Northumberland sketchbook & rocks!

A trip to Northumberland to spend a week in a cottage meant lots of big sky beach walks, fresh sea air and castle views. Here’s a selection of pages from my sketchbook and some doodles on rocks too! Fave moments include seeing the dogs go crazy on the sand, end of day light and watching the world go home for tea from the castle walls, and seeing a half yellowing moon hanging over the dunes, backdropped with a star-pocked sky.

: Holy island doing it’s appealing thing

: Castle views from the beach

: Stormy rain clouds from Seahouses

Sketches from a hot place

Several weeks ago myself and my partner, Josie went off to Lanzarote to visit her cousin and nieces. It’s the kind of location I probably wouldn’t head to as it’s quite rocky and barren looking in the photos, and I’m not much one for just lying on a beach (English skin ahoy..)

It was such an interesting little island though, and we had a great time! I took my sketchbook and pocket watercolours, doing little doodles when I got chance (we were only there for 5 days and the nieces were high energy!). Highlights included a cactus garden and falling asleep with the sound of the sea from our apartment window. Lush!

: People watching on the beach 1

: Beach sketching on the moon (or just a Lanzarote beach)

: Spanish island house with a cacti garden (and a weird scorpion tail one!)

: Being shown how to do it by Phoebe

: Cacti varieties and an old boat near the beach

: What better way to signpost a cactus garden than with a 30ft fibreglass cactus!

: More beach side sketches

: Minnie stopped using Snapchat on my phone for two minutes to smash out a cracking drawing

: People watching on the beach 2

: Sunset from the seaside apartment

: Love old cinema gear like this! Found in an antiques shop

: The seaside bay

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 🙂

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 😀

British Summer

It’s been a LOVELY British summer this year (and we’re not even finished yet!) Lots of sunshine, blue skies and the occasional downpour to ward off the hosepipe bans. One of my main aims with drawing a scene is to try and capture it so that I can look later and feel like I’m there again. Some artists do this so well and evoke a feeling of the weather and atmosphere like it was a snapshot in time. No such luck for me! But I paint quick watercolours like the ones below. The positive side of this is that I sketch more than I would if everything took much longer. Plus, I use it as a memory-jogging tool, and it seems to work! Here are a few pictures from my sketchbook during the summer months (and fingers crossed for another great British summer next year!)

Hot, sweaty Chester. It was spitting with rain at one point and felt like a warm shower, very strange! Here’s the vegetation across the river as my sketchbook page began to get a little damp.

I do love a bit of Mexican food! My mum and I went whilst down in London. Here’s a super speedy sketch I made whilst waiting for hers to arrive. Note the big old Mezcal bottle now used for drinking water in the background!

One of my favourite watercolour sketches I’ve done, just because it was super fast and really nailed the colours of the day. It’s got that early summer feel with a little burnt out grass in the foreground, showing how hot it was! And some bonus sketches from a clothes shop, made whilst waiting for Josie to try on clothes 🙂

Rainbow card

A watercolour illustration to M6 theatre

Hey hey! Here’s a mid-week watercolour illustration for you.

My girlfriend, Josie (@josiecerise) recently toured with M6 theatre for a cute children’s show ‘Whatever the weather’. It was a lovely play for the real little kids, with no real dialogue and lots of great imagery. At the end of the tour I made them a card in my fave medium, watercolours! So here it is for all to see. I do a lot of watercolour cards for birthdays, gifts, etc and they’re fun 🙂

P.S Josie wants me to mention she is small but not THIS small 😉

Sketches from New Zealand

Sketches from New Zealand? But you live in England! So, why?

Well, I spent the end of 2017 and early 2018 in Australia and New Zealand, travelling around with my girlfriend. She was touring a theatre show and as I could continue my animation work with just my laptop and an internet connection, I took the office on the road for a short while! It was great fun and allowed me to meet her family on the New Zealand side, down in Christchurch.

Christchurch

We spent a week there over Christmas, enjoying their summer whilst everyone was shivering back home (sorry, but the gloating rights are still being exercised!) We stayed with her brother and his girlfriend, who live in a traditional workers cottage on the edge of town. It’s even got a tin roof! It was pretty special. I learnt a lot about the town and how it’s still recovering after the massive earthquakes that destroyed most of the buildings and infrastructure back in 2011. It’s still got these containers which acted as pop up shops until new ones were built. They were due to be de-commissioned just after we left, the extent of the re-build project being so huge.

Kaikoura

We also travelled to Kaikoura for a few days, which was actually pretty stormy and a bit chilly! I wasn’t prepared for it at all. The bay was beautiful though and we saw the seals flopping about on the pebbles and near the benches. They had zero interest in humans!

I love to sketch when I’m travelling, although I sometimes struggle to get myself to actually do it! Carving out the time can be tricky when there’s often a limited amount during a vacation, but if I do I always find the images bring back so many memories of the trip. It’s worth it in the long run! I still remember the chilly feeling waking up in Kaikoura, almost like we’d camped as the house was a rambling self build with bits added on and varied materials throughout. Very cool! Seeing the tops of the mountains across the bay tipped with cloud can make you feel very small indeed, especially after the rain storm the evening before. The plants were still looking perky though (and so exotic!)

Jumping out of planes

Look at my funky hat I had to wear, very professional 😉

For Christmas my girlfriend, Josie bought me a skydive. I’d always wanted to get that close to flying but when I actually was presented with the gift I was instantly bricking it! When we were going up in the little plane, I was very calm (like I’d accepted my fate) but this did me favours as it allowed me to enjoy the free fall and parachute much more. Zipping through the damp clouds then seeing the patchwork of Canterbury appear before you was unbelievable. I would definitely go again! So massive thanks to Josie for it 😀

Anyway, I hope you like my short selection of New Zealand sketches. I wish I could do a tour and JUST draw. One of my aims is to make a book collecting all my sketches that I love. I’ll have to see if I can carve out some time for that!

Take part in the worldwide Sketchcrawl

Ever taken part in a Sketchcrawl? This is the original sketch meetup by Enrico Casarosa of Pixar fame. It’s like a pub crawl, but with drawing instead of beer (well, the beer is not the main focus, at least!) It’s a great way to meet fellow sketchers and see a place with fresh eyes.

There’s an event 29th July 2017, [edit: the event has been and gone, but check the Sketchcrawl forum for future events!] http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum

You can tell I was new to watercolours when I did these…the paper crinkled like a Floridian pensioner

Added frivolities: I did my own one-man band sketchcrawl (so keen, so sad) back in 2004. I was a student then and just out around my hometown, Nottingham. Here are a few pictures from the day. Was a lot of fun as a little project, and interesting for me to see how I’ve developed. The sample pages below show I was still wrestling with construction and my ‘cartoony’ tendencies! That’s what you get growing up reading The Beano 🙂 See my new sketchbook work here.

My current hometown, Manchester is a great place to draw. There’s all the industrial charm of Deansgate locks, modern developments popping up all over the city and not forgetting the easy hipster pace of Ancoats. The tram is the lazy option, as places like Cornbrook will give you amazing views of the changing skyline, like the super expansion of Salford. Then you just hop back on and off you go! Easy peasy.

I still remember the things I drew that day (full disclosure, these sketches are pretty pants, but it’s good for nostalgia!) A sketch is worth a BAZILLION words my friends. Happy sketching y’all!

Ye Old Nelson

Manchester is one of those cities where the old battles with the new. There’s a constant feeling of nostalgia jostling against the need for modernity. A short stroll around the city might reveal a glistening development thrusting towards the clouds, right next to 150 years of forgotten history.

I like many people would love to see these older structures converted into something usable. Enriching the city whilst moving it forward. As locals lament about the town planning, you can’t help but wonder what other complications and red tape surround the seemingly obvious and more beautiful answer to the problem.

A year ago I was walking towards Manchester from Salford (it’s neighbour and just over the river Irwell) when I came upon this derelict pub, Ye Old Nelson. It had all the charm of an industrial ruin, with exposed beams jutting out the brickwork and greenery sprouting through the damaged roof. I had a bit of time so got the old sketchbook out and drew what I thought was just another dilapidated building. Then a few months later, my friend sent me a message asking if I’d drawn the Nelson, as it had just been demolished! What a shame, although it must’ve been badly damaged. But still, it’s sad to see a building with so many stories erased from the city forever.

Manchester is moving so fast, but I hope it doesn’t get too greedy and erase its soul in the process.

Misty eyed for the Liffey

Here’s an old sketchbook entry from when I lived in Dublin. I realise I was probably at my most creative there! Drawing all the time…must be all that Guinness I put away 🙂 It was a great time though, and I do miss those funny looking buses.

Ahhh Dublin