New Greeting Card

Inspired by this photo of Jackson I have re-printed one of my early cards using my trusty gocco. It's currently available on Folksy and Etsy.

I like Jackson's expression in the picture as he looks slightly guilty. Probably because he knew he wasn't allowed on the chaise longue!

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Just uploaded this new card to Folksy, Etsy and also my website.

It's a portrait of sorts of my Wire Fox Terrier, Jackson, and it was produced using my gocco printer. I like the rough and ready feel to the illustration and the keen eyed will spot that I'm using Cocktail Script, one of my favourite fonts again.

The idea for the design came when Jackson sneaked into our bedroom for the umpteenth time. He knows he's not allowed in there, but he should win some sort of award for persistence. Anyway, I caught him curled up on my pillow (yes, it's always my pillow) and it was such a lovely photo opportunity that I took several pictures before shooing him off.

This one was my favourite and so for the card I simply copied his position but changed the location to his red dog bed.

It's the first time I've used Jackson himself as a study for a card although of course he's the general inspiration behind all of them. Let's hope it doesn't go to his head. He'll be signing pawtographs next...

Christmas Card Exchange

This is the second year that we've taken part in the Dogs with Blogs Christmas card exchange whereby participants send Christmas cards to pals all around the world. Most people use straightforward photos of their dogs on the cards but we wanted to do something a little different.

I thought I might experiment with my gocco printer and print a photo of our dog Jackson with a difference. I decided to use this photo as I like the way he's looking directly at the camera.



Firstly I edited out the background and then superimposed a cartoony big nose and added the antlers. When trying to print a photo using a gocco it's best to add dots to the image so that it comes out like a newspaper photo. I could have done it in Photoshop, but I like the lo-fi photo screens that the gocco manufacturer Riso produce for this so I used one of them instead. It's placed directly on the photocopier screen and the image is put on top and copied. All images for gocco have to be photocopied or drawn using a special pen to get the right amount of carbon to work properly. It's all a bit technical for me, I'm afraid.

I then added the message using Lionel Text Diesel in red and silver ink.



I like the way it looks sort of faded, although the photo doesn't really do it justice and the writing is actually straight on the original cards, not slightly skew-whiff as seen here!