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.

Sing a song of Stephen

 Like many artists, I sometimes 'see' things that aren't there. Or maybe they are. I don't know. Anyhow, of all those lurkers in my peripheral vision, the one that I get asked about most often is the great and terrible Stephen. So, here's his full story for you to...um...enjoy ?

Stephen charcoal drawing

It all started with a song - the actual track by Alice Cooper is titled 'Steven' but I changed the spelling as otherwise there may have been a terrible temptation to address him as 'Steve' and I don't even want to think about what might happen then.

Should you decide to dip a toe in the water, you can find it on YouTube along with 'Years Ago' which was another of his personal anthems. It's best listened to at good volume with your eyes closed, it's actually a fantastic piece of music once it gets going but it is very, very creepy.

Prep work for Stephen

I'm still not sure where things like Stephen come from. When I'm working on them they are as real to me as the chair I'm sat in but whether that just means I'm barking, I have no idea. I find they tend to come around in the early hours when I'm alone. I like to have my headphones in to cut me off from the rest of the world so I'm not distracted. It's often as if there is a quality to the music I have on that attracts them in the same way that different aromas will draw in different animals.

The first impression I got of Stephen was of something squatting with his hand against a wall or a door, as if to keep something else out. I drew more hands and arms thinking I was looking for the right posture when I realised they all belonged to the same thing. I still couldn't see how it all came together though. I tried adding a spider body but that wasn't right so for the next year or so I spent a lot of time experimenting with different arrangements in the hopes it would become clear.

Stephen never really went away and I kept returning to my sketches, gradually pairing up arms and getting a sense of how he moved. A good couple of years after I'd first started work on him, I had what has to be the most disturbing nightmare I've ever had.

Stephen early sketch

He was in the house and started coming out of one of the cupboards, arms first. His limbs unfolded and extended which is when I first knew he had that extra joint in each one. I ran away but something made me go back, I think I wanted to make him leave but each time I found his hidey hole I would suddenly find myself standing outside the house in the dark. This happened again and again in different rooms and it became apparent that he was somehow in control, was making me lose time and keeping me away.

When I woke, I was in a complete panic and Rich had to get up and search every inch of the house with me. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night after that.

Stephen arm bones

That whole experience did however give me most of the information I needed to start putting together a plan of his anatomy. I always test my initial sketches by working them from the bones up, to be sure I have them right. Only if the blueprint for want of a better word matches the proportions of my original drawings do I consider them to be true and go on to do a finished piece.

His head was the last piece of the puzzle - for a long time I wasn't even sure he had one but as I got closer to a complete image, I could see him in my minds eye moving around and realised that his head was slung low, which is why his eyes are on the bottom half of his face.

Stephen portrait

The picture you see on Pyewackett and Pecke of him side on is, to me, the single most important piece I have ever done. There will be other images of him in abandoned buildings but that particular drawing is when I was closest to him and he came all the way out into the light. It's also when most of my fear went away.

Stephen is an odd one - we've learned to live with him but he's still unsettling. It would be strange without him though. I get the feeling he was maybe a person once but has been by himself for so long he's become confused, something else. Not a creature you could or would want to engage with but he's done us no harm so we just live around each other.

Scarecrow puppet

We'd like you to meet a friend of ours :) 

As most of you probably know by now I work with my partner Rich on all sorts of nonsense projects but this time I think we've rather outdone ourselves with our first scarecrow puppet.

Hand made with a wooden frame powered by a simple pull cord, he's made from carefully chosen scraps of fabric and felt all delicately hand stitched together.  We are only making these little guys to order so if you'd like one too, head over to our puppet shop

Though he stands just 16 inches high, we managed to pack in lots of amusing details, from his fingerless gloves to patches in his coat and a pocket full of hay...

We also made a short video of him in action :)

K'wi

Remember K'wi ? He used to be in my art shop gracing greeting cards.  He's a funny little object, with his soft body and curved beak and like most of my monsters, has become a permanent part of the family.

So much so in fact that Rich has made one :) He started with a wire frame covered with plaster bandage then papier mache painted in acrylic with a clear layer on top. His beak and claws are black enamel and his bristles black plastic.

 He's amazingly detailed, from the wrinkles in his skin to the texture of his claws.

 We also had an awful lot of fun setting up his very own photo shoot showing K'wi in his natural habitat, complete with ferns and a pool...

 K'wi is now available to buy along with other friends over on our other Etsy shop here.

Original and affordable

Just a quick post today because I wanted to share something you might like :) I've just signed up to a fantastic site that showcases original art from UK artists - and everything is under £100.00 !

For the artists out there - you get a free months trial with up to 12 images in your gallery, after that it's just £20.00 a year. No commission - it's basically an online exhibition with simple links to contact the artists or visit their website to buy.

I decided this would be the perfect place to advertise my new series of small studies- I do a lot of these when larger pieces are not cooperating. From a buyers point of view, the site is crisp, easy to navigate and gives just enough information about a piece without being full of unnecessary waffle. Brilliant :)

You can check out my page here

Snails for all :)

 This week has been a very exciting one for me - I received my very first professional prints of three of my original drawings. I've been looking for months at various printers, choosing papers and getting test prints done before finally settling on the combination that I felt would give the best result across the board.

 I went for Hahnemuhle paper as it has a beautiful smooth white surface similar to the paper I draw on. It also holds black incredibly well so the prints are crisp and dramatic without losing any of the detail in the original.

 I had the snail and the hermit crab done as a set since they are the most popular images in my shop, along with Stephen. I'm currently working on a matched pair of landcape images which I think will be next up. 

It's taken a lot of pressure off work wise because my shop no longer empties out alarmingly every time someone buys a few things and with greeting cards coming soon I can offer something for every pocket :)

Snails for all :)

 This week has been a very exciting one for me - I received my very first professional prints of three of my original drawings. I've been looking for months at various printers, choosing papers and getting test prints done before finally settling on the combination that I felt would give the best result across the board.

 I went for Hahnemuhle paper as it has a beautiful smooth white surface similar to the paper I draw on. It also holds black incredibly well so the prints are crisp and dramatic without losing any of the detail in the original.

 I had the snail and the hermit crab done as a set since they are the most popular images in my shop, along with Stephen. I'm currently working on a matched pair of landcape images which I think will be next up. 

It's taken a lot of pressure off work wise because my shop no longer empties out alarmingly every time someone buys a few things and with greeting cards coming soon I can offer something for every pocket :)

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.

My dark tower...

 We were lucky this weekend to be invited to join artist Tina Mammoser on a stay near Whitby. We only live up the road but working from home, it's somehow so much harder to organise time away so we jumped at the opportunity. On Sunday, we braved the weather to go explore Saltwick Bay, at one end of which stands the impressive Black Nab, which I naturally made a beeline for...

Black rock formation on a bed of shale, sillhouetted against a cloudy sky - what more could a goth artist ask for ? Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, we dicovered that close by lie the remains of the Admiral Von Tromp which ran aground in 1976 under mysterious circumstances.

 

 

 Many people have obviously taken amazing photographs of the rich landscape there and I'm not going to pretend I've achieved anything of the sort but the great thing about being an artist is... it doesn't matter :) I've picked these three to start working on and I'll do more editing to bring out the reflections on the rock but for quick snaps taken on the hoof, I'm really rather pleased. I'll definitely be going back but I can see the potential for charcoal drawings in these so I'm just going to get on with it.

You can remind me I said that.

Shadows

More fun with monsters here this week- I've done the first prints of our model Stephen for me to draw from. Not only have they made life a whole lot easier in terms of getting perspective and lighting right but there have been some unexpected bonuses...

Probably the most fascinating thing I've seen so far is how his shadow changes depending on how I light the model. Sometimes it's very spider-like as with the picture above, other shots have a man shaped shadow like the one below (which I'm sure is sneaking off on its own).

He's not attached to a base because we already have plans for a bigger, more mobile version which is a slightly worrying thought. For now I'm making good use of my paper stubbies by way of props.

Because these pictures are just for reference I also don't have to worry about them being perfectly crisp which means I've been able to play about with my camera and get some interesting shots of him creeping about in the dark - the one above is a test for one of him looking in a window. He does that...

Monster in motion

 From an artists' point of view, demons have a lot in common with cats- they don't want to know until it looks like something else is getting all the attention... of course, those of you who know Stephen already will appreciate why, when it comes to elbowing everyone else out of the way, he wins every time.

That's all well and good but he's not the easiest thing to draw straight from my head, it's far too easy to wind up with a bit on backwards/upside down. So over coffee Sunday morning I asked my other half if he thought we could make a model of some kind. That way, I could play with different compositions and get all my lighting right before starting a big piece.

 I'll get into the 'how' properly in my next post but you may be amused to know that our new Christmas decorations didn't last long on the tree before we found an altogether more fun use for them :)

Of course, I'm saying 'we' but you're probably under no illusion that I had anything much to do with the actual construction asides from working out the sizes of various bits, some sanding and the important task of watching what was going on. 

Today the last of the glue had dried and I was able to start playing with him- just some test shots with a lamp of a new pose I was working on but he's amazingly effective - I can even get him stood on his back legs reaching up and adjust his limbs in sequence. Of course, I now want one of each of our resident nightmares done like this - best get some more baubles in !

This last has to be my favourite shot so far, stretching up - that shadow makes me grin every time I look at it :) In my next post I'll get into more detail of how we did it, then in the new year drawing should start in earnest of Stephen in action...

Pointed

 After much faffing about, I've finally picked out the next group of photos to work from. I'm scaling up slightly from the recent insect studies so I can do justice to this set taken by me at Spurn Point a few weeks ago.

 My personal favourite is the one above- looks to me like a small, rather astonished rabbit :) That amusement aside I love the contrasting texture between the weathered wood and smooth pebbles.

 I've ordered in more of my beloved Fabriano Aristico, because there really is no comparison with other papers when you want crisp, fine detail and high contrast. I'll be working in charcoal pencil again and posting updates as the drawing progress.

I'm reckoning on a series of three and the two colour pics here are potentials for the next piece but that might depend on just how crackers I go with all those pebbles.....feel free to remind me that I thought it was a  good idea at the time !

Waspish

 After all the excitement of putting some of my bigger pieces on sale, it was back to the drawing board for my latest wildlife picture. This time it was a wasp that had caught my eye- but no ordinary wasp :)

 She's a netelia producta, or an orange caterpillar parasite wasp to you and me, that we found in our garden in Cornwall. One of those creatures that is so beautiful you feel positively inadequate just looking at her....

 She was also very cooperative and posed for several photos before flying off. I'd sold a  set of three insect studies which left me with, er, none so she got bumped up the queue for my next effort. 

Once again she's done in charcoal pencil on Langton hot press watercolour paper which has a lovely smooth surface. I worked an hour a day and took photos as I went along to share with you. 

Because she has such a dark body and white legs,  had to fill in the background to a greater extent on this one to provide contrast. Normally, I add just enough to give the image context but madame had to be difficult at some point, didn't she :)

Here she is after the final tweaking - and she's now available to buy here :)