A couple of dishes

Hello,

Today I'm sharing some recent food illustrations.  One of my favourite things to eat when it's cold are hot, spicy, soupy noodles.   If I make them myself I always make too much (and generally eat them all!).  In fact I ate them last night, yum.  You can bung in any ingredients really but I try to put in lots of colourful vegetables and then add fish, tofu or nuts.  It's also a great 'using up' dish.  I'll be honest I generally make quite a mess eating them but that's part of the joy :).

From hot to cold.  I also make a lot of big salads.  The one below is really colourful and the illustration is shown on the They Draw and Cook website as part of their 'Eat the rainbow' challenge.  This salad seemed like the perfect recipe.  I especially loved drawing the beetroot and salad leaves, mixing all the mediums.  

Right, back to work.  The sun is out today, hooray! and I'm starting to see the arrival of spring flowers.  I love spring, the colourful flowers, and longer days.  Have a lovely weekend :).

Christmas nibble time....almost

Hello,

Brrr it's been a pretty chilly week here.  I've been all togged up whenever I've had to face the weather, definitely hibernation time!
So Christmas is almost upon us which means Christmas food!  I haven't actually eaten either of these....yet.  I know that I will be having some homemade mince pies once I go home to see the family though, yum!

Just a quick one this week as I've got a big to-do list to complete before Christmas.  Now, I need to start wrapping those presents :).

Have a lovely weekend.

The crow

Hello,

I hope you're having a good week.  This week I've been working on lots of fun new work which I will show soon.  I also finished a large scale drawing I'd been working on.  It's been an age since I did anything this size and it was so nice to get back to large brushes and lovely large marks.  If I'm honest I'd wanted to create this illustration for ages but didn't have the time to really focus on it properly, I wanted to give it all my energy rather than just dipping in and out.  I really enjoyed it and I'm definitely going to do more.  My subject was a crow because I find them so fascinating.  I wanted to use blacks, greys and a hint of gold leaf as once again it's been so long since I just created a piece in black and white.  I did do numerous large studies before committing to the final and I am really happy with the result.

That's me at the bottom, for the purpose of scale and being a bit silly I know :).  I would love to create more work like this so if you're a business/person with a space on your wall that needs filling why not give me a shout (shameless plug). 

Have a lovely weekend, it's going to be a nippy one methinks, a great excuse to find somewhere nice and cosy to have a lovely hot drink.  See you next week :).

Summery delights

Hello,

I thought I'd share some recent summer inspired food I've illustrated.  This year in the UK we are having a proper summer, which is very exciting!  So everyday has been warm and sunny for weeks which is lovely (although today is cloudy, but hopefully that's a one off, it's still warm!).  My flat gets very hot as it's on the top floor and gets the sunshine in the afternoon and evening, so it means I can't be cooking and creating more heat, so there's been a lot of yummy salads.  One particular favourite has been courgette with pine nuts and basil or my version of pesto (minus the cheese) which I have to say has been delicious.  It's super light, fresh and yummy.  I've been having it with another cannellini bean salad which I'm going to draw up soon, and sometimes potato salad.  Maybe that sounds like quite a lot of food.....hmm, eating is good.

I loved working on these in the sunshine (with the fan going obviously).  I really hope this weather lasts, it's just a joy to feel the sun on your skin and not worry about taking layers wherever you go.  I'm really enjoying it.  Today I'm working on another coffee illustration and then I'm hoping to get to a local park researching for some new work.  Have a lovely weekend :).

Out for a walk

Hello,

It's a lovely sunny Saturday :).  I'm sharing another illustration completed after a little break in the countryside.  I went walking through Sheringham Park where luckily some of the Rhododendrons were out at that time, lots of glorious colour.  I made this inspired by the walk which led to the coast in the end, and also to fish and chips and later an ice cream, yum.
Have a lovely weekend whatever you do, I'm about to start sketching for some new nature themed work :).

A little break

Hello,

I've had a lovely week.  I finally took a proper few days off and incredibly picked the week with the best weather so far :D!  I went to visit my family back in Norfolk and spent time in the countryside, and by the coast, in what was permanent sunshine, I really could not believe my luck.  As the weather was so good it was also the perfect excuse to try several varieties of delicious ice cream, yum.  Below are some pictures of my time there.

I really enjoyed getting away, I've come back full of new ideas, and got to work on some new illustrations inspired by my travels.  I love creating work in this way.
In honour of the sun (which is not with me today :(, it has been a day of rain) here's a recent sunny Illustration I created all about bees.  I wanted a really limited sunny warm toned palette for this one.

I hope you've had a great week and enjoyed the sunshine if it was around where you were :). 

An Owl

Hello,

I haven't posted anything for a while but fear not I have been working away.  Here's a recent illustration of an owl, I find them quite fascinating.  I've been drawing quite a lot of birds lately, mostly those I see around me.  I haven't seen any owls unfortunately though!  I really wanted to restrict my colour palette for this one and I'm pretty happy with the result.

It's a short post this week, I have work calling.  I am drawing something that would really fit better with a sunny day (it's cold and rainy here), but I'm hoping that it will bring some sense of summer to me :).

Have a great week.

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! 

Springy things

Hello there,

So it's the easter weekend and although it doesn't feel very spring-like I wanted to share some spring influenced illustrations.  I've been drawing lots of daffodils this week.  Just having a bit of an experiment with some techniques and colours and having a good old play around.
I did loads of colour sketches here's three below

I decided in the end to go with the yellow/blue tones.  I enjoy experimenting like this so much and it really helps sort my ideas out in my head.

The image above is my final finished version.  I'm really happy with the colours because for me they really remind me of spring.  Unfortunately I was working on this whilst it was a very grey and rainy day outside, (I was pretending there was sunshine!) but we have got lighter evenings here now so things are looking up! 

I hope you have a lovely break if you're having one over this weekend, so far I have only eaten one hot cross bun :).

Food illustration

Hello,

I thought I'd just share a food illustration I completed recently.  I really enjoy drawing food, especially things I like to eat.  I have to say it has been a while since I ate a falafel.  It has to be a good one with plenty of crunchy salad so it's not too dry.  I loved drawing the actual falafels they have a great texture which is right up my street.  I have a list of foodie things that may become illustrations which I keep in my sketchbook.  If I make a tasty dish those often get added.

I hope you're having a good weekend.  It's been pretty cold here today I am waiting for spring to properly arrive!  Tonight the clocks go forward here so lighter nights from then on, which makes me believe warmth is on it's way!

Bye for now

Inspired by nature

Hello,

I hope you're all doing well.  I'm feeling really settled into 2018, the end of year break seems well behind me.  So far January has been pretty good for me.  I've been busy creating new work and organising myself for the months ahead.
As I said in my previous blog, my little Christmas trip back to the countryside has inspired some new work.  I'm determined to try and travel a bit more this year, (I think I say this every year though!) it's so good for me, it always gives me new ideas and just clears my head.  The illustration below was inspired by a country walk and also a book I started reading, there was mention of a hare and I knew immediately I wanted to bring one into my work, sometimes that's all it takes.  I wanted this illustration to have a decorative aspect also.  I love to take plants and make some sort of pattern with them and it was really enjoyable to just sit and build up the pattern using a mix of media, I was in my element!  I also love challenging myself with restricting my colour palette, colour is hard!  I'm really pleased with how this turned out though.  I worked on an A3 paper size for this, I've been working at A4 or smaller just recently so this made a nice change.

I hope you've had a good week.  I'm sketching for some new work this evening and tomorrow will be (hopefully) a painting day :).  Bye for now 

Christmastime is here.......almost

Hello!

It's almost time for a few days of Christmas break and I'm really excited about it.  I actually (for once) feel pretty organised about Christmas, (my presents are wrapped already, normally this happens much closer to the date!) and I'm already packing ready for a few days with the family.  I am really looking forward to some lovely country walks and to just slowing down and having a break from all the rushing around of life here.   I have had a busy year and I know a bit of time to relax is just what is needed....for a few days at least ;).
Here's a couple of Christmas food themed illustrations I completed recently.  I tend to make a lot of lovely roasted vegetables all throughout the year and I love simply cooked sprouts with some nice crunchy walnuts.

If you're having a break over the Christmas period I hope you get to enjoy it with family and friends and eat lots of yummy food.  I'll be back very soon :)

November 5th

Hello!

Tomorrow is Guy Fawkes here in the UK.  When I was a child this was one of the highlights of the year!  Often we would go to see a big display somewhere which was very exciting and then at the end have a sparkler.......sparklers are the best!  I still find fireworks hugely exciting and luckily from my flat I get a really good view of lots of displays :).  Although admittedly it's not the same without a sparkler.
So, I was commissioned by The Simple Things magazine to illustrate their November identifier page and it was for, fireworks!  I had a lot of fun playing around with different media to get what I wanted.  Maybe this guide is helpful if you're watching tonight, as I think the majority of the displays will be this evening :).

Here's a few of my favourites in close up.

I hope you're having a lovely weekend and if you're watching fireworks tonight, enjoy!  I'm off to have a cup of tea and start on some roughs for a new commission :), yay! bye

Drawing out and about

Hello,

This week I've been busy working on my latest promotional mail out.  That means lots of envelope writing and stuffing, sorting and organising.  This always is a time consuming job, so besides drinking lots of coffee and tea (always essential for such tasks,)  I also took some time to go out drawing.  I've been wanting to go Museum drawing again for ages.  It's something I'd love to do more of but struggle to find the time to do at the moment.  This time I went to the British Museum.  I had hoped to make it to the V&A also, but in the end ran out of time.  I really enjoy wandering around the collections and then picking out what I feel like drawing.  My plan was to do as much as possible at the Museum and then finish off at home.  What I like about this is I'm limited in just how much I can lug around with me, and what is practical, so I take a selection of pencils and pens and then when I arrive I have to work with what I've got.  Obviously there's so much to draw it's hard to know what to pick first but I knew I wanted to draw in the Mexico room where the wonderful pottery vessel was.  There's so much I wanted to draw there so I'm definitely going back.  The image at the bottom is from the Clock gallery.  Again there were lots of beautiful objects in there.  Both of these I then worked into when I got home.

I have more sketches that I still want to work up and lots more I'd like to draw so I will be going back!  

Ok I'm getting back to it, there's still some more envelopes to stuff.  Have a lovely week and I'll be back soon :)

Sunshine and Website update

Hello there,

It's a beautiful sunny day here in London today hooray!  There's definitely been a lack of those just recently so it's fantastic to have such beautiful weather :).
I've been busy over the last week or so with amongst other things completely re-designing and relocating my website.  This is something I'd been wanting to do for a long time.  I was never entirely happy with how my previous site looked, but was quite nervous about undertaking a big re-design because I was worried just how long it would take, and whether I would be able to create what I was after.  In the end I had about a week of downtime and I'm so happy that I decided to do it.  I'm now with Squarespace following a recommendation, thank you! and I've been so happy both with the level of support they give and all the guidance they have available.  For someone with very little knowledge of website creation they have fantastic templates and how to guides.  I'm pretty much done for now so if you'd like to check it out take a look here sharonfarrow.com and let me know what you think!

Besides that I thought I'd share some recent work especially as it seems a fitting day for strawberries! These are strawberry shortcakes (my Mums are delicious :)).  I really enjoyed doing all the plate decoration and detail.

Yesterday I also popped into the Roundhouse to see the immersive installation +/- Human.  I loved it. I found both the orbs and the music totally mesmerising and hypnotic.  I'd just been to the gym so I settled down on the floor all relaxed and just watched them whirring all around me.  It finishes tomorrow so if you're in the area I'd really recommend popping in.  

Ok that's it for now.  I hope you're having a lovely weekend.  It's bank holiday here in the UK so that combined with such gorgeous weather is a real treat!

Sunny days

Hello there,

I've had a busy few days of organising and planning as I am re-designing my website.  This is a pretty big job for me but something I've wanted to do for a while so I thought I'd better get on with it.  I didn't realise quite how long it takes to transfer everything over or how much downtime there would be so I'm currently without a website!  I'm hoping it won't take too long until it's up and running and hopefully looking more organised, fingers crossed!
In the meantime here's an illustration I completed on a lovely sunny day but I never blogged about.  A lovely pot of iced tea.  I'm still convincing myself that we're just having a late summer here and it is on its way!
I hope you've had a good week.  Right back to sorting out my images! :)
Bye for now

Flamingo

Hello,

I had a lovely walk today out in the sunshine.  It was so nice to feel it on my skin and see a lovely blue sky, it's been lacking here!
I just wanted to post this illustration that I completed a few weeks back.  I wanted it to be quite decorative but simple and really reduce my palette, always a challenge!  I'm thinking to experiment with it and turn it into a pattern although I think it could work well as a card.  What do you think?

Right, I think it's time for a cuppa and then back to work.  I just made myself a delicious dinner of smoky beans (my own made up recipe which was a success! I do love it when my food experiments come off!) with baked sweet potato.  I've got some new work to start sketching for tonight, then tomorrow the gym, and lots of drawing.  Have a good weekend whatever you get up to :).