In the bag

Following on from my last post, I did finally finish my illustration for Sean Walters story 'An Invited Guest'. It's now available to buy printed with the tale in my Etsy shop. 

This was an interesting piece to work on - featuring a non traditional representation of death as a dark figure, his features hidden beneath a sack. I wanted the image to have an overall recognisably human shape but with a touch of otherness so I built a foam skull, working from a deer skull I had. I added suitably pointed teeth and covered it with the sack.

 To create a dark image, I photographed the piece in a black mirror so only the highlights would show. A lamp picked out the fine details such as the wispy beard I had given him.

 The drawing itself was done in charcoal and carbon on watercolour paper. I got through a lot of carbon on that background :) The finer details were picked out with a knife blade.

Now framed, I'm quite pleased with the overall effect - I've also gone on to do a lot more photography using that mirror. More on that in my next post. The image itself reveals more the longer you look at it. I exhibited it at this years Dark Arts show as part of the Bram Stoker International Film Festival.

Something under the bed....

 Most of you will be familiar by now with the great and terrible Stephen. It's been a while since I had the time to work on a new nightmare so I'm especially pleased to announce the completion of the first picture of Stephen in his natural habitat.

 He's always clung to the shadows, I don't think he likes being around people so an abandoned building seemed the most appropriate hiding place for a shy monster. Given the uncertainty as to where and what he came from, an old asylum had the right combination of creepy and isolated.

 This is my biggest piece to date, worked in carbon pencil on watercolour paper. Rich and I made a scale model bed and set up photographs to get exactly the shot I wanted. Stephens shadow has always fascinated me and so we backlit the frame to reveal just his hands and the shadows reaching out toward the viewer.

I added in peeling wallpaper and a couple of objects for Stephen to play with - he's inquisitive and with all those hands, likes picking things up.  I'm hoping to have prints done of this one soon - in the meantime, you can buy the original Stephen drawing here.

I say potato.....

 

 I think one of the reasons art fascinates people is the way it allows you to see for a moment through someone elses' eyes, to get a new perspective. This goes for us artists too so I'm especially excited to bring you two very different takes on the same thing.

Tina Mammoser is a friend of ours and very kindly invited Rich and I to share her holiday spot at Saltwick Bay for a weekend. When we went exploring, we found the wreck of the Admiral Von Tromp framed perfectly by black rock. Naturally, neither of us could resist so we agreed to work from the same image and publish our results together.

Rock and Wreck by Tina Mammoser

Tinas' approach couldn't be more different - while I'm driving myself batty fiddling about with every pebble in the landscape, she gets straight to the heart of the matter. The focus in her picture is different too - Tina has used the strong lines of the wreck to frame the fantastic Black Nab to great effect. You can view Tinas' work including Rock and Wreck here .

Wreck and Rock by Karen Ruffles

On the flip side, I was most excited about the looming hulk of the wreck and included Black Nab in silhouette to help place the wreck. I used carbon pencil for the wreck itself so it's an even darker black than the surrounding rocks. You can see this piece over in my Etsy shop .

For further amusement, you can read Tinas' blog post here

Wreckage

Saltwick bay photograph

I'm now around two thirds of the way through my first drawing of Saltwick Bay here in North Yorkshire. It started with a couple of snaps I'd taken while on holiday - I hadn't expected much from them because I didn't want to interrupt our time off by getting all artsy with the camera. When I got back, I looked at the one above and decided I could do something with it.

Hour 4 of my wreck and rock drawing

 As usual I'm working on Fabriano Artistico extra white - a lovely smooth paper great for getting sharp lines. I normally work in charcoal pencil but since the wreck cast a shadow you could almost reach out and touch, I needed something even blacker than that !

Hour  9 of my wreck and rock drawing

So, it's out with the Wolffs carbon pencil again - I love these because they produce such a rich, velvety black but unfortunately they also produce an amazing amount of fine dust that sticks to everything...

I'm also still using charcoal pencil for very fine detail, it's harder and can be sharpened to a needle point so I'm tracing the outlines with that, filling in with carbon and blending it up to the edge. That way I've got a lovely crisp silhouette with the added impact of the carbon. I'm hoping to have this one done in the next week or two as I'm keen to get stuck into its mate - a view of the imposing rock formation in the background. Will keep you posted :)

Eyeing up

There's great excitement here as we the launch of the Forgotten project- a joint venture between myself and Caroline Willmot looking at the mythological creatures of Britain. This has been a huge amount of fun to do as it's given me free reign to dismantle those creatures and rebuild in a way that works. 

The really fascinating thing is that when we started looking at all this from a scientific point of view - location, distribution, feeding and mating habits then building the anatomy - so many of these fantastic creatures suddenly became much more plausable. So, throw out everything you thought you knew about mermaids, fairies and goblins because they just got real !

 This drawing of a mermaids eye complete with protective membrane was done in charcoal and carbon pencil on Fabriano watercolour paper. It was a challenge to do as the face shape and skin texture are different to ours- they also have no hair. I could go on for hours but that's what the projects is for so you'll have to wait :)

We will be publishing this project in stages- one paper for each creature, which will be available from my Etsy shop. It's such a mammoth project that we decided each species deserved its own turn in the spotlight. 

We also need to say a huge thank you to my partner Rich for his imaginative input (many a happy hour spent discussing critters over a glass of wine or three). You can follow regular updates on Facebook.

Carbonised

 Following on from my last post, here's the first of my carbon and charcoal experiments.

 

I've worked with both kinds of pencil before but never as two distinct elements in the same image - which is why I started with the small version :)

I used carbon pencil for the cat in the foreground to give me a soft black and the fuzzy edges. One of the things I liked about the photograph I was working from was the fact it was the crows in the background that were in sharp focus.

I used sharp charcoal for the wonderfully distinctive crows so that even on such a tiny scale- the whole thing is only 3 x 4 inches- I could get a really crisp outline and feather texture. This one is already on sale here -next up, I'm trying a larger version using the same materials. Will keep you posted ;)

Cat amongst the....

...crows in this case :) While I'm still settling into my new pad here in Scarborough I've pulled out some of my favourite photos to work on. That had to include this glorious out-take from last years crow sessions.

I'm thinking of using my new favourite pencils, Wolffs carbon, for the cat as it is a fantastic velvety black and slightly softer so it should give me the fuzzy focus I'm after. The crows will be picked out in charcoal to give a harder edge and, believe it or not, a different kind of black :)

I'm also tempted to do this in two sizes- 3 x 4" and 6 x 8" partly because I like working in miniature and partly because I think a smaller version would work well with the exisiting crow drawings already on sale in my Etsy store.

I'm hoping to be working on this at the weekend- will keep you posted :)

Welcome :)

 Come on in :) This is my new blog where I will be sharing my adventures artistic and otherwise from my roost in Scarborough. I'm lucky to have just moved to a flat under the eaves of an old townhouse with fantastic views of the castle and the south bay.

 

I work primarily in charcoal pencil on watercolour paper- Fabriano Artistico extra white being my favourite. I'm fascinated with detail - textures, reflections and have recently embarked on a new series of mini pictures like the mantis above to see just how much expression I can pack into a small space.

 

 When not at my drawing table I'm usually out walking the beaches here- love big skies and I find it helps order my thoughts so I try and get out every day. Something I think is especially important if your work involves sitting down a lot.

This blog will be a mix of artwork, technical tips and the real art of surviving being an artist in the first place :) 

See you again soon,

Karen