The joy of your best friends moving all the way across the world (AKA London) – is that you suddenly have to get creative with what is light and ‘postable’ for birthday gifts.
Naturally, being young and poor, and able to draw – sending a drawing has come to the rescue here yet again.

For this particular work for my beautiful Ellen – I used my normal collage/ illustration method, but added a few extra elements.
The base image was a photo from the last time we saw each other before she moved! This was colour printed onto canvas paper.
I then used layers of paper and illustration to build up more depth, and change some of the shapes.
After this I applied two thick layers of gold paint on the background to give the image a more special feel, and to reflect light once it was on the wall. Right at the end a few crystals were applied.

This one now lives on a brick wall in London!