I’ve been scratching away at new work for my portfolio lately but still want to keep my eye and hand co-ordinated. Here are a couple of doodles from the last couple of days…
The first drawing is the lovely Freyia, (singer-songwriter from London) she has the most incredible facial features and those eyes….
I’ve been putting my sketches up on Facebook for a while and they’ve become quite popular, I’ve been commissioned for a few and sell them quite regularly, feel free to contact me if you’d like to commission a sketch (or a painting, or an entire book of art 
here’s the latest doodle:
Today’s doodling to warmup…
Here’s part three of the Painting Unicorns video:
I’m very pleased to announce that my book ‘That Space In Between’ (A collection of my personal drawings and sketches) is now available to purchase from Amazon.com. Her’s the link:
(Cover art below)
This was a great job to work on after such a long break away from the drawing board… It’s a cover for a book the wonderfully talented Sally Odgers is putting together, such an honour to be asked to paint this…..As you may have noticed from the WIP posted yesterday, I reversed the image as I went and settled on the lassie facing inwards, far more intimate IMO….
Before I start my day at the drawing board, I generally do something to warm up. It may be drawing something completely new, reworking something I’ve done previously that I may not be entirely happy with or inking up old sketches. Here are a couple of older images from my sketchbooks that have been inked over the past few days….
‘Granny’s Magic Slippers’- originally drawn a couple of years ago….
‘Broom Cupboard’- a reworking of an old drawing from a couple of years ago…
‘Paint Like Arthur Rackham’- Commission for The Official Corel Painter Magazine. This image was discarded in favour of a simpler image. It was drawn on paper, scanned in, then inked and painted using Corel PainterX. I’ve already posted the line art for this in an earlier post…
What a fantastic day it’s been so far. I was quite suddenly woken up at 7 Am by my eldest son Niall…”Happy Father’s Day!!!” he exclaimed. Rubbing the sand from my eyes and bidding the wonderful dream I was in the middle of goodbye, I looked up to see my beautiful wife holding my youngest son Finn and Niall with an armful of gifts, and of course, the toys he can never put down they all jumped on the bed and I opened my gifts.
It’s Father’s Day here in Australia today. It’s been a pretty emotional journey through the day so far as I count my (many) blessings and gaze on at my boys with absolute love in my heart. I became a Dad at the age of 36, later in life for many, I just know I wouldn’t have been ready for such a role any earlier I also feel as though I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m about as happy as I’ll ever be and the overwhelming sense of pride and the surreal honesty of looking on at my sons as they play is almost more than I can bear at times. the tears aren’t far from the surface today
UPDATE…… Just gotten back from lunch at the local cafe and went to the park with the boys. Finn took his first step today!!! Also, his first tooth has come through…. Very exciting. 
My Dad, my sons Finn (left) and Niall (right) and I on Dad’s trip over from the UK a couple of months ago….
Niall (2 1/2 yrs old)
Finn (10 months old)
The boys and I at the park today… Can you tell I’m not a big fan of having my photo taken?
I did some work for a client yesterday, I had to produce a dragon silhouette for a company’s logo. It was a great job and I came up with a fair few designs I rather liked. A few of them were far too elaborate for a company logo though, this is one of them….
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.
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)
