2016 and the Death of Idols

Personally, this year has been really intense and a steep learning curve. Here's a handy little list of some of the stuff that's gone down for me:

• I quit working in retail, something I'd been doing on-and-off for 4/5 years and absolutely hated. 
• I got a new job working in a college, then got an identical job at another college a few months later. 
• I read 16 books
• I signed a lease to move into a house with my boyfriend, which feels like a big, wonderful step to me
• I took up my first professional commission as a freelance illustrator
• I worked my first market as an independent seller
• I explored Scotland and the Cotswolds 
• I got to visit my wonderful, amazingly talented friends across the country several times throughout the year

In fact, when I think back I really can't recall anything particularly negative that's happened to me. My family and friends are happy and healthy, and despite occasionally feeling overwhelmed with stress my mental health has only improved. 

The constant deluge of celebrity deaths this year has made me feel very weird. Some have affected me more than others, but having experienced close personal loss myself I just don't understand mourning for someone you don't know (regardless of their talents) while 'ordinary' people are dying in their hundreds and thousands every day. 

It's like suddenly realizing that your gods are mortal. 

Despite this confusion, two deaths in particular have shaken me. That's Carrie Fisher and Richard Adams. On the same day. 

Carrie Fisher, not only because she spent a great deal of her life representing one of the strongest female characters in fiction, but for her unapologetic stance on mental health and feminist issues. As a geek, a woman, and someone that has struggled with mental health issues on and off throughout my life, she really was someone that gave me so much strength. 

Portrait of Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, digital painting

Richard Adams has always been one of my favourite authors. Plague Dogs is one of my all-time favourite books. Watership Down, Shardik, and Maia are also great reads (the latter, a surprisingly sexy direction for Adams, was the inspiration for naming my mum's dog.. Don't judge me..). There is no doubting the effect the man has had on my artistic style. He wasn't fluffy and cute with his anthropomorphism. Everything was gritty and earthy, violent and dark but also spiritual, reflective, realistic. 

He also taught me that age is not a restraint with creativity, that I don't need to be in a hurry to write or draw a masterpiece. Sometimes the best stories just sort of happen. 

Rowf and Snitter (Plague Dogs) snoozing by a fireplace, ink & marker

In a lot of aspects this year has been a mess. All indications are that things will continue in that direction. But please stay optimistic, please fight the good fight, please don't get stuck in echo chambers. Have patience, be mindful, appreciate what you have and speak for the people, animals and environments who aren't loud enough on their own. 

Read More

Christmas Gift Tags & 2017 Art Plans

I'm out of my market/studio space next week and into a new flat by January so the next few weeks will be quiet as I relocate everything and set up my new space to work from home.

My art to-do list for personal projects in 2017 currently consists of:

•  development for Terminal (my graphic novel project)
•  gallons of original prints/fanart (I want to start selling at local conventions and markets)
•  little clay animal sculptures (I blame my instagram feed for over-inspiration)
•  needlefelting plants/succulents (with custom clay pots, so cute)

I've also got a few zine ideas running around in my head that I want to get up and out at some point. I want to get stickers printed for promotional material and just some cute designs to sell on my Etsy (which I plan to use a lot more to 'build my brand').

 I'll also be really pushing myself to build my freelance portfolio and expand my client base in that regard. Gonna whoop that self-doubt!

Anyway, you came here for pretty art!

Gouache paints on large gift tags, assortment of designs

Gouache paints on mini gift tags, assortment of designs

These are a series of gift tags I made for the market. They sold pretty well but weren't exactly time-cost-effective. They're all hand painted in gouache and were a joy to make...which really just tells me I love gouache and need to paint some original pieces with it more.

I've still got a bunch of these if anyone wants them for next Christmas, give me a shout~

Read More

Felting Friday (backlog) - Badgers, fox, humpback whale & orca

I've been so busy with everything lately, I'm sorry to anyone that likes to dip into this blog, I really am. You can absolutely expect more from me in 2017.

Here's what you missed over the last couple of months.

Needlefelt badger, merino wool

Needlefelt fox, merino wool, acrylic eyes & wire

Needlefelt humpback whale, merino wool

Needlefelt orca, merino wool

I've been selling all of these little characters at the market but it's been very, very quiet in there and so, while they've drawn a lot of admirers, they haven't sold (except for one of the badgers). 

They will be up in my Etsy shop as soon as I figure out some nice packaging for them. 

Read More

Pet portraits and a new vulture painting

Bear with me, it's been a while.

The market has been keeping me really busy, along with looking for a new place to live, working at college and picking up a slew of commissions. I'm not complaining, I love it, it's great to be busy doing what you love. 

First off, I finished off a new watercolour piece.

It's an A3 piece, so the biggest watercolour painting I've ever done and definitely the most adventurous. There's no particular story behind it, I just love kick-ass hunter girls and vultures. There's a vague theme of the positive, cyclical nature of life and death, new life and whatnot, and I definitely wanted to make vultures look a lot more benevolent than you'll typically see them in media and artwork.

Girl & vultures, A3, watercolour painting

This piece is available as a giclee print in both A3 and A4 size, which you can find in my Etsy shop. 

Next up, I've started doing pet portraits for the Christmas season and potentially beyond. I'm still sort of sending out feelers to judge how popular these will actually be but I've already got a couple of orders so it's looking positive. You can find them in my shop too. 

What else? I've been working on a couple of new needlefelt pieces which I'll post soon. I've got some new business cards made up and I've started doing hand-painted gift tags and building up concept art for a project next year.

 My hyperactive creativity is constantly popping with new projects and things I want to make, so it's just a matter of pacing myself and forcing some discipline.

I'm pretty darn happy at the moment which is really nice and special considering it's getting darker and colder. I usually get sucked under by winter depression by now but keeping myself busy and focusing on starting a new chapter with Ian is keeping my head high. 

Read More

New studio & market residency

I've got a new studio space on the first floor of Co-Lab in Broadmead, Bristol! This is my first attempt at selling my work outside of private commissions for clients as the space opens up as a market twice a week. I'm here with a handful of other great, more experienced artists, so I'm picking up tips as I go and improving my space and techniques every day.

To be honest, above everything it's really important to me just to have a space of my own to work in. As I'm hopping between two houses without a permanent residence at the moment it's been a case of dragging bagfuls of work from one space to another. In one house I have a lovely desk space in front a big window surrounded by plants and a brand new PC, but it's miles from everything. In the other I have...well, a sofa? And a dining table with no privacy. Regardless of how much I sell it's so great to have a space that is just mine to be productive in.

And I'm in front of the biggest window I've ever seen, which is perfect for me! Nothing motivates like natural light.

The market is open every Saturday and Wednesday between 11AM and 4PM until January. If you're nearby then please do drop in, even if it's just to browse or chat. I'll be opening up commissions if you'd prefer personalized work, if not I've got prints of my terrariums, the plankton piece, and most of my needlefelt work is up for sale too.

Read More

Endangered Terrariums

Anybody following me on social media recently (I've really been trying to figure Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr out, it completely goes against my style) will have seen WIPs of this series scattered around over the last couple of weeks. I'm so happy to have them all done, guys! I've never done a series like this before so, as with everything I'm doing these days, it was a learning experience. 

These were inspired by the recent news that giant pandas are no longer classified as endangered. That's great news, that we can band together and get a job done when it comes to conservation. I was concerned that people, as they so often do in the age of the internet, would pat themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum and forget that there are an enormous amount of endangered animals that haven't been lavished with all the attention given to pandas. I also wanted to make MYSELF aware of these as well. 

The tiny ecosystem of the terrarium is an eden-like capsule for these animals where their natural habitats are disappearing around them. The pixel art reflects on a future where digital representations of these creatures will be all we have left of them. 

Endangered terrariums, A4, watercolour painting & pixel art

The series is available in my Etsy shop in a limited run as A6 postcards, but I also have a couple of each in A4 giclee prints that I'll be putting up for sale soon. After their gone I don't intend to print anymore. 

Read More

Divide

Phew, it's been a while!

Fear not, I've been incredibly busy. I've been doing a lot of work away from scanners and tablets, as well as setting up different projects and getting settled into my day job. 

Here's a little something I started a month or so ago. After I inked it I spent a lot of time looking at it wondering what I could do with it. I thought about using it as Adobe Illustrator practice, but I think exploring software will have to wait 'cause I'm on a good hand-drawing spree.

Zooplankton illustration, A4, ink and digital

I was originally inspired by watching the documentary 'Racing Extinction', and the song 'Manta Ray' by J. Ralph and Anohni, both of which I heartily recommend. I also wanted to draw a big plethora of different beautiful things as development from the cut-out water fowl piece I did earlier this year. It's a really fun and therapeutic way to work. 

Plankton/zooplankton are just incredible, fascinating, other worldly things and no piece of art can really do them justice.

I've also got a limited edition giclee print of this available if anyone is interested. 

Read More

Toadrobin! Robintoad!

I promised myself I wouldn't do anymore fun free art for people.. That didn't work out. 

Toadrobin, A5, colour pencil

Robintoad! Toadrobin! Whatever you want to call it. 

Read More

Felting Friday - the Lammergeier!

First off, I revamped my website a little bit. I'm a complete sucker for teal and turquoise shades, and I eventually intend to match it up with some soft pinks when I get some time to fiddle with it more and make some pretty buttons and whatnot.

I think I'll aim for needle felting something every friday for the foreseeable future. Seems like a good pace alongside other stuff for the moment, though I know I won't be able to keep it up. Drawing and painting is in my bones and I'll eventually have to prioritize.  

So this week I bring you my absolute favourite animal, the Bearded Vulture or Lammergeier (which, let's face it, sounds infinitely cooler). 

Needlefelted lammergeier, merino wool & wire

I spent ages trying to pose this fella in my garden before remembering I've got a lamb skull now. Or ewe. Who knows. Some kind of sheep, right? Lammergeier means 'lamb-vulture' in German which refers to old stories of the big guys swooping down and carrying off lambs. They're up there in the top 10 largest birds of prey in the world and can allegedly grow up to four feet fall. Which seems insane. 

More fun facts? Their diet is almost entirely made up of bone marrow and their bellies can digest bone in twenty-four hours. The orangey-redness of their feathers isn't natural, these guys rub dust on like war paint. As if those eyes weren't intimidating enough. Unfortunately there are only about 20,000 left, which definitely isn't enough because I'm desperate to see them in the wild. 

This one was super frustrating and I almost gave up at one point. I was basically winging it (hah) with the armature and, looking back, it just wasn't the best. Some new pliers and thinner wire should help next time. I tried something new with the feet and glossed them and the beak over with PVA which kind of worked. But it bears some experimenting. The wings were a shot in the dark which I bought some felt sheets for and I think they look really nice. But again, I'll have to practice.

Birds are REAL HARD to felt, basically..

I definitely need to make more.

Read More

Lord of the Deadwood - Finished!

Two posts in one day! I suppose that makes up for a couple of sleepy weeks, right?

This is just to show off the finished version of an old WIP I had lying around. As usual, as unsure as I am about the finished product I'm content with the fact that I learnt a lot through the process. And most of this was churned out in twenty four hours, which I feel was a huge achievement for me. I'm still picking up tips and tricks to do with light, colour and tone, none of which I was sat down and taught in school/college/university, so messing around with my own stuff and learning first hand seems to be the best route. 

Lord of the Deadwood, 12x12 inches, digital painting

I definitely learned that painting/drawing without lines is not for me. I think lineless painting looks gorgeous and I wish I could make it feel natural but it just isn't me. Still, you never know unless you try!

Read More

The Pokemon revival

I know everyone is shooting out Pokemon related stuff because of the recent (and probably, by now, waning?) success of Pokemon Go. And the new 3DS games due out in November. 

While a lot of people have used Go as a gateway back into those games, I've been a constant resident of the bandwagon since childhood. I mean I've bought at least one of every generation of games. Don't get me wrong, I don't go all in with merchandising and the cartoon and all that jazz. I like the games, and even then not at all in a competitive way. I love the whole exploring and discovering aspect of them more than anything else. Call me childish, call me a nerd, but I find it fun and relaxing. 

So I wanted to do some Pokemon art. It was a choice between bashing out 'new' interpretations of Pokemon, illustrating one each and working my way through the fifty thousand or however many there are now, or drawing multiples of each using their real-life counterparts to create different breeds (sort of like the Alolan versions in Sun & Moon).

Bulbasaur family, digital painting

Charmander family, digital pixel art

Squirtle family, digital watercolour

It's been great fun so far, if a little tiresome at times. 

I've take new artistic approaches with each one, and I'm still intending on fiddling with the presentation which is super dull right now, I know. So you've got the 'Saurs based on breeds of toad mixed with bulbed flowers, the Char's based on different types of dragon mixed with culturally appropriate salamanders, and the Squirtle family designed with fresh-water turtles combined with weapons. And a hose pipe for funsies.

Each group is a different style as well - there's a cell-shaded sort of style, pixel art (which I worked too big with so you can barely tell, lesson learnt for the future!), and digital watercolour. 

PS. Fanart is something I intend to expand on in the next year, so get ready for that (whether you like it or not). 

Read More

Felting Friday - the Red Stag

I love needlefelting. 

I've decided to work my way through these big bags of wool I've amassed. It's really addictive. I find it even more satisfying than sculpting at the moment in the way that it's so tactile and you can see results really quickly. If I can balance this with my illustration and design work, as well as with my day job, I'll be a very happy lady.

Here's my project from the weekend, an unnamed stag. 

Needlefelted red deer stag, merino wool & wire

He's the biggest needle felt critter I've made so far. I used a wire frame (which in retrospect was not thick enough wire, he's a bit of a tripod sometimes because the weight distribution is a bit off) with pipe cleaners which was a learning curve and also means he's fairly poseable. I love how much I'm learning from each project, it's really encouraging.

Read More

Scotland photo collections

I can't recommend Scotland enough if you ever want to escape the city for a few days. It doesn't take long to feel like you could be absolutely anywhere but in the UK. There were moments where the highlands were channeling a very Scandanavian vibe. At times I could have been exploring New Zealand, Iceland or Canada, made even stranger by the fact that I hadn't been on a plane, that I was on the same old island.

Here are a few collections of particularly nice shots from over the week. I've also got a folder of reference shots of trees, fungi, water and ferns that I'm happy to share, just email me.

Day One: Highland Wildlife Park at Kingussie, Cairngorms

Day Two: Whalewatching at Gairloch, Highlands

Day Three: Rogie Falls near Inverness

Day Four: Climbing Morrone in the village of Braemar, Cairngorms

Day Five: Lin of Dee, just outside of Braemar

Read More

Felting Friday - the Cockapoo!

Today I threw together some wool and made a quick little felt figure of my mum's dog Maia. She's a cockapoo, but not a 'pure' one, so she's essentially a cocker spaniel that occasionally gets this massive wooly fluff around her legs. 

A gorgeous dog, but an absolute monster.

Needlefelted cockapoo, merino wool & wire

I used a wire frame for this one to handle the extra legs compared to the pigeon I made last time. It took a little while to get the hang of making the wool stick to the wire, and the legs were a bit uneven in length, but it's all learning for next time. Adding the little nose and lighter fluff around the legs was really fun and gives it that unique touch. 

Here's a picture of Maia as a comparison. You can't see it very well, but she's got a stripe of normal, darker fur down her back. We call it her racing stripe.

Read More

Scotland paintings

Sorry folks! Unfortunately I fell in love with Scotland too hard to get around to doing much art.

I DID manage to sit myself down by a river and on a hillside and have a go at a couple of watercolour paintings, but I mostly had the camera out shooting reference photos. So I'll be rummaging through them, grouping them and using them for inspiration in the future. 

We did quite a lot of forest trekking, hill climbing and wildlife watching, so I'll share all that in another post soon too.

View from Braemar Village, 5x3inches watercolour painting 

View from Morrone ascent, 5x3inches watercolour painting

Read More

Watercolour practice pt.2

I've been at the watercolour paints again!

I'm intentionally trying to get some practice in with waterbrushes and working with minimal equipment ready for my trip to Scotland next week. We'll be staying around Cairngorms National Park for a few days, zipping around the highlands in the car, so I want to try and capture as much as I can while carrying as little as possible.

The Pagan Vixen, watercolour painting

Soaring gull, watercolour painting

Clubfooted pigeon, watercolour painting

Side-profile of girl, watercolour painting

Read More

Felting Fridays - the Pigeon!

Over the last few weeks I've acquired enough wool to build my own life-size rainbow-coloured sheep, so I put it to some use and had a little needle felting session. 

Here's the little rock dove I made for my boyfriend. If you can't tell already from the content of this blog, I've got a bit of an obsession with pigeons. Well, birds in general, but I have so much time and love for these little urban birdies. 

Needlefelted pigeon, merino wool, string and wire. 

Part of me wants to make a whole series of different coloured pigeons. I definitely want to make more birds and refine how I do beaks and claws. I've seen a few needlefelting tutorials but I just don't work in that clean, methodical and planned way that most people seem to in this medium. When I sculpt I'm messy and on the fly. If I try to plan it always ends up frustrating me, but if I just lose myself in the process and go with instinct I get much better results, I think. 

Expect to see lots more felting and sculpture stuff!

Read More

Lord of the Deadwood - a work-in-progress

In the interests of building up a catalogue of references I went wandering 'round Arnos Vale last week and took some pretty interesting photographs of trees and old, mossy tombstones. Everything's really ancient and overgrown, and the elegance in design of the architecture and sculpture is something that you just don't find anywhere else nowadays. It's an incredibly peaceful place, almost ethereal in its binding together or natural and man-made elements. 

To be honest the references were mostly of really interesting tree shapes, leaves and plants, with the architecture being secondary. I like the idea that it just happens to be there and that, if anything, it's a handy perch to a bird or a shaded place to bury nuts for the squirrels. I'm thinking about ways I can shape it around an old idea for a Farthing Woods meets Redwall series of children's books, loosely based around the idea of wildlife being effected and shaped by human concepts of afterlife.

It originated from a desire to talk about death and the grieving process with children, to make such a huge and important concept easier to digest and lessen the fear that we seem to have culturally amassed. When I visit my dad (gone for about five years now) at the cemetery I feel comforted by watching the antics of the squirrels, magpies and robins in their little busy squabbles. I wonder if they know this was a place where humans lay their dead, and love the fact that each cemetery is essentially a nature preserve where wildlife is undisturbed. It's a very unique environment.

12x12inches digital sketch

Anyway, here's a character inspired by that very loose concept. A benevolent old badger, groundskeeper of sorts to some ancient woodland cemetery and particular favourite of the birds that thrive there. I'll be colouring this as a means of practice with digital painting and messing around with lighting and textures.

Practice, practice, practice!

Read More

Tiny watercolour practice

I've seen a lot of nice illustrated prints of different subspecies lately, so I thought I'd try my hand at it a bit too. It's a good excuse to get some watercolour practice in. 

Although I've done a lot of digital watercolouring recently on SAI, I have a habit of dipping in and out of traditional watercolour before I get a chance to get a good method going. I'm using a (roughly) 5x3inch watercolour moleskine for doodling, although the tiny format is presenting challenges of its own. I'll have to branch out bigger next time to practice techniques. 

Water brushes are amazing and I really recommend them by the way.

5x3inches, watercolour & ink

Read More