Confined

This suddenly appeared when I was trying to think of a suitable topic for the Illustration Friday topic 'Confined'. Appropriate because of the weather here, but it dug up a few old emotions.

Renewal

New Year, new resolutions, specifically to get drawing and posting again! 2009 was a very busy year (finals, graduation, starting work, moving house, as well as my normal hobbies packed in!) so drawing fell behind at the end. Now life is more settled I hope to draw more often. Those of you that still visit, thanks for waiting. Anyone new, nice of you to visit.

These are sketches from my photos of a trip to New York. Amazing place, but so busy. The weather was constantly below freezing, but clear skies so great for site seeing. I really liked the Art Deco influences such as for the Empire State Building. For some reason I like the flag best, what do you think?

Blown Away

A birthday card for my friend who's kitting out his new flat in style. With apologies to Maxell. (I wish I'd found the advert earlier rather than going from memory, there are more elements I'd like to have parodied! However there are lots of details which relate to my friend here too)

Caution - Wildfowl

My take on this week's Illustration Friday theme 'Caution'.

Modify

Not quite in time for the IF topic, but I'm posting all the same. This is my 'modified' sailing dinghy.

Sailing Week

This is a quick sketch/painting done on the beach in Bridlington. There was so much going on, dramatic weather moving through, sailors needing assistance that I didn't get to sit still long. I had a great week and our sailing team (from land-locked Leicestershire) coped well considering the conditions.

Cracked

My take on this week's Illustration Friday topic, 'cracked'.

Birthday Trains

Birthday card for my cousin, drawn with permenent ink and watercolour. I really enjoyed this, even if it was a little fiddly! My cousin quite likes trains, if you hadn't guessed already. And the good news is, my final year project is in! I still have exams to do, but more time now for creativity. I have a few little things underway so will hopefully be posting more soon.(Click to view bigger!)

Where did April go?

Time is flying by... I have 3 weeks to finish my Final Year Project and not that much longer til I finish uni. Very scary stuff considering how much work I have left to do, but the end is in sight. So you probably won't hear much from me but I'll try and post odds and ends when I can. This is the card I painted for my Mum on Mother's Day. I was really pleased with how it turned out considering I painted straight onto card stock. The leaf curls round the back too. I'm not sure why I added the splatters but they seem to work.
This was a birthday card for someone who enjoys wildlife photography and often goes to the zoo. My imagination ran a bit wild with what you could get photos of if you could sneak in after hours. I didn't have long to do it so the drawings aren't great, but I was pleased with the composition.

a little bit of spring

I've been experimenting lately. I love corrugated recycled brown card. So I tried watercolouring on it. Very different techniques to traditional watercolouring, but I enjoyed it!

I needlefelted this little robin, with inspiration from Ola Smith and Middle of Nowhere.
And I made several postcards using hand made rubber stamps. Gennine has wonderful tutorial on her blog. The first is made from lots of stamps I'd made before, all together in a sort of colourscheme. The strawberries postcard was for my Mum, the stamp was originally used to make writing paper for her for Christmas.

Breezy

My submission for the IF topic 'Breezy'. Great sailing weather is a strong and steady breeze! This is a bit of a re-attempt of a previous topic, Sail. I was happy with the first trial but thought I could do the idea a lot more justice. I'm really pleased with how this one has turned out! I worked from a photo to help with the lighting, and think that made a lot of difference. I've been trying to develop my watercolour skills so before and after attempts at a similar theme give me chance to look at my progress. Let me know what you think :o)

Time

My entry for the Illustration Friday topic 'Time'. Pen and watercolour.

Birthdays

I haven't drawn much lately so I thought I'd post a couple of birthday cards I've done for friends. The first is done in the style of the Anthony Ant books by Lorna and Graham Philpot... for a friend called Ant... surprisingly.


The second is loosely based on another friend's cats. Apologies for the poor photo but it had to go in the post!

A quick painting (well, watercolour, watersoluable pens and pencils) that developed into a stormy scene.

Pale

This is a rather late submission for the Illustration Friday topic 'pale'. The female Mandarin Duck is very pale compared to the male, but is none the less beautiful. I saw this pair on a visit to Slimbridge.

I didn't know whether to do more to this watercolour, but didn't want to spoil what I had done so far. I think I might try painting them again to try and give a better idea of just how colourful the male Mandarin Duck actually is.

Contained

A quick sketch for Illustration Friday. This tray 'contains' my mess on the table by my laptop and acts as an out tray of things to do. It's actually a lovely blue wooden tray with a painted design on the inside. A Christmas presant from a relation in Sweden. As you can see it's being put to good use!

Happy New Year!

It's been far too long since last posting... my final year is very busy but I'm still getting some drawing done when I can. This was done on the last day of my holiday in Wales over new year. It was surprisingly sunny and warm after being -2 celcius some days. First time I've done sketching outside (and painted) in a looong time.

Opinion

In my opinion... I sit on the fence too much!

I have had too much uni work on lately for my liking, but can't believe I haven't uploaded anything for a month! I have a half finished sketch for the IF topic Vacant from a while back that will be up as soon as it's done.

Thanks yoon see for the tag... at the moment I don't have time to pass it on, but I will tell you a few facts about myself: 1. My favourite colour is yellow, but I hardly ever wear it (usually purple or green like in this drawing!) 2. I love making soup. Nothing beats homemade vegetable soup. 3. My favourite flowers are daffodils, partly because they're yellow, partly because they show it's Spring (which is incidentally my favourite season).

Reflective

A quick pencil sketch in my moleskine. I like the perspective!

what a mess

fluff!