House in the clouds

This is a complex image made with the starting point of a wooden house model. It started as a birthday present for my Dad, then has been on a bookshelf for a year. After seeing it for so long little cogs started working and my subconscious came up with the perfect scenario to set the building in. 

It's drawn in Photoshop, and is quite a large image, about 50cm wide. There was no intention to make it like the house in 'Up', maybe it's a common theme to dream about houses in the clouds. The whole image is just simple fantasy, a combination of two things I love- architecture and billowing clouds.

The first blue-tinted clouds version.

 With an apocalyptic edge to the clouds.

The line is removed, for a nice 'chunky' quality.

Here's the original model:

Etching Class at The Art House

This is a drawing of the etching class I taught at The Art House in Wakefield. It was a two day course, and was very successful for the students, who left still smiling.
The drive to improve and discover new ways of making work has really taken hold. It's interesting how old methods from art school have resurfaced and proved to be still interesting and effective.
There are two different styles here; one is to use a watercolour drawn line and then use a rough conte brush as the colour, and the other is to just have the pastel and no line. I prefer the latter, it's more painterly and chunky, it just about hangs together as a description of forms. This could go more rough and abstract in future drawings.

Neal's Yard, London

This was quite a big project. It started as a watercolour from about 4 years ago, but I decided to really push myself and do a big 60x24cm version in Photoshop with the new rough Dry Media brushes.
I'm really getting into my stride with the Kyle's Brushes, and have discovered quite a lot about drawing and painting. The most important lesson has been to work out how detailed to go and where to leave the quality more rough and loose.

Tea Time

On the trail of the Tour de France (Yorkshire Grand Depart), I had lovely cream tea at Bainbridge in Swaledale.
Then did a picture of it. Forget photographing your food, draw it too. Maybe that's a good idea for everyone to try…

It actually started as a test to see if I could tackle my horror of drawing ellipses. It took a day to draw it out, and a day to add colour and get the balance right for the composition.

History Girl

It has been a while, but I'm back now, with a drawing of a Tudor Feast. It is a scene from Tudor Christmas, BBC. The scene was so reminiscent of the beautiful Dutch paintings of the 17th century, so I had a go at tackling such a lovely scene.
It was made on the Wacom Intuos tablet, and Kyle's Dry Media Brushes, which have fantastic texture qualities.

Mystery House drawing

This house has always fascinated me, it is in Crouch End, north London, opposite where I used to live. Apparently it looks even worse 4 years after I took the photo.
The dark picture is a tryout at night-time lighting, with an orange light in the hall. What I've found so enjoyable with this new way of working is the quality of shading with the Dry Media Set (Kyle's Brushes via http://gumroad.com/kyletwebster)

Portrait time

If you follow my blog you may know I'm a bit of a Doctor Who fan. Sometimes I like to draw portraits of some characters. So before the new series starts here are a couple of portraits of new-boy, Peter Capaldi. If you are eagle eyed you can see that the lower one has the mouth slightly more pursed. What is this man thinking? Will a witty comment come out?

Etchings of elder vikings

Some more vikings (I'm building up a collection).  These are two expressive vikings, the first is looking worried, and the second very imperious. They are both c. 18x26cm. 

New tools- Kyle T Webster Brushes for Photoshop

Hi,
it has been far too long since the previous post. I've been very busy with work, and then needed to get my batteries recharged.

Via a friend's students at Aberystwyth University in Wales I discovered the wonderful Kylesbrushes. The link is http://kyletwebster.tumblr.com. I'm usually a bit sceptical of photoshop brushes, and favour Painter for my digital drawings, but was bowled over by their high quality.
This did involve me upgrading the tiny Wacom tablet used since 2008, and getting an Intuos Pro large, which has also revolutionised how I work. The Wamazing watercolour brush, Xerox brushes, and Dry Media brushes are my favourites.

Coffee Barker, Cardiff.
Kyle's Xerox Brushes.

Coffee Barker, Cardiff.
Kyle's Xerox Brushes, with colour layers. 

Dorling Kindersley Children's Reference department.

The first stage- a Wamazing brush drawing, with white chalk
added underneath, and a watercolour paper base.

Colouring layer, added, without white layer. 

Colour and white layers, without lines. 

The complete image, 60x20cm.  

A small section, as a portrait of Andrea, one of the editors.

Gulen's desk, Carlton Books.

Watercolour brush, 'Wamazing'. Full colour.

Sepia version, more subdued colour.

News

This week is about jobs to do.

1. Set up my e-Commerce website, so you can buy my prints easily.
2. Get work ready for submissions to the International Print Biennale, International Open Mini Print Exhibition, and the Lincolnshire Open Print Biennale.