Inktober 2018

For the third year running, I took part in October's 'Inktober'. The difference this time around is that I didn't use my inks at all, but primarily fine line pen and marker pen, and kept the colouring all in black (well, almost). No particular reason. I went away for a week and confess I got very far behind and many were drawn in just a few days. However, the important thing is that they all got finished within October! It really is a great thing to do because it gives you a challenge and gets you drawing, experimenting and thinking about things that you usually might not otherwise. Plus you don't have to make such a detailed artwork of every single word; you can be as quick as you like if you so wish. And you can just have some fun with it. Most of these are saved in twos (can only condense it so much!):

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(Whoops, forgot to add in 'Chop' earlier - seem familiar? For 'Double' I held two pens and drew literally double.)

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(Twice I've sneakily got a Pokemon in there. Plus a few other 'fan arts'.)

Well done for getting through all those scribbles...

Sooty And Co Presents

After the WWI centenary, here are some more 2018 anniversaries…

2018 has seen so many anniversaries that I wanted to draw something for a few of them. Mine tends to focus on UK-related anniversaries, but of course many of these things have had some sort of influence around the world. A few more I discovered would have been good to include – sorry, James Cook, et al – but I had to draw the line somewhere! The children’s TV characters Sooty, Sweep and Soo feature in all of my pieces (therefore my pieces are for fun fan art), due to finding out that Sooty turned 70 this year, and that really inspired me in terms of how these anniversary pictures would come together. I had planned to put all the images together into one piece; however minimising all those pictures I’d individually worked on down so small didn’t seem right in the end, so here’s six pieces finished in not too much time all in one post:

Aethelflaed

2018 marks the 1,100^th anniversary of the death of the royal Anglo-Saxon daughter of Alfred the Great, Aethelflaed the ‘Lady of the Mercians’. Helping to continue what her father started, in leadership she achieved a number of things, important to the development of Mercian England (and for more description on this, look her up!). It’s interesting that these events of a ‘warrior queen’ occurred over 1,100^th years ago and we’re only just celebrating 100 years since women got the vote. What happened? Back at school, I can’t recall touching upon pre-1066 England too much, and certainly didn’t retain anything about any Aethelflaed. I don’t know how it is now, but these times should definitely be taught, as important in explaining the initial development of England, and Britain as a whole.

The Circus

250 years since the idea of the circus was born here, in England (London, to be more precise). I only discovered the 250th anniversary this September when I visited the annual Sand Sculpture Festival in Weston-super-Mare, themed around the circus to mark the occasion. Growing up, I don’t particularly recall going to circuses, aside from a brief visit to one at a theme park, so they haven’t been much interest to me in that way. And I don’t like clowns! More recently I attended a Cirque du Soleil performance which was very impressive. This was the first of the pictures I completed and it seemed a natural fit for Sooty and Sweep to perform, however enthusiastically it might or might not be for some.

Frankenstein 

After finishing the other pictures I decided to do one more to even things out. In 1918, the novel ‘Frankenstein’, or ‘The Modern Prometheus’, was published, written by Mary Shelley. The story of a pieced together monster has continued on in popular culture for a very long time, so undoubtedly a significant book to acknowledge the anniversary of, 200 years on. I must admit years ago when I learnt that the author was a women I was quite surprised – not that I couldn’t envision a woman writing of such a thing ever, but due to the time it was written and such I had just assumed it was a man. Another sketchier piece kept to monochrome to fit the period and theme.

NHS

70 years of the National Health Service and I almost feel that it has been longer than that. Any excuse to include Sooty’s adorable little camper van. Sketchier piece as I wanted to have a little bit of variety between pictures.

RAF

100 years since the Royal Air Force was formed, close to the end of WWI. The Spitfire aircraft, used during and after WWII, makes an appearance (again) as a notable part of the RAF. Personal fact: my grandpa was in the RAF. Just now I discovered that their motto translates as ‘through adversity to the stars’, which really has quite the ring to it. I was inspired by a WWI poster for the colour choices in the picture. 

Votes For Women

Well, only some in Britain did at first. But it was a start. If the ‘suffragettes’ had not been so passionate back in the 1910s, how many years since women had the right to vote would we be celebrating instead? I looked up a few women’s rights posters from the time to inspire the simpler coloured background.

Sooty

I enjoyed watching ‘The Sooty Show’ and ‘Sooty & Co.’ as a child, so of course I must acknowledge Sooty’s 70^th – and how good he looks! And Sweep is just so adorable. Sooty first appeared on the BBC back in 1952 before becoming a regular on ITV since the late ’60s. 

There's perhaps one or two more anniversary pictures I'd like to acknowledge, but it's already mid-November! Inktober doodles to come next. Thanks for looking.

Lest We Forget

It is now 100 years ('centenary') since the end of the First World War.

Here's my quiet little dedication to the anniversary. Two versions, as I wasn't sure which colour background to use and then decided to do a different thing with both. Return of the Tommy squirrel, a character I introduced a few years ago, right in the thick of it... https://fransdesign.blogspot.com/2015/08/times-gone-by.html

Here, a rare, peaceful moment in the trenches as the soldier reads a letter from his mother. Plus, war is soon to end... A mix of coloured pencil, marker pen and digital means.

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Includes a simple rhyme which popped into my head as I wondered what to do with this piece...

100 years later, and still we remember WWI, along with WWII and other conflicts since. Thinking of Britain alone, who was not affected by the 'Great War' in some way? These were our relatives involved at the time -- whether they had to go and serve their country or keep things ticking over at home, etc. -- this would have an effect which would follow down the line and inform who and where we are now. 100 years seems such a long time and yet it is really something when you realise that there are still people living, who, whilst to young to have fought, did experience it from the home life and can still recall those days. 

Explore Horizons Young Writers 2018

Going back a few months now, I once again designed a poster for the winning story for the Young Writers' Award competition for the tutoring company, Explore Horizons. Just as with the last one, I had a very short space of time to do it in, and, fortunately, I managed to get something out in time! The theme was heroes. (Well done to the winner!) So here it is with a link to the story, if you wish, to give the picture some context:

https://www.explore-horizons.com/schools/young-writers-awards/

All Peachy On The Beachy

As autumn officially closes in, here are my summertime seaside pieces before they feel irrelevant! Wasn’t going to show the first two, but as they all link as part of a series, why not give an idea of the day’s transition?

Some light, traditional fun for me and traditional fun in the sun for these youngsters. Unfortunately my pictures coloured with marker pens (also with coloured pencil) just do not scan well at all and a photograph isn’t perfect, either – although better:

The second piece is of later on in the day. Here I was influenced by an evening photo of Weston-super-Mare (in South-West England) that I have in my album, which somebody else took whilst with me. This time using coloured pencils. Again it didn’t scan entirely true to actual tones, but can get away with it better here! An appreciation of being beside the sea, watching the sunset, etc:

The third is a mixture of traditional and digital. Using another W-s-M photo for reference, I roughly drew it all out first and coloured all in Photoshop. I purposely coloured quite blocky with the mouse and tried out a few brushes for the clouds. Removed all pencil lines in the background last minute and kept them on the hares, which seemed to work out rather nicely:

And now we must say goodbye to summer…

More to come soon.

Back Up The Fighting Forces

Ah, one way or another I didn't get posting in July... and here is something I finished in June. One of those British World War II posters which caught my eye because it advertises the different 'fighting forces' options: (land) soldier, RAF and Royal Navy with some very determined-looking men. I wanted to do something of my own with this rather patriotic Wartime piece.

Here's the original:

And follows my version. First way of making it my own, change the men to animals of the fluffy kind. I also added a simplified Spitfire, trench and naval ship to the top for an added impression of what these men would be getting themselves into (literally). Through this, my version is somewhat more extended out than a poster set up. I tried to keep close to the styling and enjoyed the graphic-y approach. (I confess I have not looked upon this picture since June, so I'm bound to have forgotten some of the things I planned to say and had better not look before submitting else I'll want to alter things.) 

I'm very much aware that this year marks 100 years since the end of World War I, (plus more anniversaries aside - but more on that later), and am hoping to get another piece - possibly WWI poster inspired - out before the end of the year to commemorate such an anniversary. 

On a similar note, I read somewhere recently that children of ? ages in Britain were asked questions about one or both of the wars and their knowledge was severely lacking, to the point that many even thought that Germany was an ally. Fair enough that you can't expect young children to know much about the wars, but older children, and indeed teenagers, well... I assume they are still being taught to some degree at school, and aren't there quite a few films and television programmes set over these times still coming out, that one cannot be completely ignorant about it, surely? Does it do to allow youngsters to forget about these wars, including one where many people who experienced it still live? Something to chew over. Possibly not something to debate further on an art blog!

Three Lions

Here's a sudden extra (goal)post!

So it's the World Cup, and this year I've decided to follow it a bit more again after missing the last few. Watching the England matches has given me a positive focus, in spite of the usual not expecting too much of them at this particular tournament! Whatever happens next... England will always be
the team I support. (Who I will urge on when England go out, I'm not sure yet.) I've also been listening to more England football songs over the years beyond the more obvious and that's been fun.
So here's my nod to England football for the World Cup 2018, but also in general, so whatever may happen next, the support is still there for other times! Knowing I needed to get it out asap ideally, I got a sketch formed and scanned and coloured all within a short space of time, not looking to make too much, but just enough to get the idea across. Went for a more graphicy illustrative approach here, and back to the songs... the words on the picture are a nod to the 'We've Got The Whole World At Our Feet' England Football Squad song for the World Cup '86. I do like a catchy tune.

Coat Of Many Colours And Spots

The 'coat' connection came just now...

For light-hearted purely traditional doodling after some illustration work (more on that soon), I decided I wanted to draw on A3 paper exactly 101 dalmatians, because I thought the effect of all the spots together and not much colour otherwise would be interesting. But also because Dodie Smith's 1956 novel is one of my favourite books to come back to, as it is written in a very charming way. Of course the Disney film(s) is so well-known there's no way of not getting influenced by it, but I have tried to make it closer to the novel with the inclusion of the liver-spotted adults and such. I spread drawing this out over a few days and only pencilling and pen-ing a few at a time so I could ensure I was keeping count. I believe there is 101! The nature of how I drew it, wanting little pressure with it as possible, means the appearance of the dogs and how much concentration into them does vary quite a bit! Again, just a bit of fun that I finally decided I might as well upload here, along with the following piece.

Seeing spots...

Another one of my favourites that I'd been meaning to do a picture for is of the musical by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. A coat of many colours splayed out was something I wanted to create. (Quite the contrast with the other pic.) I drew Joseph with curly hair as a nod to the Joseph that I went to see some years back now -- Lee Mead. I selected all the colours for the coat that are mentioned in one of the songs, which meant looking up various colour codes to get the best accuracy I could (at least with how I see the colours). I didn't actually look up references of how the coat generally looks in the stageshows; I just went with the flow. As ever I really like the lift that adding a texture gives to the final piece. It's fun to experiment with drawing humans in different ways when I don't draw them generally as much as animals. I'm pleased to have finally given this colourful coat image a go! EDIT: made a few minor changes since first posting this picture.

Thanks for looking.

Peacock-Pegasus

After visiting Rhodes last year (yes, slight delay!) I was inspired to draw a winged horse after getting a lovely Greek-styled Pegasus ornament. On our last full day we'd visited a ruined monastery which had some peafowls - and their very sweet chicks - wandering around nearby, and that too inspired me to do a peacock-based picture. So decided I wanted to merge the ideas. And to theme it more to my time in Rhodes, I looked at my photos of the Rhodes Town castle fort ruins to add something of it in the picture. Bit of fun again. Haven't looked at it since I finished it a few weeks ago, so hoping I can resist tampering with it after uploading!

Sardine Tin Owl

Back in December (yes, all that time ago), I created this in a little sardine tin in roughly a couple of hours to be swapped at our art group. Bit of a time ago to recall all my thoughts on it. (Photos had been sitting around for a while on the computer whilst I keep uploading other pieces here. Also wasn't sure if it was worth sharing, but decided it was something a bit different.) Basically hoping to get it done while I had the chance, I eventually decided to draw a tawny owl in a garage or shed, which has made a mess with the white paint, and painted it in acrylics (maybe a bit of watercolour) and outlined in black pen on brown paper. I found a bit of corrugated cardboard to use for a garage/shed door which added a 3D element to the piece. 

Roughly applied paint to the corrugated door which I don't think is a terrible thing in this case, as the garage/shed could easily be in this state of paint peeling away!

Here gives a better idea of scale. Quite compact, really.

Despite the December rush, the swapping session was put back until the new year, and naturally I no longer own this. With more time, I would have liked to... yadda yadda... But hopefully it was liked. What I got back was a lovely 3D felted piece. Just a bit of fun to share here.

Looking At You

When I was working on my exhibition pieces I started this picture from a photo I took at the Combe Martin Wildlife Park in North Devon -- scarily now just over ten years ago -- which is, or at least was, known for its wolf pack. I managed to get a pretty good close up snap of a raccoon looking up at me, which I simply could not ignore as great picture material. As with the Capybara piece, it was drawn traditionally, with an altered background, on textured paper and scanned in to colour, using the new fur brush tools. Also like the Capybara piece, I printed it out and then decided I wasn't entirely happy with it, and drew on the print to darken the pen marks. Does mean the re-scan of the print is not great quality, but there you go! I wasn't happy enough with the piece to show it in the exhibition because I didn't think it would stand out enough, which in effect pushed me to create the Leopard drawing which was the more successful piece.

Felt he/she should still get a look in on my little blog!

It's already April... yikes... More pictures to come soon.

Exhibition 2018

February saw three of my pictures appear at a group exhibition at Nature In Art in Gloucestershire for about two weeks. This is already the fourth year I have put something in for it -- has it really been that long since I joined??

Three of my pieces were on display, including a print version of my 'Three Goats Gruff' painting (I posted here sometime last year: http://fransdesign.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/three-billy-goats-gruff.html ) to add some colour, as I usually submit the more sketchy and limited colour palette pieces. The other two were newer pieces and more in my usual for-display mould. It's ever lovely to have the chance to display some pictures, often otherwise rather hidden away.

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'Relaxing Capybara'

As ever, my photos were my friends for reference and inspiration. I had two clear photos of a capybara at Bristol Zoo, one with him/her sat and the other with his head in a bucket... and so I merged the poses to be two capybaras in this sketchier piece and in a more in the wild-type background. This was also my chance to use some new fur brushes I downloaded on Photoshop. Sketched it out on textured paper, scanned and coloured on the fur, wasn't too happy with the lightness of the background, printed it and actually drew onto the print to darken the background (not my usual process!). Because of this method, I scanned it in again to show here and it will have affected the colouring.

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'Amur Leopard'

I think it was at Cotswold Wildlife Park where I saw this Amur leopard. It looks rather sad in this photo, and so also my drawing, and it makes me think about the fact that they are sadly endangered. Here's my picture as a bit of awareness, therefore, of this particular leopard. Leopards are supposed to be my favourite wild animal and so it was also about time I drew one again. Managed to keep it entirely traditional, which was nice for me and meant the textured paper wasn't then killed at the scanning stage. Textured, A4; used black pen, primarily, and some thicker lines with a felt tip, some shading with graphite pencil, and a bit of white chalk to highlight areas where the light shone (the chalk I wasn't sure about in the end, but once it was on there it was there). As with many pictures, background was altered a little to suit where I was going with the pic. I did dither quite a bit over the picture, not knowing where to go with it, whether to colour, whether to scan, etc., but I think it was happy staying black and 'white' in the end in this case. Scanned version.

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In other years I have kept meaning to take a photo of the pieces on display in the gallery, yet have not managed to do so...... however, this year I did. So here is proof of display! It's quite fun to see them in a bit of context, though you can't see much of the pictures around it.

 I may have forgotten something... will post again soon. Thanks for looking.

Quick Sketches And Life Drawing

I might have already posted these last year; probably should have checked... A few sketches that have been floating around on the computer for a while, which I thought I had better just get on and post as a breather between my more worked in to pictures.

As I have said before, and why I fear I might have already posted these, it is so good to have horses nearby to sketch for practice:

Even little monsters need to be purrfected with plenty of observational sketches... (What am I doing? I should be sketching monsters all the time!):

A teeny bit of life drawing I did near the end of last year. Always shows when I have gone long gaps between doing life drawing and I suffer a few frustrating false starts:

More to come.