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!

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 :).

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 - 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!

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 :). 

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 :).

Hello from a lovely sunny London :).  So nice to feel the sunshine.  So there has been a longer break between my last post and this one, my aim is to try to blog more regularly.  Sometimes the weeks rush by busily and the time goes!
So just lately I've been drawing more food which has been fun.  I like eating so it's always a pleasure drawing tasty stuff.
First up are peppers stuffed with couscous, halloumi (one of my favourites), spinach and chickpeas.

Next it's roasted cauliflower with thyme.  Cauliflower used to get a bit of bad rep in the past but it seems to be getting more popular now.  Roasted it's absolutely delicious.  You can roast the whole cauli all chopped up and eat it warm or cold in a salad.  Believe me it's yum!

I used several materials to create this piece which is how I love to work.  I really enjoy mark marking and creating textures and i loved making a pattern with all the ingredients.

That's it for now, I'm off to start scribbling for a new piece of work.  Hopefully in the sunshine!  Have a lovely week :)

Hello again,

So it's been a back to normal week busying around.  I also enjoyed some of the sunshine whilst out and about.  I do like spring, starting to see things grow again and seeing the first flowers always gives a bit of a lift I think.
I've been drawing more food related things.  Below is an illustration of my favourite smoothie, Banana, yoghurt and peanut butter.  It is delicious and I do get through a lot of the yoghurt and peanut butter I have to say.  The best thing is to freeze the bananas then you don't need any ice, and adding a splash of milk just thins it a little and gives it a better consistency I think.  Just dollop a bit of it all in whizz it all up and you're good to go! yum!

Above is one of the lovely window boxes I saw whilst out wandering.  I loved the combination of colours and plants.
So, I'm back to a Sunday afternoon of drawing and painting.  Have a good rest of the weekend!