Medieval musings

Hello,

I hope you're all having a good week.  Today I'm sharing another new piece of work that's been inspired by my museum sketches.  I had a real desire to draw a dragon.  I saw so many of them in my museum wanderings, and there is something very magical about them that really captures my imagination.  It took quite a bit of sketching to get the dragon that I wanted to create, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I hope there's a sense of personality captured in my creation!  I've been enjoying drawing fantastic, strange, mythical creatures over these past few months, adding to my usual bird and animal creations.  It's been a bit of a shift for me in terms of subject matter, and something I'm hoping to continue with.

The dragon was transformed into a linocut image and then the rest was a combination of acrylic paint, coloured pencil, charcoal, and pen.  I wanted to take elements of stone work, carvings and fire into the illustration and I loved creating all those textures and patterns.  I also indulged my love of a limited colour palette sticking to three main colours.  

I like to keep the lino smudges in my work and not leave things too clean, just a personal preference really, does that work?  I'm never too sure.   

Just finishing up my coffee now and then I'll be busy organising for an art market tomorrow.  It'll be my first outdoor market and it's for artists based in my London borough of Barnet.  I'm hoping I'll be able to get some pictures of the day and I'll post them here hopefully next week!  

I hope you've had a lovely week and enjoy your weekend :).

Birds and plants

Hello,

Following on from my last post I wanted to share some work I made inspired by the sketch and my museum visit.  My idea for this image was to create something inspired by ceramic work, carvings and tapestries that I saw on my visit.  It's a combination of linocut, handmade stencils alongside painted and pencilled shapes.  I've mentioned before that I love using limited colour palettes, that way of working really suits me.

I've just finished another image in a similar vein, using that sketch and museum visit as my inspiration which I'll share next time.  

Have a great rest of the week :).

Sketching, sketching, sketching

Hello,

Last week I took myself for a midweek museum visit.  I picked one of my favourite museums which I've been to countless times, the V&A.  I always feel so lucky to have such a fantastic museum within easy reach of me, and since I moved to London many years ago it's been a staple place to visit for me.  I always come away so inspired by what I've seen, and it really seems to fire up the creative juices!

I intended to sketch on site a lot more than I actually did, but in the end I did a lot more looking, wandering, and took a lot more photos that I could use as reference later.  The plan then was just to sketch freely, drawing from what I'd seen, and seeing what ideas would come along as I did.  Once I got home I picked a long random piece of paper that was a wonky end from a roll of paper I have, and just began drawing.  It was so much fun.  I was completely absorbed in that drawing, it didn't matter how it turned out or what came about to draw next, I was just letting it flow very naturally and it felt wonderful.  I wanted to just sketch with pencil and without colour, as this is something I've only been using recently to do very quick drawings, so I really wanted to explore using just that one medium.  I was so happy with how it turned out and it has produced seeds of new ideas which may or may not be taken further (more scribbling is due to commence)!  It's also definitely taken my mind off into new subject matter which is always a bonus, and was something that I really hoped would happen.  To top it all off the whole process has given me an enormous amount of pleasure which has been an amazing gift to me.  I could have just carried on drawing and drawing if the paper hadn't run out!

This is the full drawing.

I'm now working up some ideas inspired by these drawings, and continuing to sketch :).

Enjoy your weekend.  

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 :).