'On Reflection' finished illustration...

Finally it's finished, I've kind of been faffing around with different versions but this one is my favourite. We need the other person to navigate the 'relationship' boat with us, but sometimes they just aren't there. This image is about our journey, however scary, and how if we shine our own light we'll come through the other side. Prints available to buy at my Ebay shop

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Illustration steps for 'On Reflection'

A passage of time shown within my illustration. My previous post was the birth of the concept below. Working backwards you can see how I fill out the illustration. I'm a bugger going straight for the biggest thing (the tree) but I did make sure I created a draft piece first (bottom pic) to allow me to understand where I wanted light and shade. Because this piece is for me, I've allowed myself to make changes as I've gone along, I still am! I can be a bit changeable, but that's only when I'm working on a picture for myself, for others I like to get the idea pretty much finalised and if there's some changes they shouldn't be too big. I like using pencil, but this piece is A2 and I feel like throwing all my pencils out of the window! I'll post the finished piece soon :)

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"Where do the ideas for your illustrations come from?"...'On Reflection'

I get asked quite a lot, especially at the studio, where my ideas come from. This question has lead me to take a look at where 'in me' they come from, because they have to come from somewhere, right?

Sometimes I get a flash of an image, like a subliminal message on a t.v screen that lasts only a mere second (these are little buggers to bring into concept), some images come from listening to music and at times I build an image from what is currently happening in my life or something I say which evokes strong images.

Recently I wrote the line "How can one person navigate a two person boat?" My thinking behind that is when it's necessary to navigate dark unchartered emotional waters, especially in relationships, there needs to be two people at the helm. A relationship is afterall a two way thing. It's hard to steer a two person boat on your own when the other person is needed for their understanding of what they know of those dark waters.

Anyway's, this little picture popped into my head. A very Nordic almost Viking boat, with one person very much on their own having to create their own light and understanding of those dark waters to be able to navigate to safety. It's early days yet but I think it'll be done in soft dark pencil and I'm extremely excited to have a new idea for a drawing/illustration.

 

 

hubble bubble toil and pencil smudges

Just getting to the end of a commissioned piece for a friend of a friend. I've thoroughly enjoyed doing this pencil image. I pretty much had free reign apart from a few requests. I'll soon be adding colour to a scanned copy, which i'm really excited about as i can't wait to experiment with colour on this. I've still to add more to the back ground and darken some areas but i'm really happy with what i've created. Hopefully i'm getting my confidence back, finally, after a couple of years of it hiding away.

I need to note to myself, it's amazing how much smudge i can create, even when hardly touching the piece, there's always a little bit of pencil dancing around in the wrong place. I bet if i stared at it long enough there'd be a smudge forming in unwanted places!

Well, it's time to finish this up and move along to colour, i'll post here soon. Wish me luck.