Dreams and Descriptions

Recently I have been working with fashion student Natasha Clarke on her final major project. The project is based on dreams and the I was asked to illustrate various parts of it. One of the briefs that I had to meet was to create an image for each entry of the dream description. The headings were (from the top) Broken Nest, Alter Ego, Time Travel, Going Underground, Insects and Transformation. The text was supplied and had to be on it. Most of the materials I had used is scrap paper lying around in my studio and from unsellable books from a nearby charity shop. Really enjoyed making these images but now my room looks like the war zone.

the Queen of Clubs

...here's another card print. This time of the Queen of Clubs. Really digging the red!

Card Prints

Yesterday I got down to the print rooms. It was only Charles in there so I thought I'd get some use of the left over card in the paper scrap and make card prints. I did the J of hearts first and then moved on to do the K. I'm really liking the process at the moment and might just have to keep busting a couple more out.
(also, the J of hearts is actually based on my beautiful gf Jenn Evans)

New prints for 'déjà vu'

Here are a few pieces from my sequential narrative déjà vu. The story is about a forest that gets cut down to make way for a new factory and town. The factory blurts out smoke. It eventually gets closed down and the people leave. Nature takes back over and the trees grow around the derelict ghost town. I've chosen to use newsprint paper to print these images on - I am really fond of the quality and feel of it. I have put a lot of work in the compositional side to make sure they feel balanced on the pages.

Paris sketches

Recently I went away to Paris with my illustration course - a mix of first, second and third years. Here are a few images from my sketch book. I carried around with me the Moleskine (r) sketchbook that nan got me this Christmas, a 4B pencil (always sharpened) and a small collection of Crayola colouring pencils that the missus got me. Paris was beautiful, I can now understand why so many artists want to move and live there for the rest of their lives.

the little fidgety barn owl

(...continued from the last life drawing session) These are some of the sketches I did of the little barn owl. He was a fidgety little thing about 20cm in height. I loved the different forms that he would make with his body - an ace model. At one point he did seem to get a bit tired and dozed off for a wee bit (barn owls are nocturnal).

Birds of Prey

Today for life drawing class we got to draw several birds of prey. These birds were perched in the middle of the room where a model usually sits and we got to draw them for 3 hours. The sketch above is of a Great Horned Owl. I managed to get really close to it. It was a really gentle creature, about 40cm in height. It was a good way to de-stress. There was also a gyr falcon, a little barn owl, a kestrel, a Bengal eagle owl, a red-tailed hawk and a Harris hawk - all in one room!!