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Queen Bee - 28 September 2014

I think this may be my final image, but I do like the one below too. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I should of add a crown on her head too?

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Beyonce - 28 September 2014

I'm working on a little project with my boyfriend Joe. I won't give away too much information until it's finished. But, what I can show you is an image I've been working on! 

Here are some of my experiments I've been working on this afternoon. I still need to do the background, not sure if I'm going to keep it minimal or detailed.

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I have a new blog! - 21 September 2014

I was getting a bit carried away on my Tumblr with lifestyle posts so I thought I'd best make a separate blog. My tumblr will be my work blog and my blogspot will be my lifestyle blog. http://zoeyhardwick.blogspot.co.uk/ I haven't got any exciting illustration projects coming up at the moment, so I will be focusing on my lifestyle blog until I get some freelance work on my hands.

Also, if you have a blogspot, connect with me! I'd love to check out your blogs and see what you guys get up to.

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August Highlights - 7 September 2014

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I'm officially a YouTuber! - 5 September 2014

I've been meaning to start a YouTube channel for a while now... Months, possibly even a year has flown by since I said to myself that I wanted to create vlogs. But today is the day!!!

As some of you may know, I travelled to Canada for two weeks and I filmed bits and pieces through-out my trip, so I could create a series of vlogs to put up on YouTube. 

And so, yesterday I taught myself how to video edit for the very first time. I never knew video editing could be so much fun! I really enjoyed editing part 1, and now I'm so eager and really excited to play around with part 2!

Anyway, I wanted to create this channel as a memory bank, to document and remind myself of all the good times I've had. Not only this, but I want to get better at presenting (as it's something I've never been good at), talking to people, feeling confident in front of the camera and feeling confident in myself. 

And, If I have anything exciting going on in my life, I may whack out the camera and do a weekly vlog, or I might take part in vlogmas this year... who knows! I just know I'm going to have a lot of fun with it!

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Canadian adventures prt. 2 - 31 August 2014

After staying in Vancouver for a week, me and Joe decided to do a mini road trip to Banff and back. Banff was beautiful. We stayed at this cute little wooden boutique inn in the centre of Banff.

The highlight of the trip was travelling to the infamous Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. Both lakes as equally stunning as one another. 

During our time at Lake Louise, we did a 3 hour hike to the top of the mountain and back. It was hard... I'm not much of the hiker. However, it was worth it! The views were incredible and there was a cute teahouse at the top which was really nice.

Afterwards, we popped along to check out Lake Moraine and we climbed across the water by carefully walking across the logs, we then made our way up the rocky mountain! 

Oh, and, as well as snapping way too many photos on this trip, I did vlog as well! I've never done any form of video editing before, so this will be a challenge! Hope it turns out ok! And, it may take me a while!!

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Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything - 27 August 2014

Whilst I was in Vancouver, I got the chance to check out Douglas Coupland's exhibition. Titled, everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything.

His work is brilliant and super engaging. My favourite parts of the exhibition were 'The Brain' and 'Slogans for the Early Twenty-First Century’.

For more information on Coupland's work, I'd recommend checking out his website. Lots of cool stuff on there!

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Canadian adventures prt. 1 - 26 August 2014

I've been seriously struggling with jet-lag since I got back on Saturday afternoon. I made the silly mistake of going straight to bed as soon as I arrived home. And ever since then I have been going to bed at 4am and waking up at 1pm or even later, like 3pm. Maybe I have severe holiday blues? or maybe it is just the jet-lag really kicking in!! 

But any who I need to stop rambling and talk about my lovely week in Vancouver... 

I was adventuring by myself for the first week as Joe was working. And so, here are some of my highlights! My daily routine varied, some days I would go out and explore the majority of Vancouver, the likes of Gastown, Chinatown, Stanley park, and Seawall, as well as checking out quirky cafes and coffee shops that had high ratings on TripAdvisor. And other days I would either chill at the hotel or do some cheeky shopping!  Whilst browsing around, I found a really cool coffee shop dedicated to Nelson Mandella - Nelson the Seagull, which was lovely. And, I had earl grey ice cream at Bella Gelateria - I wanted to go back and try some more interesting flavours but didn't get the chance to sadly! And, oh my god, I had one of the best pizza's I've EVER had, at a place called Pizzeria Farina. This place was quite hidden away from the touristy spots, t'was at the bottom of Chinatown. And, their pizza's were delicious! We ended up going up for a second round!

If you are in the Vancouver area or are planning to go there some day, I definitely recommend those places mentioned above.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed part one of my Canadian adventures! Stay tuned for week two. Vancouver to Banff road tripping time. Ciao.

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Canadian adventures - 10 August 2014

I am currently sitting on a king sized bed in my hotel room (living the high life), I've been up since 4am, had pancakes for breakfast and went for a little stroll. So, now seems like the perfect opportunity to blog.

So, we actually arrived in Vancouver yesterday, after a very long and bumpy flight to Seattle, we then transferred to Vancouver. And then, we finally took the skyline train to our hotel and fell asleep straight away! (Knackard.com)

We’re staying in Vancouver for one week, Joe will be working at SIGGRAPH, which is a conference and exhibition on computer graphics. And, I will be off venturing around the land of Vancouver. When the conference ends, we will be doing a road trip from Vancouver to Banff, seeing all the beautiful lakes, mountains and wildlife along the way! So so excited!

I plan to take it easy today, by easy I mean abuse the hotel facilities, such as the gym, outdoor swimming pool and hot tub. But I most probably will venture out for miles to get used to my surroundings, and hopefully won’t get attacked by homeless people along the way!

I will be blogging, vlogging and taking lots of snaps during the next two weeks. So keep checking back for Zoey and Joey's Canadian adventures.

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Experimenting with compositions (Pop colours) - 6th August 2014

And last but not least, my bold pop coloured versions. (They are identical to the textured ones!)

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Experimenting with compositions (Textured) - 5th August 2014

I'm being incredibly indecisive with choosing the final design for my Ideas Tap poster. Here are two more of my favourite designs. Maybe you guys could help me decide on one?

And, I thought I could possibly add more to the image but at the same time I didn't want to make it look too overcrowded. The ideas I had were to include a variety of creative students/graduates climbing the ladders. And to maybe add some decorative accessories such as, plants, clocks, frames, shelves and so on. But I'm very happy with the image as it is. What do you guys think?

The idea behind my poster was to create an artistic house/building which focuses on the seven creative disciplines that Ideas Tap supports. This includes dance, theatre, film, photography, art, design and writing. Alongside the creative rooms, I wanted to include a room at the bottom that represent's a potential new member who is researching Ideas Tap and what they have to offer.

The ladders represent the pathways that are promoted and funded by the IdeasTap charity, showing prospective members how they can be supported in their journey to their ideal career.

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Ideas Tap Poster - 4th August 2014

So, as I've mentioned in previous blog posts I've been working on a poster design for an Arts charity.

The Arts charity that I designed this for was Ideas Tap, they help young creative people at the start of their careers. Whether you're an Illustrator like myself or you're a writer, Ideas Tap holds a range of competitions, funding, and training to help you get to where you want to be. 

I'm a big fan of Ideas Tap and what they do. I have been a member since I graduated in 2011, and have been very fortunate to have been shortlisted, win briefs and take part in some really cool events. My favourite event so far has been the BOXPARK & Ideas Tap pop up store, a really great opportunity to not only collaborate with other illustrators and artists but to also sell my work.

So, any who, they recently had a competition to design a poster (which is now closed), and I thought, great, what a fantastic opportunity to get back into designing, as I haven't had the time to do something creative in what feels like forever, but to also help promote what they do!

And, so, for the past 2-3 weeks I've spent my evenings after work creating my little art's charity house. Each room took 1-2 evenings to create as I wanted it to be perfect! And then, I spent a couple of days playing around with the text and layout.

This is one of my favourite layouts, but I haven't officially decided on the final as of yet. I am really really proud of my illustration. And I hope Ideas Tap like it too.

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You need a lot of passion for what you’re doing because it’s so hard. Without passion, any rational person would give up. So if you’re not having fun doing it, if you dont absolutely love it, you’re going to give up and that’s what happens to most people, actually. If you look at the ones that ended up being successful in the eyes of society, often times it’s the ones who love what they do, so they could persevere when it got really tough and the ones that didnt love it, quit. Because they’re sane, right? Who would put up with this stuff if you don’t love it? So its a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of worrying constantly. If you dont love it, you’re going to fail.

Steve Jobs

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July Highlights - 3rd August 2014

Bit of a quiet month as I'm trying to save pennies for Canada, however I had some awesome fun times at the beach, London Zoo lates and Choccywoccydoodah. And, also treated myself to a few goodies, as you do.

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Bold or Textured? - 2nd August 2014

I think I'm swaying more towards the textured image. But the bold pop colours work well too - also looks nice printed out! Choices, choices!

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Experimental collaged people - 1st August 2014

I've recently been working on a project for an Arts charity.

The project is now completed, so I just wanted to share some experimental collages with you guys! I'm really happy with them, what do you guys think?