Lockdown Hugs

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I don’t know about you but one of the things I’m missing most in lockdown is hugs. I’m isolating on my own and can tell you that my last hug was on Monday 16 March. I’ve been thinking a lot about that feeling of relief that sinking into a hug gives you. I mean a really comfortable, warm, kind hug that makes you feel loved and safe.

I started drawing hugs as a way to comfort myself. Drawing always takes me into a kind of reverie anyway but sitting with a coffee and good music, drawing these is becoming one of my favourite things about these strange times. I hope they bring you some comfort too.

Thank You NHS Printable A4 Poster

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A couple of weeks ago the UK took part in our first ‘Clap for Carers’ for the NHS and keyworkers. It was a beautiful, moving moment where we all opened our windows and stood outside our front doors, clapping, cheering and banging pots and pans to let our carers know just how much they are appreciated.

As always, in times of trouble, I turn to creativity. Inspired by the outpouring of love for our carers I created a downloadable, printable A4 poster which I wanted to share with you. Please feel free to print and share if you would like.

If you are happy to, I’d also love to encourage you to donate to the following causes or a local charity that means something to you.

NHS Charities Together - who are coordinating a national response to help over 250 NHS charities.

The Ambulance Staff Charity - who support the wellbeing of ambulance staff. Having had first hand experience of how phenomenal paramedics are in times of crisis, I would love them to be supported too.

For The Love Of Scrubs - who are a collective of independent crafters across the UK making hospital scrubs to help with the Covid-19 crisis.

Stay home. Stay safe. Lots of love.

World Book Day 2020

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I’ve been thinking a bit about perfection in illustration and wanted to draw something with a little less attention to detail to loosen up my style a little bit. World Book Day provided me with the perfect opportunity to scribble. I drew the book first with the idea of a little one so engrossed they were hidden by the pages. As I started to draw the little girl it felt right for her to be wearing a costume, as so many children do. I then liked the idea of her being the wolf in the story rather than little red riding hood, just to mix it up a bit. I like the different Kyle T Webster gouache brushes but they sometimes look a little blurry when printed. I’m going to try to divert into the more gritty, dry ones or even more inks to try for a more crisp finish when drawing quickly.

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Illustration Advent 2019

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I’ve managed to get off to a bit of a late start with #illo_advent on Twitter this year but hope to contribute a few pictures to the loveliness of this hashtag. I tried out a different Kyle T Webster Photoshop brush for the trees and snow, it’s called Gouache Bonus Gritty Dry (snappy name!). I’m working on freeing up my drawing to be more scribbly and loose. For me, the key to this is not to overthink. I’m quite pleased with how the trees turned out!

Be The One Who Brings The Light

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While work is busy, I like to give my mind a little break from working on any particular project and I find myself channelling my creativity into painting and lettering. I keep my paints, paper and water out on the coffee table to encourage myself to mess around and see what appears. It’s a good palette cleanser and feels like a treat. Here are a few things I’ve made over the last couple of months.

Folk Tale Week Update

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I’m chuffed to say I managed to keep up with the Folk Tale Week and produced seven illustrations for the prompts - forest, magic, witch, ghost, insect, mirror and animal. After a busy time working on my day job, it’s really helped me to get back in touch with my creativity and love of drawing. Seeing all the pictures on the hashtag has been so inspiring. Time to get back to picture book three!

Folk Tale Week

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I’ve been wrapped up in a freelance event contract for the past two months which has made it difficult to find time to draw. When I finish a contract it takes me a couple of days to get back to my projects even though I find myself wanting to rush at it. To slow myself down, I absorb myself in drawing. Last week I spotted an illustration challenge that is perfect to transition from data (the events role I have been doing) back to creator. I’m not sure who runs it but the hashtag on Instagram is #folktaleweek. The ethereal prompts are just what I need to get back to creating.

Here’s my first illustration for the prompt, forest.

Portfolio Piece

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I am between working on events at the moment so am taking a short pause from working on my picture book. However, I find I miss illustrating so squirreled a couple of hours today to draw one of my favourite things to draw, a girl with flowers on her head or a flower head as I like to call them. Drawing for me is an act of mindfulness & this piece represents a couple of hours of clearing and calming my mind. And a new piece for my portfolio : )

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This Week’s Picture Book Progress

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I had planned such a lot for this week but as I mentioned in my previous post I’ve been feeling lethargic after my latest day job. So I was pleased that I managed to drag myself to my laptop to make a good start on another page of picture book number three. As it’s Father’s Day this week, I felt inspired to draw this chair from my childhood. My Dad used to spin us around in it so fast that we felt like we were on a rollercoaster. I remember laughing so much as the chair span and insisting on him twirling us again and again. It’s lovely to think it’s found a home in my latest book : )

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This Week's Picture Book Progress

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Progress for my third picture book is slow and steady as I juggle my day job. I find I like to work on it when I know I'll have an hour or two of uninterrupted time and when it's not too late in the day so my mind isn't too tired to concentrate on the screen. So there are often quite bit gaps between drawing sessions. I've learnt to embrace this rather than get frustrated by it as it gives me time to form my ideas. This weekend I found a perfect little window of time and settled down in front of Photoshop.

Firstly I revisited my last drawing, that I posted on here on a couple of weeks ago. I'd been thinking a lot that the character of the little boy didn't look young or cute enough. When I first drew him I knew something was wrong but couldn't quite see what it was. A couple of weeks away let me see the drawing with fresh eyes and I set about making amendments. You can see the two different versions below. On the left my first attempt, on the right my updated one. Giving him bigger eyes is more like my style from An Amazing Alphabet of Cake and is my comfort zone but I feel it works a lot better on him. I also made his hair a bit less styled and changed the shape of his body. I'll revisit him again in a couple of weeks to start drawing him in different poses.

I also drew another image of the little girl in the book, also ready for bed and holding her teddy bear. Her hair needs work as it once again feels a little too styled but I'm quite fond of the colours and her bunny slippers!

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This Week's Video - Sunday Drawing Episode 3

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This week's video shows me drawing some little mindful faces using my favourite Faber Castell watercolour pencils. I wanted to show a simple glimpse of how they work when you add water to the pencil marks. I am very much a beginner at the moment and pretty much just slosh it on! I love the messy imperfect effect and the texture that the pencils create.

Once again, I'm learning a lot about editing with each video I make. This week I learnt about adding an adjustment layer to brighten footage, when I realised that everything I had filmed made it look like it was twilight! Premiere Pro is so brilliant, I know I am only scratching the surface at the moment and can't wait to learn so much more.

As an aside, I chose a soft house track from Epidemic Sound to accompany my drawing. I'm not sure it works... But it does reflect how uplifting I find drawing : )

Picture Book Progress

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I finally found a little time to work on my picture book today. I've sketched all of the drawings out in pencil so I'm slowly transferring them into layered Photoshop illustrations. I'm also trying out smaller eyes and a little more definition to see what feels right for my characters. I know that the style isn't quite right yet but I enjoyed spending a couple of hours drawing this little poppet in pjs. 

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Drawing Mr Handsome - My First Illustration Video

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After watching wonderful illustrators such as Holly Exley and Frannerd on YouTube, I love the idea of making videos of drawing. I find illustration videos really relaxing and interesting to watch. I also love the ones where drawing is shown in real time rather than shown in timelapse as I think it allows you to really see the technique used by the creator. So here's my first attempt. I find myself drawing a character I like to call Mr Handsome over and over again so he seemed to be a logical first subject. I used an iPhone SE to film and iMovie to do a little editing. I really am very much a beginner and never underestimate just how much work vloggers do to make their videos so beautiful! I hope you enjoy it : )

Drawing Frida Kahlo

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Since I started drawing, I've noticed that so many illustrators are inspired by Frida Kahlo and her iconic appearance. When Mexican Pink was announced as the #colour_collective colour recently, her image was the first thing to come to mind. A lot of people draw Frida with flowers in her hair but for some reason, pink made me think of pompoms so I adapted her headdress a little. The end result was quite different from my usual style but this is what I love about these illustration challenges, they push me out of my comfort zone and make me create new things.

If you like my version of Frida, I've popped it in my Society 6 shop as a print.

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Picture Book Progress

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This week I've been really enjoying making progress with picture book number three. My book An Amazing Alphabet of Cake was made up of 26 separate illustrations, one for each letter, with different characters on each page so I was able to approach each image as a new piece. I worked hard to keep my style consistent, making sure that small details like highlights in eyes were shown throughout. However, with this new book I have a family who feature throughout so I am facing the new challenge of ensuring not just my style but my every aspect of my characters are consistent. Their face shape and features need to stay the same, with different expressions and poses. I'm also experimenting with more shading by using darker lines of the same colour on different elements of the drawing. You can see this particularly on the clothing below. I like how this helps to make the characters feel more rounded.

One of my favourite things about any project is seeing it grow, step by step, piece by piece. From an idea to something real. I'm finding the need for consistency and a common thread through the drawings is adding to the joy of this particular challenge. And having been through the experience of creating a picture book before, achieving something small each day towards the project is making me excited to see it come together.

Making A Start On Picture Book Number Three

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This weekend marked the beginning of picture book number three. I'm not going to reveal the concept and title just yet as I'm still playing with it but I have started sketching. And it feels exciting!

The first thing I do with a book idea is think about how the words and illustrations will fill the book. Is the idea big enough? I use a fresh sketchbook for each idea and first write down the proposed wording and split it into 26 sections that feel right. Bearing in mind good moments for page turns and how illustrations may fill the page or whether they may be across a spread or just a spot picture in the middle. I then start sketching, very roughly, using one page of the sketchbook to represent each page of the book. This gets my creativity flowing, a bit like free writing. Nobody really sees these pages so they are messy and simply to get the idea for each picture started. I then switch to digital drawing in Photoshop when I feel ready.

While doing this I am bearing in mind that most picture books are 32 pages but this needs to include end papers and the title page. The advantage of independently publishing is that you can play with this convention a little bit but you do still need to stick to multiples of four because of the way printers work. I am working on a 'how to' guide which will include everything I have learnt on my journey so far but one of the important things is that print on demand via Createspace or Ingram Spark will always need to include a blank page at the back of your book where they put their barcode and reference code. I think this helps them to match the pages with the cover in their print factories. It isn't too noticeable in a novel but really stands out in a picture book and takes up valuable space. So don't be caught out by this requirement and make sure you include it in your maths!

Below is my first digital sketch for book number three. On the left is the sketch from my sketchbook - it's actually unusually tidy for my first attempt! These little cats will appear somewhere in the middle of the book but they captured my imagination so I started drawing them first. This is unlike me. With An Amazing Alphabet of Cake I worked religiously from A to Z but without the structure of the alphabet I feel I can be a bit more free. I was pleased with the expressions on the cats' faces in my initial sketch and was worried I might lose this in the digital version. It still needs work but is getting there. I really want the cat on the wall to be a tabby so my next challenge is to see if I can make some stripes work on him.

It feels fantastic to be drawing again. Almost like coming home. Having published two picture books already I feel the process is becoming more familiar. I know what I can achieve and it spurs me on to take little steps, even when it feels like a mountain ahead, knowing that one day I will be holding book number three in my hands and starting on book number four.

Back To The Books & Brushes

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This week I'm really looking forward to starting work on picture book number three. I've been completely absorbed by my day job lately working on a busy event. I love collaborating with a brilliant team to produce exciting events but I find myself really missing drawing. It's become like a friend to me.

After an event I always need a few days to wind down and for me, this means hiding out at home and getting back to drawing. It's meditative and re-engages my creative brain. I sketch, draw and paint with no plan or purpose. This time, I realised I haven't drawn digitally for over a month and it was really nice to get back to my digital brushes. I found this calm little scene appearing on the page. And today, despite telling myself I would have the weekend off, I couldn't resist starting some pencil sketches for the new book. I'm looking forward to sharing my process and progress. As always, if in doubt, create.

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Illustration Inspiration At The V & A Museum

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I've been taking a little break from illustration over Christmas and although I've been sketching a bit with pencil and paper, I haven't used my computer to draw at all. It's been really nice to take the pressure off after working so hard to complete An Amazing Alphabet of Cake. Today I took myself off to the V & A Museum in London to seek out a little inspiration for the New Year. I took my sketchbook, a Blackwing pencil (my favourite) and my camera and took my time, absorbing little details in each of the galleries. I was planning to spend the day looking at classical art and sculpture but discovered a lot more illustration than I expected. I was particularly enamoured with an amazing cabinet that was made in western India in the late 17th century, which was covered in quirky illustrated characters. A real gem (shown top left and bottom right below).