elidillonart

Sooooooo. What's up? How are you? I'm tired. And often emotional. And always hungry. But other than that things are ticking along nicely. I have been working on re-doing the ol' Etsy shop and trying to figure out what pieces of artwork I'd like to sell. So far I have some postcards and puns and I'd really like a few prints to make people feel summery and warm. I just finished up 2 A3 size prints which I'm really excited about: Trees and Birds. I spent a long time researching the different elements and details of each and I'm really proud of the results. I think I wanted to make them as when I was a teacher I found that my children couldn't name most of the most common plants and animals found in the UK. It was startling to walk around and discover that no-one could spot an oak tree or tell the difference between a blackbird and a crow. My third print in the series will be 'Flowers' to showcase some of our wildflowers here in the UK but ...

Hello! Today I'm updating the website with some new work - I have posted it on Instagram this week too. It's been a lovely week in York as the summer has faded to autumn and today we went for a brilliant walk into town by way of Clifton. What a fantastic street. I could(/should/will???) draw almost every building on it. The area is closely tied to the Rowntree family and many of the buildings are their old family homes or schools they attended or businesses they supported. Many of the buildings are now privately owned but you can still peek through the iron gates and get a glimpse of old York. We walked all the way into town, past the Minster and on to get a slice of pizza... which I then dropped immediately onto the pavement. Just when the walk was starting to reach perfect...oh well. One of my favourite things to do now the weather is getting colder is to walk into town for hot chocolate - particularly the chilli and peppermint 70% chocolate from York Cocoa House. I sug...

I finished a picture this weekend between feeds and naps and the pain of first immunisations for a child's bedroom. Colours were specifically requested to match the room and it is printed A3 size.  Media: watercolour, ink and digital. Hope you enjoy! This has inspired me to crack on with my children's book pitch and finish the artwork for the first few pages. Now stay focused Eli, staaaaay focused.

Hello! It's been a busy few weeks with birthdays and babies and houses and drawings and commissions and hot weather and lethargy BUT I did manage to finish the Hook and Ladder drawing that is now up on the website and part of the New York Project! Hurray for personal work!

Today I thought I would express my love/hate relationship with browsing the internet. On one hand, it's a great place to find inspiration and ideas. I often save modelling photos and fashion blog photos for inspiration or use google maps to screenshot buildings. I look at other illustrators and feel inspired by their work and it makes me want to improve and learn more and research and try new techniques. On the other hand however, I can be happily clicking around and reading and looking and all of a sudden, without even really realising it I'm feeling as if my work is super inferior to everything else that I'm seeing. This is the pitfall of the art world online. I think it's so great to be able to really quickly see what other artists are up to but if you happen to be looking at a time when you're not feeling so confident about your own output; maybe you've done a lot of not so great sketches that day or a commission just isn't coming along as you would lik...

Happy Monday morning! This morning the baby has been sleeping for hours as we had a busy weekend so I've been able to begin work on updating my portfolio (www.elidillon.com). I have a personal project called The New York Project. As I've been drawing York architecture being a local York artist I thought it might be nice to pair those pictures with famous locations in New York City. I started with the set from Rear Window - an Alfred Hitchcock film starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly (and my all time favourite film). Though this isn't a real location, it was an epic set building on a multi floored stage, it was designed to be in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. I'm updating that project with 3 new pictures - Katz's Delicatessen - the famous location seen in When Harry Met Sally Hook and Ladder Company 8 - the fire station seen in Ghostbusters Holly's Apartment building - from Breakfast at Tiffanys There are others on the horizon, perha...

So it's still dark. It's no longer festive and you have to go back to facing the daily grind with a lot less money. However! January is also a great time to set intentions for the coming year, resolve to do something better (for me it's tidying up after myself) and focus on bringing into your life those things that will make you feel happy and purposeful. I have set 4 intentions for 2018. Last year I set a lot more and quite a few went on the back burner or I just didn't have the time or energy to focus on them enough. This year is the year of change in our household so it's a great time to focus on bringing positive change and actively seek new challenges and opportunities. I miss the city centre and our nightly walks so here is a doodle of St Michael Le Belfrey next to York Minster as seen at night. Happy January!

I made a picture for my sister's birthday. She's likes a good food themed pun. 'Beetroot to Yourself'.

I missed posting on National Relaxation Day! I started drawing a picture about relaxing but then I had to make dinner (a roast) have a drink (red wine) and watch a film (How to Catch a Thief) and after all that it was too late. So I got up early this morning and made some tea, put on one of my favourite background films - Julia and Julia - and finished making a picture. I am normally so busy that relaxing is tricky. I run from the car to work to the supermarket to the gym to dinner, to my desk back to work but sometimes I have these weeks where I can fold all my happy relaxation things into a melting pot of loveliness and calm. These are the top 10 things I do to relax: 1) Sit with a cup of tea in a clean house. Clean is the word, it has to be clean and tidy and possibly sunny, or at least cosy and softly lit. And my tea of choice is posh fancy tea from a little shop on the Shambles in York. There is a space in my apartment, out the back on the fire escape, that gets the best s...

I have started a project documenting vegan food through ink drawings that I then add colour to. I have been vegan since January 2016 after watching some documentaries and being vegetarian for about 4 years by that point. I went in with a lot of research. I had vegan recipe youtube channels on the go, recipe books, blogs, pinterest boards; I was ready! I found it surprisingly easy even though I was living in Abu Dhabi which has quite a meat heavy culture. I found that we ate lots of falafel, hummus, pastas, smoothies and curries. Since we moved back to the UK it has been super simple. All the supermarkets have vegan cheeses and sausages, the restaurants normally have one or two options (and they don't frown when you say 'vegan') which is great. I worried about not being able to have super tasty treats like cakes and puddings and also that main course food would be bland but I have found it to be the opposite. We often eat pancakes, especially on a Saturday morning with...

Today I finished a drawing where I added some people! This is a new one for me. Usually it's buildings or people. A set or a character but this time I was drawing a bar/restaurant and felt that it needed some life as it's always so busy. I really enjoyed this process, it was obviously more time consuming but I limited my palette of colours and kept the people super simple though tried to give each a small story within the picture. Judge's Lodging - York Here is just the building itself.

I like lines. Mainly black lines. Lots of ink and felt tip pen. I also like drawing buildings. At the moment I'm working on a few personal projects alongside normal work. One is a poster of York's architecture; a sort of trail of old buildings to take you on a wandering path inside the walls. I think one of the posters will focus on places of worship as there are so many beautiful buildings in York that are either still in use or converted for another purpose. One poster will just focus on brilliant buildings; giving a bit of history and information about them. Here are some of the pictures and sketches I have been working on.

After finishing 'Rear Window' yesterday I had a little bit of spare time so I drew my very late breakfast. I like it very much. It's fried tofu with avocado, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto. This is quite a busy week but I have high hopes that project 'Films of New York' of which the first is 'Rear Window' will make some progress. I have also bought some new pens and drew a lovely old cinema in York which I need to colour. I love colouring. It's my favourite part. I also made a very successful vegan bread and butter pudding last night, with butterscotch sauce and ice-cream. It was dreamy. So dreamy that it may be my full dinner tonight because it's Monday and something has to set me up for the stressful week ahead. May as well be fake butter. Onto the rest of the evening I go! Bye, come back soon! Doorway to my instagram