Dreams….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A recent warmup drawing. Traditional- line art.

I’ve been having some rather intense dreams of late, lots of new symbols and things I’ve never seen before. I went to a place last night when I slept- (only had 2 hours…) that had the most ‘otherworldly’ tree I’ve ever seen. It seemed to be some kind of ‘gateway’. I’ll post more on this if I have any more experiences with it.

Got lots to do today… The ‘horsey’ book I’m working on is nearing completion and I’m very happy with the way it’s looking. Not sure when the publication date is, but I’ll add a link here when it’s ready. Very exciting stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst we’re on the subject of horses, here’s a recent page from my sketchbooks.

Also…. I’ve just found one of the songs I played on 12 years ago with a band I recorded with during my time living in Wales on the net…. feel free to have a listen, I’m playing lead and one of the rythm guitars, so good to hear after many, many years, it’s a bit rough and ready but you’ll get the general idea…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsaqvmEBhl4&feature=channel

Ommmmmmmm………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having a wonderfully relaxing day today. had some lovely company, the kids are behaving and I’m getting away with doing my own thing. Lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another old drawing from around 2004-05. Traditional-pen and ink line art.

Black and white art….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m currently putting a booklet together for (potential) publishers showcasing some of my line art. here’s the cover. If anyone’s interested in purchasing one, let me know via my email address:

aaronpocock.yahoo.com.au

Dryads…. pencils to inks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another example of my step from pencil to ink. When I’m feeling lazy, I don’t like to over-detail my drawings  and prefer the happy accident whilst I’m inking. Of course, this is ‘living on the edge’ a little artistically, but sometimes, I don’t feel like drawing the image twice.

In Greek mythology, tree nymphs. Dryads were originally the spirits of oak trees (drys: “oak”), but the name was later applied to all tree nymphs. They were nature spirits who took the form of beautiful young women, and it was believed that they lived only as long as the trees they inhabited.

Looking On…

Ever feel like a spectator to your own life? Just when you think you have it all together, the good old Universe seems to say “Nope…. this way please…”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quickie drawn before I started work today. Line art, started out traditionally, finished off digitally.

School Visit…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A recent warm-up sketch. Traditional pen and ink.

Well, after the nerves, the butterflies and the 2-3 hours of sleeplessness last night, the 1 1/2 hour drive to the school was indeed worth every bit of it. 102 kids passed through the room I used for my demonstration and we all had a great time. It was every bit as good as I hoped it could possibly be-and then some. When I got home, my wife checked our inbox and there was a beautiful email in it waiting for me… This is what it said:

Hi Aaron

My name is (witheld).  My son, Hayden is in Yr 1 at (witheld).  Ever since I got home from work this afternoon, he has been talking non-stop about you and how ‘awesome’ you were today and how ‘awesome’ your drawings are.  Hayden is a very keen drawer and absolutely loved what you showed them today.  He proudly took me into the computer this afternoon and asked me to find your website, so he could show me your excellent illustrations.  He really loved your silhouette unicorn picture and the gremlin on the toilet.  The angel one in you gallery also means a lot to Hayden as he relates well to angels as he has a baby sister in heaven.

I just wanted to thank you for making my little man smile and talk non-stop….

Thank you again,

Bec

How amazing to have had such a thoroughly enjoyable day and to have gorgeous feedback like that waiting for me. I feel truly blessed… And all that with the moon in Scorpio! (it’s usually my enemy).

 

In The Shadows….

 

 

 

 

 

 

A recent update of an illustration that was somehow, not complete enough. I’m far happier with this version.

Digital Line art-photoshop/Painter

Pencils to Inks…

Here’s an old  image showing how I usually get from the pencilled to inked stage,  recently found on my hard drive. Got nothing new to show at the moment, still badgering away at the various projects I have on the go.

Also, I’m off to do a school visit on Thursday. I’m there all day, teaching the kids how I work digitally. I’ll be taking my trusty PC and will be praying to the Gods of electical bits and pieces to look out for me and keep those rotten gremlins away for the day. Wish me luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Wiz’… traditional media- pencil/drawing pens

 

Links to some great art….

 A very old drawing, recently redrawn for my own amusement….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of recent  illustrations for a children’s book about a very greedy bear…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, as  an extension to yesterday’s post, I’d heartily recommend the following links to some of my favourite illustrator’s work….Hope you enjoy it!

 www.kaluta.com

himmapaan.livejournal.com

www.david.wyatt.btinternet.co.uk

www.greenmanpress.com

www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrators/illustrators/rackham.html

Inking Techniques and Things…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used to post a lot over at Deviantart:

www.deviantart.com

Whilst I was there, I received a lot of questions about my inking techniques. These questions ranged from the usual “Where do you get your inspiration’ to ‘How do you do (such and such…). Here are a few things I’ve learnt along the pen and ink path…..

1) I’ve learnt so very much about the medium from looking at work by my favourite artists using pen and ink, among my favourites are: David Wyatt (illustrator-genius), Franklin Booth, Arthur Rackham, Chris Riddell, Charles Vess, Alan Lee and Mike Kaluta. Each has something uniquely different to say.

2) Trying out different techniques. Pen and ink is a beautiful medium and has a wide range of rendering techniques to offer. From cross hatching, to dotting techniques, every little nuance is worth exploring and many different effects can be achieved within a single image providing you’ve added them to your arsenal of expression.

3) A very popular question is “How do I get my own style”… There really is no short cut… ‘Repetition’, Just doing it over and over is the answer. A ‘style’, or ’Look’  comes with time. I don’t believe you can set out with a particulr style in mind. Whether you’re learning from the same source, copying diligently, you’ll develop your own ‘look’ after a certain amount of time… Even using different techniques, you’ll find that the eventual flavour will be uniquely your own. One thing I can definately say I’ve done consciously though, is that I’ve spent a long time trying to ‘clean up’ my lines over the years. This can be achieved by concentrating on ‘economy of lines’ and a good under-drawing. Sketchy, indefinate drawings produce sketchy indefinate line art.

4)  When’s enough ‘enough’? This comes with practise. Heavy blacks and hatching can be overdone. Paying attention to negative areas as well as rendered areas is also very important. When learnig techniques from other artists, also bear in mind the ares they leave free. It’s about allowing ‘breathing space’ within an image.

5) What pens do I use? Another question I’m frequently asked. I’ve used really expensive Rotring pens with VERY fine tips, I’ve used dip pens and indian ink. For the last few years though, I’ve been using generic art store/ newsagent drawing pens. My favourite sized tips are: .1 .2 .3 and .5 for a wide variety of line width.

If anyone has any more questions not covered here: feel free to fire away.

Here are a couple of other recent B&W drawings….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve also been trying out inking on the PC… Why? For sheer speed. Sometimes I get really busy and the error factor when working traditionally can be especially high when I’m feeling rushed, working digitally reduces the mistakes as there’s always an ‘edit’ button. Here are a couple of examples:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Lauren, If you’re reading this, thanks sooo much for the lovely words on your DA page. I appreciate it. Stay in touch…

The Kids Run The Show….

 

It’s true…… A screaming two and a half year old has more power than God. try walking through a shopping centre and have a two year old decide he/she wants something…… Miracles are made manifest in a matter of seconds…. Swami Aaronji can make toys and candy appear seemingly from thin air. (laughs).

Whilst we were out, I took my toddler into the pet store, he found the mice particularly interesting. I’d love to buy him one, but God! mouse crap smells so much doesn’t it.

Silhouette

It’s been a hard week. Still getting over the Swine Flu and getting back on my feet with work. I’m currently in the middle of a children’s picture book (amongst many other things…)which is  starting to take shape. I have four more illustrations to paint then I can call it done. I started it last July and have been beavering away at it in between other things. It’s been a lot of hard work but I’m very pleased with how it’s looking. I can’t of course, post what I’ve done here yet, but will in due course.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On top of that, I have a whole heap of other things on the go, more kids books and a couple of cover illustrations. Busybusybusy, but I’ll always find the time to do a warm-up drawing before I start work for the day. Today’s image is another little silhouette of an idea I have bubbling around in the grey matter upstairs. and here’s an illustration I did for The Corel Painter magazine earlier this year. This is the line art art before I finished the illustration by colouring it. It was a fantastic job. (digital- Corel PainterX)

Ugly critter….

Not much to say today, thought I’d better post something as I haven’t added anything for a few days…. This drawing’s a reworking of one of my very old book illustrations. Any resemblance to ‘yours truly’ is purely coincidental.

Narnia….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a recently inked older drawing of everyone’s favourite melancholy Marsh Wiggle. Puddleglum’s such a great character isn’t he. (Graphite drawing inked in Corel painterX)

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a trend with the movie adaptations of great books….. It always seems to be about the fights, and the battles and the wars and things. The subtleties of the story rarely come across, or isn’t paid enough attention to. It bothers me that with so many violent movies around, they have to balls up timeless classic like the Narnia stories, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy (almost) suffered the same fate. Thankfully , Peter Jackson was fairly sensitive to Tolkien’s poetic side…. Eragon, now that I’ve been privy to the actual story itself , to me, was a complete waste of space.  I remember eagerly awaiting the movie, only to feel VERY let down when I saw it. Wouldn’t it be great to see these fantastic stories treated decently, with a lot more focus upon the characterisation? (… I am very aware that it’s hard to distill the essence of a thousand page story into a  one-and-a-half hour movie… But if  it is actually nigh-on impossible-why even bother?).

I’d LOOOOOVE to illustrate The Narnia Chronicles. After all these years, I still think  they’re  the best children’s books I’ve ever read. They hold the same sense of wonder for me now that they did when I was a youngster.

Here’s the original sketch I drew a while back….

Okay….

You can now click on the images for a larger view. I managed to figure out how this worked- aren’t I clever!

Witch quickie…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t been anywhere near my studio for the past few days due to the dreadful Pig Flu. I’m just about to start work, but thought it best to begin with a quick warm-up. I decided to loosen up by colouring this drawing I did the other day.

(colour rendered in photoshop CS3 and painterX)

Oink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole house has gone down with the pig flu this last few days, so sorry for no posting… I’ve been nursing my bruised male ego and watching in amazement at how women just suffer in silence. We men are just such whingers aren’t we?  Seriously though, this is one disgusting flu. I don’t remember ever having gone through anything like this in all my years. Thankfully I’m feeling a lot better now, but I’m finding myself way behind in my work, hopefully Friday’ll see me zipping through it at a speedy pace.

I did however, manage to draw this old witch through all the coughing, hoiking, retching and moaning, whining and carrying on…….

 

 

Painting update and other things…

This painting is taking up a lot of my head space. When I can think of anything other than the jobs I have on the go, I’m thinking about actually finishing this one. It’s kind of a landmark piece as it’ll (hopefully) set the tone for the rest of the art I’ll be producing for the exhibition. Working in oils is very time-consuming and I won’t be producing all the other pieces in this media (thankfully). There’ll be some acrylic paintings, some watercolour stuff, mixed media, some pen and ink and some graphite stuff. I’m pretty comfortable with most of the mediums mentioned so that’s ok, but I’ll feel a whole lot better when this one is finished.

I’m also really enjoying the black and white art at the moment. For one thing, I’m terribly quick, and  instant gratification is so important whilst I’m so busy. here’s a drawing or two I’ve worked on when I should be doing other things. (ahem.)Nothing earth-shattering here.  Just some playing around with cross-hatching. I like to vary my approach and learn as many different styles as I can to keep things fresh.

Here’s another crow. For no other reason than the fact that I love drawing crows.

Distilling all the pen work into a silhouette. Trying to say as much as I can without all the hatching, criss-crossing and other detail that can sometimes be unneccessary. This is a discipline in itself and one I thoroughly enjoy.

and here’s a typical ‘hand loosening’ page. I frequently go through the routine of warming up before I start working on paid gigs for the day otherwise my work can look very stiff and lifeless. I find even half an hour a day is a great way to:

1) do your own thing

2) play with other ideas you may wish to pursue but don’t have the time, and…

3) free your mind up before attempting a (sometimes) daunting, difficult or even boring  job.

my eyebrow hairs are going crazy….

Getting old’s a funny thing. I’m 39 now- 40 next May. Apart from little things like my body shape changing slowly and my wrinkles becoming more pronounced, I’m finding my eyebrow hairs a complete pain in the bum. I smooth them down, smooth them up, pluck out the culprits…. but nothing seems to make them want to grow straight, and, a decent length anymore. Nothing. Oh woe is me.

Here’s a new drawing. Digitally drawn in Photoshop. Who doesn’t like dragons?

New Stuff….

Here’re a couple of pics of me hard at work in a couple of different guises:

1) Aaron the ‘Illustrator’….

2)Aaron the ‘Fine Artist’…

 

What’s the difference? I have two artistic sides to me, one is the ‘Illustrator’. he’s the busiest one. Overseeing all the books, Cd sleeves, the magazine illustrations and the other bits and pieces that come flying from all angles, taking it all on the chin and trying hard to make deadlines and such. the other is the ‘Fine Artist’. he’s much more laid back, only comes out to play every now and again and works mainly in oils and watercolours and acrylics. He’s much more disciplined and takes his time. At the moment, he’s working on getting some pieces together for his 2010 exhibition in the regional gallery. He says he’ll post more of his work as he goes… the painting in the pic is one he’s working on at the moment and was shown in an earlier post here on this blog.

Below is a painting for a recent children’s book-available soon (next month or so). If anyone’s interested in finding out more, or where they can get one, let me know….

Blogs and Things….

I’ve been thinking about these ‘Blog’ thingies for the past couple of days and wondering why I’ve decided to carry on with one when I gave up the idea a fair while ago. As I search for a reason I find myself coming up with a lot of insight into what makes me tick. here’s the conclusion I came to:

I’m a very private person. Maybe that’s why I’m an artist, so I can get my unspoken thoughts and feelings down into some kind of coherent mass. I’ve never been one to find the right words in any given situation. I somehow often find myself looking back at an event, or a conversation and wish I’d said ‘this’ or ‘that’. I don’t think very well on the spot. My astrology chart points to many of the issues with a great deal of accuracy, I have the Sun, Mercury and Saturn all in Taurus, if anyone has any idea of astrology, the Taurean native is a plodder by nature, slow to think and to react, sooo, that covers that one- can’t help it. I find pictures a darn sight easier than dealing with a muddled brain confused by the intricacies of human emotions.

My rising sign is in Scorpio, so there’s the ‘privacy’ thing. But somehow, I feel the deep seated need to share with people, my art, my music, my passions, my experiences….. In comes venus and Mars (both in Gemini)… communicative, mercurial Gemini… This comes across in my life in a variety of ways (key word-’variety’). I have a low boredom threshold. I’ve dealt with this over the years by becoming lightning fast with my art. I’m slow and lazy to start up (Taurus), but very speedy with the execution of an idea (Gemini). (interestingly, I share my birthday with Salvador Dali- who also put his ideas across on canvas very quickly) -So I can seemingly do many types of art, play instruments, and pick up most other things with very little effort, but it has come at a price…. You’ll mostly find me at the back of the party, watching the comings and goings and the carryings-on of the peole around me. I’ve never felt entirely comfortable in a crowd, yet, strap my guitar to me, put me on a stage in front of hundreds of people and I’m in my element. Wierd right? Now I’m feeling a little uncomfortable, talking about myself so much here.

What’s this got to do with Blogs? I guess I had an issue with the whole ‘Blog’ thing because of all the things I listed above. I’ve read many blogs by other peole who can (and do) just about mention everything they did on any given day, everything that was said and what they had for breakfast.. How do these people do it? We’ve moved into an age where privacy isn’t what it used to be and honestly, I still feel pretty uncomfortable with the idea.

So I’ll go on blogging, maybe with a little to say, maybe with not much to say at all. But I will make sure I post some art, created to the best of my ability.

Here’s today’s drawing before I start working on a cover, some interior art and carry on with the  five more paintings I have left  for a  picture book I’m working on. I’ll finish the first two and scribble away at the latter until it’s completed (which may take the better part of three weeks or so- picture books are very time consuming).

 

Line art-digital (PhotoshopCS3)

 

Old Crow….

Very often, before I begin work on my illustration commitments, I’ll scratch away at something to warm- up with. Today’s subject is the clever crow. I never tire of drawing them….

Pen and ink.

The Clearing (work in progress)…

I don’t get to paint in oils very often, but relish the opportunity when it presents itself. I have an exhibition in 2010 and have vowed to produce 25 (or so) pieces of art in traditional media, of which this is the first. The model is the very lovely:

elandria.deviantart.com

I’m just at the blocking in stage right now, getting the colours and the basic idea sorted out on the canvas. I’ll update more over time.

 

Ride a White Swan…

Wouldn’t it just be great to jump on the back of a big white birdie and let it take  you with the flow?

This was a drawing I did for a warm-up before I started work on other things. I’d love to get some time to paint this as I’m rather fond of it.

Unicorn…

I’ve been illustrating a book about horses for a publisher here in Australia. It’s been a lot of hard work, but it looks like it’s starting to pay off. I can’t post any of the work from the book for a while, but here’s a drawing I did a week or so ago. I’m not sure I’m any better at drawing horses than I was before I undertook the commission, but they are getting a little easier for me.