Surprise Dad!

As my Dad doesn't read this blog it's safe to show you all these beer mats I designed as a surprise for his birthday party next week, this lovely ebay shop is printing them for me. I can't wait to scatter them about and surprise my dad! These were made in Adobe Illustrator. I aged the photo using this excellent tutorial you can find here, to achieve a 'real ale' sort of traditional look.

Educational...

Currently I teach classes on perspective drawing at a college near me. The students need to learn how to use Illustrator and produce a final piece demonstrating grasp of the software, as well as understanding of perspective and how to apply it. This is a piece of artwork I produced to show them how useful the Effects - 3D - Rotate command when creating artwork. Two things I learned in advance whilst doing this: One - Plan in advance! This is an amazing tool but my how fiddly. I didnt think it lent itself well to tinkering. Two - colour in advance! It was a nightmare colouring the individual bits as once the effect is applied, the paths stay, invisible, in their original place. I had to keep switching the screen to view in Outlines just to get anything coloured. Anyway! I hope this will show them the possibilities of such a tool. Here's hoping!

A is for Anne

Myself and my good friend and awesome illustrator buddy Carlydraws are currently doing a literary alphabet, with each letter connected to something in literature. My first letter is dedicated to Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I think my alphabet will be largely character based, but we will wait and see.

When you are scared...

This started life as a doodle in my sketchbook. I have set myself a 365 challenge this year - to draw something every single day in a sketchbook. I've figured out that if I stick to it, I should fill four sketchbooks in a year.

I've fallen out of love with sketchbooks, ever since college, and I think it's because our sketchbooks were marked. The fact that someone was going to be looking at my work and appraising it ruined the sketchbook experience for me, because I was so busy trying to make each page 'perfect'. I don't blame college for this, there's no getting away from the fact that art work needs to be assessed somehow if you are studying.

Anyway, my friend and fellow illustrator Carly is a really prolific sketcher, she even sketches on the sofa when she comes to visit. She inspired me to start sketching more and get over this odd phobia of sketchbooks. (I usually sketch on loose sheets, much more liberating, but I end up losing them and they find their way into various hiding places in my home, so I can't look back over what I've been doing.)

So far I haven't missed a day, and have ten pages of work. At the start I envisaged filling the book with artwork of all different mediums, pastel, watercolour, pen, pencil, etc... but truth be told I have slid into working with my trusty pens. But that's okay. The important thing is I'm drawing again!

I'll aim to take some pictures of some of the pages and post them here. Ugh, my blog has majorly suffered due to internet issues lately. I'm due to move again in a few months, so there's no point getting it in my flat really. I'll try to make an effort to post more often.