the elements you can see are digitally created or fully handpainted by me

Gift Tag Template from the kit

Cupcake wrapper template!

Some examples of printed Craft Artist Projects - none of my work but just so you can see how things look all made up!

Artwork from Childhood

2011-11-21T12:35:00.000Z

Last week my mum gave me a huge box of my old drawings and school books, I picked out a few gems to share!

some of my first ever drawings, from 1987, I was born in '85.

One of my first forays into painting, a princess with a bouquet of flowers no less!

From a school project on the Tudors from primary school, this is Henry the 8ths pet monkey ripping up his library I believe. My spelling still leaves something to be desired.

A proud moment, a story I wrote in Secondary school about a crew of a space-ship with Anna the fierce leader, Tod Hunter (reference to Red Dwarf there!) the dumb but cute space squaddie, the tough guy and the guy who always gets space sick whose names I've forgotten. I'm still rather fond of these guys!

Another proud moment, my design for a Simpsons magazine cover (a competition entry) which was printed in the magazine, I didn't win but it's taking part that counts.

And since it's the season, here's a page from a book I wrote in primary school about the nativity!

x Charlotte

Cards for Yuletime

2011-10-22T08:32:00.000+01:00

Every year I try to design a card for the festive season, this year I've actually succeeded, she's not quite finished, a few final touches to be made but here's a sneak preview! My inspiration was 1920's and 30s fashion and she's completely hand rendered in pencil. The design will be printed onto recycled brown paper postcards (rather than full greetings cards) and I'll be sending them out to my clients, however if you want to buy some I'll be making them available for sale on the website.
x Charlotte
(PS. Did you noticed how I managed not to say the 'C/X word', it's too soon, pre-Halloween, in my books, is too soon to talk about 'you know what'!)

Dr Sketchy Nottingham - Alternative Art Class!

2011-09-21T21:21:00.000+01:00

As you may know one of my additional projects is Dr Sketchy Nottingham

This month we're holding our first ever 16+ event, so if you're 16 or over you can join us for a truly unique life drawing experience on Sept 24th 1pm - 4pm!

For your drawing pleasure there will be more than 6 models posing in intricate handmade Historical and Theatrical costumes courtesy of the Scarborough BA in Costume Design, home of my dear friend Mat Douglas who I met at art college many years ago! Some of his design will be on show, with themes ranging from Circus Freaks to dandy Macaroni's and fabulous Jane Austen era gowns. All artistic levels welcome, just bring a pad and pencils. This event is fantastic for anyone with an interest in theatrical and historical costuming and of course, figure drawing!

Tickets £8 in advance from drsketchynottingham.co.uk.
Event is 1pm - 4pm at Glee Club Nottingham
British Waterways Building, Castle Wharf, Nottingham NG1 7EH (on the canal opposite the magistrates court, 2 mins walk from Broadmarsh bus station, tram station and train station)

Each event is fun and informal with music and a friendly atmosphere. Dr Sketchy Nottingham is part of an international artist led franchise, with over 150 Dr Sketchy's in cities all over the world, from New York to Tokyo (more info on our website!)

Hope to see you there!

The White Room and What Katie Did

2011-09-12T20:51:00.000+01:00

A couple of nice things have landed in my inbox this week. Firstly some photos of The White Room Bridal Boutique, a brand new bridal shop in Sheffield run by Chloe Curry which is getting some nice attention from the world of wedding blogs! As you can see I did the illustrated logo design and designed much of The White Room stationery, here you can see it in action! You can also see lots more of my illustrations on their website :o)

Secondly What Katie Did have just released their Autumn Winter 2011 range and have a wee video to accompany it! You can see my illustrations in the background! What Katie Did have just opened a boutique in Hollywood, in addition to their London Boutique, here's wishing them lots of good fortune stateside!

x Charlotte

My Muses - Fabulous Fran

2011-08-29T12:33:00.000+01:00

Since my blog updates have been a little dry of late I thought it was about time to add something a little more tantalising to the blog and do some back tracking to show off some bits and pieces of work that haven't quite made it onto the website yet.

Fran came to me asking for a recreation of a specific boudoir photo she had taken of her, she wanted a black and white, bold, line-art style that would transfer well to a tattoo design. So her wish was my command!

Here is the original photo of Fran by Tip Top Photography

Here is the sketch - sketched in pencil and then inked loosely so Fran could see how the dark, bold lines would look in the final piece.

This is the final polished ink drawing, Fran wanted just outlines, no shading so I created it all in black ink using a pentel pocket brush pen and waterproof fine liners.

In her own words:-
"Working with Charlotte has been an absolute pleasure!
Having seen her previous work, I was really excited when she accepted my design request. Her professional and friendly attitude made me feel very special and totally confident that she would do a great job - Charlotte's work did not disappoint!

The artwork is amazing and it was lovely to have the opportunity to have an input into the design (not that it needed any amendments). Not only was the artwork brilliant! But I was really impressed with the turn around time from my initial email to receiving the design.

Overall it has been a wonderful experience working with Charlotte and I would recommend her to everyone in a heart beat x"

Thank you Fran!
x Charlotte

Quick Update

2011-08-26T13:21:00.000+01:00

It's been a few weeks since I've had the chance to update my blog, life at Serif Europe is going well, the job is great, we're just coming to the end of our first project which I hope to be able to show off once it's all released into the public domain - to see the kind of thing we're creating illustrative content for check out

www.daisytrail.com

x Charlotte

The Love My Dress Soiree

2011-08-04T15:11:00.000+01:00

So I can now officially say I have painted in the Baltic Art Gallery in Newcastle!

Yesterday was road trip day, Scarlett Daggers and yours truly set off for Newcastle for the Love My Dress Soiree (the first event of it's kind) at just after 1pm on an overly hot and sticky summers afternoon! Armed with easels, paintbrushes and a very glittery and feathery burlesque costume, we stormed up the motorway in Scarletts' ever faithful Yaris!

A quick stop for refreshments and a stretch of legs and we were soon passing by the Angel of the North and cursing the sat nav for putting us in the wrong lanes etc.

As you may already know Annabel of LoveMyDress.net is a long-term client of mine, who is largely responsible for introducing me to the wedding community/'scene'. Her blog is a treasure trove of vintage wedding inspiration, from real weddings to inspiring vendors and she even featured my wedding last year! I've worked to develop the look of her blog, designing illustrative content for her banners and buttons, editorial illustrations for special events and anything else that crops up along the way! Annabel is a pleasure to work with and so full of passion and enthusiasm that how could I turn down her invitation to Newcastle for the first even LoveMyDress networking event..and finally a chance to meet the lady herself, in person!!

As promised I did a bit of live painting on the night, with paintbrush in hand and Scarlett in a very feather costume, acting as model & muse, I created a little bit of saucy burlesque art for all to see! (It didnt quite get finished due to it getting very dark and disco-ball blindness which makes painting quite hard!)

It was a lovely treat to meet some wonderful people, including some past clients who I had never met face to face, including Louse O'Mahoney of Oh My Honey who is a nice in person as she is via email (haha!)

Me and Louise 'Oh My Honey'

We were also treated to two performances by Vicky Butterfly, who it's safe to say is one of my all time favourite burlesque performers.

Vicky Butterflys Swan Bride Routine

So after lots of painting, lots of chatting, lots of admiring glamorous dresses, eating lots of canapes and bright blue cake pops and musical appreciation of the live jazz band and the DJ playing old 78s on Gramaphones, it was time to go home! Suffice to say it's not a good idea to buy Haribo from a dodgy Londis service station on the outskirts on Yorkshire at 2am.

Big thank you to Annabel for organising such a wonderful and fun industry event, we had such a great time and wish we could've stayed a little longer. So when is the next one?.... ;o)

x Charlotte

Important News

2011-08-01T11:37:00.000+01:00

I have been fortunate enough to be offered a full time traditional illustration role at an international software company, an opportunity which was too good to pass up! I will be starting on August 8th.

My own business will continue to operate but on a much smaller capacity, I fully intend to continue working with existing and ongoing clients. Existing clients and ongoing projects will take main priority to ensure that my commitments can continue to be fulfilled. I will be retaining approx 6 regular ongoing clients including What Katie Did, Love My Dress Blog, Nora Draper, Eternal Spirits, White Room Bridal Boutique and The Wet Spot Leeds.

Sadly this means that I most likely will not be taking on any new clients or projects for approx the next 6 months, this will be reviewed in January 2012. My aim is that all portrait commissions and business start up projects (one off logos & branding) will be complete (or nearly complete) prior to my starting this new job.

If you are interested in commissioning artwork or portraiture please still feel free to get in touch, particularly if you have a long deadline (more than 6 months!) for your project. I'm always happy to discuss and see if I can squeeze in extra work, or recommend a suitable alternative designer or artist to myself. Please understand though that short deadline projects will be impossible for me to fulfill, I simply won't have enough hours in the day.

That just leaves me to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last 5 years of business and who led me to this new job, if my portfolio wasn't crammed with your lovely portraits, logos and illustrations I would never have been offered this job, I'm hugely grateful. I will continue to produce vintage pin up girls, bridal portraits and fine art so do watch this space!

Lastly, here is a little sneak peek at my Test Brief illustrations that helped me win this job...the theme of the brief being Fairies!

Red Anchor Emporium

2011-07-12T11:56:00.000+01:00

I always love seeing the results when I create a design that is going to be taken away to be printed or woven or created into something a little bit different. A few weeks back I blogged about the rubber stamp design that Ellie from Red Anchor Emporium had made for her vintage inspired handmade accessories business, based on the logo I designed for her.

This morning she sent me this lovely photo of her brand new woven fabric label design which will be sewn into all her designs. The level of detail they can weave into these labels always amazes me!
The Anchor picture and the 'Red Anchor' tattoo inspired text were all illustrated by me and then vectored for clean lines and maximum versatility when transferring into products like this one!

Milkcow Magazine Interview

2011-07-06T12:00:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by the lovely Kate Hawkridge (check out her work, she's a fab artist!) for the 40s and 50s culture magazine Milkcow. The latest issue has just come out and my interview is featured! Ive got a fab double page spread, check it out!

Big thanks to Kate and to Milkcow magazine!

What Katie Did go Stateside

2011-07-05T14:42:00.000+01:00

World leaders in faux vintage lingerie and hosiery and all round nice folks What Katie Did are opening a shop in the US of A!

I've done a lot of work with What Katie Did over the last few years, as you'll see from my fashion portfolio pages, I'm thrilled to see them go from strength to strength. They now have boutiques in London and Los Angeles. Check out their website for details!

Photo by Tony Ruseki.

Game City Nights meets Dr Sketchy Nottingham

2011-07-01T17:13:00.000+01:00

Last night was a rather special event for us at Dr Sketchy Notts HQ - We were kindly asked to take part in Game City Nights, the monthly evening incarnation of Game City, the Nottingham based gaming culture festival. Well, what a fantastic night we had! I was Mario, my good friend Mat Douglas was Luigi, model Laura Woods was a sexy Princess Peach complete with swarovski encrusted Eternal Spirits corsetry, and Becky Johnston, a lovely cosplayer from Manchester and theatre costume student was Sion from The Bouncer, and held some very difficult poses very still!

Armed with lots of paper and pencils we held a drop in and draw session and then took to the stage for some silly competition poses, compered by my co-host the lovely Scarlett Daggers. The response was fantastic, both from our regulars and first timers alike! The star prize for the evening was a Nintendo DS, part of a prize box donated by Game City.

Thanks to Game City for the photo, more less blurry ones to follow!

Out of Studio Notice

2011-06-15T16:49:00.000+01:00

I am out of the studio from June 16th - June 26th.

I will be back in the studio as normal on June 27th.

All emails will be answered as quickly as possible when I return.

many thanks
Charlotte

New Artwork

2011-06-02T16:14:00.000+01:00

I've been a busy bee lately, here's a look at a new piece of artwork created for Grant-Riley Styling. This is a portrait of Tiffany Grant-Riley with all her tools of the trade, ready to style a gorgeous photoshoot. In a change from the norm she went for a pencil outline with digital colour, as you can see if creates a lovely combination of traditional and modern, great for a vintage look with a contemporary twist. Great for web use and great for matching up your brand pantone colours with an illustrative style. Tiffany was a pleasure to work with, I highly recommend you check out her styling website and her wedding planning service www.grantrileyweddings.co.uk

x Charlotte

Vintage Chic Wedding Fair June 26th

2011-05-27T13:56:00.000+01:00

Not had a lot of blogging time lately but just a quick note to say I'll be exhibiting at the Vintage Chic Wedding Fair in Nottingham on June 26th, come and see me paint live and have a natter about your wedding and what lovely artwork and designs I can magic up for you!
See you there!

2011-05-09T20:19:00.001+01:00

Just finished putting up artwork at the Lace Market Theatre for the play Dinner. I've created some new original pieces based on sketches done at a rehearsal and on based on the costume for the lead actress by Eternal Spirits

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wedding Fever of the Royal Variety

2011-04-28T18:56:00.000+01:00

Royal Wedding Artwork for Love My Dress Blog

Firstly I'd like to apologise for a lack of blogging lately, the workload here at 'Chez Chaz' has gone through the roof, it's been several weeks of early starts and late nights just to keep up.

So what have I been up to? Well Spring as we know is Wedding time so I've been working hard for lots of lovely brides and grooms. You'll notice a few new quirky couple portraits up on my bridal and boudoir page including my favourite, the showgirl/photographer surfing couple! It just goes to show that you can be as unique and off the wall as you want when it comes to your wedding! They used their portrait as a super original invitation, how would you use yours?

I'll have more invitations to show you all soon, my oldest friend is getting married in August and I had to honour of creating her invitations all covered in beautiful pencils drawings of vintage flowers and birds. You may not even recognise my work on them so I'm looking forward to showing off the fact there's more to me than just pin up girls! ;o) There will be a special blog post all about these very soon.

Since we're talking weddings it's impossible not to mention 'THE' wedding! I've been hard at work creating a Royal Wedding inspired illustration for Love My Dress Blog, which you can see at the top of this blog post! And since we're on a theme - here's Britannia, one I made earlier!

I'm also currently working on a joint promotional project with my good friend Susi at Eternal Spirits Bridal and Corsetry. I'm designing a brochure which will feature both our bridal and boudoir design services in a lovely glossy keepsake booklet. Here are two images I've been working on which will feature in the booklet, both have been painted wearing Eternal Spirits designed bridal gowns. The brochure will have a vintage tea party inspired look with lots of pretty florals and watercolour embellishments. Take a look at the holding page for the brand new Eternal Spirits Website to get a taste of what's in store!

That's all for now, I hope you all enjoy the royal bank holiday tomorrow. My wedding dress predictions are as follows - simple, elegant, fitted, floor length with a fishtail style small train, understated tiara, and maybe a flash of back! (I'm probably so wrong!)

Charlotte x

Branded! I have a stamp!

2011-04-13T13:21:00.001+01:00

A few of my clients have had custom rubber stamps made recently, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon! I've been looking for a new way to brand the back of my art prints and postal envelopes for a while now and this seemed ideal! Nifty and good value!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Celebrating all things British!

2011-04-12T21:26:00.000+01:00

British fever struck NYC recently when my lovely client Annabel, the brains and beauty behind Love My Dress Blog, took flight to the Big Apple to take part in the Bridal Market Week.

As you can see from the photos of her stand the artwork I've created for her over the past year featured heavily and the Union Jack was well represented! The stand really captures a true sense of nostalgia and classic Brit style. It's not that long ago that the union jack had become synonymous with extreme right wing politics, thank goodness we've finally reclaimed it and can show it with pride!

It's a great time to be proud of our British Heritage, shops are full of Royal Wedding memorabilia and amongst the kitsch there are some lovely high-street offerings from the likes of Kath Kidston. My house will definitely be sporting some 'Will & Kate' bunting, of the tackiest variety (no doubt much to husbands' dismay!)

For those of you with a few mins to spare, here is a website/blog I stumbled upon a few weeks ago which makes for a good bit of humourous reading. www.anglotopia.net a website created by Americans who love Britain! Some great observations on British peculiarities ...and American peculiarities for that matter, a good giggle!

A bit of Live Painting never hurt anyone!

2011-04-11T14:55:00.000+01:00

This Sunday was spent with Susi Henson of Eternal Spirits, we shared a stand at a wedding fair at the Albert Hall Nottingham. At wedding fairs I have discovered it's all about demonstrations to get peoples interest, when I sit and paint I get huge amounts of interest in my work, compared to when I just show images and prints. So I'm now resolved to paint LIVE at all wedding fairs I do in future! Apologies to the Albert Hall, i did get paint (and tea) on your table cloth. oops!

Pics of the stand Me (painting away) all take by Susi Henson, somehow she managed to leave herself out of all the photos! cheeky! You'll notice the organisers put us next to the bar and the ice-cream freezer, on our other side was a cake stall and a chocolate fountain....a bad day for diets!

Client Case Study - The Wet Spot Leeds

2011-04-09T22:30:00.000+01:00

I was recently given the task of re-branding The Wet Spot Leeds, Leeds very finest burlesque night. I was truly honoured to be chosen to design for the Wet Spot, having been a fan of the night for some time and having spent my hen night at one of their shows last year.

The re-brand was more than a little daunting with such big shoes to fill in the shape of their previous artist Kev Grey, whose work I'm a big fan of. His hula girl poster for their Sept 18th 2010 show was given to me as a wedding gift by a certain Scarlett Daggers (We weren't able to make the Sept 18th 2010 show as that's the day we got married!) and is soon to be a framed feature in my bathroom.

Starting where another artist or designer left off is always a big challenge, especially with such a strong existing brand and style in place.....So where to start? At first I avoided looking at previous designs, trying to steer as far away from Kev's work as possible out of professional respect!
I was asked to design a new logo and an entire new look for the show, but to retain their bold monotone branding and bring in a highlight colour of red, so I went about experimenting with designs!

The first steps were the logo and the first figure drawing to adorn the first promotional flyers, posters and tickets. Ryvita Von Cheese, the organiser of the Wet Spot, hostess extraodinaire and burlesque beauty was to be the first portrait featured. After some pencil sketching we established that my more stylised figure drawings seemed to fall into the Wet Spot 'feel' incredibly well, with bold hand-drawn ink lines coloured digitally with simple block colours. An instantly retro look which works well in print.

Once the artwork style was established the rest of the branding fell into place, I brought in some tones of charcoal grey in to soften up the blacks and whites, with a cherry red used as a highlight only on the figure drawings. We settled on a 1950s cocktail/beatnik/ look with lots of bold shapes, atomic age stars, dots and lines. The overall style is bold enough and unique enough to stand up alongside their previous look and give them a new flavour, yet follows on nicely to give a sense of brand continuity

Personally I'm incredibly proud of the work we've created together so far, watch this space for more!

The Wet Spot Leeds Online
Ryvita Von Cheese - Hostess & Organiser of the Wet Spot Leeds

Out of Studio Notice

2011-04-01T08:30:00.000+01:00

I'll be out of the studio between Saturday (April 2nd) and the following Weds. Im taking a much needed break so I'll be responding to any calls and emails when I return on Thursday.

On Saturday I'll be out helping at the Japanese Fundraiser Postcard Exhibition event being organised by my Danse Macabre co-host Matt Vickerstaff. If you're an artist there's still time to create a postcard to sell if you can bring to down to Spanky Van Dykes in Nottingham at 2pm on Saturday. all proceeds from sales will go to the British Red Cross. We've had incredible entries from all over the world!

Also, don't forget to buy your Dr Sketchy Nottingham Tickets for April 16th!

I'll be back!
x Charlotte

The Making of Love my Dress New York Painting

2011-03-23T19:34:00.000Z

I thought it might be interesting to do a little step by step insight into how a painting goes together! Above you have the start and end points, the initial sketch and the final image that has now gone live on LoveMyDress.net and has been printed onto stationery that will be winging it's way to New York with the lovely blogger Annabel. (please excuse my wonky iPhone photos!)

First basic ink outlines, more as a guide so the original lines aren't lost as I begin to add opaque acrylic inks.

First layers of watercolours and acrylic inks laid on, giving myself an initial impression of the way the colours will work

Some more opaque acrylic inks added, building up some cleaner, bolder lines and blocks of colour.

A bit of attention added to the figure to clean up the lines and give the outfit and face more depth.

Sepia acrylic ink added, as you can see this builds up the majority of the tone at this stage, has given the artwork more depth and detail. Most of the details are now in and will stay much the same.

Bolder colours are added using opaque acrylic inks, to give it a more solid and less watercoloury look. I have gone over many of the sepia lines to make them bolder and more defined. This is basically the finished piece, though you can see some of the ink is quite wet still on this photo! You get an impression of how liberal I am when applying this ink from this photo, I really do blob it on with a brush! A few more edits to make in Photoshop before we reach the true final version but it's pretty much there.

The finished article with some of my tools of the trade!
(About 5 mins before I spilled that whole pot of red ink on my white shagpile rug)

What Katie Did Cotton Shopper Bags

2011-03-14T10:40:00.000Z

What Katie Did, specialists in Faux Vintage Lingerie, Hosiery and Swimwear, have brought out a brand new cotton shopping bag featuring artwork by yours truly for the last three seasons. The new one is now available in their shop and features a lovely little Hawaiian pin up girl sporting an item from their swimwear range.

Here's a little insight into how the design came into fruition. Firstly I created a digital sketch for the design and then, since there weren't any massive changes to make she was rendered digitally ready to be sent off to the screen-printers. Although she's digital I retain my hand-drawn look by rendering all the lines by hand using a wacom tablet rather than using vector curve graphics.

In this case the image was not vectored at all but if a vector file is required then I usually vector trace my original hand drawn lines at a very high resolution, creating a vector file but retaining all the hand drawn lumps and bumps and personality of the original drawing, whether that be hand drawn pen & ink or Wacom drawn digital. Although some people prefer than cleaner vectored style I personally I feel this technique better retains my style of drawing and the personality I intended for the pin up girl. I'm a 'hands on' artist at the end of the day.

(initial digital sketch)

(final digital line work - ready for the screen-printers!)

As I mentioned, there have been two previous cotton shopper designs, so here they are!
Product/Pin Up Photography by Tony Nylons

www.whatkatiedid.com

Love My Dress Blog Goes Stateside

2011-03-11T14:09:00.000Z

One of my very lovely clients Annabel at Love My Dress Blog is not only going full time with her blogging career, she's also going to New York Bridal Fashion Week to tell the states all about what makes a fantastic Vintage inspired wedding. I regularly create illustrations for Annabel's blog to mark special occasions, so this was no exception!

Annabel's colour scheme is unique for a wedding blog with sepia tones creating the key look. With her illustrations I stick to sepia ink lines (rather than black) and use layered opaque acrylic inks to create subtle but bold colour tones. Here are some of my other illustrations for Love My Dress.

Fun with Wacom

2011-03-01T21:26:00.000Z

I've been experimenting with painting techniques on my Wacom tablet this evening, a skill I'm hoping to develop and bring into my commercial portfolio more over the next few months. I've got a lot more experimenting to do but I thought I'd share one of my first forays into digital painting.

Student success story!

2011-03-01T15:37:00.001Z

Just have a share some rather fantastic news I was just sent - I've been chatting to a lovely young lady called Milly Jackson who was a student at an Illustration Lecture I spoke at at Nottingham Trent Uni a few weeks ago. Well it looks like she didn't need my illustration advice as she's gone won a very prestigious design award! Huge congratulations to a star on the rise! Well done Milly!

Check out the article on Vogue here

It goes to show that Nottingham is home to some truly top notch artist and designers, eat your heart out London!

Name the Ladies Charity Fundraiser

2011-03-01T11:31:00.002Z

Tonight we're launching the 'Name the Ladies' competition at Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop, a fundraiser for Midland Womens Aid as part of Nottingham Womens Festival. Simply purchase a £1 entry card, view the tiny character murals I have painted around Debbie's shop and give them all names!

There are 10 Ladies to name and one fine art print of each Lady to be won. The competition will run until the end of March 2011.

Here are just some of the lovely ladies you can name!
x Charlotte

My Muses - Eternal Spirits Corsetry

2011-02-28T11:13:00.000Z

Eternal Spirits are a Nottingham based Bridal and Corsetry company who make all their beautiful bespoke designs in house, something rare and special in our mass produced world.

I've been working with Eternal Spirits for over 5 years now and have become firm friends with it's founder Susi Henson. After making some dramatic changes to the business last year Susi came to me for a rebrand. Good friend and colleague of mine Matt Vickerstaff of Darkwave Art had already done a marvellous job of redesigning her logo, so it was put to me to redesign her stationery, using the logo and a digital collage of real vintage found objects and my illustrations.

Susi adores Alice in Wonderland and this became a constant reference for our designs, we aimed to create a sense of beauty, wonder and quirky uniqueness that would set her designs apart from other companies and make people want to pick things up and look deeper into the artwork. This is even more evident in the illustration work I've been creating for her (soon to be revealed) new website design, which will feature in a follow up blog.

Susi and I are also working on a collaborative bridal and boudoir brochure which will showcase both her designs and my artwork, we aim to create an object of beauty which will surpass the normal content of a brochure and become an keepsake addition to any bookshelf! More on this soon! ...

March 24th Femme Fatale Life Drawing Workshop Nottingham

2011-02-22T16:48:00.000Z

There are only 12 spaces available for my Femme Fatale drawing workshop at Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop on March 24th 6pm - 9pm

Price - £25.00
Pre-Booking is essential.
All art materials provided.
Our gorgeous femme fatale model on the night will be Jody Capuano.
Refreshments will be provided.

Book at Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop
18 St Mary's Gate, The Lace Market,
Nottingham, ng1 1pf , UK

Or by contacting
debbie@debbiebryan.co.uk
0115 950 7776 - 07939 290 659

Ability level-
This workshop is recommended for people who already have basic drawing skills, it’s more of an improvers class than a beginners class, but all (men and women) are welcome!

Remember to dress up glam for our vintage high glamour theme!

Wedding Fair with Eternal Spirits @ The Belfry Nottingham

2011-02-20T17:51:00.000Z

I've just spent a lovely with Eternal Spirits Lingerie, Corsetry and Bridalwear at a Wedding Fair at the Belfry in Nottingham. Susi kindly asked me to bring some of my artwork along to display on the stand to promote my bridal services. As you may know I've been working with Eternal Spirits for many years and they created my wedding dress aswell as numerous corsets and outfits. We had a lovely day with lots of interest in both our work. I took a few Hipstamatic photos of the stand!

Eternal Spirits newest branding is by myself and Matt Vickerstaff of Darkwave Art. Logo by Matt and Business Cards, Postcards (vintage collage design) and compliment slips by me (image in photo below!).

Save the Date Wedding Fair Round Up

2011-02-14T09:54:00.000Z

On Feb 6th I attended the Save the Date Magazine 'Wedding Fair with a Difference', I was joined by Miss Rain Photography who kindly took a few lovely shots of me doing some live painting on the day. The portrait being shown and worked on is of Dani California.

My branded apron is by Red Anchor Emporium

Charlotte x

Dr Sketchy Nottingham - Tomorrow Feb 12th at Glee Club

2011-02-11T09:08:00.000Z

Join us for coffee & cake in the cafe from 11am, Dr Sketchy doors at 12pm, Show starts 1pm and ends at 4pm. Full food menu, beers and cocktails available, plus PROPER tea & coffee and yummy cakes & pastries! Droooool!

This is one last reminder before the BIG event tomorrow! We've got modelling & performances from the Fab Parma Violet (of Candy Box Burlesque fame!) and Ditzy Diamond Birmingham's burlesque starlet! And of course our local belle Kareena the flame haired fashion model.

The theme is ladies of comedy so prepare for some giggles, sharpen your pencils and get your pads at the ready, this is one not to miss!

Have you got your tickets yet?
Don't forget we have a new door price of £9/£8 NUS. So it pays for non-students to buy online from - www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk

Not sure where Glee Club is? -
http://www.glee.co.uk/index.php?id_page=172
British Waterways Building, Castle Wharf,
Canal Street Nottingham Nottingham NG1 7EH

Less than 5 mins from the train, tram(station st) and bus station (broadmarsh) and on the picturesque canal waterfront.

Hope to see you there!
Charlotte x

Wedding Fair

2011-02-07T15:40:00.000Z

Much fun was had at the Save the Date Magazine Wedding Fair yesterday. We have lots of photos Thanks to Miss Rain Photography and videos of me painting to follow, but for now, here's a grainy picture of my stand (sorry!)
Charlotte x

Save the Date - Wedding Fair this Sunday in Derby

2011-02-04T18:43:00.000Z

As I've already mentioned, I'll be at the Save the Date Magazine Wedding Fair with a Difference this Sunday Feb 6th.

I'll be doing painting demonstrations at my stand all day and I'm thrilled to announce that the lovely Dani California has kindly allowed her portraits to 'go public' so that I can paint a REAL portrait live at the event. So you'll be able to see what really goes into a genuine portrait, including the reference material, preparatory sketches and a little bit of the magic and personality that each individual brings to their portrait through their own ideas and tastes!

I've been working through the week on my stand which has been designed to be in-keeping with my new branding, which will soon be revealed on the website!

Helping me on the day will be the ever glamorous Miss Scarlett Daggers.
We hope to see you there!
Charlotte x

Detail taken from Dani California's soon to be completed portrait!

Femme Fatale Drawing Workshop

2011-01-28T09:40:00.002Z

Debbie Bryan, my long time friend and collaborator, has kindly invited me to run a drawing workshop at her Studio and Shop on Thursday March 24th 6pm - 9pm.

The workshop will be part of the Nottingham Womens Festival so we’re focusing on what makes my art tick, Femme Fatales! I’ll be teaching my top trick and tips for creating sensual, gorgeous and powerful women using some fun and unusual drawing techniques which should help add new dimensions to your drawings. This is very much a taught session (unlike our Dr Sketchy events) and the group will be no more than 12 people to allow me to help everyone individually.

We have a fantastic model for the evening Jody Capuano, my favourite Italian vixen! She will be doing a series of half hour poses for us. The theme of the evening will of course be vintage glamour so come dressed to kill! There will be light refreshments provided and plenty of opportunity to chat and network in the inspiring surroundings if Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop.

Price - £25.00
Pre-Booking is essential.

Book at Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop
18 St Mary's Gate, The Lace Market,
Nottingham, ng1 1pf , UK

Or my contacting
debbie@debbiebryan.co.uk
0115 950 7776 - 07939 290 659

Ability level-
This workshop is recommended for people who already have basic drawing skills, it’s more of an improvers class than a beginners class, but all (men and women) are welcome!

What you need to bring -
All materials and drawing boards needed for the class will be provided, if you want to bring your own preferred or specialist equipment though please do!

Accessibility -
The session will be seated (no standing required!) There are 2 small steps up to the shop and on small step up to the back area where the session will be held, we’re happy to provide assistance to anyone who requires it. Please note toilets are on 2nd floor.

Parking neaby in Fletcher Gate multistory carpark. Tram and Bus Route within I minute (or less!) walk on Fletcher Gate.

If you have any queries don't hesitate to email or call me or Debbie to enquire!
Charlotte

Photo of Jody Capuano from Dr Sketchy Nottingham (Dressed as Vampira!) - by Vapour Trail Photography

Techfluff TV - Interview about CreativeNottingham.com

2011-01-27T12:19:00.000Z

Lucy from Techfluff TV was in Nottingham last week talking to techie and creative people about what they do! She was kind enough to pop by and see me, Sue Barsby (and John Sullivan who hid behind the camera!) to talk about our work with CreativeNottingham.

I wasn't quite prepared to be filmed, very nerve racking! Click here to view our moment in the spotlight! Or view below! (eek!)

Stamp/Logo Design for Red Anchor Emporium

2011-01-24T08:32:00.000Z

Ellie from Red Anchor Emporium (who is also my Dr Sketchy Nottingham partner in crime Scarlett Daggers) just sent me a little trial picture of the logo design which I created for her and which we had made into two rubber stamps. The stamps will feature as a label on some of her handmade textile projects, including handbags and homewares. She is currently making me a 50s style cocktail apron which will match my new branding (to be revealed soon!) which will become part of my 'uniform' for fares and events, check out her blog for details!

Part One - Inspiring Objects from 'Chez Chaz & Dave'

2011-01-22T20:50:00.003Z

We've been doing some home improvements of late which has made me thinking about lots of the weird bits and bobs that we've collected over the years that seem to populate our house. Both being creative types and having obsessions with cartoons, comics, toys, computer games, movies and all things vintage, I suppose our flat is a little off the wall and probably gives a pretty good insight into the way my brain ticks and why my work looks the way it does as no doubt the things we surround ourselves with reflect the things we create and vice-versa.

So with my iPhone in hand and the Hipstamatic app at the ready for some vintage style photo fun I've set about documenting some of the weird and wonderful things in our home that always make me smile and give me inspiration. There's lots more to come but here's the first few things!

My Hibiscus plants - one of three which I attempt to keep alive all year round (though one is currently looking a bit twiggy) . I love hibiscus flowers, they are just so big and bright and joyful and bring a little touch of the tropical into a dreary English day. I can't get enough of them!

Mexican hand painted pottery skull - bought on our honeymoon as a souvenir. We carried this and two others around Chichen Itza, i think i got more excited about the rows and rows of of stalls selling tacky souvenirs than I did about the pyramid!

Spock vs Jack Sparrow - a never ending battle of two toys going on next to our TV - Spock is at a disadvantage being a good 4 cms smaller than Jack, however, he does have a phaser and is attempting to mind meld with Jack (I don't think that's a great idea personally!) so we think the odds are in his favour. We collect a lot of toys, new and old. These two are some of the few that aren't Batman or Transformers related!

Another little slice of Mexico - our Cancun fridge magnet. We wanted a larger metal sacred heart milagro but ran out of cash so had to settle for the 2 inch fridge version, a last minute airport purchase but one that makes me smile! Personally I love flimsy kitsch religious artefacts, this is made of some sort of flimsy metal and isn't terribly magnetic so keeps falling off the freezer. Quality craftsmanship all round!

The ULTIMATE snowglobe - I have a lot of snowglobes and I love them all, the key theme of my collection is 'places', I get friends and family to bring one back when they've been on holiday. This one however is a little different and probably by far my most unusual. It was purchased at Birmingham Memorabilia Fair and it's Pink Panther (obviously!), which makes him instantly the coolest cat of the bunch, but what is so INCREDIBLY cool about him, in addition to the fact he is in some sort of James Bond get up, is that the snowglobe part is his stomach, complete with ribs and vertebrae, in his hand is a Martini and in his tummy is the olive floating around! There's no snow, no glitter, just a solitary olive floating around in his tum! Whoever thought of this deserves a knighthood! Genius!

Tikis- our toilet and bathroom have a Hawaiian theme and we're starting to amass a nice collection of Tikis. The top one was bought at Tattoo Jam last year, the second down is a charity shop purchase and is from New Zealand rather than Hawaii but he has a cheeky grin so he's allowed to stay.

The third has the most colourful story as he was stolen from a Tiki bar in Birmingham, not by myself but by a friend of a friend, who didn't really want him but was rather tipsy and thought it'd be a laugh. He popped it in his suit jacket pocket and carried him around all night, when he got home he remembered that the little guy was still in his pocket. On taking him out, and in the process, tipping him up, he realised the mug had contained a significant amount of cocktail and ice still which after carrying around all night he managed to tip all down his suit. The mug found it's way to me thanks to Scarlett Daggers my Dr Sketchy cohort who mentioned that I collect tikis, so after it's epic journey the little guy found his way to pride of place on the back of my loo!

Nodding Hula Girl - This lovely lady is an ebay purchase and I believe has some age to her. To my knowledge she is intended to be on a car or truck dashboard as her legs are a big spring which makes her bob about and dance. She's rather lovely and made of pottery, personally I love her very vintage face, she's a real cutie and keeps the Tikis company in my loo.

Babycham Deer - my rather tatty babycham deer has become a bit of a mascot in my studio, he was bought accidentally as part of a job lot at auction and he doesnt have any horns anymore. There was a rather serious incident a few weeks ago where he took a tumble off the top of my computer desk and lost his two front legs, some superglue later (and after superglueing my fingers to him several times) and he's looking a lot better, and standing pretty well again too.

Incidentally the painting behind him is not mine, it's part of my art collection and is an original acrylic on canvas by Steve Blickenstaff who kindly did an art swap with me a few years back for a Frankenstein pin up girl, She's a Were-cat by the way!

More weird and wonderful ...um...'things' to come in part two, look out for.....the lego pirate ship!

Save the Date - Wedding Event with a Difference! Feb 6th

2011-01-13T11:40:00.000Z

On Feb 6th I'll be exhibiting (along with my parents company My Old China) at the Save the Date Wedding Event with a Difference in Derby. I'll be doing live painting demonstrations at my stand all day, so you can see how the magic happens! My stand will be in the 'All Things Pretty' section. Here is some info about the event from the lovely ladies at Save the Date -

The Wedding Event with a Difference Sunday 6th February 2011 (10.30 - 16.00)
The Roundhouse, Pride Park, Derby

So, having been involved in the wonderful world of weddings for over a year, producing Save the Date Magazine (link to: www.savethedatemagazine.co.uk) for the East Midlands, one thing has become very clear to us - wedding fayres have had their day. OK, so, there is the odd few which still offer a glimmer of hope but as far as we can see when we look around, they are getting pretty dull. So, we at Save the Date magazine (link to: www.savethedatemagazine.co.uk) have decided to give them a facelift and bring them screeching into the 21st century.

So, how are we going to do it? Well, we've located an amazing blank canvas called The Roundhouse in Derby (link to: www.derby-college.ac.uk) (don't let the college website put you off, it seriously is very cool) which offers the most ideal location (just a hop across the road from Derby train station (link to: www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk) and with plenty of car parking) and we've set about getting the most inspirational, creative and enthusiastic wedding suppliers in the business. We've named each area of the event, from 'the style lounge' to 'the blokes corner', 'the look' to 'all things pretty' and the aim is to inspire brides to be with interactive stands and innovative, live demonstrations by our suppliers. There will also be a catwalk show, a champagne bar, toys for the boys (hence the blokes corner), lots of entertainment and an exciting, buzzing atmosphere.

Our aim is to achieve a mix of the Designer Wedding Show in London (in terms of the calibre of exhibitors) with a stripped back, uncomplicated, rustic and totally relaxed atmosphere. The perfect environment for our lovely brides to be to meet and mingle with fellow brides to be and chat with inspirational suppliers who won't be pushing flyers in their face or offering out of date chocolates ;-)

Fancy giving it a whirl? Then visit www.savethedatemagazine.co.uk where you can find further information and a link to book your tickets!

2011 - What's new?

2011-01-05T13:18:00.001Z

Happy New Year to you all!

2011 is already a busy year for me with lots of events planned and commissions piled high!

Dates for your Diary

Saturday Jan 8th -
Meet the Creatives at the Davenport Shop of Originality
in Nottinghams Flying Horse Walk from 1:30pm

Sunday Feb 6th -
Save the Date Wedding Fair with a Difference!
Don't miss the Wedding Event with a difference at the Roundhouse Derby, We'll be there! Feb 6th 2011 Get your tickets at ww.savethedatemagazine.co.uk/events/

Thursday Feb 10th -
Two events on Feb 10th -
Designer Resolutions at the Council house - Myself and a host of Nottingham Creatives will be talking on the subject of 'Change'. More details on how to attend to come soon.

For all you Nottingham Trent Uni Students - I'll be doing a careers talk about working as an Illustrator from 5pm - 6pm (looks like I'll be legging it from Nottm Trent to the Council House that day!)

Saturday Feb 12th -
Dr Sketchy Nottingham
Nottingham's only burlesque and cabaret themed life drawing class which i co-host with Scarlett Daggers.

'Ladies of Laughter' theme - with traditional saucy comic burlesque in the British tradition. Bring your art equipment and join us at Glee Club Nottingham. Tickets from www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk or www.glee.co.uk

Tuesday March 1st - Nottingham International Womens Festival -
I'll be collaborating with Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop on a number of charity events. Including a charity fundraiser where we are launching a new range of fine art prints based on the fashion lady murals I have painted on the walls of the shop and inviting people to name the ladies.

Thurs March 24th - as part of the Womens Festival I'll be running a one off Life Drawing class at Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop. The theme is Femme Fatales and I'll be teaching techniques to give your drawings added drama and vintage atmosphere.... with a little help from gorgeous model Jody Capuano. Dressing up is encouraged and drinks and nibbles will be provided - More info on times and how to buy tickets to follow soon!

More events to follow! ...

In other news .... I am now equipped with a brand new shiny Wacom tablet which I am making full use of when digitally colouring portraits and logos, I'll also be learning some fine art rendering techniques with it, great fun!

A big website update/redesign is planned for 2011, there was a hope that it'd be launched by now but my ambition has outweighed my web coding skills so the reigns have been handed to hubby for his superior technical skills (and patience levels!).

I'm currently in the process of discussing, or rather, plotting, with my Dr Sketchy Co-Host Scarlett Daggers aka Ellie as we plan to take our artistic wares around the country to various craft fairs and rockabilly events this year. Ellie has just launched her brand new company Red Anchor Emporium which specialises in vintage and retro inspired handbags. Ellie created my wedding handbag so I can highly recommend her!

Thats all for now folks, hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Years!
Charlotte x

Lingerie Tips for Boys this Christmas!

2010-12-16T12:15:00.000Z

Retro lingerie specialists and lovely clients of mine What Katie Did have put together a little buying guide for boys this Christmas. With top tips on how to get it right when buying your loved one lingerie and comical illustrations by yours truly! My favourite is the 40s style Private Eye searching through the knicker drawer!

Check it out!

x Charlotte

An afternoon misspent ...

2010-12-14T19:08:00.000Z

So you may have heard that the trailer for the new Pirates of the Caribbean film is out and doing the rounds of cyberspace. After my initial whoops and cheers of joy I settled down to the somewhat more obsessive (and stalkerish) task of creating an 'homage' to Pirates....I feel I had to get it out of my system...make of this what you will!

What's she called? Why 'Pearl' of course!

Geeky fangirl signing out and going to do some 'real' work!
Charlotte

Dr Sketchy's Anti Art School 2010

2010-12-07T16:44:00.000Z

As you may know I co-organise Dr Sketchys Anti Art School's Nottingham Branch with Burlesque performer and handbag maker extraordinaire Scarlett Daggers of Red Anchor Emporium.

It's been 9 shows in total over 1 and a half years and things are going from strength to strength, with a new venue lined up for our first show of 2011 on Feb 12th. We're have no intention of stopping so keep an eye on the Dr Sketchy Nottingham website and on Dr Sketchy.com and if you haven't yet been to one of the events why not join us for the sauciest drawing class in Nottingham in 2011!

Here's a little peek of some of our previous shows! A huge thank you to all the performers and models and our wonderful audiences who have made it such a pleasure to run this event over the past 18 months! Here's to Dr Sketchy in the new year!

x Charlotte

My Art on Chocolate...

2010-11-15T15:07:00.000Z

Last week I had the privilege of discovering that two lovely clients of mine, What Katie Did and Love My Dress had commissioned chocolates and cakes for their special occasions, featuring artwork I had created for them! What a lovely surprise to see my artwork emblazoned on some of my favourite things. (yum yum yum)!

This was possible thanks to the very clever people at Vintage Patisserie (as seen on Dragons Den, or so I hear!) who create custom printed confectionary, including chocolates and cupcakes. Sounds like a great gift or wedding idea coming right up!
x Charlotte

Sneak Preview of new Makeup Mirror Designs

2010-11-05T17:34:00.001Z

Here's a super sneaky sneak preview of the new pocket mirrors, literally just in! There are 5 brand new designs to compliment the 5 already available. They'll be up on the website available to buy in time for Christmas! The pirate one looks awesome if I do say so myself!

xCharlotte

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mini murals at Debbie Bryan Studio & Shop

2010-10-23T17:44:00.001+01:00

Much fun was had last Sunday at Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop, I painted 5 new tiny murals onto the walls of her newly extended shop, in pencil and watercolour. Visit Debbie in the lacemarket to see them all and to buy unique, high quality designer made crafts from makers around Nottingham and further afield. Www.debbiebryan.co.uk

xCharlotte (photos taken on my iPhone, sorry about the quality!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Nottingham,United Kingdom

Sunday Tea Party and Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop

2010-10-14T10:10:00.000+01:00

This Sunday (17th Oct) join me for some drawing, chatter, tea, cake and the unveiling of some brand new artwork in the cosy setting of Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop in the Lace Market.

As part of Nottingham's Creative October I'll be decorating Debbie's newly extended shop with some of my illustrations, straight onto the walls! Join us from 11am to see me in action!

I'll also be exclusively showcasing my new (currently untitled) collection of artwork (see above picture!)

18 St. Mary's Gate, The Lace Market, Nottingham, ng1 1pf.
Normal Opening Times
Monday - Saturday 12 - 6pm

www.debbiebryan.co.uk

Charlotte Thomson in Nottingham Post Article

2010-10-12T14:41:00.000+01:00

Nottingham Post featured a little business article on me on Thurs 28th Sept, typically I was away when it went in the paper! Main photo by www.spikephoto.com, taken at the old Eternal Spirits shop (as my studio was too messy to take any glamourous photos!) with corset borrowed (with thanks!) from their collection. The outfit was Spikes idea, it later transpired he was joking about it, oh well! At least I made the business pages a little less dull and a little more...umm...stripey!

Click on the photo to zoom in and read the full article!

Charlotte x

Fun things to do in Mexico

2010-10-08T15:24:00.002+01:00

(Me and Dave on top of Coba temple - Ruins and Iguana at Tulum)

Number 1 - try to dry your laundry ( in this case bathing costume) in 100% humidity "hmmm this is wetter than when I started drying it"

Number 2 - try to make a cup of tea using a coffee perculator. It might just be our hotel but tea seems to be an abstract concept. I managed to find a tea bag in the lobby bar after a few days but then rembered the only means of boiling water in our room was the coffee machine. After brewing my tea (tea bag in the bit where you put the coffee grounds/filter)I realized that we had only been given 'coffee mate' ... Earl grey and coffee mate is passable when desperate.

Number 3 - Do your laundry... in a jacuzzi - I'll be damned if Im paying for someone to wash my pants, hence, since they kindly upgraded our room (honeymoonets special) to a junior deluxe with jacuzzi I deemed that a jacuzzi is really just a giant washing machine if you add some soap. Watching all your knickers whizz around in a jacuzzi is surprisingly entertaining. (Warning- watch out for the bit that sucks the water in, thought I'd lost a pair that way- never leave your jacuzzi pant washer unattended)

(Crocodile at Sian Ka'an nature reserve)

Number 4- try to make your hair un-frizzy. There's always the option of corn rows/braids, readily on offer on the beach, somehow I didn't think that was a look I could rock and I figured I didn't need anything else to draw attention to how hideously white, flabby and english I look alongside all the bronzed Mexican beach bunnies! So, after all kinds of different hair products Ive decided to keep my hat on and just baffle all the locals with my miraculous black liquid eyeliner that survives rainforest treks, 10 hour flights,snorkelling, cat naps, swimming pools etc with no smudging, running or panda eyes. My secret? MAC liquidlast liner. Worth every penny.

Number 5 - Get pissed on by an exotic animal. While on the yuctan peninsula you will find lots of opportunities whereby someone will offer you an exotic critter to hold in exchange for money. In our case the money was to 'save the monkeys life' .... Not entirely sure what the owner was going to do to him if we didn't pay... Regardless we declined politely but the monkey man was persistant! The little critter was put onto my knee (I was laying flat on a beach sunlounger, knees bent, minding my own beeswax) The sight of me without all my make up and with 'humidity hairdo' must've scared the poor little guy as he promptly pissed himself on my knee.

You would think that the massive failure in the cuteness and politeness of your monkey would've put the monkey wrangler off, but noooo, he just brought in a different monkey and told us we could fetch our money from our hotel room. I told him in no uncertain terms that I wasn't going to pay to have a monkey piss on me thank you very much, and then hid under my hat until they went away.

Number 6 -Be adventurous -support capitalist globalization and have a frappucino in the first Starbucks you come to!... (what? I just really fancied one alright!)

Number 7 -Tempt death- by jumping into a rough sea from a tiny boat to recklessly try to snorkel on a coral reef regardless of the weather, in the process bump your elbow on the boat so that it turns purple, you'll not spend the rest of the week regreting it.

Number 8 - walk barefoot through the jungle. Ok so there was a concrete path but it was very jungley either side and there were a lot of bugs about, at one point an ant got stuck to my foot, I thought I was a gonner! Note to self - don't swap flipflops for flippers and then decide to go 'exploring'.

Number 9 - convince the bar man that you've put Tabasco sauce in your coffee, it will cause him
much hilarity and he will tell all his barman friends who will laugh vigourously at you. (we were joking about putting Tabasco in our drinks and how vile it would be, something got lost in translation, he offered me a new coffee, that's when I realised I was about to become the laughing stock of the lobby bar....d'oh!)

Number 10 - go sightseeing of course! Our favourite trips have been the icredible ruins at Ek Balam (unspoilt by tourists, still partly unexcavated and you can still climb the main temple, incredible view!).Plus, never seen so many butterflies in one place!!

(Chichen Itza)

The ruins at Tulum, stunning temples and views of the turquoise sea, as beautiful as it looks in all the photos! Never seen so many huge grumpy looking iguanas, we were literally tripping over them.

Rio Lagartos, an estuary with salt flats and mangroves, just an incredible boat trip for nature lovers like us, home to hundreds of different birds (flamingos!) and other critters, unfortunately no crocodiles out when we went though but we loved every minute!

Xel-Ha, though a bit pricey was great for safe snorkelling and a chance to see loads of beautiful fish, we swam over some stingrays and a baby barracuda! Beautiful scenery and jungle too.

That should keep you busy! I'm back in the UK now but not back in the studio til Oct 16th. Enquiries will be dealt with promptly, thanks for your patience!
Charlotte x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

On Leave until Oct 16th 2010

2010-09-06T11:01:00.000+01:00

As many of you may already know, i'm currently taking some leave for my wedding and honeymoon, I'll be back in the Studio by Oct 16th. If you're interested in commissioning work please still send through your enquiries, it'll be back to work as usual as soon as I return!

I'll hopefully be able to blog about Mexico while I'm there, depending on what kind of Wifi our hotel has!

Piccie from my Alice in Wonderland themed hen night - Photo by InaGlo

Don't forget Oct 16th is actually the date of our next Dr Sketchy Nottingham, it's Circus themed so don't miss the chance to draw some amazing acrobatic poses, for details check out www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk

Big thanks are in order to MyTagArt who license my artwork for PSP taggers, they hosted an online artists chat with me last week which was great fun and to my surprise, loads of lovely people showed up to chat to me! Thank you to everyone who came and chatted!

As I wont be posting any new work while I'm away here's a sneak peek at a new piece I've just completed for Dr Sketchy Edinburgh, they loved our Dr Sketchy Nottingham Robin Hood lady so much that they wanted their own, after much deliberation we settled on pin up William Wallace! I think you'll agree you don't want to be on the pointy end of her pencil!

Thanks to everyone who is reading this blog, the next one you read will most likely be written by a Mrs Morley!

x Charlotte

Tattoo Jam

2010-08-10T18:26:00.001+01:00

A great time was had at Tattoo Jam this weekend, big thanks to Darwave Art aka Matt Vickerstaff for being my co-vendor! We did have a giggle even if sales weren't quite as hot as hoped. Here's some piccies of some doodles I did whilest on the stall and one of Matt drinking Sailor Jerry out of a childs plastic picnic cup, being this rock and roll ain't easy!

Thanks aswell to my Dad for being taxi, picnic maker and porter!

Ps. Look who snuck in on the Little Miss Delicious stall next to us, none other than my gorgeous Dr Sketchy co-host Scarlett Daggers, in photographic form anyway!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Muses - Elesha the Beautiful Bride

2010-08-03T13:10:00.000+01:00

As you may already know I've been trying to regularly update my blog with 'My Muse' features, a little insight into some of the lovely people I work with day to day and the work we've created together.

I very recently worked with Elesha to create a memento of her beautiful wedding day as a gift for her husband, as you can see she was a fabulously glamourous and beautiful muse and a pleasure to paint! There are a lot of 'hidden' details in Eleshas painting - or rather details that don't show up well on a scanner or photo so sadly are lost on the version you can see here. I used white paint on white paper to create subtle stars and sparkles which catch the light in different ways, plus a little bit of added silver glitter to highlight her sparkly tiara, shoes and buttons on the dress.

Elesha kindly wrote the following :-

Following my recent wedding, I was finding it quite a challenge to carry on with 'normal' life away from the glam world of diamantes and all things wedding related, and still now find myself reading some online blogs and websites, many of which are very inspirational and provide great links for not only all things 'wedding' but general gorgeousness too.

I discovered Charlotte after reading a feature on the Rock n Roll Bride blog, and realised that I had also seen some of her work on the beautiful Love my Dress blog too. I checked out her website, and loved the styles used for her illustrations, I particularly loved the glamorous burlesque paintings and the way in which this style is incorporated into the bridal portraits.

I made an initial enquiry to Charlotte, who was very helpful in providing information regarding different choices I had with regards to a commission. We discussed various options and Charlotte came up with lots of ideas which sounded wonderful and my decision was made - I couldn't wait to see these ideas come to life! I sent through just a few photographs and within no time at all, I received a couple of sketched ideas which looked fab, after a few small tweeks, the design seemed perfect.

When I received my painting, I was thrilled - the detail was fantastic, the subtle colours, textures used and added glitter looked amazing.

Thank you Charlotte for painting my wonderful portrait, I can not recommend you enough. It's great to have alternative ways of remembering our Wedding, and I think this just may be my husband's favourite :)

A huge thank you to Elesha for being my muse and for writing such kind words for my blog!

Eleshas' gorgeous Wedding Photography is by the talented Steve Gerrard.

T-shirts featuring little old me by Love Burlesque

2010-08-02T14:07:00.000+01:00

They've been a long time coming but finally, thanks to Love Burlesque, you can now wear my lovely pin up girls on t-shirts!

Love Burlesque have just launched their 'Bite Me Couture' range, featuring 6 different pin up girls by yours truly, there are currently 5 designs to buy, with two more in development. They retail at £25.00 each and are exclusive to Love Burlesque and come in a wide variety of styles and colours.

To mark the release of these tshirt designs Love Burlesque are launching a pin up Modelling Competition. So if you're an aspiring model check out how to enter by clicking here, the closing date is September 15th 2010.

Big thanks to Nina, the owner of Love Burlesque who has worked very hard to make these t-shirts a reality!

x Charlotte

Dr Sketchy Nottingham at Delicious Burlesque Festival

2010-08-01T11:22:00.000+01:00

A great time was had yesterday at Delicious in Derby! I was joined by Sketchy Nottingham regular Jake Gumbleton who had the fab idea of doing some live drawing, so we spent the afternoon chasing down pretty girls (Benny Hill style) to sit for us! We were later joined by another of our regulars Aiden and much beer was consumed!

Good times!

Big thanks to my dad who was a trooper, taking Scarletts place as Sketchy cohort for the day while she was performing at the Hot Rod Hayride!

Also huge congratulations to Elle Amour who was crowned Queen of the burlesque newcomers by myself, Kittie Klaw, Joe Black and Beatrix Von Bourbon. A definite star in the making!

Thanks to Shaz & Jules of Heresy n Heelz and the team at State if the Art events for putting on such a great event, the stalls and stage shows were fab and everything was super well organised! Kudos chaps I know how hard you must have worked!

xCharlotte

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Delicious Burlesque Festival - Saturday 31st July

2010-07-30T11:22:00.000+01:00

Join me at Delicious tomorrow, I'll be previewing my new archival A3 art prints on our stall, as well as representing Dr Sketchy and Dr Sketchy Nottingham - and if that weren't enough I'll be judging the Newcomers Burlesque competition. Can't wait! The biggest decision now is what to wear?!?

Delicious takes place at Derby Assembly Rooms and is an all day event with live burlesque performances, workshops and SHOPPING! There'll be artwork (of course), lingerie, corsetry, gifts, hats, wigs, nipple tassles, feather fans, rockabilly clothing...you name it! I have to say I'm slightly worried about my bank balance since i seem to have developed a serious shopping addiction lately.

The stage stage show features huge names of burlesque like Beatrix Von Bourbon, Kittie Klaw, Natsumi Scarlett, Joe Black, Roxy Velvet, Miss Pink and Fluffy, Rosie Lugosi and Lili La Scala. A line up to be reckoned with!

Plus there's the brand new talent of the Newcomers contest, I had the privilege of judging the first stage of the competition and these girls are seriously good performers, it's going to be a really hard task to pick a winner.

So - get your backsides down to Derby tomorrow from 2pm onwards! The stage show starts at 7pm with the newcomers contest and continues until late! More info at www.delicious-burlesque.com

x Charlotte

Forthcoming Events

2010-07-19T13:10:00.002+01:00

I'll be at Delicious Burlesque Festival in Derby on Saturday 31st of July. I'll be there representing Dr Sketchy and Dr Sketchy Nottingham, you'll be able to pick up Dr Sketchy goodies and I'll be bringing along a bunch of my own artwork and prints. Don't miss it! I'll also be helping judge the Newcomers Burlesque competition, tough job believe me!

The following weekend I'll be at Tattoo Jam the UK's biggest Tattoo Convention in Doncaster. I'll be sharing a stall with Darkwave Art so there'll be plenty of artwork and gifts for every taste! It runs form Friday to Sunday and there's plenty of shopping and entertainment for those of you not getting tattooed or for those of you looking for inspiration, a great day out! Day tickets are available, check their website. Hope to see you there!

I also need to remind you all that I'll be out of the studio for all of September and most of October due to taking some time out for my wedding and honey moon. I'll be winding things down in August to give myself more time for wedding organising so please note I wont be taking on any new work come August 1st unless it can be started when i return to my studio. I'm busier than ever so please don't be disappointed if I'm unable to take on your project. My books will be re-opening when I return to the studio in mid October.

x
Charlotte

Dr Sketchy Nottingham planning...

2010-07-08T15:04:00.001+01:00

Scarlett and I... well mainly Scarlett, have been busy booking performers and models for December and 2011s first few Dr Sketchy Nottingham drawing events! Here's a little preview of Susie Sequin a lovely lady who will be gracing our stage in December.

If you've not been to Dr Sketchy yet get yourself down to the next one on Aug 14th! Tickets on sale now at;
www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk

xCharlotte

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WREN in the City Fashion Show & Cocktail Party - Reminder

2010-06-14T11:31:00.002+01:00

This Thursday come and see me at the WREN in The City fashion show and cocktail party. It’s a super glamourous evening with luxury goody bags, high end retail stalls (thats me!) and beauty demonstrations. Fashion house Coast and purveyor of sexy shoes Dune will be showcased on the runway.

Join us from 6:30pm – 10pm at
Escucha 22 Fletcher Gate, Nottingham NG1 2FZ

Tickets are available by emailing guestlist@rsvipcard.com

Charlotte x

My Muses - Annabel from LoveMyDress.net

2010-05-28T09:49:00.008+01:00

Welcome to the next installment of 'My Muses', a regular little feature that I'm adding to my website blog featuring people who I have worked with and who have inspired me over the years!

Annabel came to me in January to discuss a new look for her fabulous vintage wedding and style journal at www.lovemydress.net. With our shared passion for art deco styling and glamour I knew straight away that together we were going to create some exciting artwork.

Annabel in her Art Deco Wedding Dress

I’m Annabel and my passion is writing about all things glamorous, vintage and extremely very gorgeous in the world of weddings! So much so, I set up my own blog to wax lyrical about it all every day at www.lovemydress.net.

I discovered Charlotte early in 2010, when I was researching for Love My Dress. It was via a Facebook link as I recall. I was thinking about approaching an Illustrator at the time, to work on some branding for Love My Dress, and as soon as I saw Charlotte’s illustrations I knew I’d found my gal – I was smitten!

I have been extremely impressed with Charlotte’s approach to handling a commission. I probably overloaded the poor girl with all kinds of ideas and information in the beginning, but Charlotte was able to quickly and effortlessly latch on to my vision and within a few days had created something I was in love with. It didn’t take long to tweak the original design concept into something that worked perfectly for my Blog and now, I’m receiving regular comments and feedback on the fabulous illustration on Love My Dress .

Thanks to Charlotte, I feel my Blog really stands out and has individual style and appeal. I have since introduced Charlotte to several contacts in the wedding industry who have all fallen in love with her designs {what a fabulous wedding gift a Charlotte Thomson illustration would make!) and I continue to work with Charlotte on branding Love My Dress. I’m so very pleased I discovered this amazing talented Artist ~ who it turns out is also a super lovely lady too.

I couldn’t recommend Charlotte enough to anyone.

Follow Annabels' Vintage Wedding and Style blog at www.LoveMyDress.net

Some of the Artwork created for LoveMyDress.net

Charlotte and Dr Sketchy at Delicious Burlesque Festival Derby

2010-05-26T10:11:00.003+01:00

I'm thrilled to annouce that I'll be representing Dr Sketchy at Delicious Burlesque Festival on July 31st 2010 with a stall showing off all the exciting things we've been up to in Nottingham in 2009 and 2010.

Ther following is the press release for Delicious:-

31st July 2010 sees the launch of the UK’s ‘Greatest Burlesque
Experience’ - ‘Delicious’. With an expected attendance of over 1,000 guests itis likely to be one of the UK’s biggest and most unique events of its kind thisyear.

‘Delicious’ seeks to recreate the golden age of Burlesque, the glamour, the sequins, tassels and fans, the “ooohs” and the “aahhs”!

Open 2pm - 2am
Tickets from www.delicious-burlesque.com

Main Show - Great Hall 9pm
compèred by
Rosie Lugosi & Desmond O’Connor
Starring
Natsumi Scarlett
Kittie Klaw
Roxy Velvet
Beatrix Von Bourbon
Vicky Butterfly
Joe Black
Miss Pink & Fluffy
Mademoiselle Lili La Scala

Newcomers Competition - Great Hall 7pm
(which I will be co-judging with Kittie Klaw and Beatrix Von Bourbon)

Burlesque/Vintage/Alternative Market

Burlesque Beginners Tuition Workshop
(Ministry of Burlesque Academy)

Practical Skills Workshops
(Beatrix Von Bourbon)

Live Bands + DJ Mikey Wong

12 Hours of Burlesque Fun & Entertainment

The highlight of ‘Delicious’ will be a glittering stage-show adorned with luminaries of the International Burlesque and Cabaret Scene, presented by Rosie Lugosi ‘The Vampire Queen’. Topping the bill is Amsterdam’s aerial specialist Natsumi Scarlett, a circus trained performer and ballerina synonymous with fast-paced highly theatrical routines. Exclusively for ‘Delicious’ she will premiere a stunning new routine culminating in a breathtaking aerial display on silk ribbons. Other highlights include Ministry of Burlesque founder Kittie Klaw, a unique and sought after specialist of 'British Burlesque’; London’s Roxy Velvet, perched high above the stage in an 11ft birdcage with pyrotechnics and New Zealand songbird Lili La Scala withburlesque performances featuring live operatic vocals.

In addition to an array of international stars, ‘Delicious’ has been scouring theUK for the best up-and-coming talent, and presents the ‘Delicious’ Newcomers Competition. This features eight fantastic performers, handpicked from a series of regional auditions, who will battle it out to win some amazing prizes and a slot in the main show! The final takes place on the main stage at 7pm, hosted by cabaret legend Desmond O’Connor.

To complete the bill there is a full programme of supporting features enabling guests to spend a whole day immersed in glamour and beauty. Why not ‘shop till you drop’ in the UK’s biggest ever burlesque and vintage market? Launch your own burlesque career with expert tuition from the Ministry of
Burlesque’s Academy, or maybe just spend a few hours relaxing with friends being entertained by some great live bands and DJs throughout.

The Derby LIVE Assembly Rooms is one of the Midlands’ premier concert and entertainment venues regularly hosting symphony orchestras, international ballet, opera, rock and pop concerts, music festivals and corporate events.

There is something for everyone at ‘Delicious’, whether you’re an
experienced performer, a lifelong fan, or just plain curious, so prepare yourself for a roller-coaster ride through the rich tapestry of performance art that is Burlesque..... ‘Delicious’ just doesn't begin to describe what’s in store!

Hope to see you all there!
Charlotte x

www.drsketchy.com
www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk

New Gorgeous Gifts to Buy!

2010-05-06T16:43:00.004+01:00

As you may have already heard there are two brand new Tote Bags now up for grabs on the 'Gift' Page of this very website. Both feature brand new, unique designs and have been lovingly screenprinted for me by a local Nottingham company.

I had a lot of fun coming up with the designs for the bags. I knew all along that i wanted to make a Robin Hood bag. I had so much fun creating the branding for Dr Sketchy Nottingham, and wanted to make a bag that we can sell at the events but that also stands alone as celabration of a National and my Local hero...or in this case HEROINE! With the film coming out soon, what better time to sport a 'Steal From the Rich' tote bag?

We made a few amendments to the Dr Sketchy Robin Hood, we took away her pencil (sorry!) and gave her a standard (but very very deadly) bow and arrow and gave her a little medieval tattoo inspired banner with the slogan 'Steal from the Rich' (not that we in any way condone stealing from anyone, rich or poor!).

'Man's Ruin' ius a 100% brand new design, created exclusively for the Tote Bags. With 24 hours to come up with a design I simply made something I knew I would love to wear! I'm a big collector of Hawaiian-alia, we have a bathroom crammed with tikis, hula girls, hibiscus, mini palm trees and bamboo encrusted tat! So it seemed to make perfect sense to cram all of this onto a bag design. You'll also note this is not your most innocent Hula Girl, she seems to have some homicidal, if not cannibalistic tendancies! Make note of the various sailor skulls and the skull of Jack Sparrow in the foreground. Hers is one desert island you may want to avoid!

The bags are a good size for shopping and fit an A4 folder perfectly (great for school work or portfolios I discovered this week!) They also have decent lenght straps and fit nicely over one shoulder. Very chic!

Big thanks to David Morley aperfectimitation.co.uk and Matt Vickerstaff darkwaveart.co.uk who helped hugely and gave advice on the designs. (The pineapple on 'Mans Ruin' was entirely Matt's idea!)

WREN Cocktail Party - Tickets on Sale Now

2010-04-13T10:02:00.013+01:00

I will be be having a stall selling fine art prints and my new products at :-

WREN In The City
Cocktails & Fashion

Thursday 17th June 6.30pm- 10pm
At Escucha Bar, Fletcher Gate,
Nottingham NG1 2FZ
Tickets available by emailing guestlist@rsvipcard.co.uk

Join us for a sophisticated evening of cocktails & fashion
Presented by WREN – Women’s Real Estate Network in association with RSVIP

Cocktails, Luxury goody bags, stalls, beauty demonstrations, complimentary manicures, threading & more....

Fashion house Coast & the popular shoe label Dune will be showcased on the runway.

Guests will have the chance to do a spot of late night shopping at both stores at the end of the night as they will be offering all fashion show guests 20% off EVERYTHING!!!

Enter the prize draw for a chance to win some fabulous Prizes in aid of Mencap.

Supported by

To register your interest & to reserve tickets email: guestlist@rsvipcard.co.uk

Danse Macabre Curiosity Fair - Nottingham Event

2010-04-13T09:54:00.004+01:00

Danse Macabre are holding their first ever 'Curiosity Fair' a table top craft event with a twist. I'd like to take all the credit but this has been the brain child of Paul Bowring and Matt Vickerstaff and has been organised solely by them, I've taken a backseat this time!

It's taking place on May 2nd in conjunction with Will Robinson of I'm Not From London . It's an all day arts, crafts and music festival, with stalls and workshops all day and bands in the evening.

We're holding it at The Central. Check the Danse Macabre website for more details.

Back to the drawing board...

2010-04-12T23:18:00.001+01:00

I'm back in my studio after a few days R & R, feeling refreshed and inspired! As we had to cancel plans to spend a few days in Plymouth we decided instead to take the new (...well, new to us!) Ka on a few daytrips in and around Nottinghamshire.

So, we sped down to Southwell, checked out some rather handsome gargoyles at the Minster, ate sweets from ye olde style sweete shoppe, drank tea in ye olde tea room and called in at the Work House (and joined the National Trust...Johnny Depp on the cover of their magazine was definitely a selling point). We now have a rather cool car sticker that just screams 'young and trendy'.

On wednesday we wandered up to the castle, took in the Robin Hood film prop exhibition, I'm now itching to see the film! We also took in their current exhibition which I believe Dave didn't find too offensive (from the man who thinks the wallpaper in galleries is usually the best bit)

After all that culture we ALSO went to the Djanogly gallery at the Lakeside on Friday and went to see Dara O'Briains stand up comedy show on Thursday and The Swing Commanders western swing band on sunday and I have to mention the Russian delicacies we had cooked up for us on Saturday night by our friend Alexie. I've eaten rather too well this last week!

After all that I might need another week off but the good news is I have lots of new work up my sleeves including Tote bags. You heard it here first!

There'll be a new 'Muses' blog by the end of the week and don't forget it's Dr Sketchy thus Saturday, it's going to be Sinfully good!

Look forward to revealing new work soon!

x Charlotte

-- Post From My iPhone

'My Muses' Fleur du Mal

2010-03-31T13:00:00.008+01:00

As you may already know 'My Muses' is new feature on my blog/website, showcasing people who have featured in my artwork or who have commissioned artwork over the last 5 years.

Fleur Du Mal is a burlesque performer based in the Midlands, I've had the pleasure of producing both a portrait piece and a graphical logo for her over the years and have had Fleur perform at many of the events I've been involved in.

Here's what Fleur had to say when I got in touch with her about 'My Muses' -

"My name is Fleur du Mal, and I am a burlesque performer, pinup model and professional nerd based in the glorious East Midlands. Charlotte's work first came to my attention when I saw the fabulous portraits of the Deville Dolls she drew for the Pitty Patt club posters and flyers.

Her style struck me immediately and I knew I wanted to work with her one day. When that day came, Charlotte was incredibly helpful. I wanted a portrait which encapsulated my stage persona: vintage pinup style with a vampish twist. Charlotte took that limited brief and worked with me to create something that was exactly right. I absolutely adore my portrait and I'd definitely recommend Charlotte to anyone looking for an artist for any occassion!"

You can get in touch with Fleur Du Mal at
www.badflower.co.uk fleur(at)badflower.co.uk

Photo of Fleur by our good friend and Dr Sketchy Birmingham host Candee Photography

My Muses - The Rebel Rebels

2010-03-23T12:14:00.008Z

Hello all, 'My Muses' is a new feature on my website/blog which i hope will become a regular occurrence. 'My Muses' are the wonderful people who have commissioned artwork or featured in artwork over the last 5 years, here they get to have their say and I get to show off the beautiful artwork I couldn't have created without them!

My first Muse, or rather Muses, are the Rebel Rebels, a burlesque troupe from London. Lolly Pops got in touch with me last year to create character illustrations for each of troupe members, what a task when each member has such a unique style and personality! The result was something we are both very proud of and the Rebel Rebels continue to go from strength to strength. Here is what Miss Lolly Pops had to say on the subject!

Miss Lolly Pops

As my day job doesn't provide the creative outlet I need, I often look to hobbies and evening classes to have my fun. Once such evening class was course in burlesque and, before long, I had created a cute alter ego and made a lot of new friends. We organised a photoshoot so that our newly formed burlesque characters had an audience and pretty soon The Rebel Rebels had been formed and were planning their first show. What stared out as a simple case of "well, if we only do it once", swiftly turned into an ongoing thing.

Without even trying, the five of us had created very distinctly different burlesque characters. Betsy Bliss is the houseproud housewife, Honey Schnapps is the girl your parents warned you about,Little Miss Naughty can get away with anything when she flashes her smile, Miss Lolly Pops is sweet as can be, and More More Kensington is the group's sultry siren. With a rebellious bunch like that, there's always something for everyone. Our shows are far more Carry On than Showgirls, but that's fine as our audiences love having fun... almost as much as we do!

I first discovered Charlotte's work on the website of Sakura Designs where I was browsing for one of my many hats. The artwork that she had created for Emma Duggan was beautiful and perfectly captures the stylish and lovingly made headwear that Sakura produces. I really wanted to commission some artwork myself at that point but didn't really have a reason to do so,
until The Rebel Rebels required a 'brand identity' to use on promotional materials in 2009.

Charlotte was very patient when discussing our requirements (which must have been tricky when I had to wait for decisions from four other people when approving things!), and provided us with a beautiful piece of artwork in time for our first group show. She was worth every penny too as we've lost count of the number of compliments we've received about our website and business cards which feature her work.

The Rebel Rebels fabulous website can be seen at www.TheRebelRebels.co.uk
A huge thank you for being the first 'Muses' to feature on the website/blog!

Delicious Burlesque Auditions

2010-03-15T13:43:00.000Z

Much fun was had this Saturday at the Delicious Burlesque newcomers auditions by myself and my events partner in crime Scarlett Daggers.

I was kindly asked by Jules of Heresy n Heelz to take part in selecting the final 8 performers who will compete at the final Delicious event in July. My co- judge was the lovely Kittie Klaw of the Ministry of Burlesque. It was a very hard job judging as all the performers were very strong, after much debate and lots of sweets and cream eggs we decided on 8 ladies who we felt performed burlesque in its truest sense and who entertained us the most!

A big thankyou to everyone who took part, I was thoroughly entertained all afternoon and I hope I'll see all of you on lots of event line ups to come!

To the 8 that made it through I can't wait to see you again at the big event!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Birmingham

Cuadros Art Gallery - Now Showing My Artwork!

2010-03-11T15:49:00.004Z

I am thrilled to announce that my artwork can now be seen at Cuadros gallery in Hockley (Nottingham). Cuadros is a brand new gallery displaying gorgeous and unusual artwork from local and international talents. You can see my work alongside Jon Burgerman, Banksy, work from top tattoo artists and my current favourite discovery Tim Lee, a macabre genius!

Cuadros will be exhibiting pieces from my Masquerade collection – Including “Masque Moon”, Masque Rouge and Masque Diva, plus my newest pieces “Grande Grotesque”, “Let them have Cake and Eat it” and “Glamourous Grotesque”, previously only seen at Danse Macabre exhibition.

For all of you who greatly miss craftsmanship and practical artistic skill in contemporary artwork, this gallery is sure to make you feel a whole lot better. Traditional media and techniques abound but with a truly modern and refreshing style and outlook. Much of the artwork has an illustrative feel with all of the artists on show a master of their chosen media – whether that be spray paint, acrylics, mosaic tiles or ink.

A mini exhibition of Tim Lees work will be on show in the gallery this month so join us for the private view (my work will be on display too) on March 25th – 5pm – 8pm. RSVP to george@cuadros.co.uk. Good company and incredible artwork guaranteed!

1A Heathcoat Street (opposite Ice Nine)
Hockley
Nottingham
NG1 3AF

www.cuadros.co.uk

My Art in New Gallery

2010-02-26T12:34:00.000Z

A brand new and very beautiful gallery in Nottingham is going to be exhibiting my work as part of their collection, more details to be announced very soon. 5 pictures were dropped off at Custom Frames yesterday and all being well they'll be in situe at the gallery by the second week in March!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Wilford Ln,West Bridgford,United Kingdom

Website updates

2010-02-23T20:17:00.004Z

You will notice in the next few weeks some changes creeping into my website, this may in fact be the first one you notice as it is my plan to make the blog my main homepage to i keep the website constantly fresh and up to date no matter where I am in the world!

Another change is my branding, although not changing in terms of colour scheme I will be bringing in a clearer 'logo' in the form of the sketchy artists palette picture which has already crept onto the blog. This will feature on my new, and possibly most frivolous business cards to date! Not satisfied with having the most giant, large print business cards in the world (A7) I will now have heart shaped business cards which will fit in absolutely nobodies wallet or (if you're stuck in the 80s like me) Filofax! Hurrah! Artists are notoriously practical.

There will be a number of other small changes, most noticeably to the shop. A larger emphasis will be put on the portfolio aspect of the website with a view to kick starting a few projects I am already setting in motion for 2010. This includes creating more of my fine art work and supplying it to more 'real life' galleries, this means less fine art will be for sale direct through the website but does mean you might catch a glimpse of it on your local high street!

I will also be adding a testimonials page and getting rid of a lot of older artwork from the site to make it truer to the work I am producing now, in particular pieces from the mythical and gothic galleries as this is work I get less and less call for.

In other news Dr Sketchys Nottingham went swimmingly last Saturday, one of our best to date and so many new faces! We hope you all enjoyed it and cant wait to present our April 20th Saints and Sinners Sketchy event.

I've also been in talks with Matt of Darkwave Art this week over the development of the Danse Macabre Design Agency - watch this space but it looks be be exciting! Matt and I will be at Tattoo Jam this year, we have just booked our slot to display (and hopefully sell) our wares! I'll be promoting tattoo designs and of course, my boudoir and pin up portraiture! There's nothing I like more than drawing tattooed ladies!

I should have some more big news to announce next week, fingers crossed!

x Charlotte

2010-02-16T14:26:00.001Z

So the big event is over,Pit of Curiosities is done for another year! I'm still recovering and unpacking costumes and ornaments, the house looks a little bare! So it's back to real life until Saturday when we have the Dr Sketchy Bettie Page tribute event!

No peace for the wicked as they say!

We couldn't have done it all without the help of so many amazing and generous people, there's too many to list but you know who you are!

Big thanks to all the students that came to my careers talk at Trent on Thursday, I was a little informal but I hope you enjoyed it! I was lucky enough to be sharing my slot with fellow nottingham illustrator Steve Larder, lovely chap and phenomenally talented.

In personal news wedding plans are going well, we now have a venue and a honeymoon and fabric swatches to go with dress designs by Eternal Spirits. I visited their new premises yesterday and very lovely they are too! All my best wishes go to Susi in developing the business and brand and achieving the personal satisfaction, health and happiness she deserves.

So I'm off to star another new painting,nothing like getting your hands dirty to improve your day!

X Charlotte

Above: Fabric swatches for my dress!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pit of Curiosities

2010-02-11T21:07:00.001Z

Well it's happening tomorrow whether we like it or not! Pit of Curiosities 2 at the Pit and Pendulum kicks off at 8pm ! Finishing touches are being made to costumes, there's no gong back now! Look forward to seeing you all there!

Ps. Don't forget to join us on saturday from 1.30 at the Central for Dr Sketchy mini event with models from tomorrows Pit if Curiosities event!!

Www.drsketchynottingham.co.ukfor details

Www.dansemacabre-art.co.uk/pitofcuriosities2.html

X Charlotte x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Curiosities and Computer woes

2010-02-01T18:54:00.002Z

Last week saw the demise of my Macbook pro, 7 days out of its 2 yehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifar warranty, not my best investment and certainly not Apples finest hour! There may still be some little hope for it, but i somehow doubt it will regain consciousness (and before you ask, yes i have tried everything bar one last ray of hope, i wont get techie!).

Anyway, luckily i have been backing things up regularly so havent lost anything too massive and important, though i will have to spend some time putting all the jazz CDs i bought recently back onto my iTunes so we have something to listen to at Dr Sketchy next week!

So what have I been up to other than destroying technology? - Well I've been a busy bee, hence the lack of updates here. I'm currently working on lots of personal portrait projects, far more than before Christmas surpisingly enough! I'm also working on branding for a wonderful bridal blog www.lovemydress.net and some old friends and new friends from the Burlesque world.

We have two Dr Sketchys this February, one mini event and one grand full scale event - check the website for tickets and details www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk

Pit of Curiosities is on Friday 12th of Feb. Our second POC event has the theme 'From Another World" - we promise it will be a mixture of Jules Verne meets Captain Kirk meets Mad Max! Post Apocolyptic Steampunk shiney Kitsch madness! Tickets are £3 on the door at the Pit and Pendulum and we have taken extreme measures to make sure you can get to the bar easier this year!

In other news we now have our honeymoon booked, we're going to Mexico! We managed to get a £600 discount on a 5 star hotel for 2 weeks and plan to tour the historic/archeological sites of the Yucatán Peninsula and do a bit of snorkelling and possibly scuba diving. VERY exciting, though not looking forward to spending 10 hours each way on a plane. Flying from East Midlands to Cancun so it wont be too stressful theoretically!

Anyway thats my big news, hope you can make it to a few of our events over the next month!

x Charlotte

2009 Round up!

2010-01-03T21:25:00.003Z

So a new year is beginning, and for me it’s going to be a big one in so many ways!
It’s always good to have a little look back on the year just past though so time to recap great things that happened in 2009?

In no particular order

Danse Macabre Nottingham happened….after battle after battle and rather too much blood sweat and tears later!

Pit of Curiosities happened….an off the cuff idea turned into an event that 900 people turned up to! More blood sweat and tears and feet that felt like they had pins and needles for 2 days! Remind me why (and how!) we’re doing it again in Feb 2010?

Dr Sketchy Nottingham took flight! With my new comrade in arms Scarlett Daggers we brought sexy life drawing to Nottingham and another city to the Dr Sketchy family!

I worked with some amazing people, new friends and new colleagues bringing new ideas and experiences to the table, we couldn’t have achieved these things on our own!

I worked with some amazing companies/people that I’ve had my eye on for years, it’s been an honour to be chosen to create work for you guys.

Meeting lots of new businesses – its always an honour to make your business look just how you want it so you can launch with pride! I’ve had so much fun making logos and stationary this year!

Meeting lots of new ladies and making pretty pictures for you! My particular favourites have been the ‘surprises’, my only wish is that I could’ve been there to see your faces when you received them!

Seeing my work in print – Bizarre magazine, hell yes! Bags, Calendars and Tshirts at What Katie Did, Interview with Bubblegum Slut Mag, Promo/posters flyers galore, giant canvas prints. I’m always very excited to see my work printed onto something!

Settling into a new flat and new office and generally enjoying domestic bliss, eating cake and having someone to watch star trek with.

Maddest experience - illustrating for Tesco, spending the day at the Microsoft office in London and watching the slideshows being run from a Mac (HAHA!) Then seeing one of the ideas we illustrated on an advert narrated by Dawn French. AWESOME!

So what is to come next year?

The Thomson-Morley wedding in September! Rubber stamps, MORE Dr Sketchy, Pit of Curiosities 2, the Danse Macabre world tour, more burlesque adventures, a new member of my team, new artwork collections and other things I cant think of at the moment!

Ambitions/Plans? – to work hard for bigger and more exciting things like tshirts, greetings cards etc so there will be lots of nice things in the shops for you all to buy next Crimbo! To get about more, hoping to head to a few more cities with my work this year, or at least plan which ones I’ll be heading to in 2011! To make time for important things like planning a wedding! To stay focused and not get distracted by shiny things!

Happy New Year Everyone!
X Charlotte

NEW Showgirl Series & Website UpdatePi

2009-09-17T16:09:00.001+01:00

You may have noticed that a few new things have been added to the website, most notably my new 'Showgirl' series. Absinthe, Cassis, Ruby, Kahlua and Pink Champagne are my newest artworks and are for sale on in the 'Burlesque' section of the website. They're all inspired by the wonderful world of vintage cabaret and burlesque and are painted in pen & ink, watercolours and acrylic inks. More ladies may be joining them soon!

Other new things on the website include - prints of Lucky 13, a piece recently sold at Gallery 8 in Somerset. New bridal and boudoir portraits in my portfolio, new fashion images including work done for What Katie Did and new Entertainment/Burlesque portfolio pieces.

Enjoy!

x Charlotte

NEW TOY!

2009-09-14T16:28:00.000+01:00

I do have a tendancy to get very stuck in my ways, i have been inking pictures using the same brushes and ink for the last.....*cough* years, i've sniffed at felt tip pens and other such new fangled devices, prefering the feel, control and most importantly the LOOK of a proper brush and ink line.

So...why has this new gadget won me over? Well, it's a best of both worlds scenario. It's a Pentel GFKP Japan brush pen, and by brush I mean BRUSH. The nib is a brush made of individual nylon fibes, the ink which is very black and waterproof comes in cartridges which you load into the pen much like a fountain pen. It's not the cheapest gadget in the world (i got mine on ebay for about £9 with 4 refills) but i'm really impressed with the brush nib. Its great for details and thick dramatic strokes (see picture!) and it doesnt look like it'll lose its point and definition in a hurry if I treat it well.

Apparently this pen is already a hit with people who write traditional chinese and japanese lettering, infact i've seen it advertised as a 'kanji' pen. I can see why. It is apparently also popular with comic book & in particular manga inkers (no it's not just tracing you Kevin Smith fans out there). As always we in the UK are a little bit slower to catch on to Japanese gadgets but i definitely recommend giving this a try, i'm glad i bought it and i'm looking forward to playing with it more! You dont get quite the same thickness and blackness of ink as you would with a brush dipped in indian ink but it's the closest equivalent that I've seen and much easier and cleaner to get to grips with!

x Charlotte

2009-09-01T12:50:00.000+01:00

http://www.indieflix.com/Films/TheSanGwynCityTrilogy

You can now buy the San Gwyn City Trilogy by Nottinghams Dave Pope aka Year of the Dog Films on DVD. Both me and Dave Morley (my partner in crime) created artwork for the Trilogy. I create the DVD cover (left) which he added text and designed the logo for and I painted a poster for the 3rd in the Trilogy 'Howling Brat', again Dave designed the logo.

Great to see Year of the Dog doing so well!

x Charlotte

The First Dr Sketchy Event

2009-08-23T11:05:00.000+01:00

A massive thank you to everyone who helped make our first Dr Sketchys Nottingham a massive success!

The turnout was fantastic and far exceeded our expectations, we counted aboug 64 people, about 90% of whom were drawing (havent yet worked out the official door count, still recovering from too much adrenaline!). We had worried about a poor turnout since all the students are back home this time of year but our fears were soon buried.

The mix of people was lovely and we were so impressed by the level of artistry, Nottingham TRULY is a creative city, you only have to look at the incredible work produced to see that. We were blown away and I'm fairly sure I never want to draw again having seen the competition!! ;o). Mysti was proudly showing off the pictures she collected to all the staff at Yo Sushi after the show and Diva said this was the best Sketchy she had done. Rikki from 'The Shop" who is one of our resident professional artists was blown away by the talent in the room (and the artwork too).

Thank you to everyone who came up to us and said thanks at the end, it was so nice to meet so many new people. It was lovely to see old faces too and to have support from so many fellow event promotors from around the Midlands. BIIIG thanks to everyone who filled in the feedback forms, it's great to see your comments and to have so many smiling faces and positive things said.

We've taken on board your comments and next time there will be -

MORE CAKES! Since Susie from Dotty's Cafe had no idea what cake bellys you all had and ran out. One comment I heard was 'Dottys banana cake is the best thing i have ever eaten EVER' or something along those lines!

Wet Wipes for your messy charcoal fingers, you mucky bunch!

Bins for pencil sharpenings and a collection of rubbish during the interval (for cake plates etc).

Less of me standing infront of people like a moron so you cant see the stage, sorry in particular to Jake who was sat behind me, I'm fairly sure all his drawings must be of the back of my big fat head.

Some more varied poses & times - we will be discussing lying down poses and short standing poses with the performers for Oct 3rd. The times will also be more varied with some 1 or 2 min poses at the 'warm up' stage and possibly another longer pose later on.

More Dr When! He will be back - not next time as Ryvita Von Cheese will be our lovely Yorkshire compere, but he will be back in December for definite! We can't get enough of him. So much so that he's driving all the way back from Birmingham to see us again today.....actually he left an important bag in my living room last night, woops.

Some fun, tongue in cheek workshop style instruction from me and Rikki. This is something we've been discussing for a while and someone mentioned it on their feedback form. We're going to get our heads together and see what might work, we may run a short workshop session at the beginning for anyone who wants some tips and tricks, though evidently none of you need any instruction on how to draw since you're all so flippin' amazing!
We've also had requests for more male models, musical acts and drag acts, we're way ahead of you! There will be two men to draw next time, Ryan Cross (as Sweeny Todd) and Desmond O Connor, amazing ukulele playing dirty lyrical genius! Balanced out nicely with a good dose of buxom female beauties with Ryvita Von Cheese and Emerald Ace (since a certain person who shall remain unnamed feedback form simply read "More Ladies More Ladies More Ladies - See above")... we wouldnt want to disappoint! We've been discussing a Drag Queen & King Sketchy for a while so plans are underway for a special event next year.

PHEW! I think that's everything.

Thats just leaves me to say a BIIIG thank you to Scarlett for her co-organisation skills, Molly Crabapple of course for allowing us to run the Dr Sketchy Nottingham, cant wait to tell her how well it went! All our performers, we had such fun with you all (Nottingham shoe shops will never be the same!) our sponsors, Emma and Spike for being such awesome photographers, Susi from Eternal Spirits, Debbie Bryan, Rikki from The Shop, Dottys Cafe & Danse Macabre for promoting & supporting the event and donating luverly prizes. Our helpers Maid Matthew, Betty Jane, My Mum & Dad, Dave, Tony and DJ Johnny Speedking! Tom Winch at Escucha for being totally awesome and letting Dr Sketchy have a home there, we had so many lovely comments about the venue, AND Kyle and the barstaff team who were lovely, completely cool and helpful and didn't mind having lots of half naked ladies getting changed in their swanky members only bar in the basement 'Minus One'.

We really hope you'll all come again to the next event, future dates running up til June are up on the website, Tickets are available in advance to ALL events. Please tell your friends! If you want to give further feedback, request music for our playlist, models/performers etc just email us at drsketchynottingham@hotmail.co.uk, all suggestions are welcome.

WE CAN'T WAIT TIL THE NEXT ONE!!
See you soon!

x Charlotte

Brushing up my skills....

2009-08-07T17:12:00.004+01:00

I've been doing a lot of brushing up and learning new skills this week, its been a hectic time.
I signed up to Fran Tristram and Rod Baileys 'Faces Feet and Hands' course, they have a studio in Lady Bay (up the road from me) and run lovely art courses. So i've spent every morning this week in their beautiful garden and studio refining my drawing skills and experimenting with paint and pottery.

Anyway, they say your subconscious influences your work so the more i create, the more worried I get. Evidently my 'regular' work leans towards the erotic at times, but when creating a perfectly innocent clay dish inspired by knuckles on your hand I was suddenly confronted by the fact I have made a dish of dicks. Complete filth! It is now sat on a shelf in Frans pottery room, waiting to be fired, shamefully begging to have lewd comments made about it. I hope noone asks who made it.

I'm currently debating whether to give it to Mum as a christmas present or whether to serve nibbles in it at parties.

On Weds i spent the day in London with Rikki Marr from The Shop and Alex Godwin working for a company called Happen and another Company called Gettin Hectic. What we were actually doing was illustrating at a consumer market research event for Tesco (though it was a bit more creative than that). It was our jobs to take visual notes of what people were discussing, putting ideas into pictures. Its probably the first time in about 15 years that I've used felt tip pens in my artwork, but it was lots of fun! Thanks to Rikki for inviting us to take part! I'm really hoping that Tesco develop their 'smell o vision' online shopping that Rikki illustrated as soon as humanly possible.....watch this space.

Also keep an eye on the What Katie Did website, i've been designing lots of goodies for them this week which will be revealed soon. If youre not already on their mailing list ...sort it out!!

x Charlotte

A girls Office is her ......

2009-08-02T22:27:00.002+01:00

I'm currently recovering from the excitement of all the amazing back to school stationary at Staples. A simple trip to purchase some graphic drawing pens for my trip to London on wednesday (more about that after Weds!) nearly turned into a frenzy of stationary buying when i discovered all the awesome stuff they have. They actually have a pick & mix thing (Like ex-Wollworths) full of binder clips, paper clips, pin board pins etc etc in assorted bright colours and patterns. I was in stationary geek heaven!

This abated when the little voice of the tax man whispered in my ear 'paper clips in the shape of guitars are not a business essential'

Dammit!

I'm sure stationary wasn't this cool when i was at school. I'm now going to sulk for a week and desperately try to think of a way to justify buying a pack of gel pens that smell like different fruit on my business account ;o) Anybody want to commission a fruity smelling portrait?

x Charlotte

Somerset Sirens in Stockings - now over

2009-07-29T17:20:00.004+01:00

I'm back from my exhibition Sirens in Stockings with Nancy Farmer at Gallery Eight in Glastonbury. Had a great time and did really well at the exhibition. Two originals sold, around 50 cards and 10 A4 prints. (approx).

Met some great new people including - a dominatrix film maker, a video activist, a highly motivated young art student, a tattooist and an ex-Nottingham rockabilly girl (with very good taste in handbags). Fun was had!

Bought lots of rubbish while i was down there, new weapons for my arsenal of useless trinkets include a HUGE metal heart shaped cake stand with hand hammered floral pattern (bought for business purposes of course, we have a lot of events where much cake is served), a 1930s sewing box, a silver cherry shaped pendant and a soap that smells of parma violets, technically a present for Dave since i lost the box of fudge i bought him (genuinely lost, not eaten-lost, honest!).

Anyway its nice to be back in Nottingham, back to normality, Glastonbury has a chilled out vibe which is nice, i think I'm a bit too used to Nottingham and it's hyperactive tendancies, my MTV attention span requires more pop culture stimulation, theres only so many incense sticks and crystals a girl can buy (unless theyre diamonds of course)

Big thanks to Nancy for putting me up and Laura and Mum for helping out and taking time off work to carry paintings for me.

Busy busy this week catching up on work, last August was dead for business, this one is insanely busy. Saturday marks one whole year of me and Dave living together so celebrations are planned, i'm surprised he wants to celebrate one whole year of me annoying him and making a mess in cohabitation.

Thats my update for the week, lots of big Danse Macabre things to announce next week (hopefully!) and Dr Sketchy things too...hopefully!

x Charlotte

Charlotte on Twitter

2009-07-15T12:04:00.001+01:00

http://twitter.com/charlotteart

I finally joined! See you there!
x Charlotte

Tea, Cakes, Art & Burlesque

2009-07-06T12:08:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I painted 5 little 'fashion silhouettes' as were calling them, at Debbie Bryans Studio and Shop (18 St Marys Gate, Lace Market, Nottingham). What a lovely day we had! The paintings are all tiny, painted directly onto the wall with watercolour and pencil outlines. They're all 40s and 50s style ladies wearing some of Debbies products, scarves and brooches. We're going to be running a competition soon to name them with December Delicate Treats tickets up for grabs as prizes.

My observation of the week has been that no matter how modern we may seem, we still have a very British obsession with tea and cakes! We served both yesterday to guests who came along for a nosey and to show their support, in china tea cups and on floral cake plates, all of which went down a storm (bad pun not intended).

Spending a lot of my time 'hanging out' with my burlesque buddies, there is no doubt a vision that backstage or after a burlesque event its all 'sex, drugs and rock and roll' .....hmmmm far from it. Though i cant speak for everyone and I must admit the sailor jerry and coke gets a fairly good thrashing from time to time, there definitely seems to be a tendancy (and maybe it is just us UK ladies?) for a nice cup of tea and a slice of victoria sponge, or the ever faithful scone....in fact, it's almost compulsory before an event or the following day, and absolutely compulsory during any important meetings.

We've just got our latest sponsor on board for Dr Sketchy Nottingham, Susie from Dotty's Cafe , a lady whose very speciality is tea and cupcakes all served in authentic 50s surroundings, with vintage tea sets, tables chairs, ornaments and dressers. Its a real treat, and even better as all her cakes are vegan and food vegetarian so noone misses out. Her veggie salads, quiches and sarnies are darn good too I'd happily go veggie if Susie cooked for me every day!
She does catering for events too, get your wedding booked in fast!

Well, i've now given myself a massive craving for cake, i must go and raid the cupboards!
x Charlotte

Charlotte on the BBC!

2009-07-01T19:06:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I was interviewed for BBC Radio Nottingham by Frances Finn. Its part of a series called Design Heros, talking to designers from Nottingham about what makes Nottingham design great. The previous week they interviewed Sir Paul Smith! Tough act to follow!

I'm now up on their website with a little feature, come check it out! I'm very proud of it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2009/07/01/design_heroes_charlotte_thomson_feature.shtml

Some of the questions they asked were really funny, i think the hardest one was about the Sky Mirror, i do love that big old sculpture and the myths about it setting fire to pigeons, but Robin Hood had to be chosen above it, its too iconic not to be and I do love a bit of myth and legend! Plus our Dr Sketchy logo is based on it so it had to be picked!

Two they didnt ask me but gave me in their list to prepare for were 'What is your favourite design in Nottingham' and 'What do you think should never have been designed in Nottingham'. I know one guy picked the 'wonky N' new Nottingham logo. I really think theyre impossible questions, they encompass every aspect of art and design (form graphic branding to architecture and art) so it's impossible to choose either way!

One thing i may have said was my favourite is 'slab square' (the new Old Market Square) since it means Nottingham can claim to have built the biggest, most expensive patio ever which we could potentially have 100 BBQs on simultaneously! Thats what I love about this town, theres a lot of absurdity and eccentricity, even the naff stuff has it's charm...like a certain statue to a footballing great who shall remain unnamed! And where would we be without anything to grumble about anyway!

x Charlotte

Dr Sketchy Nottingham TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

2009-06-25T11:42:00.016+01:00

Tickets are now on sale for Dr Sketchy Nottingham August on 22nd 1pm - 4pm
Check out www.drsketchynottingham.co.uk

Our Launch Line Up is
Mysti Vine,
Diva Hollywood
and Emerald Ace

Mysti and Diva will be performing and modelling and Emerald will be modelling.

Tickets are £8 in advance, some will be available on the door but you may not want to risk it!
Doors open from 12:30 so you can get settled and find a seat before everything kicks off.

Remember to bring your own media and paper, dry media only please (pencils, charcoal, crayons) ! If you want more info check out the info page on the Dr Sketchy Nottingham website.

Look forward to seeing you there!
x Charlotte

(Photograph of Mysti Vine by Candee Photography)

Delicate Treats- This Weds!

2009-06-14T10:05:00.002+01:00

For those of you who can join us this wednesday 17th for 'Delicate Treats' you'll be treated to not one but two burlesque performances! I'n a last minute addition to the line up, local dancers Scarlett Daggers and Emerald Ace will be joining us and bringing their most dazzling costumes and most fabulous routines!

All that and songstress Bella Von Kiss treating us to a rare completely LIVE acoustic set, acompanied on guitar. Storytelling, nibbles and a free Cosmopolitan when you arrive! All this in addition to the opportunity to see meet and shop with the regions best, independent designers, with products including jewellery, millinary, fashion/textiles, corsetry, art (me!), ceramics and beauty/therapeutic services and much more!

If you havent yet bought a ticket you can buy in advance at www.delicatetreats.co.uk OR email enquiries@charlottethomson.co.uk to be added to the reserve list to collect and pay on the door. Its only £5.

The event starts at 7pm and is at Escucha, 22 Fletcher Gate, Notingham NG1 2FZ

We look forward to seeing you there!

x Charlotte

Dr Sketchy Nottingham ...... Coming Soon!

2009-06-02T14:35:00.002+01:00

Dr Sketchy Nottingham is a BRAND NEW branch of Dr Sketchy which will run bi-monthly. Venue, dates and models/performers to be announced very very soon. If youre not familiar with Dr Sketchy check out www.drsketchy.com and see what its founder Molly Crabapple has to say about it!

If you love art, burlesque and cabaret you'll love this!

x Charlotte

2009-06-01T18:19:00.001+01:00

http://www.whatkatiedid.com/src/just_arrived.php

NOW ON SALE! Exclusively designed Charlotte Thomson Tshirts for What Katie Did, available for ladies and gents in a range of sizes and in black or pink for ladies (black only for gents). You can also get your cotton 'bag for life' shoppers with the same design in black and white, great for summer and putting your veg in!

What Katie Did are one of my all time favourite repro vintage comnpanies, the quality of their products is second to none and thier attention to vintage detail is impeccable! I'm really chuffed to have worked with them!

Hope you like the design!

Modelled by Missy Malone http://www.missymalone.co.uk Photo courtesy of What Katie Did and Missy Malone © 2009.

x Charlotte

Sunday Tea Party!

2009-05-23T19:06:00.002+01:00

Sunday 5th July, 11am – 5pm

Heres whats happening!

"Artist & Illustrator Charlotte Thomson will be drawing throughout the day the latest of her beautifully detailed ‘fashion silhouettes’.

This event is free, drop in any time to see the work in progress, talk to Charlotte and browse the shop!

The specially commissioned artwork will be drawn directly onto the interior of Debbie Bryan’s newly opened Studio & Shop. Tea & Cake will be served 1 – 3pm with an opportunity to meet and put questions to Charlotte.

These evocative & exquisite series of illustrations are a welcomed addition to Debbie & Charlottes collborative designs. Their first being the creation of a unique limited edition resin jewellery collection inspired by Victorian Burlesque & Wonderland. Exclusive illustrations were created by Charlotte, which were then hand embroidered and set into resin brooches by Debbie, creating a collection full of elegant style and vintage nostalgia; A theme which they hope to explore further in the creation of the ‘fashion silhouettes’.

Also launching at the shop in June are a limted edition range of Charlotte Thomson Victorian Burlesque & Wonderland Collection prints, hand finished with watercolour."

Hope to see you there!
x Charlotte

What Katie Did - New Tshirt and Bag Design

2009-05-01T11:48:00.002+01:00

The tshirt and bag design commissioned by What Katie Did has now been revealved! check out www.whatkatiedid.com (News section)

Its just been sent out on the newsletter, its not available to buy yet, i believe its being launched at Hemsby Rockabilly weekender, but it'll be online at the What Katie Did shop by the end of may!

Very exciting stuff!

x Charlotte

Eternal Spirits Presents .....

2009-04-28T09:06:00.004+01:00

To mark the launch of my new website, Eternal Spirits are hosting a showcase of my Boudoir and Bridal Portraits. The event will be held at the Eternal Spirits Boutique with drinks and yummy nibbles all provided.

See the artwork and the faces behind it, meet me and learn how to commission your very own unique portrait. I'll be on hand all night to discuss what I can create for you!

Hope to see you all there!
x Charlotte

Eternal Spirits
First Floor,
1 & 2 St Peters Church Walk,
(above Halifax Estate Agents, opposite Flying Horse Arcade)
Nottingham NG1 2JR

Welcome!

2009-04-16T13:24:00.003+01:00

Welcome to the new charlottethomson.co.uk!
Thanks for taking a look!
This blog will contain regular updates about my work, projects and plans!

Forthcoming plans -

Lace Market Theatre Project -
For Danse Macabre exhibition this year i'm working on a series of drawings from the live rehearsals for M. Butterfly at the Lace Market Theatre. With thanks to Linda Croston and all the cast for allowing me to sit in the corner and draw! The artwork alongside photos by Mark James will be displayed during the plays run from May 4th - 9th

Print Making -
Weds 22nd I'll be attending a series of print making courses to develop my print making. My hope it to create a body of print making which can be developed into my fine art 'performance' series of artwork for Danse Macabre.

Feb 8th Valentines Launch Party for Debbie Bryan Collaboration

2008-01-21T16:05:00.001Z

Award winning Nottingham based Jewellery maker Debbie Bryan (http://www.debbiebryan.co.uk) and myself will be launching our new collaboration on Feb 8th at Kathleen and Lilys boutique on Mansfield Road - from 6pm - 9pm.

The collection will be a limited edition range of hand cast resin jewellery, including brooches, tie pins and cufflinks, featuring artwork by myself (pin up girls) inlaid into the resin. Each one will feature my original artists signature.

This is the first time the collection will be available to view and purchase. The event will be held from 6pm to 11pm on Feb 8th with complimentary refreshments and entertainment and is invitation only. Please RSVP here or to charlottethomson@yahoo.co.uk.

There will also be artwork on display courtesy of yours truly and Kathleen and Lilys usual selection of knitware, jewellery, homewares and fancy goods with a vintage twist.

The collection and my artwork will be on display and available to purchase until Thursday 6th of March.

Location - Kathleen & Lilys (http://www.kathleenandlilys.co.uk)
205 Mansfield Road
Nottingham
NG1 3FS

www.debbiebryan.co.uk

Valentines with Kathleen & Lilys Nottingham

2008-01-04T23:01:00.000Z

Kathleen & Lilys Nottingham's finest purveyors of vintage and vintage inspired clothing and accessories will be working in collaboration with me and Debbie Bryan to bring you a Valentines event you wont forget! Watch this space for further info!

Kathleen & Lilys
Kathleen & Lily's
205 Mansfield Road
Nottingham
NG1 3FS

Collaboration with Debbie Bryan

2008-01-04T22:53:00.000Z

In 2008 I will be creating a collaborative project with jewellery and accessories designer Debbie Bryan, winner of the Nottingham Creative Business Award for designer makers. Debbie creates beautiful handcast resin jewellery and together we will be creating a unique limited edition range of brooches featuring an exclusive range of illustrations by Charlotte Thomson Art & Illustration.

The first half of the collection will be launched in Feb at the Kathleen & Lilys
Valentines event in Nottingham (keep your eyes peeled for more info on that next week!). it will feature a range of my 1940s and 50s inspired pin up girls. The second half will be launched in June and will be inspired by Victorian british burlesque and costume.

xCharlotte