My Illustrations - April 2015

Things have been pretty busy around here--with Easter, school hols and several books in production. In between moments, I'm spending every spare possible second practicing my art and I can't even tell you how calming and wonderful it's been.

It's also been immensely frustrating, as I spend time learning how to improve my skills. Things don't always turn out the way I'd like. What is it with that discrepancy between our imagination and what our hands produce!?

Anyhoo--one of my goals has been to start working on fully structured scenes and I can't even tell you how terrifying that's been for me. It feels like Mt Everest when faced with such a task, so yesterday I sat myself down and didn't budge until I had an outline.

This took some time, and late that evening, around 10pm, just as I was about to go to bed, the siren call of that outline drew me into the studio, and I began colouring the bricks. I was halfway done at midnight.

Today, I finished the image (above) and although I know I have much room for improvement, I must admit I'm awfully proud of this achievement. A full page scene. I mean, the colour goes to the paper's bleed line. It's amazing what you can do when you sit yourself down and tell yourself not to budge. When you give yourself the gift of that kind of time and dedication.

Oh--and can I just say I loved doing every brick??

Below are some of the illustrations I did for the 52-Week Illustration Challenge during April ...

week 8: coffee

week 15: whimsy

week 16: structure

week 14: whimsy

week 14: whimsy

week 17: fluffy

week 16: structure

week 12: costume

I also did around 50 pages of linework and practice illustrations during April, with a focus on improving my lines. Won't bore you with all of them! But here are some of the images I created based on the artwork of other artists I admire including Anna Walker, Carson Ellis and David Roberts.

I really recommend practising imagery in the style you admire. It's a great way to hone your own skills and come up with a unique style of your very own.

And lastly, here is an image I did for the Challenge (week 10: night), but I really really REALLY hated it when I was done, so haven't posted it. Now I think it's okay--and as my illustrator friends say, every line we make, every brush stroke, counts towards honing our craft.

And that's always something to be proud of.