New York travel diary!

Posted by Lara

Diary pages by Lara CrowI’ve added all the pages of my travel diary from visiting New York in one fell swoop! Hurrah! Go have a look here!

It was actually up yesterday but I forgot to tell anyone which was unhelpful of me, but what can I say? I got distracted re-watching the pilot of Sleepy Hollow. Yes I am suitably ashamed. But I love that stompy headless horseman.

Anyway, we had a lovely time in NY, seeing loads of iconic buildings, soaking up the atmosphere and snaffling excellent food and drink. Also catching up with my brother and his girlfriend, who we hadn’t seen for a couple of years since they moved to Toronto, so it was pretty special all round.

Thanks again NYC, you were beautiful and crazy and excellent in every way.

Secret 7″ and moving house

Posted by Lara

Hey folks, been busy moving house but since unpacking boxes and weeding the garden don’t make very exciting pics, here’s something I worked on a while back for this year’s Secret 7″ exhibition. Sadly they didn’t go for this one, but it was great fun to work on. Nevermind little horse dude! I still like you.

Tame Impala record cover front by Lara Crow

I chose the Tame Impala song ‘The Less I know The Better’. Listen to the track here. It grew on me more and more as I listened to it and I wanted to do something that was a bit trippy, a little melancholy but also had a sense of humour which is how their song struck me. This lonesome horse and his skull buddy seemed to do the trick!

And a little pic for the back of the record sleeve- didn’t want to give away the song too much but I love that line! I think the horse’s expression sums up the irritation and general malaise of being told to pull yourself together by a skull. Oh shut up Trevor! I didn’t even invite you on this space voyage.

Tame Impala record cover back by Lara Crow

Sketchbook social

Posted by Lara

Surprised bird by Lara CrowFancy bird by Lara CrowHello, what have you been up to recently? On Thursday I went to Sketchbook Social at Cafe 1001, which was part of the London Book and Screen week. It was a great night, with much listening to talented people talk about illustration plus some drinking and drawing nonsense. I especially loved watching people draw on the big screen in the room. It’s hypnotically calming!

Here are some of my scribblings from the evening. Turns out that drinking and drawing is excellent fun but not perhaps the way to produce my, er, most polished work!

Crazy cat lady by Lara CrowThis crazy cat lady was something I doodled because we were talking about stuff we struggle to draw and I have a confession to make. I like cats and I like drawing cats, but I don’t really understand how their bodies work. They must have a spine in there somewhere, but when people pick up cats they seem to just stretch like a big slinky or something! Yeah, I don’t really get it.

Hello! by Lara Crow

Oh and this guy. What the hell? He just popped up at the bottom of a more sensible drawing and made me laugh.

Many thanks to Vicky, Neil and Ken for the company and giraffe drawing lessons.

Greeeeeeen!

Posted by Lara

I’ve been feeling a sort of manic joy about green ever since I saw the colour collective theme last week. Leaf greeeeen. I’ve not had a chance to participate in the Twitter colour challenge yet this year, one thing or another kept getting in the way, but hell no. I wasn’t going to miss this one, the shade was too good!

So here is the slightly crazed image I came up with. Wheeee! All the green, straight into your eyeballs. I was going to choose a more soothing background colour to compliment the leaf green and then I was like, pah! Weakling. Let’s have ALL THE GREEN like a big leafy slap in the face! Because that is sometimes how I roll.

Manic green by Lara Crow

 

Twisty tree papercut

Posted by Lara

Oops, it’s been a while since I posted here, stupid things getting in the way of the drawing!

Here’s a little something I thought I’d share that I worked on recently for a front cover. The brief was quite vague- just something about branching. Other than that, the Editors were happy to let me run with it! Time constraints were a bit of a factor with this one but also having done some quite complicated covers recently, I fancied something a bit more restrained!

I’ll be updating the portfolio soon, so stay tuned for some more new work then, but for now, have a super-happy Easter!

Tree papercut by Lara Crow

 

Diary is all done

Posted by Lara

diary-flipThat’s it! I just added the last few pages and you can check out the whole thing here. Hooray! Here is a little gif of all the pages for your entertainment.

I do these diaries partly because I have a bit of a poor memory. I remember the big things from a trip, but without drawing them, all the fun little things that happened while I was travelling would slip away, which is so frustrating. I have quite a visual brain, so keeping a diary works well for me. The daft scribbles help bring everything back way more powerfully than just words would!

So I guess they’re mostly for my benefit… but I hope you enjoyed seeing the pages too!

Anyway, thanks again Canada. As always, you are a bit lovely.

Oh and did the hound miss us? Nope, not one bit. She had a great time at Mum’s and seemed quite miffed to be back slumming it with us.