Julie’s Pictures

Back on the beach

2012-01-27T14:49:00.001Z

Why is it some people are so organised with equipment when they go to the beach? I was born into a family where we simply turned up with a swimming costume and maybe a towel (which you had to dry yourself with after covering it in sand lying on the beach). And I used to wonder why I wasn't in a family with windbreaks, parasols, chairs, inflatables and goodness knows what else. Now I’m married to one of those people who has a piece of equipment for every eventuality, but as we lug it all down to the beach I’m not so sure that having all this stuff is preferable.

Another holiday sketch

2012-01-26T23:12:00.002Z

Every time I go camping I swear I'll never do it again. Even a boat (which is little more than camping at sea) is more comfortable than this. So I pray this is my last sketch ever from inside a tent.

On Porthmeor beach

2012-01-25T23:59:00.001Z

Notice the matching tattoos !

Lunch with my Dad yesterday

2012-01-22T18:46:00.002Z

My dear father focused on looking at his grandson while I recorded him for posterity – or five minutes of fame on my blog. He treated us to a very nice lunch at a rather strange establishment that seemed to be desperately trying to be several different kinds of businesses at once. It was a pub-hotel-restaurant-delicatessan-duck and chicken farm, in a desolate location near a flyover. As we could see the poultry happily scratching away in the back garden, we thought it would be a good place to stock up on eggs, dry-cured bacon and home-made black pudding for our evening meal. And very good they were too.

St Ives in the summer

2012-01-21T19:14:00.001Z

I still have summer holiday sketches to scan! Xavier and I sat on the pavement waiting for Barbara Hepworth’s house to be opened and I sketched while we waited.

E-pub and Kindle woes

2012-01-13T11:49:00.001Z

I recently did a crash course on producing e-publications for the iPad and the Kindle. However in an ever-moving field it can be really difficult to get up-to-date information on formatting e-publications. I had perfected my publication for the epub format but had one remaining problem which even two of the best known e-publication gurus were unable to solve for me. On the Kindle, no matter how I rewrote the code, my publication kept opening on the last page, rather than the first. And then I despairingly wrote about my problem on a forum and another book designer, Fiona Raven came to my rescue. She’d also battled with the same issue and having taken several weeks to solve the problem, very generously shared her solution with me. So if I have too much on to design a book for you myself I’d definitely recommend the generous talented Fiona, whose work can be seen here.

Unhappy St Albans commuters

2012-01-10T16:10:00.001Z

We have the most complicated train fares in the UK since the de-nationalisation of British Rail – fares can range from 20 pence a mile to 80 pence a mile dependent on the route, time of day, advance booking, discount cards and whether or not you’re wearing a pink hat. And St Albans to London happens to be the most expensive commuter route per mile in the country. So all these people I sketched on the train today while visiting clients in London have good reason to look so miserable.

Wonderful Christmas present

2012-01-09T18:00:00.000Z

My son Tom treated me to a visit to the Post-modernism exhibition at the V&A for my Christmas present. It was a fascinating exhibition. It really took me back to being an art student in the early eighties. There was a display of the kitsch exuberant furniture produced by the Memphis design group which I had seen previously at the V&A in the eighties. There were costumes and videos of iconic pop musicians who provided the sound track of my youth. There were displays of graphic design – including some early editions of i-D magazine. I recall a fellow student working on the magazine when it was a tiny A5 landscape magazine consisting of illegible pasted up typewriter text and photos of street fashion. Little did I think that I would be seeing her work exhibited in the V&A thirty years later.

The finishing touch to a great outing was to have a late lunch at Yotam Ottolenghi’s restaurant in Islington, where I sketched as we waited for a table. I discovered Ottolenghi’s wonderful vegetarian recipes through the Guardian newspaper, so if you love vegetable recipes, I’d recommend just about any of his recipes, which you can find on their website.

Elizabethan Jubilee graphics

2012-01-07T01:13:00.001Z

Royalty-free images of Queen Elizabeth II were not an option when I was asked to produce the promotional material for the Elizabethan Jubilee concert (with music from the reigns of both Queen Elizabeths). However, I was lucky enough as a student to meet graphic designer Abram Games. So the Festival of Britain graphics produced by Games just before Elizabeth II became queen, served as an inspiration for my design.
To book tickets for this concert by the St Albans Chamber Choir, visit the St Albans Chamber Choir website and follow the links.

Glendurgan

2012-01-04T18:29:00.000Z

Doesn’t everyone love a maze? At Glendurgan gardens – a sub-tropical Cornish garden spread over three small valleys – the maze is the most beautiful one I’ve seen. It’s set on a sloping bank so that you can see the shapes from the facing slope. Unfortunately I only managed a scribble so do take a look at this photo to see how lovely it is. The lush garden stretches down to the Durgan river – where I was able to take a little more time to sketch.

Painting in minutes

2012-01-03T17:08:00.000Z

A quick watercolour illustration of the view from the café at the top of the Tate, St Ives.

The downside to English holidays

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000Z

Of course when promoting Cornwall the one thing that I can’t promise is sea warm enough to swim in. At this beach, like so many we went to in Cornwall, the children rushed into the freezing water while the adults cowered on the beach. Which is why, however lovely England is, so many of us rush off to the mediterranean when we can afford to.

Thinking about holidays

2012-01-01T16:32:00.003Z

Undoubtedly television this evening, like every New Year’s day, will be peppered with advertisements for sales and package holidays. So as I have yet to scan and post all my holiday sketches I’m going to add these to my blog to do my bit to promote beautiful Cornwall. On a sunny day the sea at St Ives really is this beautiful tropical island turquoise and with the vagaries of our weather all the more precious when it’s like this.

Inspired!

2011-12-31T18:15:00.000Z

I was looking at my flickr account today and came across a lovely comment by Thomas Thorspecken where he said

Just wanted to say that your 1 mile blog inspired me to begin my own sketch blog journey. I remember staying up late into the night reading every entry from day 1. Thank you.

Thor
analogartistdigitalworld.com

His blog and writing is an inspiration, so a wonderful compliment. It reminded me of how much I have enjoyed sketching and blogging over the past few years. Like so many people, the last couple of years have been very difficult in many ways for our family and panic about dealing with our problems has meant I have drifted away from doing the things that I should be doing to give myself inner peace. So I’m resolved to restore some balance so that I have the strength to deal with whatever life throws at us. So I hope that I will be visiting here more regularly than I have been over the last year. I wish you all a happy 2012.

Lucky me!

2011-12-09T14:41:00.001Z

The chance to see eight major paintings by Leonardo da Vinci in one go is an opportunity the artist himself never had, nor any after him. So the National Gallery exhibition is not simply once-in-a-lifetime but, once-in-any-lifetime. So I’m incredibly grateful for my invitation to a private evening opening of the exhibition last night. To see the National Gallery (later) version of the Virgin of the Rocks in the same room as the Louvre (earlier) version of the same subject was fascinating. For the record both me and my friend preferred the earlier painting, shown here.

The paintings were stunning. However, what really made a connection for me across the 500 years between myself and Leonardo were the sketches and drawings. The drawings, with re-stated lines, pin pricks for transferring onto frescoes or traced over and redrawn on the other side of the sheet of paper (like illustrators do now using a lightbox) convey the struggle and thoughts of the artist in a way that the completed paintings can never do.

First go with Ipadio

2011-10-18T14:48:00.001+01:00

2011-10-18T11:36:00.000+01:00

To book tickets for a wonderful Christmas concert by the St Albans Chamber Choir, with St Albans Abbey Girls Choir including Britten’s A Boy was Born and a programme of evocative Christmas music by Gabrieli, Palestrina, Poulenc and John Tavener, visit the St Albans Chamber Choir website and follow the links.

Cheeky seagulls

2011-10-07T23:02:00.000+01:00

Back on the beach the seagulls cheekily look out for a possible meal.

The Tate from the beach

2011-10-05T22:26:00.006+01:00

The Tate, St Ives from the beach. While Robin and Hugo lugged canoes, deckchairs and other bits and pieces to the beach Xavier and I had fun playing with the balloons filling the sea-facing galleries by Martin Creed, (Half the air in the given space) and took part in Roman Ondak’s Measuring the Universe

St Ives

2011-09-30T01:08:00.000+01:00

Unlike today, which has been unseasonably sunny and hot, our holiday was mainly camping in the rain. However there were a couple of days that were lovely and the sea at St Ives is a truly gorgeous colour. This was painted in a square watercolour sketchbook I made a couple of years ago.

Lamorna Cove

2011-09-27T19:27:00.000+01:00

Between Mousehole and Land's End another lovely Cornish cove beloved by artists.

First day of our camping holiday

2011-09-24T13:21:00.000+01:00

I've only just found the time to scan my holiday sketches. A rainy week camping in England doesn't quite match the pleasure of sailing in Greece, and it's difficult sketching in the rain, but I still have a few more sketches to scan and post.

Nordic walking in Heartwood Forest, every Friday

2011-09-20T23:47:00.003+01:00

A great venue for walking as my One Mile from Home project shows. And Nordic walking is a great way of exercising more than simple walking. I may give it a go myself.

One of a series

2011-08-03T22:43:00.002+01:00

I've been working on the annual report and accounts for the charity Abbeyfield. The charity is the result of the vision of the inspirational Richard Carr-Gomm. And this year, the incidental images throughout the annual report reflected the theme of companionship and love across the generations. This one was my favourite, because it shows my father enjoying a moment of pulling faces at my son Xavier.

The Hour

2011-07-27T19:23:00.003+01:00

Sandwiched in between all the reality shows, at last a decent original drama on the BBC. And if you haven't seen it – no it isn't ‘Mad Men’ for the UK, granted it is set in the fifties, but personally I'm finding it much more engaging. I think where American dramas lose me is that if a series is successful they won't draw a line under it. More and more series are churned out until you can't remember what you found appealing in the first series. Here we either have no money,no business acumen or greater artistic integrity – take your pick – but invariably the audience is left clamouring for more, with nothing forthcoming after one series.

Florence Oakley, distinguished mathematician

2011-07-25T23:29:00.003+01:00

In her last year at university my daughter Flo was often greeted by a shy, first year Chinese maths student with a 'Good morning' or even 'Good morning, distinguished mathematician' accompanied by giggles.

Three years of an Oxford maths degree, means a pile of equations as tall as my eight year old. So after sorting it out and reminiscing about various bits of homework the whole pile of paper was unceremoniously dumped by Flo in our paper recycling bin. I grabbed a scrap to paste into my sketchbook. Of course the bits of paper mean nothing, it's how her mind has changed and developed that really matter, but all you artists will know how much the physical evidence has a significance for those of us who make things.

And to clarify what amused the first year student, you might be interested in visiting this Wikipedia page and taking a look at the alumni list – but quickly before someone corrects it.

The philtrum, not the filtrum

2011-07-23T23:32:00.003+01:00

I always thought philtrum was spelled filtrum, and as a child I read the word lingerie long before I ever heard the word spoken, so thought it was pronounced linger-ee. Anyway, forget my ignorance, back to philtrum and how useful it is to have a word to name the dent below the nose, which although serving no purpose, seems so intrinsic to a person's appearance, My Xavier has such a defined philtrum, it's often the point where I start, when drawing his face.

Good-bye Lucian Freud

2011-07-23T00:00:00.004+01:00

A sad day – but what a life – painting until almost the last moment. I trawled my archives to find this picture I drew of the great artist on the day he lunched at the next restaurant table a couple of years ago.

Breakfast oranges

2011-06-11T00:51:00.003+01:00

The Duke of Edinburgh's 90th birthday and his gift from his wife, one of the richest women in England, is the title of Lord High Admiral of the Navy. This year it was my husband's 50th birthday and with the recession being so bad and our home finances being rather restricted, whatever I gave him in April was unremarkable and unmemorable. So I wish to now make amends and taking lessons from my social superiors, I've decided I should present him with something far more in keeping with the momentousness of the occasion. So my sweet, for all your years of dedication and duty, I now pronounce you as Lord High Master of The Breakfast Orange. All people meeting you in your official capacity en-route to the bedroom should bow three times and address you as "Your Orangey Worshipfullness".

And thank you Your Maj for some great inexpensive birthday ideas.

Grand Union Canal

2011-06-09T00:03:00.003+01:00

The Hemel Hempstead Canoe club family fun day was a great success last Saturday. The canal, near the club, was full of people of all ages trying out kayaks and canoes – including her worshipfullness the Mayor resplendently rafting in full mayoral regalia. I walked a little further up to this lovely spot to walk Rufus and snatch some peace away from the splashing.

Watery music

2011-05-25T18:51:00.001+01:00

The next St Albans Chamber Choir concert is on a watery theme and is on the 2nd of July at St Saviour's church. More information about the concert and how to purchase tickets can be seen at their website.

I knew that trip to Venice would come in useful for work purposes… hmmm could another trip be put through as a business expense?

And did you hear…

2011-05-24T21:05:00.000+01:00

Three women obviously enjoying each other’s company at lunch time.

The amazing knotted boy

2011-05-24T21:00:00.000+01:00

Nearly six foot of teenage boy twisted into a knot on the sofa.

The feet of a woman who had a youthful passion for shoes

2011-05-22T20:54:00.003+01:00

feet, a photo by Julie Oakley on Flickr.

There's a limited number of hours that feet can take wearing six inch heels. I splurged all my hours in my youth. But they were the most delicious, gorgeous, ridiculous shoes.

Sunshine workers

2011-05-10T17:48:00.001+01:00

sunshineworkers, a photo by Julie Oakley on Flickr.

The little crumbs of comfort of working in the corporate machine. Lunch in the sunshine before returning to the grindstone.

New blogger

2011-05-06T00:43:00.002+01:00

If any of you are still taking a peek at this desert of a blog, I promise I'll get back to it at some point. In the meantime, to keep you entertained while I get my act together I can recommend a new blogger, who seems to be taking her blogging (and punning) duties at least as seriously as her University finals, as she seems to be posting on an almost daily basis. Visit her blog ‘Rantings of an Oxford Finalist’, here. And don’t forget comments are the little bits of love that you can pass on to keep bloggers going.

lennytrailer

2011-04-08T19:43:00.002+01:00

lennytrailer, a photo by Julie Oakley on Flickr.

Go to Xavier's blog to see his new comic.

Day out to London with Xavier

2011-04-03T16:56:00.003+01:00

cityhall893, a photo by Julie Oakley on Flickr.

A couple of weeks ago I had a lovely day in London with my eight year old son, Xavier. We went to the London Dungeon, Borough Market for a delicious lunch (including trying out oysters), City Hall and the Design Museum. Having been a member of the Design Museum for a few years and given up my membership, because I felt that it simply wasn’t worth the membership fee, I reluctantly bought tickets at Xavier’s insistence. But I’m glad to say that on that day, with the particular exhibits that were on display, Xavier had a great time and had to be dragged away. En route to the Design Museum, Xavier spotted some sketchers, sketching Tower Bridge.He was very keen that I sketched as well, so as I’ve already sketched Tower Bridge I used the opportunity to make a quick sketch of City Hall, the home of the Greater London Authority.

When is the right age for Shakespeare?

2011-04-02T21:16:00.005+01:00

I saw a wonderful production of King Lear last night at the Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre in Stratford. The production was so exciting that a man in the audience sitting opposite me, fainted when Gloucester's eyes were put out.

But despite loving the theatre, I was nearly lost to Shakespeare in my teens, because I'd been bored to distraction by enforced attendance at Shakespeare productions when I was too young to understand the language and hadn’t even had an introduction to the plot of the play. So my first few years as a student in London I bought tickets for every kind of theatrical production apart from Shakespeare.

Luckily, a friend took me to see Ian McKellan in 'Corialanus' and I was electrified by the production, and completely fell in love with Shakespeare. So if any of you have been following Jamie's Dream School, do you think Simon Callow is right to start with Shakespeare to engage school drop-outs?

simoncallow895, a photo by Julie Oakley on Flickr.

Latest St Albans Chamber Choir concert

2011-03-22T23:20:00.004Z

To book tickets for Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony and other sea-themed music visit the St Albans Chamber Choir website and follow the links.

As for me – I'm just showing off some baby steps in producing a flash animation.

Blue settee

2011-03-13T22:51:00.000Z

Eric Cantona

2011-03-09T22:47:00.000Z

A quick sketch while watching the Ken Loach film ‘Looking for Eric’. The film was brilliant, touching and funny and well worth watching.

Girl lunching

2011-03-08T22:41:00.001Z

Corporate world lunch break

2011-03-03T11:45:00.002Z

Blind contour drawing of Robin

2011-03-02T23:30:00.003Z

The weekly blind contour drawing challenge of Niff and Sutter was a mini sketchblogging phenomenon in the days before everyone migrated to Facebook. I can’t believe that it was as long as five years ago that there were a few months where everybody seemed to be joining in their Blind Contour Friday challenge. I’ve just looked at their blog and it peters out in 2009 and you can’t even search for blind contour on what’s left of their blog. So to see the sort of silly drawing we had fun creating, you can search for blind contour on this blog. And if you don’t know what a bind contour drawing is, it’s when you draw your subject without lifting the pen off the paper and without looking at the page (we all gave ourselves artistic licence to add colour afterwards).

Award-winning designer

2011-02-26T18:26:00.004Z

The most exciting day yesterday. My son Xavier rushed into my studio trembling with excitement, he’d received a letter saying he had been shortlisted to the top 100 of his age-group for his entry to the Blue Peter competition to design the logo for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. And you may be thinking, so – how many children sent in entries? The answer – 35,000! He didn’t win but he did receive a great prize for coming so close. He was sent a Blue Peter annual and the very sought after Blue Peter badge which entitles him to free entry to loads of attractions, museums, theatres etc.

Don't mess with me!

2011-02-24T09:39:00.002Z

I am a nervous, cautious driver, so since passing my test I’ve never had a car accident. I work on the principle that if you hit something slowly, you’re going to cause a lot less damage than if you’re going fast, and I always defer to the other driver. However in the freezing cold weather before Christmas, I was unfortunately caught up in an accident where a, let’s say, driver-in-too-much-of-a-hurry-for-the-road-conditions, skidded on black ice, crashed into my car which spun around and was then crashed into by another car. Fortunately no-one was hurt, however my car was a complete mess. As there were no independent witnesses our insurance companies agreed to sort their own clients out and as I don’t have fully comprehensive insurance that basically meant I wouldn’t get a bean. So with money tight in this economic climate it meant making the best of a bad job, bartering services to get a friend to bash out the worst dents and finding a second-hand replacement door – which is in a delightfully contrasting colour to the rest of the car.

Now you might think this is all a tale of doom and gloom, but there is a positive side to this tale. I regularly drive to the next town and the traffic filters down from two lanes to one lane. I always let the other drivers go first. But now, with my newly ‘enhanced’ car, I’m being treated like royalty. Everyone wants to let me go first, so at last I’m revelling in the joys of assertive driving.

More headgear and praise for Bridget Riley

2011-02-20T17:41:00.003Z

Wearing a rather fetching scarf, covered in skulls, Xavier cut quite a dash when we visited the National Gallery. We had a spine tingling moment looking at one of Bridget Riley's paintings, where we could see white circles, that weren't really there, dancing across the canvas. The large originals of her work have such a physical effect on the viewer, they are so much more exciting in real life than they are in reproduction. We also had fun working out whether we thought that Caravaggio's perspective was flawed in his painting “Supper at Emmaus” – surely those outstretched fore-shortened hands should have been drawn at much more different sizes.

Wonderful book

2011-02-17T14:43:00.004Z

Alison, one of the trio of one mile from home walkers, has produced this wonderful illustrated book, of memories of her childhood in Scotland. I’ve really enjoyed the stories and images as they’ve been published over the years on Alison’s blog, so it’s a real treat to have them put together as one collection. You can now buy a hard back or soft back version of the book or view it online at Blurb .

Choices, choices

2011-02-15T16:36:00.001Z

Which option would you have chosen? A concert of Early English choral music accompanied by a string trio. The Carravagio painting ‘The lute player’ reflects the music and the trio, but the portrait is of Edward VI who commissioned one of the pieces and died at the young age of 15.
I couldn't choose so I left it to the St Albans Chamber choir to decide. And if if you're interested in buying tickets for the concert visit www.allaboutstalbans.com and if you want to find out more about the concert visit www.stalbanschamberchoir.org.uk

Whatever next!

2011-01-30T14:15:00.005Z

As a confirmed republican I am delighted that for the first time ever, at least one of my friends might make a little bit money out of the very expensive over-privileged monarchy we have in this country. Go on – with your tongue lodged firmly in your cheek – buy the book! Available from Amazon, Waterstones and all good bookshops.

Back again

2011-01-12T22:55:00.002Z

I have reached that point that many bloggers reach of making excuses for not posting. Except I’m not going to make any excuses. I mean why should I? I have been posting regularly – almost once a day for over five years. I really enjoy blogging, but sometimes life does get in the way of doing the things we enjoy, and so my little corner of bloggery has been pretty inactive and let's face it – rather boring. So I do want to continue, and yes I would like to get back to more regular posting and yes, I would like to be a bit more entertaining, but that does take time – which at the moment I'm rather short of. So if any of you are hanging on in there visiting my blog – I haven't given up, just struggling a bit to keep on top of things. And next time if I can find the time I'll tell you all about why I now have a ‘Don’t mess with me – I don’t give a damn what you do to my car’ car.

Merry Christmas every one

2010-12-25T00:28:00.002Z

An old photo to entertain you as I have been so busy. And note to businesses, why make your year end the 31 December? All your staff end up working in a desperate fever to spend their maketing budgets and the poor designers and printers work all the way through the holidays to achieve this – not that I'm complaining about paid work. Next year I'm designing my Christmas cards in April and Christmas shopping in the summer. Note the upside down wings!

Even manhole covers can be pretty

2010-12-12T23:40:00.000Z

Another Macon house

2010-12-12T11:24:00.000Z

Boy in a fez

2010-12-05T11:16:00.002Z

We have an attic full of fezes… I was going to explain why, but I think I'll leave it at that… I like a bit of surrealism from time to time.

A date for your diary

2010-12-03T19:30:00.002Z

Saturday 15 January 2011

St Saviour’s Church, St Albans 7.30pm

Post-Christmas Blues

Will Todd Mass in Blue

Karl Jenkins A Parliament of Owls

John Rutter Birthday Madrigals

Soprano soloist, piano, jazz ensemble

For further informationwww.stalbanschamberchoir.org.uk
To buy tickets tel 01582 831228 or online at www.wegottickets.com/stalbanschamberchoir

Porch party land

2010-11-29T13:31:00.002Z

Xavier promises me that he's going to build me my dream house when he grows up (in between being an inventor, film director and goodness knows what else). My perfect imaginary house would have a belvedere. I once knew some students who lived in a glorious rambling Edwardian villa with a belvedere crowning the top of the house. It was a tiny room with a trapdoor in the floor which you opened to get down the tiny staircase to the floor below. But the room had windows all the way round and panoramic views over London. So although not big enough to be someone's regular bedroom it made the most wonderful guest bedroom. And although we don't really have the climate for it, my perfect imaginary house would also have a verandah. The verandahs on these Macon houses are the kind of thing that would do.

Another Macon sketch

2010-11-28T17:54:00.002Z

Another one of the 'atmosphere' illustrations for the historic Macon website.

Showing my age

2010-11-25T23:32:00.002Z

I’ve been a bit quiet recently because I’ve been carrying out some consultancy work with some lovely designers at a very big corporation. So when the very experienced designer I was working with said ‘so what is paste-up?’ I knew that my children were right – I am quite definitely over the hill, a relic, a complete and utter dinosaur. For any of you who don't know about how you put together a brochure or magazine before computers, the Fullerton website gives some idea of the torturous process us older designers went through. And I never had the luxury of a waxing machine, it was spreading all the galleys and artwork with cow gum and sticking them into place.

Historic Macon

2010-11-22T22:54:00.002Z

One of the illustrations I produced for the historic Macon website I mentioned in my previous post.

Historic Macon website live!

2010-11-15T23:15:00.002Z

Over the summer I had a rather delicious illustration job to do, which was to create a number of spot watercolour illustrations of the lovely old city of Macon, Georgia. I also painted a location map of the historic centre, which served as a linking device to the various parts of the website. I haven’t been able to mention it until now as I was waiting for the website to be completed. If you’re interested do visit the site at http://www.livinghistorymap.com/ . If I have time I’ll post some of the illustrations at a larger size here in the next few weeks

Xavier drawing

2010-11-08T22:33:00.002Z

Harvest assembly

2010-10-26T23:19:00.002+01:00

Most of the time Xavier was hidden behind his taller classmates, so I drew the children I could see.

By the way what is the point of the drop down menu in blogger giving you a choice of fonts when it makes not the blindest bit of difference what you change things to? I know it was a very luddite method of doing things but I always used to manually change the body text of my posts to Verdana small. However now, when I do that it makes no difference. It still stays the default font

Yet another view from the sofa

2010-10-25T21:18:00.000+01:00

Great feature of InDesign CS5

2010-10-21T08:59:00.002+01:00

I was able to try out the different size pages feature in InDesign CS5 for a little job I was working on recently. What a timesaver when designing a number of similar items that are going to be output at different sizes. The various items needed for the St Albans Chamber Choir concert in November included A4 flyers, A5 flyers, A2 posters, A5 programme covers and an icon for the website. In previous versions of InDesign I would have needed to create a different file for each size of document. Then if the clients had said, ‘we’ve changed our mind about which pieces we’re going to sing’, or ‘could you change the background colour to green?’, I would have needed to open four separate documents to make the changes. With CS5 I can simply carry out one ‘find and replace’ action and all of the items are changed.

For anyone local to St Albans, who’s interested in listening to excellent serious choral singing, the concert is at St Peter’s Church on the 20th of November. To buy tickets tel 01582 831228 or online at www.wegottickets.com/stalbanschamberchoir
Thanks to Jenny Downing for the lovely poppy picture

Woo-hoo I won a prize for blogging!

2010-10-20T12:27:00.002+01:00

I've been blogging for five years and won a blogging competition prize last year. Winning prizes isn't going to pay the bills but it's nevertheless a reason to celebrate.

A couple of months back I shared with you the process of designing a corporate identity for cocona and how I solved the problem of producing printed materials when we only had low resolution photography (as the products being marketed were on a container ship in the middle of the ocean).

Well the lovely people at Moo have decided to give me a prize for my blog post. What’s more gratifying is that the prize offer came long after I’d written the post, so it really wasn’t written with one eye on the prize.*

So now I need to decide how to use my Moo vouchers. Hmm, business cards… post cards… greetings cards…

* though I confess I did change one line to mention Moo rather than a generic ‘variable print technology’

Blue Robin

2010-10-17T19:38:00.003+01:00

Quickly rendered hand-lettering inspired by Pablo Ferro’s ‘Dr Strangelove’ titles. The font Strangelove Next which will enable you to do a much better job than this can be purchased at a very low price from MyFonts.

Ashridge woods

2010-10-10T23:46:00.002+01:00

While Robin was off breaking a world record (find an obscure enough activity and maybe we all could get into the Guinness book of records) I had a tedious weekend, which was only mildly diverting when I took Xavier and Rufus for a walk in the gorgeous woodland of Ashridge.
I know, I know – you're far more interested in what Robin did, so I won't keep you in suspense a moment longer. He and his fellow paddlers broke the world record for the longest distance covered in 24 hours by a dragonboat team. He is now probably going to have to spend the rest of the week standing up, if the glimpse I caught of those friction sores is anything to go by!

Taking Tom to university

2010-10-06T23:17:00.004+01:00

I snatched five minutes to sketch the view of the top of the Radcliffe Camera from the quad in Hertford college. We took Tom’s luggage to his room in the college, had a lovely lunch out and then tea in the college dining room, before being shooed away so that Tom could get on with the serious business of making new friends. It’s difficult to believe that my little boy is at university and all grown up… well sort of…

Bald Hugo

2010-10-01T23:20:00.003+01:00

After Tom managed to turn me from an ageing hippy lady into a sophisticated career woman, with his hairdressing skills, Hugo urged Tom to hack off all his hair. I went ballistic, with Hugo for asking for the horrible haircut and Tom for complying. Why is it that a few millimetres here or there on a boy's haircut makes all the difference as to how people perceive you?

Hobs hairdresser

2010-09-30T11:28:00.002+01:00

Given the choice of reading magazines about celebrities or chatting to the stylist and sketching I'd rather give the magazines a miss. Before going to have my hair coloured I asked son Tom to trim my very long hair, so that the hairdresser had less to deal with. However he got a bit scissor-happy and for the first time in my life my hair now brushes my shoulders rather than my waist. I like it, but it’s odd.

Knitivity – for all you knitters out there

2010-09-28T14:23:00.004+01:00

I tried knitting when I was a girl but as I tried to hammer my knitting needles through the ever tightening gaps in my knit one, purl one I realised it probably wasn’t something I had a talent for. However, like sketching, I think it’s a wonderfully creative way to fill in the gaps in the day. My super talented friend Fiona has brought out a book which shows you how to create a delightful knitted nativity scene, so if you buy one now you’ll easily have time to create all the characters in time for Christmas. Go here to buy the book for next to nothing.

Verulam sixth form evening

2010-09-23T23:29:00.000+01:00

Faces at the Herts sports partnership awards

2010-09-22T23:08:00.004+01:00

Robin was nominated for community coach of the year (male), for his paddling coaching. Sadly he didn't win, so the highlight of of the evening was when a parent received a prize on behalf of one of the winners of a youth award. The presenter asked the mother why her daughter couldn't come and she said that she was working at Euro Disney over the summer, to which the presenter quipped "Bit of a MickeyMouse job isn't that?"

Colder weather and wearing a jacket inside

2010-09-21T11:47:00.000+01:00

Winter is coming and we never really had much of a summer. A truly awful year to choose to have a ‘staycation’.

Sorrento holiday

2010-09-19T23:28:00.003+01:00

After an entire summer holiday selling school uniforms, Flo is off to have what I’m sure will be a wonderful holiday in Sorrento. And if she brings us back a bottle of Limoncello I promise I’ll make this dessert.

Hugo again

2010-09-17T00:36:00.004+01:00

I missed the first couple of series of Dragon’s Den because I couldn’t abide watching a Dragon who many years ago had commissioned me to produce some design work and then simply hadn’t paid me. However it seems as though in the end there was some rough justice over treating suppliers badly and a bankrupt Dragon really couldn’t be seen on television telling other people how to run a business – and we can now enjoy watching this silly programme without having to look at the Dragon who didn’t pay bills.

Since then I’ve in the main had wonderful clients who appreciate the hard work I do for them. Of course nowadays with the internet and the ability of graphic designers to quickly design very effective search-engine optimised websites I imagine most businesses would regard paying their designer as a greater priority than paying any other supplier!

Great relief – the train journey home

2010-09-08T22:58:00.005+01:00

Another endodontic appointment at Guys’ Hospital, but great news something had healed so only 45 minutes of dental treatment rather than the expected two hours of painful root canal treatment.

Guest artist – ‘The Media Student’

2010-09-03T09:46:00.004+01:00

I’ve been busy over the past fortnight giving my son Hugo crash courses in Adobe Creative Suite applications in preparation for his ‘A’ level Media Studies course. I’m very proud of this piece he created, which shows his use of different media (the size of each of the planets reflect the number of hours he spends on each of the media). I knew someone would find a use for the 3d rendering facility in the latest version Photoshop. What particularly impressed me was when I left him to play with filters and effects, he had the good taste to choose subtle over bleedin’-obvious-and-what-everybody-does-when-they-first-try-out-photoshop. I think he’s going to find the subject fascinating.

Wonderful party and delicious free fonts

2010-08-27T22:45:00.002+01:00

We’ve just come back from a wonderful party – many old friends we haven’t seen for a couple of years. Michael’s birthday card was produced using some wonderful fonts that are free to download from the Conqueror paper website.

Funny face

2010-08-26T23:07:00.002+01:00

We all do it don’t we – make strange faces while we’re focusing on something. My dear, patient husband puts up with me attempting to capture him at his best and at his worst.

It's that day of the week

2010-08-22T20:15:00.002+01:00

I’m too busy with boring housework to post a sketch today but I urge you to visit Xavier's blog to see what Henry the Hooligan has done this week

Choosing recipes

2010-08-20T10:39:00.000+01:00

How to get half a million teenagers out of bed before midday

2010-08-19T09:52:00.005+01:00

The sound of Tom pounding away at the refresh key trying to get onto the UCAS website woke us up this morning. After an hour of trying he eventually succeeded. We were so pleased that we didn’t need to put on our ‘cheerful-because-we-really-aren’t-disappointed’ faces. Fantastic news – and for us parents only one university to drive to.

Latest fashions

2010-08-16T19:18:00.001+01:00

Cycling gloves and a trilby – what all the cool artists are wearing these days.

Xavier working on the latest issue of Henry the Hooligan

2010-08-15T00:28:00.002+01:00

Once again I’m shamelessly plugging Xavier’s Big Bang Comix by sketching him filling in the colours and posting the latest issue. Well we do need to encourage the next generation don’t we?

Peering at the computer

2010-08-13T11:41:00.004+01:00

Trying to find a new door handle for the car on e-Bay. Our resourceful mechanic moved the back door-handle to the front to get the car through the MOT but we still need to be able to open the back door. Another year without having to think about buying a newer car, thank goodness.

As rare as hens teeth

2010-08-11T23:54:00.001+01:00

Ironing, I mean – in this house. However if your summer holiday job is working in a school outfitters, you kind of have to make an effort to appear in crease-free clothes.

Picnic lunch in Cambridge

2010-08-10T22:25:00.004+01:00

On Sunday Robin, Xavier and I took a canoe down the river Cam through Cambridge. After battling our way past the punts in the centre of Cambridge, we enjoyed a picnic lunch on Jesus Green while Freddie & Friends played jazz for the people in the park.

Inspiration in St Albans

2010-07-31T10:00:00.000+01:00

This weekend is your last chance to purchase a piece of art from the St Albans Art Society exhibition at the Baptist Church Hall in Dagnall Street. The little doodle in my sketchbook was inspired by my favourite painting in the exhibition. Regrettably I can't remember the artists's name but I think I spotted a gem in the racks of unframed paintings. It was a haunting Italian landscape and the artist was asking a laughably low price for the piece. Also this year there is a new prize – the St Albans trophy – which is awarded to the work judged to best capture the distinctive character of St Albans in an original way. So there are several paintings of local landmarks and scenes, if you’re looking for a piece of inexpensive original art that connects to the lovely place we live in.

Tips on designing Annual Reports and Accounts – No 1

2010-07-30T22:04:00.005+01:00

This is going to be an occasional series where I write about something I wish somebody had suggested to me when I started out as a graphic designer. One of the jobs I’ve been busy with over the last month has been designing an annual report and accounts. For any of you that have worked on this type of long document, where there can be numerous changes by many different people, you’ll know how important it is that people are working on the same and most recent version of the document. What I’ve found works for me is to create a simple little post-it note (a coloured rectangle with a drop shadow usually does the job) – choose a colour for the note that contrasts with your design so that there is no confusion that it’s part of the design. Find an area of white space on your master pages – in a perfect bound document there's often some space in the gutters – and paste the post-it note onto its own layer at the top and type the version number and the date onto the post-it note. Every time corrections come in and a new version needs to be created, the first thing you need to do is save your document with a new version number and then change the version number and the date on the post-it notes in the master pages. This means that different people making contributions to a document can refer to version number and know that they're looking at the same version. It means that there’s no chance that someone accidentally labours over a print-out of a much earlier version. While you're working on the document you can switch off the post-it notes layer if you want to see how a spread looks, but switch it back on every time you send a pdf or print-out to be approved.

Suggest to your clients that they run a sweepstake on the version number that ends up going to the printers.

Finally, once everything is approved for proofing and printing, don’t forget to turn off the post-it note layer before sending your report to the printer.

Xavier moonwalking for his granny

2010-07-29T20:15:00.002+01:00

Xavier has been given a super trilby covered in sequins which once it’s placed on your head has a magic effect on your feet. Much better than a pair of red shoes.

Robin and Xavier sketches

2010-07-28T22:32:00.003+01:00

I accidentally filled my pen with sepia ink that isn’t very waterproof, so there are going to be a few brown watery sketches here for a while.

Look at Xavier’s blog

2010-07-25T12:42:00.003+01:00

Today is your last chance to visit the St Albans Art Society exhibition at the Baptist Church Hall on Dagnall Street. I’m going to be there in a couple of hours doing my stint on the desk, so say hello if you read my blog.

This morning I’ve been giving my son Xavier a photoshop tutorial. He’s created some wonderful comic pages completely unsupervised. All I’ve done today is to show him how to scan his drawings, improve them in photoshop, add colour and then post to his blog. Do take a look at Xavier’s Artblog and encourage our young artist.

Which also leads me to another point – if you’re a local artist or illustrator and would like some personal tuition on how to use your scanner and Photoshop to enable you to present your work as well as possible – either to produce limited edition giclée prints or for putting onto the web, I’m happy to quote for a session either at my studio or yours. My contact details can all be found on my business website Julie Oakley Design.

Oops – just discovered the exhibition continues ’til next weekend – so a bit more time to see the art and snap up a bargain.

Canoeing up the Thames

2010-07-21T20:32:00.003+01:00

A wonderful day canoeing from Kew Bridge to Chelsea and back. Robin did all the hard work while I sketched. A lunch stop at a Carluccio's. Arriving back at Kew bridge the sight of the beautiful mishmash of gorgeous houses and pretty cottages glowing in the low summer sun, people enjoying a drink outside the pubs, babies being pushed in pushchairs, men fishing in the river – it was like a film set and something that I won’t forget.

Train men re-visited

2010-07-13T14:00:00.000+01:00

More barbecue people

2010-07-12T23:02:00.003+01:00

Apologies to the model on the right for making him look much older than he is in real life. Take a look at my family portrait blog to appreciate it isn’t personal – just the inconsistent drawing ability of the artist.

Sandridge Scouts’ barbecue and quiz evening

2010-07-11T12:04:00.003+01:00

My seven year old son, Xavier, is very lucky to be a member of a Scout group who have their scout hut on the edge of the local bluebell wood – so a great location for doing all kinds of woodcraft activities. Once a year all the parents, children and supporters have a great evening in the scout hut grounds having a barbecue, quiz evening and all-round fun.

Lovely films

2010-07-10T14:39:00.004+01:00

I’m not a great lover of music and noise coming out of my computer as I’m often trying to work or I don’t want to wake the neighbours – so I don’t spend much time perusing the productions of youtube and vimeo. However, if you feel like, me it’s really worth making an exception for Lucy Pepper. Delightful, funny, hand drawn animations and here’s one to whet your appetite.

idiot johnson - girl on a train from lucy pepper on Vimeo.