sanctuary of wilderness show montage

This is a small selection of image from the day of the show opening, I will post a more detailed view of the exhibition when I get a chance to sort out all the photo's. But for now you can enjoy this little montage of delights...

Putting up the sanctuary of wilderness

This is us putting up the sanctuary of wilderness show at the illustration gallery this weekend. Big thanks to Oliver for being so kind by letting us come and take over his lovely space. This show was a total joy to put, me and Susie had such a good time.

Show at the Illustration Gallery

Come see our show!

An exhibition of work by Susie Wright and myself.

@ the illustration gallery, No 1 Middle Street, Stroud, GL5 1DZ

23rd June (private view) till 21st July 2007



www.theillustrationgallery.com

Thomas Tallis school painting day

This weekend artists from 4wall worked with some of the students from Thomas Tallis school in Kidbrook, south east London, to brighten up their existing year bases in their current school building. This building will be demolished in about two years to be replaced with a nice new school building in the back field on the grounds. The kids that had come in over their weekends worked really hard and were such creative people, full of ideas and energy! Well this was my room, I chose to do lots of little things around the room to make up a larger scene...

Sunday sunshine and strawberries

I took my work out with me today and brought my bird boxes up to the allotment to draw on them. So nice to get out, even got a load of strawberries for my troubles, though I think I have done my back in making holes in the ground so my mum could plant some leeks, bashing a wooden stick with a heavy mallet. My dog was also there, she has problems with staying up on her own so she tends to lean on you wherever she can.

Greetings earthings

I have started my home made production line of blank greetings cards. I love how duplicates of the same thing make me feel, sounds silly but when you have a run of one design all placed out in front of you it just looks so... complete... and I don't often feel like that, there is always something else that needs to be done. Though I might take a few of these and hand colour them, make 'em really special.

Bird boxes up!

I put my finished bird boxes up last night to see how they looked and I am pretty pleased with the whole affair. Such a nice chunky shape coming out of the wall, our exhibition is gonna be splendid.

last nights sky

As I was going to bed last night, I noticed how bright the room was when I turned off my light and when I looked out the window I saw this. Its like a scene from a horror movie. My cat was a little disturbed by my night time photography as I was crawling all over the bed trying to get a picture of it. I tried, the photo's don't quite do it justice...

Cloud and rain - the order of today

This is my visual representation of todays weather and the flowers at the allotment...or an excuse to draw cloud and rain...you decide!

Idea for a textile print...

Mmmm... wouldn't this make a nice printed material, I would love to make a dress out of this material. Need to find a fabric printers...?

Poppy sketches

Went up the allotment today, there are so many poppy's in bloom already and I think we all know how much I like a poppy, they are so good to draw.
So here's my two sketches I did this afternoon, using the new brush drawing pen I bought the other day.

And here are two colour variations using colours picked from the photo's of the plants in bloom at the moment.



And finally these are a selection of my fav colours of the moment, I am loving my oranges and bright pinks, by the way none of these had their colour manipulated in any way, just how they came out on the camera.

People skills...questionable?

I was recently asked, when showing my portfolio, the question that puts the fear into many an illustrator of all things nature/environmental based... Do you draw people? to which I replied "Yeah sure" - when really the sensible voice inside my head saying "No! of course I don't draw people" was actually being choked in a head lock by the voice in my head that cannot walk away from a challenge and laughs in the face of adversity.

So over the past couple of weeks I have been practicing on a nearly daily basis my people drawing skills. Now there has always been a reason for me not really being over keen on drawing people and that was possibly born out of an embarrassment when I got it wrong,. And by wrong I mean the person not really looking like the person they are supposed to and when it does look like them the person don't like it because they think they look ugly... not my fault!

Whether I like it or not, as an illustrator, I need to be able to draw people, and not just be able to draw them but draw them with confidence and my own stamp of Skulliness to boot. And never one to walk away from a challenge the re-education of people skills has begun.

Anyway, after a few gamy hands, a club foot and a couple of wonky eyes, I am starting to get to the point of liking my people drawings, enough to post a blog anyhoo.



So watch this space for more special (needs) drawings...