'Valkyrie'

 Valkyrie
Watercolour / Gouache
24 x 31cm

I can honestly say this is the first time I've painted a badger singing at the opera. No matter how serious I make her expression I still can't help but laugh at her absurd appearance (don't tell her I said that).

In terms of technique I did the usual sepia under-painting then masked everything except the backdrop using tape and cellophane in order to pull out some big brushes and work wet in wet with blues, violets and blacks. (See previous post).

After the damage was done I removed the cellophane and got to work laying in the colours on everything that was left blank, being careful to suggest a warm up-light and blue in the shadows. When I had taken the watercolour as dark as it would go, white and yellow ochre gouache came into play on the extreme highlights (metal specular highlights, skirt, claws, fur etc.) and then gently glazed around the footlights to suggest mist creeping across the stage.

'A Maths Lesson'

I've recently finished two paintings, the first being 'A Maths Lesson'.

A Maths Lesson

Watercolour / Gouache

24 x 31cm 

This particular scene was requested by Olivier, my fantastic client at Galerie Daniel Maghen. Mostly I conjure up the scenes and stories I want to depict in paint but every now and then Olivier has a great suggestion which I can then develop.

Initially I began with the teacher at the front of the class and all the pupils paying attention without any funny business going on. However as I progressed with my rough sketch I suddenly found that the young mole was passing a love note to the bunny next to him. Once those two characters had been fully realised another bunny decided to make himself known by appearing on the edge of the painting in order to observe the progress of the love note. Has the note been passed on from bunny to bunny via the little mole or is that a look of jealousy the male bunny is shooting at the mole? You decide.

Incidentally I have since been informed that this class must be in detention. Apparently school finishes at 3.00pm these days. I remember the good old days of being stuck inside until 3.30 before even thinking of finishing for the day.

Valkyrie WIP

As promised, here is another work in progress but, hang on, it's a different painting.

It's been a long time since I've used inks

Working up the badger valkyrie

I had fun with the background working wet-in-wet with watercolour and a black acrylic ink. You might be able to see I masked the badger with cellophane and magic tape so the strong cobalt blue would not contaminate the main character. I'm attempting some dramatic lighting on this painting and hoping to add shimmering stars and a smoke machine. There's still a long way to go and as they say - 'it's not over until the fat badger sings'.

'A Maths Lesson' Progress

Here's a back dated progress shot of 'A Maths Lesson'. I'm putting the finishing touches to it this morning.

More WIPs to follow!

Paintings In The Pipeline

A Maths Lesson

Good Evening M'Lady

Lounging About

Valkyrie

Two of them are up and running. Stay tuned...

Momo & The Totobrats

The front cover

Momo & The Totobrats written by Wendy Hesketh and illustrated by me is now available to purchase through amazon. This is the first children's book I have illustrated and therefore it's been a steep learning curve.

Momo (the main character) is a very spoiled little boy who is given everything he wants by his doting parents and grandmother, but they forget to teach him any manners. Momo pushes people around, jumps in front of queues and snatches other people's things. He has no friends. When he meets the Totobrats, he learns a lot about himself.

This book is good for teaching young children manners. It is especially useful for teaching children who have special educational needs, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Parents of all children, but especially those with ADHD, will also find it useful as a way to discuss and encourage positive behaviours.

Some of the interior pages

The style of artwork is very different to the paintings I have been posting more recently here on the blog and that is because I worked on Momo & The Totobrats two years ago. Way before I had a firm hold on my style of artwork and what I was going to do with it. I'm glad I decided to pursue a traditional watercolour wash with coloured pencil technique for the book's 28 illustrations otherwise I might still be working on the book now!

Hot Off The Press...

A proof of my first (to be) published children's book is here!

It's called Momo & The Totobrats, written by the wonderful Wendy Hesketh and illustrated by yours truly.

 

Feast - Finished Watercolour Painting!

'Feast' was a BIG job. Some of you may already have seen the previously posted progress shots but I thought for this post I would collate everything so you can see the whole development from pencil to finished artwork.

First off I produced this detailed sketch which I extrapolated from a series of thumbnails. I'd like to show the thumbnails too but I have a habit of using them for scrap and they tend to disappear in the recycling bin well before I remember I'll possibly need them again. The sketch below is the largest drawing I have produced for the series so far and believe me, it had to be. There was a lot of erasing, re-positioning and general jiggery-pokery involved before I had a composition I liked. I always find a table-based scene particularly hard because, well, there's a table in it! They get in the way of the action, are often much wider than you think and not very exciting to draw. To counteract these issues I raised the eye-level to suggest the viewer is stood behind the mouse and hare looking down on the raucous feast (Rockwell never struggled).

A lot of the characters are taken from my previous paintings and some of them like the hares and squirrel are bound to make there own solo debut in future paintings. Also note the three distinctive social cliques formed by the guests - top left - the greedy bunch, top right - the liquid diners, and bottom - the polite company.

After the sketch was completed and approved by my wonderful client, Olivier, I moved into Photoshop to produce a small tonal study. I knew in advance how the scene should work, dark background, light middle ground and a slightly silhouetted foreground badger, but I thought it prudent to develop the study considering the amount of time I would spend painting especially if I were to make mistakes and find myself re-working the final image.

Tonal study completed and on to stretched watercolour paper. I traced down an enlarged print out and got to work on a light sepia under-painting (predictable I know). Then added local colours and started to build up and refine from there until I finally added gouache on the whiskers and highlights.

 

I deliberately chose a scene that contained objects and characters I had painted before so, armed with reference, I could confidently render every aspect. The next large painting might be more challenging but as this was my first I played it safe. Oh and I've always wished to depict a feast after reading so many wonderful foody descriptions in the Redwall books by Brian Jacques.

Feast

Watercolour & Gouache

50 x 40cm 

'Feast' Work In Progress

Here are a couple of shots taken on my phone as I'm working on my latest painting.

I'm now slowly making my way anti clockwise around the painting by concentrating on each character in turn. Once I've done the badger then I will take a look at the table and then the background. After that it's a case of pushing the values.

The Scribe

Some of you may already have spotted this painting on my drawing board in a previous post. This was a very simple painting to create because I have already done something very similar for my wife, a painting called 'Autumn Scribe'. The real difference in this is the backdrop which is lifted straight from Lacock Abbey cloisters (home of the Harry Potter films and others).

The Scribe

Watercolour / Gouache

24 x 31cm 

Above is a detail of the window (I know it's most of the painting) just before I started to really pile on the pale yellow gouache. I was going after sunlight illuminating the dust in the old archive and I really think it worked.