Before I ran off to work I found an image of a puma, and sketched it quickly using a 4B pencil, the most effective use of fifteen minutes in my whole week sadly. This image was sketched on recycled paper.
Framed Froggy
I’ve been practising trying to paint smaller which hasn’t been going too well, but I did manage a little grubby frog which I framed and he looks pretty content sitting in there. Painted using watercolour, ink and white pen, A5 in size.
Pelican Paintings
It’s been a slow week of progress but I did manage to get painterly with some pelicans. I’m not terribly pleased with them, I have too many colours going on and the choice of palette isn’t terribly focused.
I feel the drawing underneath is always much more interesting than the finished watercolour, and through the layers of paint I lose that detail which is horribly frustrating.
The Making of the Masking Tape Hare
I thought I’d show you the more interesting stages of a luminous masking tape beastie, using masking tape I secure rolled up tubes to a carrier bag base until I have a rough skeleton, then the cutting and shaping of hundreds of sticky tubes takes place. I always think a work in progress is much more interesting half way finished than the final version especially in sculpture.
Pacific Octopus
It’s been a while since tentacles have made an appearance, plus it’s been far too cute on here recently so I decided to paint a pacific octopus. Using watercolour, ink and white pen I found a lovely giant Pacific octopus by photographer Lyrinda Snyderman.
One of the many continuous-line drawings I do before I start a painting.
I know this is a bit late in the day, but I actually tried out the advice that water colourists all over the internet had been screaming this whole time — wet your paper before you paint! I was sceptic that this would make any difference but through a few experiments, wetting your paper and allowing it to dry before applying paint meant no paper buckling, which is fantastic, no more weird looking bent up paintings, hoorah!
Tiny House Finch
The pinks and browns of such a tiny little bird — I just had to paint him! Interestingly the colour of the finch is the result of the type of berries and fruit he eats, meaning you can get a huge variation of colours between individual birds.
This week I also added a few new prints to my shop, they look pretty nice!
Winter Wolf Commission
After the success of the Ashes issue of the City Fox magazine in which I featured, a client approached me to commission her a black wolf. I made this image with ink and watercolour with a few touches of white pen here and there.
Oddkness in the Wood
© Sophie Godding
Amongst the rich aromas of coffee beans and sumptuous looking heart-attack cakes you’ll find some familiar looking faces, I am now exhibiting in the Coffee in the Wood. I have been so touched by the public’s response and I’m so excited at the level of interest my work has attracted.
Why not grab a soya latte and feast your eyes on something indulgent, though perhaps a trifle odd?
Black and Red Hares
I've run out of hares, so I had to make some more. These paintings were made primarily from ink with touches of watercolour here and there along with some white pen. I've started to invert the colours on images that I use as references which is helping me create some interesting results.
Chameleon Commission
As a result of my first little pop-up gallery, I received a commission to paint a chameleon for a child’s bedroom. Four paintings, a lot of frustration and one week later, here he is! I tried a few species of chameleon to draw but I thought this veiled chameleon looked especially pretty.
I used Indian ink first, then I let it dry overnight. In the morning I painted the chameleon with ink and watercolour, then finally added the background and white pen.
My First Pop-up Gallery
When you spend your days immersed in creation, splashing paints and playing with putty rubber, it can be easy to miss just how far along you’ve come.
So, with just a bit of hesitation I took along some of my favourite pieces from the last year to my first event, the Colliers Wood Pop-up Gallery. And it couldn’t have gone much better. The organisers generously gave me a stall to set-up my prints, greetings cards, and original watercolours. It helps to look back, to look back and say “I made that!”
I met lots of other talented artists and bumped into my amazing college art teacher too.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by my stall, asked questions, said kind words and gave a new home to one of my pictures. It was a huge amount of support, all of which I am very grateful for.
I am especially pleased that the Pied Kingfisher and Scribbly Hares found new owners.
Spring Hare Studies
It's April, so obligatory hares this week! I work in a giant supermarket, a hub of inspiration with all those scan-able rabbit novelty things this spring … So here we have it, graphite and pen continuous-line drawings of hares on sugar paper and card. Remember to click or tap on the hare-y face you want for the un-cropped version, enjoy!
Companion Bird Studies
Ditching the watercolour painting this week in favour of a more relaxed sugar paper session. Still continuing on with my continuous-line drawing I was able to produce a cockatiel, budgie and poicephalus parrot using black and white pen.
Peacock Studies
What annoys me about watercolour painting is that is loses my lines. I have really got stuck into the continuous-line drawing, when I finish the drawing on the watercolour paper thinking it would make a nice painting — it doesn’t. It masks the drawing underneath and it is so frustrating.
So I tried something a little simpler, using sugar paper, graphite and pen I was able to showcase my lines and reveal my peacock — and I'm happy with it!
Continuous Kangaroo Drawing
Here is a quick twenty-minute 4B pencil study of a kangaroo by photographer Jaclyn Kavanagh. I believe this drawing may make a fantastic drypoint print.
Pied Kingfisher
A continuous-line illustration inspired by a pied kingfisher photo by Thom Haslam. This illustration was made using watercolour, ink, gouache and white pen.
It has been a week of fretting, fretting that all those 10+ sheets of watercolour paper I used was for naught, struggling to make anything worthy to put up. I then came across Tara Leaver, and her post about why it is good to make ‘bad’ art,
“Yes you may have made 17 drawings that are shit, and you may need to make 39 more until your hand learns how to better express your vision. Give up too soon and you’ll never know.”
These are the words I needed to read, for me to keep persisting until I satisfy my own expectations of myself.
Ira Glass of This American Life
Owl Studies
Here are some quick studies of owls, I didn’t have a lot of time this week as I succumbed to more dreary checkout work. For the painting I used a ruler to scratch off pastel pigments which seems to give my owl a rather interesting floral halo. I used my regulars, watercolour, ink, pastel and white pen for the barn owl painting.
I used a 4B grade pencil for this owl drawing, my comfort pencil!
Hogs and Hippos
I was feeling a little sluggish this past week so I think that’s why I decided to choose subject matter which reflected my state of body and mind, no offence to these beautiful animals!
In these images I’ve depicted a red river hog and a hippopotamus. I used watercolour, inks and white pen and as you can see, I’ve gone a bit splatter crazy with white gouache. I’ll do better next week!
Grey Seals for Grey Days
It’s quite grey here in England, but I quite like the gloom. I especially like the gloom of the cold ocean and particularly the lively critters than live within it. Using watercolour, ink, white pen and pastel I tried to evoke the energy of these playful grey seals. I found some very good cold pressed watercolour paper which is a joy to use, I’ve thrown hardly any artwork away since using it!
I Hope You Like Chicken
I love chickens, they are too adorably spunky. So I set about Flickr to find a suitable picture to work from after being inspired by the work of Jean Haines. I found a picture of a chicken destined, unfortunately for the dinner table and used watercolour, ink and white pen to celebrate the endearment I felt for her this week.