The day of challenge

Lately I've been so wrapped up in designs and business that I haven't given myself the chance to sit down and just do art.
So I gave myself a free day today to do just that... but not just that, that with a twist.
I decided to use mediums I rarely ever use, these being charcoal and pastels.

I love how messy both these mediums can be and how soft they are but they both tend to have a life of their own and that leave me a bit flustered as I have control issues over my work so the moment a clean edge moves and becomes fuzzy is a moment where I just stare in horror and wonder whether to give up then and there.

So when I say challenge, I mean challenge.

I started with a crow and a variety of charcoal sticks I found lying around from my school days (10 years old!) and found a kneadable eraser and got to work... the outlines went great, the sketch was good, I was on form today and then... I scrubbed charcoal over the top like I would normally... It seemed more like hard graphite than charcoal which I tried to ignore and then I tried the eraser... whoever made this eraser didn't understand what kneadable erasers were... they thought it meant soft rubber maybe... Whatever it was, it was not kneadable and didn't realise it was meant to lift the charcoal from the paper.
This... was a problem.
I was left with this in it's biggest ugly stage.

Now the thing to remember with artwork is that everything goes through an ugly stage, something that many people don't realise.

I can promise you now, good art does not look good from the start, it hits a lot of ugly before hitting the good look.

Anyway! I decided to just work completely in charcoal and see what I could save after the small bad tools moment.

A few hours later and I had this...

I haven't used charcoal for a good few years, probably over five so this was testing and involved a lot of learning. It was also a lot of fun, even though charcoal can be a pain at times it's also very flowing and fun to scribble and smudge.

After the fun smudging I decided I wanted to continue the mess but with more colour so out came the soft pastels... something I love to look at but struggle to use.

This guy went through many many ugly stages but I didn't get any pictures and they were so bad I think they may break things.

But after a good few hours of mess, grumbles, yays and happies I finally came eye to eye with this guy!

He's not perfect but he does look like a macaw and he is probably the best pastel illustration I've created so I'm quite happy with this guy.

Thanks to my bird loving grandad I myself am quite obsessed with them and he brought me up to love parrots of all kinds. He always wanted a macaw so it just felt right to illustrate one :)

So that was my long challenge day, I haven't finished and hope to continue the random mediums for the next week or so just to see what happens. It's become a fun experiment!

June Update

This is just a quick update, I will do my best to keep it short!

Firstly the design above is now available to buy on my redbubble shop!

It's a fun design I first came up with a year or so ago for a competition I wanted to enter. Unfortunately the competition needed three similar designs and at the time I could only come up with these guys. As a result they ended up inked and then left at the bottom of a drawer. 

I found them yesterday and decided now was their time to strut! So they got their watercolours on and got ready to strut.

I love corvids in general (the crow family) and Jackdaws have to be one of my favourites, they're so chirpy and chatty and have the most intense look on their faces as they strut around looking for food or trouble. I couldn't help but draw them. I remember at the time I almost filled up a whole sketchbook of the strutting mischiefs! That was a fun bit of research although it did lead me to learn that the internet is lacking images and videos of birds walking!

So if you're interested go take a closer look here!

The other update is that I am back open for commissions!

The only thing is I'm going to have to up my prices in the near future due to me charging too little for the work I do!

So I'm doing two last months with the prices as they are, in August the prices will rise (slightly!) 

So if you're looking for a pet portrait! Get in touch!

My current prices are as follows:-

A5 - £15

A4 - £20

A3 - £30

I work in watercolours and inks, sometimes with coloured pencils thrown in and do sizes, A5 A4 and A3. These are then posted to you.

All I need is at least one good photo of your pet (more if your pet has specific markings) and I can get to work. I will also draw any pet from a stick insect to a great big shire horse!

So if you're interested get in touch by going here!

(Examples of previous commissions below)

Hope you're all having a wonderful week! Time for me to get back to scribbling!

So, holiday slightly interrupted

I know, I said I would be away for a week... that was before a wonderful parcel arrived.

After finding out I'd uploaded designs to redbubble my mum couldn't wait to dive in and get her paws on some cushion covers. She nags me to do designs for her or to get things printed and I'm a bit rubbish and never get around to it... oops! So she decided to do it herself and ordered these babies.

I'm not quite sure who was more excited when we opened up the parcel! Pure excitement was just flooding through me as I saw the ratty people design.
I am really impressed by the quality of the material and the print itself, it's perfect!

And of course the model had to pose beside his new pillow... unfortunately he was sleepy and really didn't want to pose much :D

And here's a closer look at the ratty people design. I have to admit this is probably my favourite of these three designs just because they came out so damn well and well, it's perfect :P The real rats are not allowed to pose with their cushion though due to the odd piddle that would not go down well!

My mum also surprised me with a late birthday present. You may remember the corvus constellation piece I made a few weeks back, I fell in love with the crow... So she got him printed on to a tote bag and again I am in awe of the print! 

I am also taking this moment to say that my poor poor printer/scanner did an absolutely amazing job... Anyone who knows me knows that I have a love hate relationship with my little printer... I expect way too much from it and tend to grumble about it a lot at any opportunity I get. It's gotten to the point where any time I need to use the machine I start to either rant at it or beg it with all I'm worth to work!

But I have forgiven it... for now. I love the design on the bag, it fits well to the shape and size and I love the softness the watercolours have.

As you can see in the second picture I've added the original artwork to give a size comparison. This is the reason I am back on good terms with my Pixma! 

Can you tell how excited I am by these designs/products?

So there we have a sorta quick update! 

If anyone is interested in buying from redbubble, my designs or otherwise, I can definitely recommend them on service and quality. They're fab!

And if you're an artist who wants to get there work available without the hassle of producing it yourself, again I can highly recommend them. 

Now! Back to my so called break!

More stars!

It seems I have become almost obsessed with the stars right now, spending hours looking at the constellation app on my phone, doodling as much as possible, studying galaxy images... I'm not sure what's gotten in to me!

But two more constellations have been added to the mix, this time Chamaeleon (the chameleon constellation) and Vulpecula (the fox constellation)

These were fun but I seemed to lose my technique halfway through and ended up having to lighten them up a lot before adding the stars and animals. Luckily these are done in watercolour, a quick wet brush and towel and paint is lifted with ease!

The thing that drove me insane whilst working on these two was not doing a red fox, painting him blue/purple felt ridiculously wrong! You can see the small splashes of orange where I was desperately wanting to add something :P

These guys will be scanned soon and may end up on my redbubble page :)

And on the mention of redbubble I've added Ursa Major and Corvus to my shop! I have to admit Corvus looks fab on so many products, my favourite has to be this cushion!!

If you're interested in my designs please use the link to my shop at the top of the page! :)

I also managed to complete my raptor designs! And was lucky enough to recieve a surprise voucher from redbubble so me and the OH have ordered our designs for free!!

I'm super excited for them to arrive!

It's always an amazing experience to see your work printed on to a product, whether it's a print or a tshirt. I love it, I love the buzz of joy that zooms through me :)

So the moment these tops arrive I will probably be bouncing off the walls!!

I will be posting more about my raptors before the end of the week including the designs and a bit of an explanation to why they are appearing and taking over my life.

I also have a rather huge project planned which needs to be started over the next few months to be available by the end of the year to early next year, this is currently all I can say on the matter, you know.... just to be annoying!

Now, the sun is out, the birds are singing, I've hit my limit of work for the day! Time to go relax and enjoy the world!

Have a wonderful day!

The Constellation Series

No, I can't think of a better name for them just yet!

So, in my last post I left a sneak preview of a constellation painting I'd done, I'd also mentioned the chance of me continuing with the theme and I have!

Okay, so I've only gotten up to two so far although I am currently sat next to two more works in progress so the list is growing! Although I have around forty to make if I'm going to stick to the animal constellations! I truly had no idea there were so many animals up there! What a zoo!

Although what an amazing zoo that would be to visit! Star animals, anyone?

These guys are painted in watercolours on A5 (ish!) sized watercolour paper and the details are added in with white paint. They're lots of fun to work on, especially the galaxy background, that's more fun than it should be ;) And who can not have fun throwing paint around? 

So currently we have Corvus.

And Ursa Major

Next on the list... probably something a little on the foxy side ;)

You can also get your paws on these designs at my redbubble page here!

Go check them out, I have to admit Corvus looks extremely appealing... 

I also want to say a huge thank you again to everyone who has supported me lately by liking, favouriting, following and buying! You can't imagine the pure joy I get when I receive these notifications.

If you can, I highly recommend going out in the evenings and looking up to the night sky, the stars are absolutely stunning right now. Look out for Ursa and Corvus! They're up there somewhere!

Have a beautiful week :)