Good news!

To quote the most excellent Professor Farnsworth "Good news everyone!"

Just purchased a domain name today, which felt particularly pleasing as I was most surprised that the name hadn't been taken! Now there is just the small issue of needing to build a website to use it for...

Still, it feels like I'm making progress, which can't be sniffed at.

As for today, I begrudgingly spent a few hours on my observational drawing work. The project consists of making a variety of drawings based on a certain location. For my project I chose Tenpin Bowling. Why you may ask? Well, that is my part time job while I'm at university, and now that it's summer it's where I have been spending the majority of my time. Now while it was a logical choice to draw seeing as I've been spending so much time there (And now that the sun is out it's quiet enough there that I can do a sneaky bit of doodling) it does means that every time I look at this project all I can think about is being at work.  So, a bit of a double edged blade there.

 





I always found work like this to be difficult, but now I really enjoy the spontaneous nature of it. Drawing on location means you never know what you are going to get, but it does force you to make the most of what you get. All of these pictures were done on site, with some colour work added later. Media ranges from pen, pencil, quink, watercolour and gouache

An introduction to my summer

So, following on from my last post I outlined that this was my head first plunge into resembling some form of illustrator. With that in mind, I suppose I should start publishing some illustrations then!

Currently I am working on 2 projects. One involves choosing a location and making sustained  observational drawings for thirty days *yawn* and secondly, my summer project, which is to choose a theme and develop it as and how you wish. Now, although the first project is critical in terms of actually passing my course, the idea of developing my own project has, naturally, meant that I have been more enthusiastic with pursuing the second option.

I will be putting up a full outline of the project itself shortly, but for now I wanted my first image that I displayed to be one that I was proud of, and, with a silent drum-roll currently resounding in my head, I give you my rendition of 'Dogsbody'

The inspiration for this piece comes from a mixture of sources but the most direct influences are from the Welsh tales within the 'Mabinogion' and Diana Wynne Jones' novel 'Dogsbody'.

I've been continuing practicing with watercolour, while this illustration also uses touches of gouache. I have been steadily increasing in confidence with this media. Why did I want this image to be my first? Well, for one, it has a dog in it, which will make a certain dachshund happy. Two, it has a dog in it, and I am very well known for not being able to draw animals at all! (Incidentally, this very fact was one of the factors why I started this particular project!)

I've also included these pages from my sketchbook of other dogs I researched and drew. The albino colouring and red ears is a reference to the spiritual dogs found in the first branch of the Mabinogion, so I tried to figure out which dogs would be best as both hunting dogs, and mythological at the same time.

So, here is the beginnings of what I've been up to this summer, in-between cheese and ham toasties, but expect to see more up here soon. 

A little about myself

I think it would be a fair assumption to say that everyone, at some point or another, has felt a little out of touch, been left in the dust or trailing behind their peers around them. It's with this in mind that I have created this blog, with it's sole purpose to try (on blind optimism) and introduce people to my particular brand of illustration.

Now, anyone who knows me can tell you that me and the interwebs, or anything remotely looking like a computer, runs on electricity or has been made in the last 100years, is anathema to me. I'd be more likely to use it as a shoe than realise it has an on/off button. I'd never considered 24 to be that old, but my fascination with all things pretty has meant that I have been quite happy to sit in my hole and let the world past me by.

Studying Illustration at Plymouth University, and fast approaching my 2nd year, has unfortunately been the catalyst in returning to the modern world, and facing up to the fact that if I ever want to succeed as an illustrator, then I'm probably going to have to let people know what I'm about.

So with that in mind, the ill-advised Illustrated Curse of Longness (A title lovingly bestowed to me by my better half) is about to commence.

Let the train wreck begin.