Creating Characters Workshop Comes to Brighton

The Creating Characters Workshop hosted by Brighton's new Super + Super’s founder Miss Amy Phipps and me will take place on the last Saturday of the Brighton Festival - Saturday 26th May.


It's a two-fold workshop that combines drawing and embroidery, along with techniques of coming-up with characters and tips on sourcing inspiration.


Visit www.supersuperhq.com for more details or to book.

FREE PORTFOLIO REVIEW AT PICK ME UP 2012

Would you like to present your work to a panel of industry professionals? 


The Enquiry Desk will be at Somerset House in London next month, along with a host of leading creative professionals offering emerging talent the chance to present their portfolios for advice and constructive feedback.  There may even be some offers of collaboration or commissions!


The reviews will take place in the heart of Pick Me Up and you will be expected to ‘pitch’ your work to the panel who will then offer their feedback. Your chosen portfolio will be projected on to a screen so this is also a chance to show off your talent and get noticed by art collectors and agents visiting the fair. 


Gain confidence and experience from publicly presenting your work.  Plus free entry to Pick Me Up will also be given to all selected presenters.


Submissions for the chance to be one of the selected presenters are now open!


Places are limited and the deadline for submissions is Thursday 16th February 2012.
For more info and to submit an entry click here

Sneaky Peek at Corbin Love Brooch

Sorry it's been so long since my last entry.  The studio has been super busy and I've just co-founded a new initiative to help fellow creative bods - www.theenquirydesk.com

For the last couple of weeks I've been putting the finishing touches to some Little Treasure pieces for Valentines.  This little fellow is Corbin.  He'll be up on the website later this afternoon if you want to give him a new home...

You'll find him here in a bit...

Looking Back to Look Forward

So it’s September. If you live in the UK that means Autumn.  A buffer month between us & Winter. The side effects of this season change already apparent, noticeably it’s getting darker earlier.

As we come to terms with saying goodbye to Summer, albeit rather heartbroken & jaded, at least there’s a bounty of food to console us in Autumn.

However, as the blackberries disappear & darkening days creep in, we have some tips at staying bright during the Winter months - taken  from Woody’s sell out Topshop collection Star Gaze in 2008:

* It’s easier to daydream when the days get darker *
Time to make plans & come up with ideas.  Be inventive & creative.

* More time to watch the stars *
Take up astrology or simply be on the look out for a falling star.

* Be a Trend Setter *
Don’t just wrap up. Dress up!  It’s a chance to wear more of your favourite clothes & style new looks.

* Be musical *
Maybe your Summer was full of Festivals, dancing and singing along. Maybe it’s time you took up an instrument & wrote your own track.

* Enjoy staying indoors *
Without the temptations of the Summer, you can be more productive.  Start writing a short story, take up drawing, knit your own jumper!

Check out all Woody’s artwork for her Star Gaze Collection here

All concepts, images & words © Zara Wood 2008 All rights reserved.http://www.zarawood.com/portfolio/project.php?id=11

Drawing in Dublin - Creating Characters Workshop

Textile designer Miss Amy Phipps & myself ran a Creating Characters workshop at the beautiful Newbridge House in Dublin on Saturday.  Thanks to everyone who made it.  Here are so photos of the day...

London. Yesterday

After some meetings in London yesterday, I went to check out the lovely new stationery room at Liberty.  Followed by a rather beautiful tartlet and pot of tea at the cafe there.  

Then it was off to Pick Me Up at Somerset House again...  

 Pick Me Up is on until 27th March...

Putting Up. Taking Down.

As Mirror Mime at YSP comes to an end, we've been thinking about all the organisation and hard work it takes to put on an exhibition and all those people who are involved.  The above photo shows the Story of the Aurora installation being installed along the 20 metre concourse windows at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. 

Thanks to the amazing team at New Vision for helping to create the Story of Aurora. And a big thank to all the team at YSP for their support.

The studio is super busy at the moment with lots of new projects.  But I will be putting up more photos of the Mirror Mime exhibition - see some here

More info events happening in March like the Affordable Art Fair and Pick Me Up in London on the website here

Sailing through a Winter Wonderland...

Images of The Story of Aurora - my installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is part of my Mirror Mime exhibition on until 27th February.  Images courtesy of YSP - thanks for sending them over - loving the snowy backdrop...

The Story of Aurora - Yorkshire Sculpture Park Installation

The Bretton Estate, home to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park since 1977, was designed over 200 years ago as a private pleasure ground. One of its 18th Century owners, Sir Thomas Wentworth, created lakes with small islands to house exotic animal menageries & commissioned a ship called the Aurora.

Inspired by these historical events, I created an imagined narrative where the Aurora returns to the pleasure ground, carrying characters from distant lands. It was important for me to draw from the history of the site in order to create a artwork that was relevant to it's surroundings.

The architecture of the visitor centre with its clever use of glass blurs the boundaries between being inside and outside – inviting visitors outside and bringing in the park. The windows become the perfect inbetween space, where we can play with another duality, the real & the imagined.

Freeing the drawn line from the page, my illustrations are translated on into vinyl & run along the twenty metre concourse windows at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

At 3pm each day, I've been told that the Aurora casts a perfect shadow on the wall opposite.  At the moment the drawings have the backdrop of fallen snow.

The installation is part of my exhibition Mirror Mime, which showcases over 20 new works including originals & screen prints.

Mirror Mime is now on show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park until 27th Feb 2011.

Creating Characters Workshops at YSP 27 November 2010 and 29 January 2011

Alongside my Mirror Mime exhibition, I will be hosting two ‘Creating Characters’ workshops with textile designer Amy Phipps at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. With a Christmas theme on 27th November and Valentine inspiration on 29th January.

Spend the morning with me creating your own character, and learn about the processes I work through inorder to achieve my imaginary world of characters. In the afternoon, work with Amy to translate your character through hand embroidery onto fabric, personalising with specially chosen fabric or thread, and take home a sketchbook full of ideas and an embroidery hoop ready to hang on the wall framing your own creation.

Day Workshop with Lunch: £50  £45 Concessions
For more information or to book a workshop please email: info@ysp.co.uk or call 01924 830 579  

For more information on the getting to & from Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is only 2 hours away from London Kings Cross and under 15mins away from Leeds via train, please follow this link to the YSP site.

Image: Embroidery by the lovely Miss Phipps based on on drawing by Woody.  

Studio Blooms

Been drawing alot in my studio at home for my new Winter exhibition.  Here's some Glads from my garden and a vintage plate that's doubling up as a palette.

The difference between Inspiration and Plagiarism

Rod Hunt, a fellow illustrator and the new chairman of the Association of Illustrators tweeted this link from you thought we wouldn't notice last week.  To be honest, it is worrying that there are people who don't understand the difference between being inspired and totally copying another artist's work.  To find out more about copyright and protecting your images, check out the AOI website.  Other people's work should motivate you in to creating your own work and to be confident in your own ability.  Go forth and create - but please respect other people's work in the process.

Pinch Punch First of Month

A to B Exhibition - Opens Next Week

Next week Boxbird Gallery's A to B exhibition opens as part of this year's Brighton's Festival.  It will include a limited edition screen print by Woody.

Here's some close ups from the actual screen prints - I love this way of printing!

"Have you met the writer yet? Apparently she's American."

Meet Paige.  An American writer living in a tiny cottage in East Sussex during the 1930s.

Have you seen my Bunny?

Look who's on the drawing board

Soon to be starring in a new Little Treasure locket very soon...

The Solo Sailor

A brave soul.  She sails alone.  Sometimes she gets lost but this is all part of the journey. Keep sailing my little one.

Find out more or Buy Solo Sailor Brooch

Pocket Resolutions in the Post

Thanks to all those to uploaded their resolutions to the blog and emailed me.  The Pocket Resolutions are now in the post  - I couldn't resist sending them second class post because the blue stamp just looked so great on the black envelope.

Cabinet of Curiosities at Charleston House extended...

...until this Sunday 11th October. Here's a few sneaky peeks if you haven't/can't make it over to Charleston House.