Meet the Artist

I noticed the #meettheartist hashtag rolling around Twitter (remarkable, really, considering how little I use Twitter at the moment) and thought I'd give it a shot.

Self-portraits are something I've always struggled with. I think I read and watch and play so much character-driven stuff, and create so many characters for narrative projects, that I sometimes lose track of who I am. I used to find that concerning, but now I figure that it's a by product of the character creating process. I'm alright with that if it means I can make characters with all the depth and humanity that I'd otherwise be putting into myself.

Colour pencil & digital, 'Meet the Artist' infographic

I could have gone into so much detail with the specifics of animals, books, plants and documentaries that I like, but I wanted to keep it as brief of an overview as possible.

And, just to mention, I don't hate chimpanzees. Not really. I'm more scared of them than anything. Their near-humanness is terrifying. Saying that, I don't have a problem with gorillas or orangutans. It's just chimps... Urgh...

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Painting Giveaway & Speedpainting

I knew I wanted to do a giveaway sometime soon, and suitably enough I managed to hit over 100 followers across all my social media platforms towards the end of last year. That's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (my Tumblr is gathering dust, it's mostly an inspiration engine now).

With Chinese New Year coming up that came across as a pretty suitable theme. If not only because we're celebrating the Rooster this year, and I'm a big fan of poultry (there aren't many animals that I'm not a huge fan of. Chimps. That's about it..)

Digital sketches of girl with rooster

Here's the original concept sketch for the piece. I had this vision of a scruffy little country girl in bright coloured boots and dungarees trying to wrap her arms sloppily around this huge rooster. Green boots was the original design but it came off a little bit too garish.

5x7inch watercolour painting of girl with rooster

And here's the final piece!
I'm quite impressed with myself how close it keeps to the original sketch.

I'm giving it away with free UK postage (there's a £6 donation for international postage since it's considerably more expensive than domestic shipping if you want it signed, tracked and delivered safely).

All you have to do is follow me on Facebook and share this post, or follow me on Instagram and comment on this post. Simple stuff!

Oh, and I did a little digital speed paint with a limited palette to stretch some old muscles. It was a fun little exercise which I want to try and do at least once a week.

Digital painting of rural church in mountain landscape

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Moving House & New Studio! (..again)

 I'm pretty sure I've mentioned in previous posts about moving house. It happened!

We started the whole move-in process on January 1st, so this is literally a fresh start for us. The place is lovely and we've managed to fill it up with nice homey things very quickly. We've got blankets and cushions everywhere, and have spent most nights curled up on our huge sofa in onesies playing games and watching old anime since we've had to wait a week for internet access.

I'm absolutely loving my studio set up. It's great to have some good storage for materials and to have all my tech spread out and accessible. Not to mention everything is pretty and green and clean. These ceilings and windows are enormous. Gotta love these old houses.

OH! And a quick little update about my shop! I'll be putting all of my needlefelt critters up for sale in the next week or so. I've just ordered packaging and some neat little stickers, and once they come in I can dispatch within 24 hours.

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