Sunday 25 September 2011

new mkpulse piece progress

This drawing of the Caldecotte Arms in Milton Keynes is hopefully going to turn into a lovely finished piece in the next couple of days, and will be published in November's MKPulse magazine :) needs so much more work yet... going to take a while!

Tuesday 20 September 2011

half a century calls for a special card

My dad turns 50 this week, 50! So here is the card I've been working on for him finally finished. As you can probably tell he's into all things nautical hence the theme!

Monday 19 September 2011

'mesmerizing' - illustration friday

As I was truly mesmerized by Malta when I visited, I thought it would fit perfectly with this weeks IF topic!

This is the first of what I hope will be a series based on photographs I took whilst out there. In an ideal world I'd go tomorrow and live there for a month and do nothing but draw... sadly life doesn't quite work like that.

Such a beautiful place!














malta drawing... at last!

I visited Malta for the second time at Easter and made sure I took TONS of photos, because I was stunned the first time I went. Visiting for the second time I was just as stunned, it's such a beautiful place.

Waking round the walled city of Mdina was so inspiring, and this is a sketch of a street there (yes, the streets are that narrow!)

I don't know why it's taken me so long to do anything with the photos I took, I guess life just gets in the way sometimes aye?

Once this one's finished I'll be doing more for sure :)

Saturday 17 September 2011

this weeks IF progress?

This weeks Illustration Friday topic 'mesmerizing' has got me a bit stuck. As I've been housebound due to a knee operation I haven't seen many things lately that have mesmerised me. And just as I was thinking about this sitting in my garden, a dandelion seed flew past me, and I ended up staring at it until it blew away. 

I took it as a sign.

So, more tablet messing and many 'undo' hits later I've come up with this sketch. It's nowhere near a finished piece yet I don't think, more work can and will be done. Who knows I may be mesmerised by something else this week, it's only Friday after all!

Friday 16 September 2011

getting to grips with the graphics tablet!


So my lovely boyfriend bought me a Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet for my birthday, and I'm finally getting a bit more confident in using it! Here are a few little bits I did tonight. I love the fact I can sketch literally straight on to my computer, it's like magic! So more tablet creations in the coming weeks I feel :D


Monday 12 September 2011

old contour drawings re-vamped!






















I found some old contour studies from December-time sitting in a folder somewhere in the depths of my Mac, and thought they made quite cute little images. They would probably have been 30 second studies (or about that) drawn at work on my lunch break due to the squiggly lines.

Here they are after a little TLC, complete with ruddy noses thanks to the winter weather we had back in December! Not long 'til winter this year either... crikey.

Sunday 11 September 2011

some crochet happenings

Extreme apologies for no updates, no scanner and immobility means my work is suffering somewhat at the moment. However, I shall share with you my recent crochet creations that are adorning my bedroom at the moment!

This is probably the most complicated one so far, but also the cutest! The pattern is available from amigurumis.nl and it's very well written and easy to follow. Although with all the colour changes it's not for the faint hearted crochet-er, but it's oh so worth it!


Then there's this guy! The pattern is from Pink Tree Creature's Etsy shop and was really good fun to make. Very easy to follow and again great instructions, it'll take you a while but I reckon it's achievable for beginners/intermediates.




Although he's been trying to buy all sorts of lovely things through Etsy, tsk! 

There are tons and tons of fantastically written patterns out there, I wish I had the patience to create my own. So thank you to all the dedicated crochet people for these lovely patterns! 

Sunday 4 September 2011

something i've been meaning to finish...

The scanned file of this has been sitting on my laptop for about a month now, it was high time I did something with it!

I wanted to try and illustrate the front covers for some of my all time favourite books, and these books happen to be nearly all by Haruki Murakami. If you haven't read any of his work please please do, it's sublime.

'Kafka on the Shore' is by far my favourite book in the entire Universe, and illustrating the front cover scared the living daylights out of me. I won't divulge into the story so you'll have to go and read it, you shan't be disappointed.

This is what I have so far, I want to change the title around, but the bottom half I'm really pleased with. I've also started a cover for 'After Dark', also by Murakami, so we shall see what happens with that in the coming days...

... what book cover would you illustrate?

Friday 2 September 2011

'disguise' - illustration friday

So my scanner was not fixed in time :( so I couldn't add any more detail, but here's the simpler version finished for this weeks IF 'disguise'!

Where there's a determined illustrator - there's a way.