Cardiff Castle's Animal Wall

Cardiff has quite a few architectural landmarks- the castle being the most eccentric. Perched on the battlement-style wall are stone animals, (some with glassy eyes). They're simultaneously humorous and spooky, looking like a second away from springing to life.

Vkings

Here are the latest viking drawings, from the York Jorvik Viking Festival. The textures and colours are particularly interesting, viking costume can be very rich, especially the Russian ones.

Since I've been using KyleBrushes amazing photoshop tools my love of drawing has really taken off again. It still takes the same skill of pencil and paper, the only difference is that you don't rub a hole in the surface when erasing mistakes. An unexpected challenge of working this way is the temptation to be very detailed, something I have to drag myself away from. There still has to be a roughness to the edges and freshness in colour, and there's still judging what to put in or leave out.

 

Hallowe'en dinner

So it's 3 months after Hallowe'en, but I dug this photo out of my collection and realised that it would be a great subject for the next picture. The location is Banners Restaurant in North London, it's such an interesting place, there are so many details to feast on along with a great sense of space. The Jerk Chicken is gorgeous, and the Singapore Sling will knock you out.

In the last few months I've started looking at combining drawing with using textures. The second image has some paper underneath, matching the slightly grungey feel of the place. Usually it's a base of an Ingres or sugar paper, but now I'm adding scuffed and mottled surfaces. The tricky part of that is not to let the background look gimmicky or obtrusive.