Illustration Friday- Safari

This is a mural I painted around 1995/1996 (yes, yeeeeeears ago!) which has a safari theme and I thought was appropriate for this weeks Illustration Friday. It was painted on the wall in the children's ward of a public hospital. They were after something bright, interesting to look at and cheerful. I have no idea if it's still there to this day but I remember I really enjoyed painting it over a few weeks during a very hot summer! It feels like I've cheated a bit this time around but it's been a pretty busy and exhausting week so thought I'd give myself a little rest whilst still putting something up.

Illustration Friday: Beginner and Lesson

Beginner (this weeks topic)

Lesson (last weeks topic) click to see larger

Last week turned out to be a pretty hectic week so I didn't make it to the deadline but got it finished by Saturday so got pretty close! Two very different styles. 'Lesson' reflects the hundreds of life drawing classes I've done over the years. Art rooms always have a chaotic and often eccentric feel to them which I wanted to capture in this cartoon. Aside from the chaos, life drawing lessons tend to be really quiet as everyone is so intent on what they're doing and in their own little worlds so much that there's rarely time to chat.

'Beginner' looks at the intent focus and effort babies go through when they're first starting to explore the world and put two and two together. Everything is new to them so they're a beginner at every little action they fulfill. The look of concentration just to stack some cups is the same you'd see on a concert pianist. I like the simplicity of just sketching with a mechanical pencil for this one with no bells and whistles.

Comic Meetup drawings for May

I arrived late and only stayed about an hour but still got a couple of drawings done. No topic this time, just a free for all. I tried out drawing a cute monster type creature without pencilling first (I always pencil first so it's a challenge to get stuck in with markers and fine liners straight up!) It didn't turn out too bad. Still get the fine liner running into the marker so figure I'll have to invest in a copic fine liner in a thicker grade than my 0.05 for outlining. I also drew a comic style chick only using the copic liner and marker which seems pretty sharp. I guess I should start moving on and experimenting with some other techniques for a bit of variety!

New pens

I finally went and bought some new pens and markers. Copic markers in Special Black, Warm Grey No.5 and soft Greenish Blue. Also a refillable copic multiliner in 0.05 and a Staedtler triplus fineliner (tends to bleed a bit in combo with the markers) Below is a 1930's style portrait experiment with using the markers to create shade areas which I usually add in using InDesign. It has a bit more of a watercolour feel to it that I can't achieve in InDesign (without tedious amounts of faffing about that is!) I drew this whilst watching the Royal Wedding where I got plenty of inspiration for pomp and glamour!

Illustration Friday - Bicycle

Long time between blog entries and I blame it on Easter Eggs. I decided to try out Illustration Friday for the first time http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ where a new topic is posted each Friday giving you a weeks deadline to come up with an illustration based around the topic and submit it to the website along with hundreds of other folks. This weeks topic was bicycle. A tough one for a first off as I always seem to struggle to draw bikes and miss finer details such as the chain! I decided to go for a 1960's look with a cowboy riding with his toy bunny perched on the handlebar and light. I hate drawing round shapes freehand and if I was seriously doing this drawing and had loads of time to faff about, I'd probably dig out the French curves (after dusting them off of course!) This was fun to do and a good challenge. I'd like to give it another try again soon and even allow myself more than a day... maybe.

Fish Police

Todays challenge for the comic meetup was 'Fish Police'. I started sketching this one whilst I was at the pub then inked it at home and added a spot of colour in Photoshop. I didn't know where I was going with this one! I had to google Fish Police when I got home to figure out the reference (comic nerd fail!). It's a comic from the mid 80's to early 90's based around law and crime in a fictional underwater metropolis. I'm not sure if mermaid beauty/cop really fits in but maybe she could have a bit part or possibly play an extra!

Another film star

Since I was in the mood and still inspired by the 1927 Picture Show Annual, I created another film star illustration using ink washes, drawing pens and gouache. Again, I really like the dramatic lighting and contrast and romantic poses too.

Here is the cover of the book itself for those interested.