Seeing clearly again

...Well after a month of not really feeling very positive about my work and tightening up, I've decided to frame my sketchbooks for the show. They are the marks that are fundamental for my practice, and for any movement forward. I constantly have to revisit the marks I make in them, so thought it essential to have them in the show. I am painting right up to the last minute with work to go up on the walls as I'm not 100% sure about the quality or message I am conveying with what I've done so far. I can do better but not sure I can in the time. So I have to step back and do the best I can and believe that my best work is yet to come, and this is only the start. I have a lifetime to create the work that is in my head! I have made a great start and now I can put the work out in the world slowly, on my terms and in my own time. Very exciting but hope I don't let myself down with a poor show. Less is more I guess! x

Books...

aaaand the final, final book pages for the Royal Beasts! at last! including a link to my big bro's new book, under his own press, Speaking Volumes.

work for the MA show!

I've been in the studio all week doing work for the show. Not amazing but framed up and on the walls I think they'll look ok but possibly a bit twee which is what I'm trying to avoid? These are sketches really but I'm really quite excited now! can't wait for it all to happen. I'm beginning to tighten up again which I need to watch. Especially if I compare this latest one with the first one I did ( without the bear?) It's just a better shape. One thing I am learning is that my first marks are the best!..... these have been touched up since scanning so may look a bit different.... I like these in the frames but because they're tighter they look like they should be more correct, ellipses etc which I don't want to spend time doing. So I think I need to loosen up again so they don't look so 'incorrect'? do them even more quickly. So I need to redo them all! I can maybe put these in as unframed originals... ok orff to work to continue the essay!

The Royal Beasts Of Bialoweiza

I think finally I've finished it?? After a bad start to the day... a late night working again last night. All my appointments were cancelled and I had to sort out the cock up with my studio space! I woke up ratty and stressed! but after a break in the afternoon with a dog walk and a swim in great company I feel a whole lot better. First bikini swim of the year! I made up the time this evening and finally feel like I have some images that make a coherent book... ok here it is finally! finished...I think!.... some of the pages will have trees painted on them so they may look a little blank here.

more bears in cups!

I think doing the ceramics made me think and look at the cups and teapots I have in the studio so I drew them.... I did them quickly so not really concentrating on ellipses etc which although distracts sometimes, I quite like the more naive feeling that this gives. So here's some more of them with a couple of bears. I'm struggling with how to show these as the images work better when O put them together in photoshop rather than painting the bears directly onto the object???...who knows!

ceramics!

I've been meaning to try out my work on ceramics for years but never had the resources or work I felt appropriate enough for. Soo my amazing and very generous friend Rebecca Harvey let me take up her time, studio and pots so I could test out some ideas. here's a phone photo which shows a couple I did and are being fired now. I hadn't prepared anything so I used images I wouldn't necessarily use for the final. It was great to do something different and something that could open up a whole new line of work? Thanks Bec x

more staying late and book creation!

I'm here late again and after having worked all weekend on a large commission I've spent all day on my college work, which has been great as I've really moved forward with the book. I'm working with Stephen Hicks, of AO Printworks in Illogan. He does work for the Tate and Kurt Jackson! So we've been sourcing some nice paper and the least expensive but most effective for the best results. All very exciting and slightly scary! here's the story that I think is nearly there... you'll have to come to the show to see the reasoning etc behind it etc. These are on white but the paper I am choosing is an off white, more vintage colour.

Sooo I stayed late again this evening! I just want all the time in the world to get on and do more but I'm stealing moments around the paid work. I've started thinking about the elements I need to put together for the show to work. One is the book so I'm continuing to think about that and when I get the time working on new images for it... my friend suggested I pace one spread over a few pages so here it is.. this will carry over 2 spreads..x so these are some of the pages with contrasting pages to be added. They don't look particularly amazing here but hoping they'll look better in print!

EUREKA!

I've finally found something I feel that can be a book!...it's taken a while and lots of images but I'm there I think!.. or at least closer than I have felt in a while... here's what I've done so far.. it's a sequence and too big to post in it's entirety so I'll attach ones for detail... adding some of the scruff and life I needed last week. So I will go forth and make them into double page spreads and make a book! I'm going to work into them so they are all original and the book will be a one off. After being really scared about it all and the fact that there are less than 6 weeks to hand in...I'm now very excited!.. bring it on!...x

freedom!

I've been feeling really rather lethargic and unmotivated of late. Finding it really hard to do the things that make me work more effectively and more enjoyably too! Soo I've been staying later after work and doing my college work. It's been hanging over my head that I can't move forward and seem to be going over old stuff! so I stayed the other night and just scratched out some of my bears and retaliated a little and just flung some paint around. I really enjoyed it and felt like something lifted a little. This seems to have made an impact on my life too as I've started running with more energy again and drive. Almost as though my work feeds my mood and energy levels and the blockage that was there has gone. I've always known that my work has an impact on my happiness and general well being but never as much as now! soo anyway some of these are not aesthetically inspiring or even good in anyway, they are just sketchbook throw away pieces that are just part of the moving forward, but some are more and maybe the start of a new path that can intertwine with what I've been doing with the bears? Even if I can use one small element of the rougher more free stuff to inject some life into the more considered bears and chairs etc. I've started cropping and mucking around with one image and here are a few crops...

and some more!

and some more bits

i'm taking this morning to write some notes on how I want my show to look. At the same time I had a book delivered this morning and have done some work with the images in that too! ...so exciting!.. here's what I came up with! just for beginners!

some new bits

I wanted to try some new animals.. they're beginning to get all a bit too tight again! so I tried painting really fast without much thought...they kind of work but i think i just need to really quicken up.. . and do a lot more. All of these take a few minutes but I think I need them to take seconds so will do an exercise in doing them really quickly and see how that goes. For now here's an Elly that I really like and a couple of tigers I don't! so I just need to paint again. I'm currently doing some work with Benjamin Winter again. A lovely singer songwriter from California. I've just done a little illustration for Julia Stone for some writing she did recently.

some new sketchbook work

I've decided ...again!...that i need to draw more. So I've started another sketchbook here are some pages from it so far...just my immediate environment, so nothing amazing but interesting layers and bits n bobs. I've been stumbling on my MA work and the work for the Cheltenham Illustration Competition so I went to see a friend to chat over it all with fresh eyes, which was a great help!..thanks George! here's one image I've done. I now need to make sure it all makes sense and be a little more creative with it all. So onwards and upwards.

Working with a fuzzy head!

I still have a cold that started in March but muddling on through! We did well in the Scilly Gig champs with a 28th out of about 130 boats. I've returned in good spirits, albeit fed up with being full of cold!, but I've been working on the Cheltenham illustration prize this week... I'm coming up with some interesting images but not sure any of it is really making sense enough to reach an audience yet? so I'm hoping by posting some of it that it may jolt something or let me see it in a different more detached way? so here are some images for Tree Time Tales. I won't go into my reasoning for them as I'm too close to make it sound solid enough yet. I've included a more editorial slant on a similar theme.