London

Good morning!  It's a rainy morning here in London...again!  Still, March is almost here so I am confident that will mean things are on the up.  I can spy a lovely array of spring flowers from my window out in the garden, and that's always a highlight for me at this time of year.  When it stops raining I will pop out to pay them a visit.
I wanted to share a recent personal piece I completed of some London 'things'.  It comes as no surprise that I do love drawing iconic London buildings and bits and pieces.  There is such a wealth to draw from, and many places I've drawn a lot, Tower Bridge is a prime example ;).  I feel I know it very well now!  When you live in such an impressive city with so much history it is tempting to take it for granted, but I still get awestruck when walking around, crossing the Thames and so on.  I still will make many more drawings of London, there are always ideas pulsing away in my head, but for now here's the latest.

I made a lot of preparatory sketches which I then copied and scaled up and down until I was happy with the composition.  In the end I removed the purple and used brown as the additional colour, I wanted mainly to use red, blue, black and white.  

I hope you can tell this is a corgi!  I'm sure that in their spare time the Queens doggos love to have a good run-around in their own crowns :).

Ok, it's Friday which means a drawing day for me.  I've been working on some commissions which I can't share but today I should be able to work on something new that I've been doodling with for a few days.  Have a lovely Friday and weekend!

Brrr....London Frost Fairs

Hello,

I hope you've had a good start to....September!  I can't believe we are here already, the year is speeding past.
Today I'm sharing something I've been working on during these sunny days but which is on a wintry theme.  A while back I came across an article about 'London Frost Fairs' which took place on the river Thames when it..gasp! froze over.  Hard to imagine I know, but in those days the river was wider, slower flowing, and of course winters were much colder.  The last recorded fair was in 1814 and the best records are from the early 17th century.  The frost fairs were like parties on the ice, lots of games, food, drinks, King Charles II came to join in the fun at one of them, and there was even an elephant walking the ice at the final fair so the ice did get pretty thick.  There must have been a great sense of excitement and also quite a lot of risk I would imagine, as it could all end very suddenly.  My frost fair is based in the 17th century, I hope you can tell from the clothing and it meant I got to imagine my own version of the Old London Bridge which I wish I could have seen with all the buildings along it.

I did a lot of sketching beforehand then took copies and began to figure out the arrangement.  I find this is the best way for me to do it ;).

Just because I took a nice sunny walk along the Thames last week, here's a pic of the river as it is today!  It was such a beautiful afternoon :).

I hope you have a lovely start to the week, I'm off to start work on a new project and I'll be back soon!

London

Hello,

This week I want to share some London themed work I've been doing recently (I love drawing London things!)  The first is an illustration of an area of Carnaby Street and around.  It's an area I feel I know quite well.  I wanted to stick to a particular colour range and include places and items that have stuck out to me as I've walked around.  I do enjoy drawing the Liberty building, it's so iconic and beautiful, and I really enjoyed selecting what else to draw for my kind of map.

The second illustration I created after reading a book I received for Christmas called 'Underground Tales for London'.  It contains twelve stories from twelve different authors all inspired by, yep, the Underground.  I created an image for each story and then centred them around an image of a tube train.  I had fun creating this little project for myself and it also encouraged me to draw more figures which is something I haven't done that much of recently.

I hope you're having a good week.  It's pouring with rain where I am at the moment but I'm happy that now it's staying lighter longer at night, I'm always excited to see that change.  Right, back to the desk with a cuppa for some more drawing :).

Have a great weekend.

London

Hello,

I hope January is going well for you.  I know it can feel like a long month although I have to say so far personally I've been really enjoying it.
This week I'm sharing some London themed illustrations I've worked on recently.  I always love to draw London buildings and areas and it's something I intend to continue with.  Actually, I'm working on a London themed illustration now quite by chance.

Right, back to the desk with a cup of tea :).  Have a lovely toasty weekend!

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you've had a good break if you've had one.  I had a lovely Christmas with my family and have come back feeling relaxed and refreshed.  It was lovely to spend some time in the countryside and go for some nice long walks.  I created the illustration below following a walk around Dunwich.  It's known for suffering badly with erosion over the years, so a lot of old buildings have ended up in the sea.  It is told that on stormy nights you can hear the bells of old churches ringing from the sea....

Just before Christmas I also visited Blickling Hall.  For Christmas they light up the gardens and house and I've wanted to go for a while now.  This year I finally made it.  It was very cold but worth the wait, it was so pretty, (luckily I had some mulled wine and a gingerbread tree to help warm me up, of course! yum) 

It felt really Christmassy.  It all feels like a long time ago now though.  I'm really excited for the year ahead though, I've come back full of new ideas and I'm excited to be back to the table drawing!
I hope you thoroughly enjoyed your break if you had one, and that Santa bought you all you hoped for!  I'll be back soon with more new work :).

Regents park map

Hello,

This week I thought I'd share a map I've created of Regents Park.  I love making illustrated maps, figuring out what landmarks or items to include and arranging it all.  I especially enjoy drawing places I know quite well (although it has been a while since I've been to this park, I must go back!)
I start work like this by making very detailed pencil sketches of the various components  I'm going to include, at a larger scale, then simplifying them so they're not too complicated when I reduce them in scale and pull everything together for the final.  Anyway enough waffle, here's the map

I knew I wanted to include a penguin for the zoo and I loved drawing that and the parrot especially.  Who doesn't love a penguin?

Today I've spent playing around with inks in preparation for some new work, I have a lot of drawing planned for the weekend :).  I hope you've had a great week and I'll be back soon.

Walking and mapping at Ickworth

Hello there,

I hope you're having a lovely weekend.  This week I've been working on another lovely commission for Women's Health magazine which I'll share once it's published.  In the meantime I thought I'd share this Ickworth Park walking map that I created purely because I wanted to.
A couple of posts ago I talked about a visit I took to Ickworth Park whilst I was at home visiting family.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and I loved wandering around.  I really enjoy visiting properties like this and spending time in the gardens.  The map is created based on the walk around it that I did. There were some beautiful Dahlias in flower when I went and I'd like to see the wildflower garden when it's in full bloom in the summer.
As it's autumn I really wanted an autumnal palette, and I have been really inspired by the colours I've been seeing out and about on and off the trees.  I adore those gorgeous rich colours and they are gone so soon!

I really enjoy making work like this, figuring out the most important aspects and working out how to combine them all to make sense as an image, but also as a walk that you can follow with a bit of imagination.  If you've been I hope you recognise some of the sights here.

Right, back to work, I need to start sketching for this years Christmas card (I'll say that very quietly!) Ta ra!

 

A weekend away

Hello!

I've spent the last few weeks working away on some lovely editorial commissions hence why I haven't posted here for a bit.  They're not published yet so I can't share them with you but I will as soon I can.
Besides that I also spent a weekend away visiting family and during that trip we went to Ickworth House.  I love visiting properties like this, getting a glimpse of the past and strolling around gardens.  The gardens here included a stumpery, I'd never heard of it before, but it's like a secret little garden made up of upturned tree stumps that have then been left dotted around so other plants can grow up around them.  Sometimes the stumps are shaped into animals and so on as was the case with some here.  It was beautiful day when we visited which was very lucky indeed.  There may well be some work inspired by this trip!

I also loved this inventive scarecrow.

There were also some rather beautiful Dahlias in the garden, look at the perfection!

I hope you've had a lovely weekend.  The days are getting shorter but I do love this time of year, it's still not too cold and the trees look so beautiful with all the leaves changing colour.  

I'll be back soon :).

Buildings and gardens

Hello!

I thought I'd share something I finished working on this week.  I been wanting to challenge myself to draw more buildings.  I often draw specific buildings for maps and so on, but they're always small in scale, so I've been wanting to make some work that was just a building at a larger scale for a while now.  I've also been keen to draw the Liberty building for ages.  I think it's beautiful, and I also pass it a lot.  Twice a week I go to a gym close by in the early morning, and I've been doing this for quite a long time now.  The Liberty building is the first thing I notice as I come out from the tube station and I've seen it in the dark, in the light, sunshine, rain, fog pretty much any weather!  It's just a lovely thing to see especially at a quieter time of the day.

Today I visited the Geffrye Museum somewhere I've wanted to go for a while.  It's a small museum of the home and has recreations of room and garden layouts from the last 400 years, set in old almshouse buildings.  I've been living in London for many years now and I still find places I've never been this was one of those.  Pictures below.

That's it for now, back to work drawing green veggies, yum!  Have a great weekend :)

Hello and happy new year!  It seems like a very long time ago since Christmas and New Year now, I can't believe it's already one week since New Years.  I had a lovely break spending some time with family and then I came back to London full of enthusiasm to get back on working.  I hope you all enjoyed your break if you had one.
I'm sure you know by now my trip to Barcelona was one of the highlights of last year for me.  I found it so inspiring and have been making work about it ever since.  Below is something I completed recently based on a beautiful square Placa Reial (I especially liked the fountain and lamps).  I came across it whilst out walking on my first afternoon and instantly knew I wanted to create some work around it.  I hope it conveys some sense of the heat and light of a summer afternoon.
Just a quick post today, I'll be back soon with more.  Until then Happy New Year and I hope you've had a great start to 2017!

Hello there,

I thought I'd share what I've been up to just lately.  So below is something based on my recent-ish visit to Barcelona (it seems a long time ago now!)  I really wanted to restrict my use of colour for this one and I loved doing the ink line work.  This piece is inspired by the area around the Cathedral and the museums around there that I visited.  One of my first stops was the Cathedral as I'd been walking round the gothic area on day one locating myself.  In the cloisters there actually are geese (apparently they've been here since medieval times) they make quite a racket too.  

The dolls, keys and Saint come from the fascinating Museu Frederic Mares which I loved looking around.  Museums like this are great as they're not as well known so you can really take some time to have a really good nose, and you're practically alone in doing so.  Frederic Mares was a collector and the range is huge, fans, clocks, sculptures, ironwork, all beautifully arranged.  On the top floor was the toy room, I was the only one there alongside the guard (who had to put all the lights on for me).  It was full of old mini theatres, and old toys along with lots of dolls all in glass cabinets....my horror film mind was in overdrive ;).  I loved it!  It's set in a lovely courtyard which houses a cafe which of course I had to have a coffee at (there is always time for a good coffee).

I also visited the Museu Historia Barcelona where you get to walk around roman ruins including a laundry and wine making area.  I love things like this and I really enjoy having the time to really look around.  

Apart from that I've been visiting several exhibitions just lately.  I finally got to have a proper look around the extension at the Tate Modern which I'd been intending to do for ages.  I also went to see Opus Anglicanum at the V&A which was amazing, such incredible detail and beauty, I really recommend it.  Finally I went to Bjork Digital at Somerset House which was incredible.  I didn't really know what to expect but it blew me away.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I went so I'm really happy I got to go.  I think it's touring so if you get the chance go!

Ok I've waffled on long enough, back to work!  Have a great week and I'll be back soon :).

Hello there,

In case you haven't seen my instagram I've recently just been on my first visit to Barcelona.  It was an amazing trip, I absolutely loved it.  I hadn't been out of the country for a pretty long time so I was desperate to go and see something new, I couldn't have picked a more perfect place.  There was so much to see, beauty and colour everywhere, plus lovely sunshine everyday.  Of course all the Gaudi architecture was amazing and I adored Park Guell.  I had a list of everything I really wanted to see and I saw all the major sites and museums, but as always when you travel there are always extra things you find when you get there and there are some great museums which are pretty quiet and fascinating to go around.  The Museu Frederic Mares is set in a lovely courtyard and houses some of his collections of pretty much anything.  Near to that is the Museu D'historia de Barcelona where you take a walk around Roman excavations.  I spent a lot of time exploring by foot stopping to see anything that took my interest, plus I got to go in the sea :) it really couldn't have been better.  I'm planning to create some work based on this trip so I'll come back with that soon.  Now I'm just thinking where next!

Here's a few photos :).

Museu Nacional D'Art De Catalunya

Park Guell

Park Guell

Fundacio Joan Miro

Casa Batllo

Casa Batllo

La Pedrera

Museu Frederic Mares

Have a great week!

Hello,

It's been a nice sunny weekend here, hopefully this will continue for a little longer!
I've been busy drawing a Southbank map.  The Southbank here in London is a lovely place to go and walk around I think and there are plenty of things to do, places to stop, eat, drink and people watch.  It's been somewhere I've always enjoyed going to since I've lived here.
I always find maps challenging which I like.  I make a lot of sketches of everything before I put it all together trying to make sure everything is roughly where it should be, a lot of sticking and photocopying of all the sketches takes place before I work on the final.  I drew the Tate several times trying to get the texture I wanted!  I really love that building.  I do love London :).

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I hope you've had a good weekend, I'll be back soon :)