Little Paintings for my Kickstarter 'The Wind in the Willows' Book Campaign

 I feel like I'm blowng the dust off this blog, polishing my spectacles, and thumbing through its pages to see where I last posted... December 2020?!!! Oh dear. In explanation I use this blog to post my thoughts and process on painting, and Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for promotion. Over the last year and a half I've been so busy, I've barely been able to look around and post something meaningful, until now.

As part of my Kickstarter campaign to gather pre-orders for my fully illustrated edition of 'The Wind in the Willows' (take a look), I have been creating 15 small watercolours for those lucky backers who snapped them up in the first few days of the Kickstarter launch. I also managed to make a time lapse video painting Ratty, start to finish. 

 

Many people ask me about my technique, hopefully this video will give you some pointers. At the beginning I start with my basic linework (which has been slightly erased with a putty rubber). Then I add an underpainting of cobalt blue and cadmium red mixed together. Those colours create a dull violet, perfect for cast shadows on a warm day (complimentary to yellow ochre). Once the underpainting is dry enough, I add local colours and then start to build up deeper tones and details all over. Lots of work is required on the fur to give Ratty a nice texture, but I have to be careful not to overwork his shirt and trousers, which is easy to do with transparent watercolour. The red chequer for the basket liner is left until last, because I want to build up all the tonal values first and then let it influence the layer of red watercolour. I do this with all patterned fabrics.

Here are the other character paintings, all taken from scenes in the book:

'Telling Tales' and other artworks

As the year draws to an end, it's time to post some artwork highlights which I have completed in 2019. I don't post much work on the blog these days, so there is a fair amount to show you.

'Telling Tales' 24 x 31cm watercolour and gouache

'House Sitting' 24 x 31cm watercolour and gouache

'House Sitting' rough drawing

'Hankering For Home' 24 x 31cm watercolour

'The Last Train' 51 x 35cm, watercolour and gouache

'Nice Morning Ma'am' 24 x 31cm watercolour and gouache

'Ratty Writing Poetry' 24 x 31cm watercolour and gouache

Hopefully in 2020 all my 'Wind In The Willows' illustrations will be published in a fully illustrated edition of the classic story.

P.s have you seen my Winter Sale? Please take a look - www.chris-dunn.co.uk/sale . Everything is reduced, including calendars and limited edition prints up to 50% off!

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

2020 Art Calendar

Paisley will have the last laugh.

Here's October's Paisley Rabbit illustration, and possibly my favourite in my new 2020 Paisley Rabbit Art Calendar, available now - https://www.chris-dunn.co.uk/product-page/2020-calendar-12x12in

It's very exciting to have a full bleed, 12" square calendar. At a larger scale, compared to my 2019 calendar, the images have much more impact and of course you can keep the image page at the end of the monthand maybe even get it framed!!

11 illustrations from the book, plus one new illustration for May.

Work In Progress

Rough Drawing - I can't think of a suitable title yet!

I've been so busy I have nearly forgotten about my blog! Hopefully this post will kick me into a blogging gear. As I type I am waiting for this painting to dry. I have applied a mixture of prussian blue and payne's grey on saturated paper in the hope of creating an atmospheric late evening background of fields and trees under a light dusting of snow. The finished scene will have Mole sadly recalling his old subterranean home and how he hasn't seen it for so long. The two friends are making their way back to Ratty's house, late on a winter's day, when Mole suddenly catches the scent of his home and becomes distraught. Ratty consoles Mole and quickly decides to find Mole's house in the hope of cheering him up.

I love sloshing watercolour around...

Two Paintings In One

Double Jeopardy

Every now and then I like to create two paintings on the same piece of paper. It saves time, paper and water because I soak my watercolour paper in a water tray before taping it to the board to dry and stretch. It may be a time saver, but working like has risks. I must be very careful to protect the half I am not working on from moisture and paint. Thankfully Scotch Magic Tape is brilliant for masking watercolour paper without overly-damaging the paper underneath. Fortunately the tape also adheres to the plastic sheet I use to mask larger areas, which means I can fix the sheet in place and seal all the edges so there is little chance of water encroaching onto the painting.

This message is not sponsored by Scotch Magic Tape, although I wouldn't mind if it was (they could pay in rolls of tape).

Here are the finished 'The Wind In The Willows' illustrations:

'Walking Through The Village'watercolour and gouache
24 x 31cm

'Heard The News?'
watercolour and gouache
24 x 31cm

New Grimm's Fairytales Artwork

A short post for those who have not seen my latest output:

'The Fox and the Cat'

watercolour and gouache

24 x 13cm

'Shoemaking Elves'

watercolour and gouache

24 x 13cm

'The Raven'

watercolour and gouache

24 x 13cm

'The Cat and Mouse In Partnership'

watercolour and gouache

24 x 13cm

Some of you may have spotted these illustrations are all inspired by Grimm's Fairytales. I will be producing more illustrations based on the well-known tales very soon.

She Guarded The Castle

'She Guarded The Castle' watercolour and gouache, 31 x 24cm

Here's something I finished just before the Easter break. This is my first Grimm's fairytale illustration. The scene is taken from 'Jorinda and Joringel' which features a witch who can take the form of an owl and cat. Her abode is a castle in the woods where she captures maidens, turns them into small songbirds and locks them away in cages (can you spot the key?).

For reference, I was fortunate enough to have a collection of woodland photos I had taken in the rain this winter. The castle is based on Helen's Tower in Northern Ireland, apparently you can stay there! As for the owl, I found a collection of shots on google and took bits from each to fashion my own bird perched on a branch.


Depicting mist can be a tricky business, keeping an eye on distance from the viewer juxtaposed with visible levels of detail can sometimes lead to overworking areas and underworking others. This in turn can ruin the atmospheric perspective I'm hoping to achieve. In the end I washed out lots of detail in the castle and trees, and chose to only fully define the windows and middle-ground tree branches

As I look back on the painting now, I'm very happy with the final result. I tried to imbue the painting with a dark foreboding presence without being a cliché. I think this image would work well in some of the later (and darker) Harry Potter books and also have a similar atmosphere.

Follow Me On Instagram

Interview by Elizabeth Dulemba

Elizabeth Dulemba has kindly interviewed me about my illustrations for 'Paisley Rabbit and the Treehouse Contest'. You can read it here - https://dulemba.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/chris-dunns-paisley-rabbit_25.html :)

The book will be released on 1st March. You can pre-order a copy now through amazon.

Bear Mountain Books

Maria Schneider at Bear Mountain Books, has very kindly posted about my artwork. I also gave her a little bit of extra information regards inspiration for my characters. Please take a look - link 

In other news, here's the line work for the next 'Paisley Rabbit And The Treehouse Contest' illustration I am working on.

Picnic By The Lighthouse

Picnic By The Lighthouse
Watercolour & Gouache
70 x 50cm

Here is the most recent of my large paintings. It was surprisingly quick to finish, mainly due to the vast sky and relatively small amount of characters.

My aim was to produce an accompanying image for 'Rescue From The Storm', maybe depicting the day after - I'll let you decide.

'Catching Butterflies'

I now realise I have a back log of artwork to post! Firstly I had better tie up the lose end from my previous WIP post. Here is the, now complete, painting called 'Catching Butterflies'

Catching Butterflies
Watercolour & Gouache
24 x 31cm

I used three distinct techniques to paint this whimsical image of a stoat chasing butterflies. The first was to work wet in wet to build up the soft trees in the background, I had to be very careful not to encroach on the hat and net. The second technique was to use masking fluid with a toothbrush to speckle the field with lots of wild flowers and seeds, that way I could easily work up the greens without worrying about losing the bright flowers. The third technique was glaze very thin applications of paint over the shadows on the stoat so even in darker areas there would still be a nice interplay of cold blues and warm greens.

Massive Fantastic Interview

I have recently given a 10 question interview, courtesy of Eric Millen, for his superb blog 'Massive Fantastic. You can read it here.

Make sure to have a browse through the archives, there is an especially good interview with James Gurney where Mr Gurney turns the tables on Eric and asks about the fate of his old brushes, Eric had previously traded new brushes for James' used ones!

The Orator Work In Progress

Chris what are you working on at the moment? Why haven't you be posting regularly? Do toads drink whiskey? All these questions can be answered by the image below.

My most recent and best purchase...

is this stunning watercolour by top class illustrator Sam Weber.

This is the character Zoey from the cover of 'Fair Coin', a young adult novel by E.C. Myers. You can see how she appears on the book jacket here.

I always thought one day I would like to own a Sam Weber original, maybe a sketch that I could afford when I've started to collect my pension - if I was lucky. Now I have an original, for a superb price, direct from the artist and I still have my own teeth!

Mr Weber still has some work up for grabs on his website if you are interested.

HOW Magazine Cover

Out of the blue I received an email from the Art Director at HOW design after she had seen one of my blueprint illustrations on 'Pinterest.' Thank goodness for social media or else I might never have got the commission to do the next cover. Below you can see the fruits of my labour, however this time I'm not going to tell you how I turn a drawing into a blueprint because it's a trade secret!

Brave New World Roughs

The Folio Society is running a competition to illustrate 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. Click here for more details.

Above you can see the roughs, drawn without reference, for the three scenes I have chosen to illustrate. Previously I had worked up a number of thumbnails before selecting which composition I would like to take forward. Now I have to take photo reference based on these roughs and then develop detailed roughs for each.

Stop... Experimentation Time Part 2

In a previous post I showed you a drawing of Sir Chris Hoy which I was hoping to develop into, what is for me, a different style of portrait illustration. I have now completed that little project so let me take you through it.

Above you can see my grey acrylic under-painting. Why grey? Well I've been struggling to create an even overall skin tone in watercolour so I decided that I should try an acrylic wash underneath to unify all the transparent colours glazed on top.

Watercolour is notoriously difficult when it comes to skin because it's too transparent, oils work well because they offer an opaque sheen. Above you can see the results of glazing with watercolour just before I moved into photoshop to tweak everything and add background detail.

Above is the final image, you can see I have adjusted the levels on Chris and added a London 2012 Olympic gold medal. I have also contended with the slight speckle in the background colour by reducing it's contrast. Hopefully all of these changes reinforce my overall value concept of middle tone/lightest/darkest. Below you can see a progression.

In conclusion (sorry if this sounds like an essay) I very happy with the results, especially in the subtle skin tones. Without a doubt I shall be using this technique more often. I also have a mind to add gouache in the hope of becoming more realistic. Some aspects that I was disappointed were the accuracy of the portrait and the slight speckle still prevalent in my watercolours. The speckle could be solved by changing paper or concentrating more on acrylics, as for the drawing its just more practice I need.