Lino, cut

This is the sheet of lino that I carved out a dragon from for part of my MA final major project. I inked it up and got a reasonable result. I would like to try again and see if I can increase the complexity of the work. Its always good to learn new skills (without causing injury to myself). I don’t know if you can tell but it’s a dragon in flight. There is a girl riding it, the story is she helps it find it’s way home.

Dragon pot

Part of a coffee pot that just has foreign stamped on the base. It has raised decoration of a dragon on it. I am not sure how old it is and whether it is Chinese or Japanese. Its a delicate design and it arrived wrapped in bubble wrap and it has gone back to its home the same way. I guess some of the design is airbrushed on, but that might mean it is more modern than I think it is. It would be interestingvto find out.

Friend

A friend reading at Etruria Industrial Museum. The orange area is the ink from the previous page showing through. I did this with a brush pen so it works slightly differently to a fine liner pen. Dark areas fill in better than with a thin pen. I might add texture in Photodirector later. It’s great to try and switch things round and explore different ideas. Practice in anything improves what you do. I’m also trying to teach myself a bit of lino cutting. More of that soon.

Nerves

Its almost time to submit my final major project but I’ve become very nervous about it. Such a lot rides on how I do. I’m already suffering from insomnia but this is just making it worse. I’m wondering why I can’t sleep, but I guess it’s thoughts like “have I got enough images?” “what if I forget to include?” “how do I create?” Don’t get me wrong, I have learnt a lot over the course of the last two years. I am attempting things I would never have done before. And what am I going to get out of it, apart from those new skills? Would anyone employ me as a free-lance illustrator/ author/ crafts person? Lot’s of questions. I think my style is my USP. I tend to do my own thing. I am probably too analogue. But I have a passion and I want what I am doing to be interesting. Do I have to be subsumed into a generic style? I hope not!

Book finished

Today I put childrens book together in a site called Blurb. I had saved all my files as .tif files and it needed them as .Jpegs so I spent HOURS swapping them. A lot of the jpeg files were not able to open. It meant that I had to change some of the pictures for different ones. I’ve ordered a one off copy for my course. The only problem is that it might arrive late so I’m going to have to take the photos to a printer and mock up the book as well.

Decorated doorway

Doorway at the Thai temple. So beautifully decorated. Golds and greens, amazing patterns. The celebration was outside so we didn’t go in, but I would have liked to. The skill and artistry is outstanding. I imagine the sort of skills you would need to carve church screens, or old furniture. Those skills are being replaced by computers or 3d printing. But hand carving and painting adds something special. Not clean and accurate, but human and possibly slightly flawed. It is fine art. X

Black and white experiment

Another late night experiment. I added the pink and red this morning, when I could see their colours clearly. Drawing under electric light means colours are not as easily perceived. The yellow cast of the light made it hard to decide what colours were on the felt pens. Pinks and oranges looked very similar. Why hearts? Just because the shapes I had drawn suggested them and I wanted a soft contrast to the strong black and white shapes.

Ulysses?

I decided to paint something a bit different. I was calling it Medusa but a friend suggested Ulysses. I know the Medusa story but I’m not familiar with Ulysses so I think I had better look it up. This is another acrylic on canvas that I started late last night. I wanted to get a feel of paint on plaster, like a mural.

And then there’s faces

Digital drawing I did six years ago. I think in the sketcher free app and then I used the layout app on my phone. I’ve tried several art apps but I can’t keep all of them on my phone because I still haven’t increased the memory on it. I don’t want to lose my images if they get deleted by accident. I could imagine this being a tapestry or embroidery.