A Painted Time Capsule: March 2015

Summary

1 - The two speakers that I saw were Richey Beckett and Andy Robert Davies were truly inspirational and had a lot of good advice. What I learnt from Richey Beckett was that we develop our own concrete style so that clients and people that see our work will know what they will get and will be more likely to approach you for a commission. Andy Robert Davies sent off much of his work off in any way possible including competitions and postcards to get his work out there.

2 - I think that a great blog is one that draws in the reader in to what is a personal space, showing what might be individual and perhaps unique thoughts and ideas. Whilst also informing others, a blog should also inspire and influence others, or start a conversation, a narrative that encourages others to further thinking, feeling and exploration of new ideas and concepts.

3 - The highlight of my year has been the visit to Venice. It was a place that I had always wanted to visit, to see, experience and immerse myself in the culture, art and beauty of the city.

Richie Beckett visit

A visit from Richey Beckett, an brilliant illustrator who's work was inspirational, had glimmers of art nouveau with a heavy metal metallica slant.

Manchester Art Museum visit sketches

My visit to Manchester art gallery to see some of the pre raphaelite paintings and the ford maddox brown exhibition. I usually take a while to draw and am too much of a perfectionist, but having to draw quickly really improved my drawing skills and speed. Seeing the paintings up close was amazing and you could see the texture much better and therefore got a better feel for the paintings.

Foundation Work

Material study

Apples in the style of H R Giger (left) and avatar inspired (right) looking at the visual stamp of different artists.

Character sketch ideas for the White Witch from the narnia books that i read and loved as a kid.

Drawings of family

Shoe drawing

'Self Portrait in 50 years' project, its uncomfortable to look at! I think ill have to get a face lift when i get there. I looked at pictures from both my nans to get an idea of how to approach it, and it weirdly looks like both of them.

Hunger Games inspired fashion illustrations

Wuthering Heights collage

Quick sketches - Venice, Cardiff

During an amazing trip to Venice it was a pleasure to just sit and draw in a cafe while sipping hot chocolate and just relaxing while soaking everything in, despite tipping the hot chocolate all over my book! The buildings were grandiose and everywhere you looked there was something pretty. After coming home and drawing architecture in Cardiff you can see the sharp contrast, although i love Cardiff, the buildings are newer with less character.

Sketchbook Work

Self portrait

Quick sketches of people as the walked past, it was really difficult to get any detail in as they were walking so fast so i had to get just a general impression of body shape and posture.