Rainbow Wolf

I’ve been working on a few paintings of wolves for a friend’s book trilogy, this one she’s really taken with, but it’s a little too simple for me to be entirely happy with. I used watercolour pencils for the fur texture instead of watercolour and used a watercolour block instead of a sheet which means this puppy dried really flat.

It’s taken a while, but not needing the lightbox crutch to transfer images and having the confidence to draw straight onto a surface is a huge deal for me. The constant buckling of watercolour paper pushed me into it!

Spring Epple Bay Finds 2021

Here’s a few teasers of the things I found in Epple Bay over the spring. For more art inspired by coastal bits and pieces check out my Nemo by Sea blog. Nemo is 13 years old this year, and still really loves the local bays and cracking open as many blue mussels as he can find and gobbling the slime, a true sea-foody.

Project Re-Think-Re-Wild

I was involved with an ambitious ecology project funded by the British Ecological Society to produce artwork to be animated to raise awareness about having specific controversial fauna and flora introduced back into Europe. Here is some finished and unfinished art I created for the project, along with the draft animation.

Re-Think-Re-Wild ran out of funding unfortunately, but it was a great experience which was made possible by brilliant ecologist Rob Lewis, Jens Christian Svenning, Ashley Pearcy with talented animator Denis Chapon and The Animation Workshop VIA.

Barn Swallow and American Robin

I’ve been working on a set of paintings for a trio commission featuring the red cardinal, barn swallow and American robin. I haven’t cracked the red cardinal just yet but a couple of these guys have been chosen to go on a wall overseas, which I’m so happy I could decorate!

Red Cardinal

I’ve had many attempts at the Red Cardinal during my arty practice. So many awful paintings that I couldn’t even put them on here, which is pretty sad actually as it would have been a wonderful contrast.

I’m not sure why this bird has given me so much trouble in the past. I think like always, I just went in too hard with colour and found there was no where for me to go with it.But by the power of watercolour, ink, crêpe paper and a huge dollop of luck, I’m happy with this one, at last.

Although I painted this little guy for a commission, a different red cardinal was chosen, so this one is in my shop.

Barn Swallow Practice Painting

This was a draft of a Barn Swallow I was working on, I think it came out pretty well! I really scribbled out the initial image hard in graphite pencil before going in with fineliner and Indian ink. I really love the scratchy, frenzied quality, even though I was surprisingly pretty chilled out whilst creating the painting.

I used Brusho for that instant pop of deep dramatic colour.

Beaver Drawing

I saw this image of a beaver, and I just wanted to draw his head on copier paper, nothing special. Drawn with a 4B and HB pencil.

February 2021 Bay Finds

I have painted a few of Epple bay’s treasures this month on my Nemo by Sea blog. I got around to painting this tiny little whelk shell, which I blew up onto A5 and used it as my NbS icon. I’m pretty happy with the simplicity — a weird feeling!

Marbled Newts

These green little guys are marbled newts, found in France and northern Spain. But one of these lucky guys is off to Ohio to join his other brethren.

A challenging two-tone animal, green on black or black on green? I made a few practice paintings to see what looked best.

Against all watercolour rules (as you’re supposed to paint light to dark), I went with black first, green on top.

Painting is not a science for me just yet, it’s still a bit of a mystery. Making little drafty paintings before hand is helping me not make so many mistakes.

January 2021 Bay Finds

Found a few interesting things to paint on Epple Bay this month, see more of my sea soiled hands on my Nemo by Sea blog.

More Watercolour Wolves

Here are some more wolves I’ve been working on for my friend’s book, trying to nail a style for what she’d like for her characters and front covers.

They are much simpler and more fun than the giant wolf heads I was painting before. I mainly used Brusho pigment to paint these and you can tell by how strong the colours are.

December 2020 Finds

Here’s a taster of the things we found in December in Margate Sands. I’m really annoyed about how brittle the crab carapaces get, but so thankful that the seagulls leave something intact to paint! Learn more about these finds on my Nemo by Sea blog.

Honey Bee

Winter is quickly approaching, and we’re not going to see our lovely bees pottering around much now. They are probably chewing their way between the brickwork of our houses to snuggle up waiting out the cold.

I thought I’d do a sweet, simple little painting of one, it can be found in my shop and was painted with Brusho, watercolour, and a bit of crêpe paper.

Wolf Work in Progresses

Here are a couple of wolves I’m working on for my friends book. The colours are significant to the story, so I get to exaggerate them a little, which I’m very happy about.

I used masking fluid to keep some of the fur streaks protected from my enthusiastic ink and Brusho usage, and white pigment to draw in some fluff and highlights.

Salty finds in September

Unusually coloured shells and fragile carapaces found in September on Margate Sands, back to numb fingers on the Nemo by Sea blog.

Inked Wolf Poses

Here’s a few inkings and daubings of some of the characters in the book I’m illustrating. I’m hoping when these are finished they’ll make great front covers.

August Oddities in Margate

We changed our beach this time, still keeping it local though! Checkout some of the things we came across last month on the Nemo by Sea beach combing blog!

Blue Spotted Salamander

The lovely man who asked me to paint him an eastern newt, loved the painting so much he commissioned me another slithery — this time a blue spotted salamander to hang alongside his newt. These two salamanders were painted with blue watercolours and grey Brusho, white pigment and Indian ink.

I’m really happy how these two came out, but a little sad that I messed up an initial painting I made. I loved his cheeky face but ruined the background through trying to correct mistakes and just snowballing the issue …

There is no hiding with watercolour, which is why I love it and hate it sometimes.

July 2020 Bay Finds

Here again is a little teaser of what July had in store for us as we scoured the bay for interesting things to paint, I’m thinking too of including wildlife as I’m a serious herring gull admirer. For more information head on over to Nemo by Sea for more coastal content!

Sitting Wolves

This is another wolfy experiment, on scrappy watercolour paper in preparation for my friends novel I will be illustrating. I really love this scribbly painting, I’m going to lean into this style much more heavily in my personal artwork as it’s so much more fun, loose and expressive!