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.

Paintings In The Pipeline

A Maths Lesson

Good Evening M'Lady

Lounging About

Valkyrie

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

New paintings on the drawing board...

I've started work on two of these ideas this week, the lamplighter and the pied piper fox. The others are an old fashioned rag and bone man (these days it seems scrappers looking for metal have taken their place) and a record keeper which will be loosely based on Autumn Scribe.

The top two are for later on but first I have to master multiple hens dancing and the awkward perspective created by medieval buildings on a hill in the pied piper. With the lamplighter the difficulty will be snow in misty London and the soft glow of a gas lamp. I'm ready to accept the challenge!

'The Card Game' Idea

The last of my small roughs that has been approved (below). I still have a lot of working out to do (not in the gym, on my drawing board) before I even think about reaching for my brushes.

I hoping to give the viewer a bit of a shock in this one. At first glance it looks like a nice civilised game of cards in a warm pub, that is until you spot the stoats accusing look and small knife in his paw which he is about to brandish as the fox picks up is purse of winnings.

Two New Sketches

I have to wait for these drawings to be approved but hopefully I'll get the go-ahead.

The first I like to call 'Retreat From The Windmills' and it is loosely based on the exploits of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza who are represented as an old wiry lion and a plucky meerkat.

The second rough shows a father mouse reading a bedtime story, I can envisage the warm glow of the oil lamp and the big patchwork blanket lending a very soft feel to this painting.

Merry Christmas everybody!!

More Painting Ideas

Below are two ideas that I will be working up into paintings next month.

'Messing About'

'Quick Getaway'

Louie The Lion

Here's the next painting I have planned which needs to be finished in two weeks. I hope to make a start tomorrow.

The Actuary Cover 'Planning A Prosperous Retirement'

Last month I worked on the cover for The Actuary magazine. The brief was to draw a man in his mid forties with the top of his head taken off so you could see all the wonderful things he is planning to do in his retirement. These activities include sailing, cycling, drinking champagne, throwing money in the air, all the things we hope for but might not necessarily achieve. I suppose showing pensioners with bad backs and arthritis isn't so inspiring.

I'm really chuffed to say that cover junkie picked up on this illustration, click here to view it as it's supposed to be seen.

Two Hedgehogs And A Badger

No the post title is not the opening line of joke, it is simply a description of the next two watercolours I will be working on. I have recently received a very exciting commission for five watercolours that depict whimsical scenes involving animal characters. The brief was to base them on the world of 'The Wind In The Willows'. Below you can see the first two approved sketches.

All the paintings will be 24x31cm. So far I have the final pencil work completed and I'm now ready to move in with the paint.

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.

RWS Call For Entries 2013

The deadline for this year's RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition is the 9th January. Click here for more details

I hope to enter again this year. I have a large painting in the works at this very moment. You can see my rough sketch below.

I'd say it's about time I did a watercolour of Whitby. The tall ship is the Endeavour replica being tugged from the harbour which will probably be the first of a few fanciful additions to the scene.

I shall post more as I progress.

Test Illustration

Last month I worked on a test illustration for the Folio Society. Although my test wasn't successful and the job was given to a different illustrator afterwards, I would still like to show you what I did.

Without giving too much away I was asked to illustrate a scene in colour taken from a short fairytale which was provided by the Folio Society. The scene I picked was full of characters and very complicated. What can I say, I was probably trying to show off! Below you can see my detailed rough.

There were are at least another three different versions of this composition drawn before I reached the one above. I was struggling to fit all the relevant information in to what would be a small illustration so not surprisingly the art director suggested an alternative scene. Maybe in the future I'll paint this one for my own amusement, I actually think the colour will save it.

Above is the much simpler scene I decided to tackle instead. The main figure (Merman) is prominent and the direction of the narrative is obviously between him and the maiden in the tower. We both agreed to go ahead and paint this idea instead.

Stay tuned for the colour version(s)...

Stop... Experimentation Time!

Very recently I completed a small illustration for a finance magazine. The deadline was so tight that I decided to paint the background and foreground separately so I could speed up the painting process and adjust the final image in Photoshop much easier. The final result I shall post when it is published.

However for now I want to see what I can do with the process if I have more time, partly because it will be an extra option available to me during commissions but also because it should be fun. Another technique I have been dabbling with but not extrapolated is creating a grey acrylic underpainting and then glazing with subtle watercolour to give a desaturated feel.

Above you can see the final pencil work and a thumbnail next to it suggesting a possible background. Hopefully you can recognise Sir Chris Hoy the astounding Olympic cyclist. I plan to paint his portrait as realistic as possible and block in a very simple grey background with a white circle in the middle. I shall then draw out the Olympic medals on a separate piece, colour them in Photoshop and then create various backgrounds to sit in behind the portrait.

More to come.

The Bath Prize 2012

Already it's that time of year again, I can't believe it's close to a year since my success in the Bath Prize competition. For those of you who missed the call for entries there is still time to sign up and get your personal location to paint. For more information click here, the deadline is the 16th of September.

As for me I shall of course be entering. My assigned location is North Parade Bridge which is the next bridge down river from Pulteney Bridge. North Parade Bridge might not be as picturesque but the potential to create a striking composition by using it's large river spanning arch is clear. I visited the bridge with my camera one Sunday morning and managed to take same interesting shots. I particularly like the water reflections on the underside of the bridge and the resulting shadow being cast on the river and down the far bank-side.

Even though all I have managed so far is a thumbnail (above) I'm confident I can produce a watercolour that has lots of nice contrasts and a strong composition. I'm also planning to include something flying under the bridge and a few other slightly hidden creatures.

For those of you who would like to sample what the Bath Prize previous winners have to offer, get yourselves to the opening of the 'Best Of Bath Prize' exhibition in the Stall Street gallery in Bath. There is also an evening event in the gallery on Friday 24th, unfortunately I cannot be there.

Honeymoon Sketches Pt.5

For the last two nights in Switzerland, Suzanne and I stayed in Geneva. We spent many hours strolling around the city soaking up the relaxed atmosphere and enjoying the warm weather. Our favourite haunt was the old town of Geneva which is typically European in that the buildings are on top of each other with lots of medieval alleyways, nooks and crannies. Nestled in the middle of old town is the Saint-Pierre Cathedral which I believe was built on Roman foundations.

Below left you can see a sketch I did sat on a bench looking across to the classical facade of the Saint-Pierre entrance. The light was constantly changing and tourists like myself were sprawling all over the steps but I didn't include them in the drawing.

To the right are two very quick sketches done as we sat on the Lake Geneva cruise boat waiting for it to cast off. The spire of Saint-Pierre dominated the view and was nicely framed by the mountains behind.

That's the last of my honeymoon sketches, I hope you enjoyed them!

Honeymoon Sketches Pt.4

After a reasonably long walk to St Christophe and le Chateau on the other side of the Verbier valley Suzanne and I visited a small bar in the town which had a delightful terrace out the front. There Suzanne started to read as I quickly did her portrait.

Suzanne wasn't overly impressed, apparently I could have made her look nicer!

So after that poor review I decided to turn my attentions to the building opposite me because buildings can't talk back. Again in HB pencil I concentrated on a simply line drawing and what was a new Swiss style chalet/shop. The clouds gradually got darker as I scratched away and soon it started to rain which brought a halt to my efforts before I could creating tone.

Honeymoon Sketches Pt.1

As promised here is the first of I what I predict to be six posts showing my sketches from Switzerland. Just to warn you these sketches are not in chronological because the only colour version was the first drawing I completed, so I have decided to hold back on that one and show you the above sketch looking across Verbier South-West towards Grand Combin.

This pencil sketch was quite a challenge for a novice plein air artist like me as the peaks of Grand Combin kept disappearing behind white cloud so it was hard to get my bearings on the page. I worked with an HB lead throughout and tried to get all the basic outlines down before suggesting the light skimming off the rock faces and being swallowed by the forests lower down the mountainside. If your eyesight is good hopefully you can see the quick outline of the apartment block Suzanne and I stayed in. It's in the bottom left to the right of a badly drawn crane (the lifting type).

Back in that apartment I grabbed a 3B pencil and blocked in the foreground forest to provide a bit of depth and contrast to the composition.

The sketchbook I used on our trip was a 14x14cm cartridge paper book. The pencil was a Venus HB, one of few left from my Grandfather's box of pencils that he used at work in the 1950s.

Sketches For A New Project

As with everything I'm doing at the moment I have hold back the finished artwork, however I have been given permission to show my sketches. Below you can see the beginnings of a map that will hopefully feature in a children's novel. I can't reveal the plot but suffice to say the main characters are not human!

 2nd Sketch

1st Sketch

You can see a few changes I had to make from the 1st to the 2nd sketch but essentially I kept the same view. The reason behind the 'google satellite' view is to show all the alleyways behind the terraced house clearly because the various back routes feature heavily in the story.