Sketching for "The Waves, the Waves"

I have a twin sister who is an absolutely awe-inspiring writer! and I am totally unbiased, so no arguing please! You may be wondering what this seemingly random piece of information has to do with anything, apart from giving me an opportunity to boast about having a talented sister. Well, I'll admit I have an ulterior motive; namely, the excuse to say that I shall be illustrating a novella she is working on at the moment. From when I was very little I always wished that there was a job that both me and my sister could do together, and here is the perfect solution. Without wanting to give too much away, I'll say that it's a story about love, time travel (think The Time Traveller's Wife rather then anything overtly sci-fi), a house on the cliffs, selkie magic, 18th century tea smugglers, wartime austerity and the waves....in fact, the working title is The Waves, the Waves (it's kind of like a combination between Virginia Woolf's The Waves and Iris Murdoch's The Sea, the Sea thereby referencing two brilliant female writers in one fell swoop! Clever, huh?). It's a project we've wanted to work on together for a while now so it's exciting and also a little nerve-racking to start on it. I wanted to share the small start I've managed to make. One is only half started and one didn't go so well but in the spirit of documenting my progress, here they are.

" Coldness filled her glass-glinting self up to the brim and life poured gratefully out. She kept falling. Arms caught her and enclosed themselves about her, cradled her through the darkness. This, she thought, is what it feels like to surrender." 

Extract from The Waves, the Waves by Abra Hunt.

I had Daniela Drescher and Warwick Goble in mind when I started applying the watercolour to this drawing. I can confidently say that I was (if I'm honest more then) a little disheartened it all went slightly awry. It's something I may go back to but at the moment it's staying in the back of my watercolour pad where I can't see it.

"It took her nearly an hour to reach the main road and the toothy outline of the village roofs. At the junction she stopped and bent down to remove her sturdy walking boots, delving deep into the depths of her bag and coming out with a catch of tan leather heels."

Extract from The Waves, the Waves by Abra Hunt.

I'm planning on using watercolour again on this illustration. I will not be defeated by the watercolour!

Durga and the Buffalo Deamon

I've been spending my dark November weekends submerged in the vibrance of hindu mythology. This image was done in response to After the Fairytale Collective's challenge to illustrate the tale of the Goddess Durga and her encounter with the Buffalo Deamon......I think you can gather from my drawing below that it didn't end well for the deamon! An abundance of awesome girl power and Indian patterns made this an extremely enjoyable challenge! If you wanna see the full colour version, then head over to the collective blog. 

Etching at The Art Academy

So, about four weeks ago, I started an evening etching class at The Art Academy in London. Four weeks ago, I also told myself that I would write this post.........oooops! I can verify with some relief that the etching class has been a lot more productive!
It's been over a year now that I last used the print room at Plymouth University, and while I had said I would try to find a print studio in London I could use to keep the etching going, I was worried that I would have forgotten how to use it by the time I got round to making good on the promise I had made to myself. I felt a refresher course was in order. Cue a quick search through Google and an halaluja moment when I found this fantastic six week evening course just round the corner from London Bridge at The Art Academy. Perfect for after work. I'll admit it's been tiring going straight from work to a three hour etching session but I've been enjoing the experience. It's also been good to be reminded of why I loved it before and to gain usefull tips on how to complete diferent stages of the process at home. Who knows, maybe I'll set up my own makeshift studio in the kitchen!
Last lesson I got to the stage of applying an aquatint and then etching for tone and shading. I find that the most nervracking stage because it really feels like guess work! I can't imagine getting to the stage when it won't! Next week will be the big test.....when I actually print. In the mean time, keep your fingers crossed for me and I'll leave you with the drawing of what I line etched. The tone is going on top. After spending a whole evening etching this image onto my plate, I then dreamed about foxes all night!

 

From Masks to Snow White

I started early on the After the Fairytale collective challenge for October and managed to get a bit of sketching in before committing to the final illustration! Well done to me! I don't usually manage to pull that off (cue smug pat on the back)! I thought I'd give you a taster with these images from my sketchbook in the hope that you'll be tempted to look at After the Fairytale Collective's blog to see all the work submitted for October's "mask" theme, including mine which illustrates the moment Snow White's evil step-mother disguises herself as an old crone/witch to trick her into eating a poisoned apple. You can see them here: http://afterthefairytalecollective.tumblr.com/

The Start of New Beginnings.....hopefully!

I feel it is about time that I swept out the cobwebs and brushed away the dust from the long forgotten corners of this blog which have accumulated in the presence of such unforgivable inactivity. Has it really been .....5 months?!?! FIVE MONTHS!!!! since I last posted? I'm afraid to say it has. I feel I should apologise although I realise I'm not quite sure who to. Is there anyone out there reading this? More then anything I feel like a neglectful parent. Much work is needed now to make up for lost time.
The reason this blog has been left like an orphaned child on a doorstep for, I'll have to say it again, 5 months! is that the three month internship at Rooks Books which I last wrote about three weeks into it's commencement, has lead to a part-time job! It's great news but does mean my illustration has been put on the back-burner for the last few months while I got into the routine of becoming a Commuter for four days a week. However, I have a few personal projects bubbling on the horizon (hhherrm, may have mixed me metaphors up there but aah well) and so hopefully this post can signal the re-launch of all things blackbird and lemoncurd-y! And in the mean time don't forget that if you're in the mood for an illustrative treat, then there's always the collective which I post to once a month with fellow illustrators Diana Mazuru and Rachel Rawlings. August's offering was all about Jane Eyre and this September we're illustrating Blackberry Wine.
So, I thought I would kick off the start of new beginnings with a few pages from my sketchbook. For the Jane Eyre challenge I was really inspired by the brooding, Gothic atmosphere of the 1943 film adaptation and so I decided to keep my image black and white and use Parker ink. I've seen this medium be used a lot and to great effect, but I've not really used it before myself so it was a bit of an experiment. These pages show the process and if you'd like to see the finished result, click on the collective link above.

Some pages from my sketchbook.

In honour of my previous post I have scanned some of my own sketchbook pages (well, if Rossetti and Burne-Jones can do it then so can I!). These are the scribbles that have informed some of my own finished pieces; my magic behind the magic.

p.s The last two pages on here are preliminary works for After the Fairytale Collective's February challenge. If you would like to see the final thing, click on the link below or the "Collective" tab at the top.

After the Fairytale Collective

Holy Cow!

Just a small offering today. Another drawing for the Plaw Hatch Farm newsletter. There isn't much to say about it except that... it's a cow! An MRI cow to be precise; named after the three main rivers in Germany (Meuse, Rhine and Issel). Enjoy :)

Fred and Ginger get a feathery make-over!

Just two very quick sketches I produced to go in the Plaw Hatch Farm newsletter. They are to accompany a written piece about the many colourful animal characters that often wonder into the shop there (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers being two of them obviously!). I can tell you that drawing poultry on a tight deadline is pretty hard and I struggled with these two. I don't think I quite managed to capture their toe-tapping skills! But I would just like to say here and now that Bantams (that's Freddie) are officially my favourite breed. They look so smart with their fluffy trousers! I think Fred Astaire would be pleased to know his namesake was keeping up with his style.

A little bit comic!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I uploaded an etching I did at the end of uni whose image I'd taken from the last scene of a comic I'd drawn a few months back. After I'd uploaded the etching I realised that I never actually put the comic up here which was very remiss of me at the time and which I will rectify now. The creation of this comic came about when some of my fellow students (namely Peter Maggs) took it upon themselves to organize a 24 hour comic event (something which Plymouth University's illustrations course has done for several years now but which has never been a student initiative before). I'd never even vaguely considered myself a comic book artist before but as my work had become increasingly narrative lead over second and third year, I thought this would be an interesting new challenge! The aim is to produce 24 pages of a comic book in 24 hours (that's 1 page an hour when you do the basic maths!) and if you want to see pictures of the event go have a look at Diana's blog. The images aren't expected to be of that great a quality as there simply isn't time to produce anything highly rendered if you want to reach the target. Here is the result of my 24 hours spent in the library among friends with sandwiches and mushroom pie.

The Final One!

Here are the final pages of my sketchbook for my final illustration for my final project which I've been working on for these final months at uni! What a scary thing to have to say. I really am going to finish in just over a months time...............let's just focus on the illustrations for now! Drum roll please........

"Come now, drift up the dark, come up the drifting sea-dark street now."

My "Under Milk Wood" project continues on-a-pace. I think I would be quite happy to linger within the it's pages for a lot longer then 3 more weeks (which is all I have left now before the deadline for this particular module rears it's ugly head). I've been concentrating on the characters and after exorcising my fear and loathing of drawing buildings it felt a little strange to go back to drawing people! but I've been enjoying experimenting with line and texture.