stiff, brittle hills

skaters freeze within a stone tableau

sluice through stone

Just realised it's missing a word, will fix soon.

Red mottled shells in an antique book...

Another part of my summer project featured before but just showing the final format.

Green Lighted rocks

Location drawing of some rocks in a cove in Ireland used as part of a project illustrating Plath poetry.

A lonely character

A lonely pose and study of one of the characters in the last man. Although I might make this my main character to study for now...

what happens to boring books...

... this is what i think of The Last Man. It can mean more torn apart and drawn on than being read.

trying to catch a scene

it's hard to catch something completely - so i tried to catch it all on camera

Trying to experiment with watercolors. This time I tried putting acrylic texture underneath to help create a rock effect.

Wanted to try a challenging technical watercolor and so broke some glass over a leaf to draw. It's not totally random as it was in response to some Sylvia Plath poetry...

Just some mock up labels for my aunts fledging bee honey company.

Sing a song of sixpence was the nursery rhyme I chose for my semester project. I tried to use Ronald Searle type inky birds over textured acrylic backgrounds to give an edgy feel to the rhyme.

Printmaking

Tried using the paper that we use to prepare the drypoint on and overlaying it with the final image - the result was a kind of window for the etch. Might go back to this one day...

A stab at editorial illustration, maybe not too successful yet but was definitely a good experience and I'm really liking the very quick deadlines which need really witty and quick thinking.

sin

My creature of sin. Using all my previous experiences of how guilt made me feel i applied them to the human skeleton and muscle forms to get this little guy...

definitely a little creepy conclusion.

Medical brown paper

I really loved working on brown paper ( I know it sounds strange) but it was interesting to see how colours popped out. I also have found a little interest in medical illustration, it involves so much interesting knowledge that keeps it really interesting.

Objects from Eygpt

Objects drawn from the british museum in watercolour. The first object is a vile that is thought to be used to hold perfum, the second is a knife with an ivory handle and the third is a doll, strangly, it is accuratly propotioned but may have been a childrens toy.

soft focus

An experiment with soft focusing on a background image through photoshop, definitely one technique I'd like to keep.

Pharaoh

Pharaoh in the british museum, part of a series of watercolours resulting from practically living there for a project at university.

Mountain attempt

An attempt at painting mountains ...... not so successful, it took 2 hours to get it to where it is - must remember to try this again some day but nonetheless I like the effect of the houses lining the bottom.

dino passion

the way I have been involved with dinosuars in this projects makes me question whether it was obsession or a passion but one person left a comment simply saying: 'Have you considered being a vet.'

Disappearing landscape

THis was again from the train ride from Bournemouth with the warm light and the speed of the train represented through the trailing disappearing landscape.

japanese gardens

on my wall above my bed I have a collage of photocopied gardens and landscapes integrated with inspiring paintings by people such as Fredrick church. This picture is from sitting in front of it focusing on a particular image of a Japanese garden which stood out as very idyllic.

watercolour

taken from a picture while traveling on a train from bournemouth. The light was amazing on the trees with a very orange glow.

My dad

another source of drawing opportunity is when someone is watching the tv. A regular occurrence in our house means people are still fro at least fifteen minutes before a commerical break. The only down side is that everyone looks bored.

The dude

the dude......our big white boxer who is a constant drawing opportunity - especially when sleeping. This is one of the few times he was siting still while still awake.

Drawings from old medical books. Experimenting with how to imrove my proportions of the head by stripping things down to basic......literally.

Printmaking

Print making was a very fun experience at the foundation art course. I fell in love with John Ruskin about the time we started making colliographs (?). Anyway this was pieced from books about the American landscape.

Town of Turin

Painting from a photo taken in Turin, Italy.

final result

The infamous mammoth as far as my final major project goes resulted in this image contained in a book to W.S. Merwin's poem 'For A Coming Extinction.'

the devil who married three sisters

Illustration from a book based on an Italian folk tale.

The devil was bored so decided to marry a girl who had three sisters. He gave her a big bouquet of flowers but asked her to make one promise - that she would never open a specific door. So she agreed. As soon as he left she opened the door the fires of hell erupted out, burning her flowers. When the devil returned he greeted her but saw that the flowers he had given were burnt and realized what she had done. He opened the gate to hell and threw her in. Next the devil married the second sister but she did the same as well. When the devil married the third sister she put her flowers in a vase. She saw her sisters in hell and immediately helped them out and hid them in boxes before the devil came back. When he did indeed return he saw the fresh flowers and for the first time he loved her. She asked a favor in return for her not looking through the door, that he bring three boxes to her mother's house without opening them. He agreed, so she stood on the balcony as he hauled each box one by one to her mothers. Along the way he was sometimes tempted to look inside but each time he stopped he heard her voice shout to him to keep going and to remember his promise. Eventually all the boxes were delivered and when the devil returned he expected a welcome. Running upstairs he found a dummy in the shape of his wife that was starring over the balcony . Thinking she had run away he ran to her mother's to tell her of her shame. But as he came into the courtyard of the house he saw all three sisters on the balcony and ran in fear back to hell and vowed never to marry again.

Now, I'm not Italian and I do not like some aspects of the story. ( My family arguing over the fact that the fact that the devil cannot love.) I am at a loss as to why the devil was so scarred of three sister but oh well... it made a great story to turn into a book which helped me pass my testing to move onto the final stage of my foundation art course.

A Mammoth project

Using a mammoth as an experiment in various mediums while working on my final major project (which will last a very, very long time). This is a quick pen drawing of the skeleton I've been using to help with formating a page. At the moment I am really interested in overlaying different techniques and textures.

Cry Wolf

Supposed to be a Dire wolf, an ancient relative of the modern day Grey wolf. Extinct around the 10th millennium BC after the decline of the ice age.

Small page plan in preparing for a book on extinct animals I am making for my final major project this year.

Starting out

Ok... here goes. I've decided to start another blog to document the other work I do for school in the hope that I can turn this into a professional blog one day.......