My recent way of working

Hello,

I hope you're all having a good start to September.  Can't quite believe it's here already and as it's been a lovely summer here in the UK, I'm hoping some good weather will continue as I've loved wearing shorts pretty much everyday all the way through.  That's been a real treat for my legs and a nice change from them being cooped up.  So far it's still good so all is well.  

Today I'm sharing a new image I've recently finished.  I've been working a lot with ideas just from my imagination over the past few months which I've then made into prints or cards.  I guess it's a bit of a change for me to just create work where I feel I have complete freedom to experiment as it's all been work that will potentially go into my Etsy shop or just be created as portfolio pieces for my website.  I've mentioned before how enjoyable this has been for me and it's also meant I've allowed myself time to 'have a go' at new processes, one of which has been incorporating linocut into my work and I'm really happy with the results.  I've been combining it with my painted/penciled/stencilled areas and I love the variety of textures I can get from it alongside my regular combinations.  

This is the most recent work.

The sea creatures were created from the linocut and then I've used a combination of acrylic paint, coloured pencils and oil pastels to create the plants and shapes.  The idea stems from a combination of conversations with friends....yep! feelings, music and a desire to create a moving, swirling image with a limited palette.  

Over the past few months all of the below images have been created incorporating linocut into my work.  I really do enjoy the process and the finish it gives combined with the looser marks created by hand.  All of these illustrations are available to buy as Giclee prints over in my shop too.

I thought I'd share that little insight into the way I've been working, I hope it's been of interest!  I'm now off to get some sketching done working through some new ideas.  

I hope you're all ready for the weekend and I'll be back soon :).