Winter Floral

Oh dear have I neglected this blog or what.....I'm very sorry to the people who ever look upon this, 2011 hasn't been the blog year I planned it to be. It's a shame really as I do enjoy keeping it but since going freelance in June I haven't done nearly as much of my own work as I would have liked and I can't share my "professional" work that I do on here (if you didn't know already I work as a surface print designer). Anyway, today was a nice change and I had most of the day free so I started working on some of my own patterns, I managed to finish off one and here it is, a winter inspired floral. I am planning some serious changes though, before the year is out i'm planning to get my website up and running to how I'm happy with and my number one new years resolution is to do more of my own work, take a day out of my week to solely work on 'me' things and then be able to share them with you.

An older gent

I managed to finish some "work, work" off today and really had the urge to paint something...I haven't painted anything in a very long time. I realised I don't actually own any paint but have got a tray of watercolours so watercolours were what I used. I decided to paint an old man, just because I like to draw old men so thought maybe it would be fun to paint one, and it was. I built up the colours and then as it needed a bit of definition went over to highlight some areas with my trusty quill and ink. Considering I don't ever work like this I don't think it's turned out too badly, there are a few errors but I think it's a good first try, I might start doing some more work like this.

May the Force be with you

This is a birthday present i've been working on recently for someone special who is a bit of a Star Wars fan and now that they have received it I can share it with you. It was fun to draw as I am also a bit of a Star wars geek and the birthday boy was pleased so all in all it was a win win. I got it printed at Liquid Imaging which is just round the corner from my work and they we're really great and pretty reasonable in price for central London.

Instant Photos

I received a Diana camera for my birthday this year and was extremely spoilt when I also got an instant back for it as a late birthday present from work. I was anxious to give it a go so went out this afternoon to have a play around, I have used polaroid camera's in the past but this was my first attempt at using the diana instant, a few of the images didn't turn out too great, they went too dark or too light, in terms of the ghost like cats, but overall I'm quite pleased with my first try..fingers crossed they can only get better and next try I might have a few mini masterpieces.

Wedding Invites

The reason that I haven't blogged much so far this year has been because I have been working on wedding invitations for my cousin who is getting married in July. The invites were fiddly and quite time consuming to make but I think they've turned out well, I enjoyed folding the heart shape origami for the back, (I might play around with more origami in the future) I just hope the happy couple like them.

The Arctic

I've been watching a great series on BBC called Human Planet, it's on a Thursday at 8pm and is really interesting. I was rather inspired by last weeks episode which focussed on the ice and have started drawing animals that live in the arctic, here's a little sneak peak at what i've been drawing.

Portraits

Apart from animals my favourite things to draw are faces, and the more character the face has the better, I seem to prefer drawing men but I think that's because I enjoy drawing facial hair, and I haven't found too many women to draw that have facial hair. I'm in the process of working on a few prints which will include and look at using the image of Willie Nelson and the older gent who has got the most brilliant face to draw. The drawing of Tom Selleck "the man with the moustache" was a bit of an experiment, I usually draw with a quill pen and ink but I drew Tom using a sharpened stick found in the garden, It's nice to try out different things once in a while but I prefer the level of detail you can get using a quill.

Introducing......

Meet Lily and Gene, I'm quite surprised at myself that this is the first time I have blogged these guys as there all I seem to take photos of at the minute. Lily, is one and we got her last August after a friend could no longer look after her and when I found out that Gene (who is 6months) had yet to find a home we took him in from another friend when he was just 8weeks and extremely cute (not that he's not cute now). They are totally inseparable and real great characters, it's so nice to have cats again in the house.

New Year, New Look

So a New Year has begun and my main New Years resolution is to make some more time for my own work and also make sure this blog is updated frequently. I was very lucky to be given an SLR for Christmas/Birthday so I have no reason now not to update things.

To start of this New Year I have created a little logo and a new blog header for a fresh start......hope you like it.