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 :).

New prints and an Illustration Fair

Hello,

I thought it's about time I shared something new here.  Over the last few months I've been working away creating images, just taking my time and not putting too much pressure on myself to post anything until I am ready to do so.  It has meant being more relaxed with my social media (not that I was every an avid poster really) and I feel ok with that.  I know lots of people have been doing the same thing and feeling a similar way too.  It does mean I have collected a few images together, many of which will never be seen by anyone other than me, and it's been a great time for me to experiment and really make what I fancy.  So it's been a very enjoyable time work-wise.  Some of those images have now become new items which I've put into my shop SharonFarrowArt and I want to share those with you.  

First up are some Giclee art prints.  The idea behind these illustrations was to give a positive vibe and message.  I love incorporating text into my work, and the text used in these images was inspired by music I've been listening to, things that were happening personally to me at the time, and in the general goings on of life.  I feel that the words are open enough to be interpreted in anyway that relates to you personally.  I also experimented with adding linocut areas on some of these designs.  I always have a lot of fun creating textures but lino helps me to get an even coating of colour in some areas, whilst still providing subtle texture, I like that contrast.  I had a lot of fun (and made a lot of mess, always a bonus)!

The unicorn and peacocks images are also available as small A6 cards.  I usually make square shaped cards so I thought I'd try something a bit different. 

The other new product I have is a new home card. 

Also, a couple of weekends ago I took part in the Illustrators fair at Granary Square in Kings Cross, London.  It's my second fair with them and I'm hoping to do more.  I still feel very much a fair novice but with each one I learn a little more, and it is lovely to meet people and chat about my artwork.  It's lovely to have that face to face interaction with people.  The Illustrators fair organisers have been amazing at promoting everyone and making the fair a huge success, so a big thank you goes out to them and to everyone that came along :).

All of the products shown here are available now in my Etsy shop, SharonFarrowArt.  

So that's some of what I've been up to recently.  I'm now ready to start with some new ideas which I'll share soonish :).  Have a great week!

Pre lockdown 2 Museum visiting

Hello,

Just before lockdown 2 here, I headed out to a couple of museums before they shut again for a few weeks.  One of which was the Victoria and Albert Museum.  This is one of my favourite museums to wander around in.  At that time some galleries were closed but it didn't matter, I didn't have time to get around all that were open anyway.  I knew I specifically wanted to look at tapestries on that particular visit, and that I could do.  When I came home, I started sketching a few ideas for an illustration based on what I had seen and this is the final piece.

I knew I wanted to feature a unicorn, and I also knew I would find them within the tapestries on display.  That was my one 'rule,' I could only feature something I had seen in some form, but I was free to change it as I wished (I always like to give myself a few boundaries).  I took a lot of inspiration from the beautiful wrought iron work on display (there is a pretty large collection there).

I do love wandering around museums and seeing all the amazing things they have on display.  I love everything about it, the quietness, learning, and of course seeing all the beautiful crafted objects.  A visit to any museum for me can really transport me somewhere else, and give me so much to think about.

I had so much fun creating this and I have so many ideas have been sparked off in my head from what I saw, so there will be more to come I'm sure.  With everything that is going on right now it was so good to escape into my own world of fantasy :).  I hope you're all doing well.

Etsy shop update and the start of autumn

Hello, It's Monday morning and it looks like it's going to be a nice sunny day! That always makes a good start to the week. Yesterday I uploaded some more products to my Etsy shop so I thought I'd tell you a bit about that today. I've added five new art prints including an Autumn themed print, some nature themed prints (including an owl print of course), and a fruit and vegetable print. They're printed on 400gsm silk card and are A5 in size so they could be used as a postcard or as a print for the home.

 

What do you think?  I'm so happy to finally have them up in my shop.  I've got some more items coming soon, I just need to get them all photographed and listed.

Other than that I've been getting used to now being in autumn.  The weather has definitely changed here, it's got colder and I've got my woolly socks out.  I'm looking forward to the season of cosiness.

I hope you're all keeping well.  I'll be back soon with another shop update, now it's time to drink my coffee and get on with the day :).

Cards, prints and Monday sun

Hello,

The start of another (so far, sunny) week.  It is always nice when Monday begins with sunshine.
I hope everyone is keeping well.  Today I'm going to share a couple of recent things I've done.  The first is I've added some products to my Etsy shop.  There is now a range of cards (birthday, thank you, any occasion,) and prints on a variety of themes.  There's nature, London and wildlife.  Here's a little selection :-

Last week I also was very kindly featured on the Feast Norfolk Magazine website.  They did a little interview about me, my work and of course food! 

I'm guzzling down coffee as I write this, keeping it brief.  I hope you're all having a good start to the week and I'll be back soonish with more of my goings on. 

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!

Sunny spring

Hello,

Today is the most lovely sunny spring day.  I'm sitting here with the window open listening to the birds tweeting away.  It's a very nice Friday.
On a spring note, here's some spring themed work.  I created these a few weeks back when we had the first few really sunny spring days.  I love this time of year for the colour it brings in nature, also the days get longer and it's lighter, it always feels like a very optimistic time of year.

These two images will also be prints which are going to be for sale in my shop, which will be opening soon.  Eek! did I just say that?!  I'm still preparing everything at the moment but it should be up and running shortly.  It takes a little while to organise it all.  

Right, back to work with a cuppa.  See you soon!

The end of Autumn

Hello,

I hope you've had a good week.  Just a quick one today, I wanted to share this illustration I created all about autumn before it comes to an end!  I can't believe it's almost December already and winter is almost here.  It has certainly felt that way this week, although thankfully today was warmer :).
I loved drawing all the detail in this one and thinking of all things Autumnal to include.  I hope you like it.

I've been working on a London themed illustration this week which I'll share with you soon.  In the meantime have a wonderful weekend and week :).

Autumn loveliness

Hello,

There's been a bit of a gap since my last post, whoops!  It's been a busy time but now I'm finally getting back to it.  I've been working on some festive illustrations which I'll show when they've been published, and just recently it's been all about Autumn for me.  I absolutely love the wonderful warm colours that are around at this time of year, and I do like this cosy time of year even if it is sad to wave summer goodbye.
Today is a totally gorgeous sunny day and I'm looking out onto some lovely golden trees in the garden :).  These two illustrations are inspired by this, (what always feels very brief) time of the year, full of rich colour.

I also (as with every Autumn) have been taking lots of leaf photos :).

I love the colour combination below.

Ok, that's it for now, I'm just finishing a lovely cup of tea, then I must take a walk in this sunshine before heading off for dinner tonight with friends :).  Have a great weekend!

Golders Hill Park

Hello,

This week I'm sharing an illustrated map of Golders Hill Park, a lovely park not too far from where I live.  It's attached to Hampstead Heath which (if you're not aware) is a huge heath in London.  I wanted to illustrate Golders Hill Park because it has so many different elements to draw and it's the perfect time of year to be outdoors.
I always enjoy projects like this where I can research a place and pick out aspects of it that I think are important and that will be of interest to the viewer.  I loved drawing all the animals especially.  I visited a couple of times and was completely spoiled because the weather was so lovely!

I also took loads of photos, so here's a selection.

Today I'm back at my desk working on some nature themed illustrations so hopefully it will be a lovely drawing/painting day (well that's the plan anyway).  I hope you have a lovely weekend and it's sunny where you are :).

A little break - part two

Hello,

If you saw my post from last week you will know I'd been on a few days break out of London.  As soon as I came back I knew I wanted to make some work inspired by what I visited there when I can. One of the places I visited was Sutton Hoo in Suffolk.  It's a place I'd been wanting to visit for years and it was great to go during the week, on a beautiful day, where I could have a good walk around in the sunshine :).  It's fascinating to think a lot of the objects found here lay dormant for so long (minus the rabbit disturbance!) and it must have been so exciting when the finds were revealed.  There was so much detailed patterning on a lot of the items, it's incredible to think how they were made at that time.
For me, making work in this way means I can choose exactly what elements really stood out to me on my visit, and I wanted to make sure I incorporated the earthy feel of the dig all those years ago.  This also meant I was able to use all the gorgeous brown inks I have keeping the feel of the earth very loose in contrast to the lined work of the rabbits.  I was lucky that at this time of year bluebells were out, and after days of visiting places where the bluebell displays weren't quite as anticipated I walked into an area of woodland here and they were everywhere.  It was a real treat!

It really was lovely to have a break, get out into the countryside and just walk.  I think I really needed it.
So, back to work.  I have a lot I want to get done today.  It's a gorgeous day so a great way to spend a day of drawing looking out at some lovely sunny weather :).  See you soon!

Tigers

Hello,

I hope you had a lovely break if you had a nice long weekend last week.  I spent most of mine drawing which was lovely I have to say.  This week I'm sharing some tiger illustrations I've completed recently.  Since I created the Regents Park Map it's sparked off a curiosity to draw more animals.  I have a big list in a sketchbook that I keep of any ideas I have of work that I want to do, and I'm always adding to it (it's a great place to scribble in when I get those ideas in the middle of the night!).
I worked with a restricted palette of blues and turquoise/greens, this is something I love to challenge myself with and I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out.  I like how the tiger is camouflaged amongst all the plants.

Below is one of the sketches I worked on.  This was an experiment with ink and bleach, a technique I haven't used for a while.  It's a great way to get some really interesting colours and there is always an element of surprise which I love.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.  I think tomorrow is meant to be a sunny day here, yay!