Cloudy Coffee Squirrel

I went a little coffee bananas in this piece. I got frustrated at looking at the painting for hours and hours so I went a little wild and threw coffee around which slowly built up these cloud like layers, I then stood back and saw that it was good! I then preceded to inject some fiery tones in with pastel, watercolour and ink.

The initial composition before the coffee layers and finishing touches

I normally chuck an illustration away before it’s even dry if I’m fed up with it, but this painting has taught me to be a little more risky with image making, it helped having an idol such as Rubis Firenos who works wonders with her coffee creations. Due to how pleased I was with the continuous line drawing of the squirrel I made a run of lino prints which will be featured soon.

Rhino and Lino

After admiring the wonderful work of Jane Beharrel who I discovered on Etsy a little while ago, I decided it was high time I started making prints myself. Printmaking is my top fiery passion, so I’m disappointed in myself for taking this long to start—better late than never! Linocut is a little bit like potato printing where you carve away at a medium to expose an image. The exposed image can receive ink from a brayer roller which creates this contrast and maybe a nice image too.

So I found a lovely rhino face, and I drew it freehand (big mistake) onto possibly the darkest lino I could have bought (mistake number two), which I then preceded to cut with the flimsiest of tools (third mistake). After the image was revealed I then slathered water based ink onto the lino (fourth mistake). Then cometh the fifth mistake of damping the cartridge paper to overlay on top of the inked lino, which when pressed together to transfer the image resulted in the most blurry, watery mess of a rhino face you will ever see. It would give you nightmares.

But after some trial and a few more errors later I got a fairly good result. For a first try outside of the luxury of college guidance and print facilities I did okay.

Hand printing brought up so many problems which you’d hardly encounter using a proper printmaking press, like alignment, pressure and transfer issues. I used a back of a metal spoon to transfer the ink onto the paper which sometimes works and sometimes leaves a patchy, faint, monstrosity. But we make do!

Roller and Rhino

Here is a quick painting of a couple of European roller birds having some squishy insect supper! I made this image using watercolour, ink, coffee and pigment. I’m still struggling with realism, I’m getting tired of creating dead imagery with loud colour and would like to create a piece with a little more depth and contrast. Fear keeps me in my comfort zone with image making and I aspire to make work which identifies with the actual subject matter and doesn't resemble a shallow caricature. More practice needed!

I also made a rhinoceros illustration, which also features the European roller! In this image I have used the above materials but in addition to some oozy ink drips and a gouache wash in the background to hide the mistake of a sunset I created.

The Old Lion

After a long wait, I chose the old lion fable to illustrate. But I yet again fail to do the fable justice. My over complicated design idea and fondness for that white line has overwhelmed the image and left it looking not so great. I used some computer added shading to put the two characters in a little more context, but I do it every time, I just over do it!

The old lion’s head rested on the path leading into his cave, the faint tracks of the doomed animals in the soil and the fox’s reluctant stance — I cobbled this image together using the same materials, watercolour, pigment, ink and coffee.

I need to get in more practice on simpler subject matter before conquering another Aesop so it may be sometime before I have a collection I am happy with, but hopefully it will be worth it. I like the lion’s face though, I’m pleased with him!

“A Lion, enfeebled by age and no longer able to procure food for himself by force, determined to do so by cunning. Betaking himself to a cave, he lay down inside and feigned to be sick: and whenever any of the other animals entered to inquire after his health, he sprang upon them and devoured them. Many lost their lives in this way, till one day a Fox called at the cave, and, having a suspicion of the truth, addressed the Lion from outside instead of going in, and asked him how he did. He replied that he was in a very bad way: ‘But,’ said he, ‘why do you stand outside? Pray come in.’ ‘I should have done so,’ answered the Fox, ‘if I hadn’t noticed that all the footprints point towards the cave and none the other way.’”

Dusty Elephant

This was a quickie painting I did in the week before getting into another fable, I tried to make the elephant appear to be dust bathing, but I’m not sure it worked. Still, I got in some coffee trees in the background! I don’t do backgrounds so that’s something to build on. I made the elephant using ink, pigment, watercolour and coffee.

Salmon Splashes

I have been playing with the earth elements through watercolour, gouache and ink, I tried to evoke the fluidity and energy of water and I chose to practice with the one of the most vibrant fish in the world, the sockeye salmon!

Watercolour and ink is great for depicting salmon, they are so brightly coloured and beautiful. I wetted a paintbrush and flicked the white gouache on the wet paint to try and create the splashes. I also had a go at sketching out a salmon in ball point pen which helped me map out the contrast on the lovely fishy face.

With the crocodile I relied more on pastels heavily to give me the illusion of water, but I think the gouache is much more effective. I included coffee in all of the paintings to add that touch more texture, it muddies the colour somewhat, but it smells good!

Vanilla Polar Bear

Meet my polar bear with his seal chums! As the title may suggest, I still feel I’m making vanilla work, nothing too amazing, which is disappointing for me. I’m in my comfort zone with watercolours, soft bright colours with not a lot of contrast and a lacking of something-something.

Nothing practice won’t sort out though I hope, I’m going to push in some contrast with more ink in my next illustration, with a touch of pastel maybe to give it a kick! I made this illustration with coffee, watercolour, ink and white pigment and I experimented with drawing gum to make the bubbles!

Dirt and Antelopes

A quick painting of a fleeing African antelope, I want to start concentrating on earthy elements, sprays of dirt, splashes of water, the whistling of the wind! Maybe a little ambitious, but I’m having a lot of fun with pastels and I want to experiment with making my drawings as atmospheric and interesting as possible. I made this juvenile antelope with the usual sploshes of watercolour and coffee with quite a lot of pastel dust, white pigment, ink and fineliner.

Illustration Friday: Entangled

This weeks Illustration Friday is ‘Entangled’ and I liked the thought of a wildly boar wrapped up in foliage. Using coffee, watercolour and ink I was able to do a quick painting of a little hoglet looking rather wrapped in plant life.

Humpback Whale Drawing

In preparation for my next Aesop I drew a humpback whale. I was really excited with this drawing, I really appreciate the whale-y form. To think they were land animals once who gradually sunk into the waves, what a transition! I'm embracing the continuous line technique too, it allows me to be scribbly and true to my human mistakes, plus I think it looks swimmy which works with the subject of the drawing.

Coffee has become quite a heavy feature in my drawings now, there’s a persistent coffee flavour circulating in the air from leaving three day old cups lying around in my room, mmmm… My parents are less enthusiastic, but I’m liking the grainy stain it leaves behind, it boosts the surface texture of the drawing.

My First Feature: The City Fox e-zine

The teasing is nearly over. I mentioned in previous posts about me illustrating for an online magazine and I can reveal it is The City Fox e-zine, they have made me their featured artist! They also asked me for a short interview so that’s on there too, along with more drawings. It’s an eye opener for me to see over a short amount of time how my drawing style has changed, so I encourage you to have a nose!

The City Fox is a literary based e-zine who specialise in dark flora and fauna inspired by poetry, prose and artwork, I am hugely flattered that they have asked me to illustrate the covers of their 2nd issue, ‘Ashes’, I shall keep you posted on the developments!

Illustration Friday: Onomatopoeia

What a mouthful! So this weeks Illustration Friday was Onomatopoeia (on-na-mat-oh-pee-ah), I immediately thought bumblebee. So I hit Flickr in search of inspiration and I found it in the form of Staffan Hamnäs and his stunning photo of the beastie. I used watercolour, ink, coffee, pigment and pastel to blast this fuzzy bumble with colour.

I think I fussed with detail too much, and prefer the white free version. If you look closely you can just about make out the little white ‘Buzz’ words. I used drawing gum which is a new material I’m getting to grips with, it’s excellent though, you can keep your whites white forever with that stuff. It allows me to be less concerned about my clumsiness and opens the flood gates for my Oddkness — it’s a good feeling!

Illustration Friday: Together

After missing I don’t know how many weeks of Illustration Friday, cutting it a little fine as always — I managed it, just before the topic changed!

For the theme of ‘Together’ I thought about a bustling bunch of Magellanic penguins and for even more closeness I attached the penguins with an unbroken continuous line, how cosy! Then fought with a little bit of patterning, which I then finished with coffee, ink, watercolour and pigment.

I was panicking a little as penguins look quite uniform with not a lot to distinguish one from another, I think I met the challenge reasonably well and managed to injected a little bit of individuality into each little penguin'ite, room for improvement though, definitely.

The Wolf and the Crane

The Wolf and the Crane involves a delicate procedure where a crane attempts to remove a bone from a wolf’s throat. Using coffee, watercolour and a touch of white pigment I came up with two slightly different compositions. I have used the common crane in the first illustration and the sandhill crane for the second due to the geographical compatibility, which I shouldn’t probably take any notice of since this is an Aesop’s fable, never mind!

My second attempt is probably the one I prefer, I enjoy the subtle detail of animals faces, plus I bought some different pens which are waterproof so I don’t have to wait a few hours for the ink to dry, resulting in less Skyrim time in between drying…

“A Wolf once got a bone stuck in his throat. So he went to a Crane and begged her to put her long bill down his throat and pull it out. “I’ll make it worth your while,” he added. The Crane did as she was asked, and got the bone out quite easily. The Wolf thanked her warmly, and was just turning away, when she cried, “What about that fee of mine?” “Well, what about it?” snapped the Wolf, baring his teeth as he spoke; “you can go about boasting that you once put your head into a Wolf’s mouth and didn’t get it bitten off. What more do you want?”

Cosmic Terrapin

It’s been a long couple of weeks of tortoises, and this is the end, I’ve reached the breaking point! No more turtle-y related things now, I promise. I found a really lovely image of a terrapin by Bernadette Chiaramonte on Flickr whilst I was losing my mind trying to illustrate the Tortoise and the Eagle and I wanted to inject my oddkness into it.

Using coffee, inks, watercolour and that white pen which finishes off the image quite nicely, I was able to depict this terrapin, accompanied by a few fishy friends swimming through space. I did mean it to look like water but it looks more like space… but that’s okay!

The Tortoise and the Eagle

After much agonising on how to portray my third Aesop Fable I think it was time to put this story to bed for now. Over many sketches and compositions I evolved the story into an admittedly busy idea. In the image below I have incorporated a story within the body of the eagle, the left wing joint depicts a soaring eagle, below you can make out the tortoise making his descent into the rocks depicted in yellow below him.

I went with this idea as I think it was a springboard for different media. I have used coffee (which smells real good), inks, pastel pigments and this white outline which I’m really liking! Although I feel this image could leave you confused it allowed me to experiment and go a little nutty.

“A Tortoise, discontented with his lowly life, and envious of the birds he saw disporting themselves in the air, begged an Eagle to teach him to fly. The Eagle protested that it was idle for him to try, as nature had not provided him with wings; but the Tortoise pressed him with entreaties and promises of treasure, insisting that it could only be a question of learning the craft of the air. So at length the Eagle consented to do the best he could for him, and picked him up in his talons. Soaring with him to a great height in the sky he then let him go, and the wretched Tortoise fell headlong and was dashed to pieces on a rock.”

Blind and the Continuous Line

I’ve been practising some blind drawing of… can you guess? Blind drawing is when you only look at the subject and daren’t look down at the paper which results in some quite interesting outcomes.

These nightmarish images you see below are tortoises of course! The middle image is the results of some continuous line drawing where you cannot lift the pen off the paper, I added some water for a leaky effect if you wondered why some appear to be dribbling.

Toadally Teasing

Daw, those naughty toads are teasing you! They might be giving you a taster of what I've been sneakily working on these past couple of weeks… How cryptic!

Squirrely Sketching

I’ve had a super busy week making drawings for an e-zine who may publish my work in their next issue, so I’m being super secretive with the outcomes! I’ve been practising drawing silly squirrels in my down time, and here’s a couple of pages worth of drawings to satisfy your insatiable thirst for more oddkness in the meantime.

The Gnat and the Bull

My second Aesop’s Fable, and I thought I’d show the ‘making of’ the illustration.

I start off by trawling the web for the one photo that captures my imagination. I then blunt all my pencils by drawing the subject matter, over and over.

And when I get that perfect composition, I rush to draw it out on watercolour paper, and ink over the design before my spark of creativity fades. After the ink is dry, I apply watercolour and, when that has dried I add the finishing touches with white acrylic and more ink to pattern.

“A Gnat alighted on one of the horns of a Bull, and remained sitting there for a considerable time. When it had rested sufficiently and was about to fly away, it said to the Bull, “Do you mind if I go now?” The Bull merely raised his eyes and remarked, without interest, “It’s all one to me; I didn’t notice when you came, and I shan’t know when you go away.

We may often be of more consequence in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbours.”