Signs of Spring

I am definitely an autumn/winter person, but even I am looking forward to some sunshine after the amount of rain we've had over the last few months.

Today I've been very excited because it hasn't rained!! There have even been patches of blue sky and moments of sunshine. Woody and I decided to make the most of it and see if we could discover any signs of life emerging from this soggy winter.

And finally, a 'hello' from Matty...

... and Gerry!

Mood Board: Dreams Unwind

I hurt my back this week so haven't been able to spend as much time down the workshop as I would like to. Instead I have been learning new skills on Skillshare (a definite favourite of mine).

I am nowhere near as confident on the computer as I am when using good old fashioned dip pen and ink, so I decided to have a go at Introduction to Photoshop: Fundamentals for Beginners. I found the course incredibly useful, particularly for creating image templates. Meg Lewis breaks things down really clearly, and the final project is to produce your own mood board and colour palette using images sourced from Pinterest.

I was inspired by Stevie Nicks' 'Rhiannon' and all things witchy and magical for my mood board. All of the images used, and their original sources, can be found on my Pinterest page. 

Recommended Read: Sketching from the Imagination

Another of my Christmas books from Harvey (he really is annoyingly good at buying presents), 'Sketching from the Imagination: An Insight into Creative Drawing' by 3D Total is a fantastic resource for artists or an insightful read for anyone interested in how artists produce their work.

'Sketching from the Imagination' features 50 different artists, working in both traditional and digital media. Each artist has written about how they use their sketchbooks and why sketching is important to them and their work.

This is the sort of book you can dip into to look for inspiration, or read as a whole. I chose to read the whole book because I find it fascinating to learn how different artists work. This was also a particularly useful book for my sketchbook challenge this year. I picked up so many tips from the artists, such as  the importance of sketching every day to develop your work, basing imaginary creatures on existing animals to develop sound anatomy, and keeping your sketchbook a 'safe place' where you are not afraid to take risks.

My favourite artist from the book was Jean-Baptiste Monge. I really enjoyed reading about how he creates his mischievous faerie characters. He has a book of his artwork on his Etsy shop, which I am very tempted by at the moment!

I thoroughly recommend this book as an excellent resource that I know I will be dipping into regularly.

What's in my sketchbook: January

I must admit, I've found my sketchbook challenge a lot more difficult to stick to than I'd expected. Although I haven't managed to do something every day, I have been pretty close. My aim for February, is to do something every day.

My beautiful Lisa Parker sketchbook

Some of my many notes I made when reading 'S.' this month

I am completely addicted to Skillshare courses at the moment. If you haven't come across it before, it's a website where artists and designers can upload online courses to teach you new skills from Photoshop to starting a fashion business. Like most creative people, I find it hard to enjoy learning something new if a course is too rigid and prescriptive. I like to learn the basics and then have the freedom to play and experiment so I can find my own way of doing it. Skillshare is perfect for this because you can watch online videos at your own pace and complete course tasks if you want to as well.

I decided to have a go at a calligraphy course this month, partly because of the New Year sale, and partly because it will be a useful skill for one of my projects this month. I am ambidextrous, but write with my left hand, so I often find that this makes me quite clumsy. My initial calligraphy attempts in my sketchbook were very blotchy and smudged, but as I began to get the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. Calligraphy is definitely something I would like to continue practising and I feel some more reference books may be added to my collection in the coming months!

A rather messy early attempt!

Progress!

I have also been drawing some very quick stag sketches for my own reference, and also to work out what I would like my next exhibition piece to look like.

Deer eye close-up sketch

Playing around with layout

Recommended Read: S.

My brother, Harvey, gave me 'S.' by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst for Christmas. I knew that he'd been really excited about the book he was currently reading, and had bought me the same one, but I wasn't expecting such an exciting and unusual reading experience.

'S.' is physically beautiful. It comes in a black box with a seal that you have to cut to get to the book itself. The book inside is the real treat; a perfectly aged replica library book awaits you. The pages have been yellowed and, I have no idea how they did this, it even smells like an old book. The spine is sewn (a proper book!) and there is even a library sticker and stamps showing when the book has been borrowed inside.

Not only that, but tucked between the pages (which is why the book needs its case) are various postcards, photographs and hand written letters that enhance the story. There is even a map drawn onto an actual napkin! The cost of producing this book must have been incredible! I can't believe how reasonable it is to buy though.

The book inside the 'S.' case is called 'The Ship of Theseus' and has been written by the fictional author  V. M. Straka. We learn from the forward (written by his translator whom he worked with over many years) that this was the final book Straka wrote before his mysterious death. The translator admits that not all of the pages of the final chapter were recovered and that he has completed the book for the author, so we don't know how much of the book is truly Straka's work. Nobody, not even the translator, knows the true identity of Straka and this has become the subject of many conspiracy theories and academic debates.

As you can see from the trailer, the book is full of annotations. These annotations are a series of conversations between two people who are trying to solve the mystery of who Straka was, before another academic rival does. There may also be other parties involved in trying to solve, or cover up the mystery, which builds a lot of suspense throughout the annotations. To add further complication to the book, the discussion between the two people is not chronological. There are 4 of 5 different conversations which are dispersed throughout the book, so you are constantly getting a sneak peak of what is to come.

'S.' is definitely not a light read. There are so many layers to the story that it is often hard to keep track; In the novel you are wondering who the mysterious S. character is, as well as searching for clues to Straka's true identity, you do not know how much the translator has altered the original manuscript, or how reliable his frequent footnotes are. On top of that, you become very attached to the two people having the annotation conversations about the book and want to know whether they solve the mystery unharmed. The fictional websites referred to by the annotators are actually real websites, so you can become fully immersed in the story and the theories.

There are a lot of different ideas online about how you should read the book, from reading the entire novel first, without looking at the annotations, to reading it all in one go. I fall into the latter category, and found that the most enjoyable way for me to read the book was to read a double page of the novel at a time, and then read the annotations before moving on. This is partly because I am very impatient and couldn't resist peeking at them! I think whichever way you choose to read it will alter your reading experience, but it will definitely be the most unusual book you've read for a while.

This is not an easy read to dip into for a few pages before you go to bed. I'd say you have to devote at least an hour at a time to it for a satisfying read. 'S.' is a bit like 'Lost' combined with a mystery novel, with a hint of 'The Jolly Postman' (who doesn't love a book full of postcards and letters?). There are some very dark scenes in the book, so it is definitely only appropriate for adults. 

'S.' is such a clever book with so many names, layers and clues, that I suspect a lot of it went over my head in the first reading. I finished reading the book over the weekend and still don't feel like I have all of the answers yet. Definitely one for a re-read soon! Even though I don't fully understand everything, this book gets five stars from me for sheer beauty and such an immersive experience. I think, with the rise of the ebook, this is the direction that physical books should be heading. 'S.' is available as an ebook but I think this would completely take away from the work of art that is the book itself, so I recommend you get the real deal!

New Year, New Sketchbook

Happy New Year!

As you've probably gathered from previous posts, Christmas is my absolute favourite time of year so the January Blues usually strike with a vengeance around now. 

2014 is going to be a very exciting year though; I have been working on lots of new products involving my illustrations and my mum and I are going to be having our first exhibition together in the spring (I will be writing more about this closer to the time).

Like most people, my resolutions involve grand exercise plans, but I thought I would share one of my illustration based resolutions. I was given a beautiful journal from Lisa Parker's shop for Christmas. I love looking through old sketchbooks, particularly ones with notes in too. For some reason I haven't been keeping a sketchbook as regularly as I should be, so my resolution is to sketchbook daily in my new journal. Hopefully I will have worked my way through a few of them by the end of the year (I have the barn owl one and have my eye on the wolf one next!).

I'm not setting any rules for myself, other than I have to do something in the sketchbook every day. It doesn't matter if it's drawing, writing, or sticking something in, as long as it's daily. 

Showing someone your sketchbook is a bit like showing someone your diary. I think the whole point of it is that you don't need to worry about what anyone thinks about it, and you can doodle ideas that you might never use. So I decided that I will post a few pages once a month, rather than daily or weekly.

Once I've created a habit of doing something, it comes easily to me. It's getting started that I find most difficult so to kick things off, I created a board of inspiring sketchbooks and journals that can be found here.

Reddit Secret Santa 2013

This is the first year that I've taken part in Reddit Secret Santa, and I have really enjoyed it!

If you haven't heard about it, it's the world's biggest secret santa gift exchange. There are over 100,000 people taking part this year which will be a world record!

You sign up on redditgifts.com and on the 2nd of December they match you with another Reddit user. You then get sent a little bit of information about your giftee, depending on how much of their profile they have filled in. You can also use this information to do a little non-creepy online stalking to find out more about your giftee (I have been trained by my Reddit-pro brother!).

At the same time, your name is given to another person from anywhere in the world. So I have no idea who my Santa is, but am ridiculously excited to find out. There are even celebrities like Bill Gates, Bear Grylls and Arnold Schwarzenegger taking part!

When I first received my giftee's information I was a little nervous because they are very sporty and I am definitely not. They are interested in horses (I'm allergic), football (I'm a rugby girl) and cycling (I haven't been on a bike since I knackered my knee a few years ago!). So I didn't really have a clue where to start, but really enjoyed the challenge.

Luckily, I have sporty friends and family members. My giftee (who will have to remain a mystery so I don't give the game away) is training for a cycling event so my first gift to them is a Buff. These are really good for outdoorsy people because they are a great way of staying warm without risking a scarf getting caught in whatever you're doing. I chose a horsey pattern to match my giftee's interests.

I then bought some energy jelly beans that my dad used to train for his 10k run this year. He said that they were useful, so I hope that they enjoy them. I also got a personalised cycling chocolate bar for them as a Christmassy treat. I love chocolate so that's sharing something I like too!

The main reason I'm writing this blog post though, is the final two gifts in my present. I wanted to share a few of my interests with my giftee. I love reading, and obviously art, so I tried to think of a book and illustration I could draw for them that would reflect their interests and well. Last month I went to see 'War Horse' at the theatre which was absolutely amazing, and as my giftee is interested in horses it seemed like the perfect book to include in their present.

I decided to draw Joey, the horse from the story, for them. I'm posting the gifts today and have written on the tag of my illustration that my giftee can find out how it's made here.

As usual, I worked in dip pen with ink and watercolour to produce this illustration. 

My very messy art materials!

I began by mapping out the main shapes in pencil, and then added detail in dip pen and ink. 

Next I added washes of ink to add shading and depth to the picture.

After that, I began to add washes of watercolour. I waited for each layer to dry before adding more.

Then I added more detail and texture with watercolour crayon. Finally, I added little splashes of colour to give the illustration movement and make it more atmospheric. This is a one-off illustration just for them.

Once it was finished, I mounted it with blue board and packaged it ready to ship!

I've now got all of my gifts wrapped and am heading to the post office. I'm so excited and nervous about sending the gifts. To my giftee, I really hope you like them and have a very merry Christmas!

Presents pre-wrapped. I included the candle in the photo to make it look a bit more festive and managed to
burn my finger on it- oops!

Wrapped and ready to go!

*UPDATE* I'm absolutely thrilled that my giftee loved their present and sent me the nicest thank you message :)