Sketching flowers

I’ve been doing a bit of The Artist’s Way as part of some creative discovery. Admittedly there have been some breaks in completing the 12 week course, but when I do get around to it, I love the little tasks!

It makes you look at the world with fresh eyes and be a bit more playful with your art. It’s easy to end up just doing ‘work’ when creativity becomes your job.

Some watercolour sketches of the flowers in the living room. Thistles were a nice touch!

If you’re looking for a great book that’ll have you exploring your creative side, I can’t recommend The Artist’s Way highly enough! It’s really top class and as a bonus, the 12 week course structure is easy to follow and very inspiring. Even if you don’t draw, it’s a lovely 3 month side project 🙂

Athletic lizards

Okay maybe not lizards that run track or anything, but bear with me…

When I was working away last year I used to see these funky lizards on the wall below the studio window. They’d be sitting out in the scorching midday sun practically frying to the concrete. There were two distinct types, green lizards and the grey/black ones with orange heads. Some of them were a foot long and could move very quickly when bothered! My favourite thing they did was their ‘push up’ routine. When they saw another lizard, they’d immediately enter into a push up contest, bobbing quickly up and down until one clearly gave in due to lack of muscles 😉

He’s a sketch of the triumphant winner. I gave him the name Limmy as he was the most frequent wall visitor and also the one who was most likely to get squashed by a car, judging by his road safety choices. This has absolutely no linkage to why he’s called Limmy, he just felt like one.

The sketch was made in the brilliant (and FREE) Krita software. Support them with a donation if you like what you see, and don’t forget to feed back on your experiences or wish lists! I do love the brush selection but often wish the handling of masks was a little more straight forward. But maybe I’m just used to a different method 😀 Can’t complain for free eh?

Buzzing Bee Garden

Here’s a fun bit of watercolour sketchbook doodling that became the plan for a 2D animated multi-plane scene. I created an enhanced version for my new course one animating in Toon Boom Harmony, covering 3D space, 2D animation loops, cameras and special effects. I love English summertime and watching a bee hum through the rich garden scene is one of my favourite kind of moments 🙂 So I thought I’d have a go at re-creating something similar in the famed 2D animation software.

The watercolour was REALLY great fun to do…lots of just noodling about with shapes, composition and ideas from memories of my relatives’ gardens last summer. So here it is! I’ll post an update of the animated version when the course is underway at the end of February 😉

And a word on the Toon Boom Trainer courses. The first course for 2019: Animation in Toon Boom Harmony has completely sold out! I’m very happy to see every place filled and excited to train up all this potential bunch of Toon Boomers! There’s so much you can do in the software and it’s improving all the time. An awesome creative evolution is underway!

Black ink sketch with watercolour over the top. Some exaggerated colour choices 😀

Fabulous life drawing

Last week I attended my local life drawing class held by the good folks at Stretford Arts Collective. I hadn’t been for a while and was ready to skulk it out in the corner, hiding my drawings when Lisa (the lady who runs the class) announced something special. A new model with what can only be described as a fabulous array of outfits and some sassy poses to boot 😉

It definitely helped me get back into the flow of drawing again, although the real triumph was the array of work produced by the other attendees. So much colour and fun on the pages! Take a look below. I do love it when a life class wakes you up to just how interesting people can be when you study them for a bit. Can’t wait for the next class so I can crack out a bit more colour!

Birds of Mauritius

When we were over on Reunion Island there was time for a short trip to the Mauritius. It’s an AMAZING island with beautiful scenery, delicious food and very kind people. There was only one downside to our trip and it was that we were robbed on the way to the airport, losing all our possessions (including passports, camera, sketchbooks, phone, etc)…they just left our suitcase as they obviously couldn’t carry that! But even though it was a tricky few days following and not the cheapest trip after all the extra costs, we were so thankful for the people who helped us and made the experience more of an enlightenment than one massive downer.

I did this sketch when trying out the software Krita. It’s really decent and FREE! It was completed after the trip, so it’s probably a little flatter on the ‘life’ side of things (I always think an on location sketch has a bit more ‘oomph’ than something from a picture) but alas the sketchbook from that day was nicked! I hope the perps have had a good read of it and it’s inspired them to take up drawing themselves 😛 Maybe not hey.

A pair of Red-whiskered Bulbuls sitting on a fence

Wintery sunsets

Since I’ve arrived back in England the effect of winter is even more stark now. No more tropical steamy vegetation and blazing sun! But I do love the variation of the winter days. Sometimes it’s a grey cloud blanket, almost like the world doesn’t get out of bed for the day! Other times there’s a crispness to the air that makes you feel every minute of the precious sunshine.o

Here’s a sketch I made one winter morning looking towards some distant hills. I remember the colour of the sun being a kind of gold you only hear about in pirate stories! Last week we visited Anglesey in Wales and that was a different atmosphere all together.

I think the changing seasons is one of the things I enjoy most from an artist and observers point of view. The planet is so alive you guys! 😀 Even when it’s raining…

Trooping the colour

It’s the Queen’s birthday today and therefore the trooping of the colour takes place down in London. As a British citizen it’s my duty to dress in ceremonial attire and gallop around the streets on horseback, tooting a trumpet.

As I don’t have a horse and it’s awfully warm outside, I sketched the TV instead. I’m not a devout fan of the Royal family (spare me, Ma’am) but I do find the idea of a Royal family in a modern world pretty fascinating.

After recent events whereby the whole country feels like it’s going down the drain, it’s welcome distraction to watch something of order and control, even if we are paying for it. Respect to Liz for the minute’s silence. Still seems to have more wits about her than our wonderful prime minister.

I did this sketch in Mischief, a nice little drawing app for Windows and Mac. It’s got a mind-boggling ‘infinite canvas’ where you can just zoom and zoom and zoom. Try it! It’s AMAZING and could mean great things to storytelling.

It was a warm one! This chap had rather rosy cheeks.

Stretford sunset

10 minute breaks in ‘work work’ mean I can draw what I see out of the window. It’s all new and from the second floor, quite a nice view for the sunsets!

Happy new year! Hangover anyone?

Trying out a new toy…’Pencil’ by 53, the makers of a sketchbook-like app for the iPad whilst suffering from a hangover. The app they made (called ‘Paper’) is good for loose scribbles but has no layers or brush size adjustment, so it’s a little old school for some people’s tastes. The Pencil works well with ProCreate too, a brilliant illustration app. They’re cheap enough to buy both if you’re lucky enough to own an iPad.

Here’s what a hangover looks like:

Note: I replaced the original slightly rubbish drawing of a champagne bottle with this nightmarish rendering of the ‘black dog’ one experiences after the effects of overindulgence.