Its OK To Play!

It's easy to get in to the mind set that everything you do has to be something ... an end product ... a "piece" - and shaking that off can be pretty hard. So having had a few days of not liking what I was doing ... I decided to have a play and not worry too much about the outcome ... it's only paper and paint right? Nobody died! OK so I'm lucky to have the luxury of time to do this but sometimes getting your nose back in your sketchbook is the only way to move forward. So here it is ...not a commission...not a piece for my store ... just a bit of fun and scratching around.

And Now For Some Colour...

 Dutch Canal Houses commission (rather large pen and ink drawing) is finished, packaged and ready to go so it's straight back to the colours by way of a little gift tag! Bull Terriers are one of my favourite breeds to draw ... never owned one but just love their faces! Got 2 snoring hounds in the studio today so it's seems an ideal day for it!

Dutch Canal Houses

Back to it after a few exciting weeks off! 

Enjoying drawing Dutch Canal Houses today as ground work for a commission. It's going to an expat leaving the Netherlands I believe ... so my little houses will be going on a long journey! The final piece will be in pen&ink on a nice heavy HP watercolour paper. I'll post a photo once it's done. 

Then I think it will be back to the animals (though it's a nice change to draw straight lines!) .. got so much material to work from after a trip to Indonesia ... watch this space!

Dutch Canal Houses / Dutch Architecture /Commissions 

Birthday and Farewell Bull Terriers

Spent some happy hours on this part gift/part commission for a Norwegian friend coming to the end of his stay in The Netherlands. ... as well as celebrating his 40th! The scarves and bow-ties represent the nationalities in our group as well as NL. Hopefully it will bring back happy memories for Henning and Birgitte when they are back in Norway!

The image is mixed media on 220gsm paper (smooth) and available framed our unframed. Other dogs/animals/nationalities are available on request .. along with prices. Contact me via this blog or on face book if you're interested

 Afternoon Drawing Bears

Working on something familiar to get back in to the swing of things on a grey January day. Thought I'd go back a few steps though as some of the stuff I've been doing has started to look a bit toy-like ...not what I'm aiming for. I want the figures in my illustrations to still look like animals. I don't think I'm quite there yet but I did make a note of the different steps if you want to have a go!

  

The Bear was roughly drawn on 70g Canson marker paper - you can see all the mistakes and over-draws if you enlarge it. Then transferred  to 220g smooth surface cartridge paper using a light box. The colour was added gradually in layers using Caran D'Ache Pablo pencils (go from light to dark .. need to add gradually- there's a limit to the amount of pigment the surface will hold.)

 

Bulldogs, Bull Terriers and a Pinch of Patriotism for Good Measure!

Probably inspired by being in the UK during Remembrance Sunday .... my sketch book seems to be filling up with some pretty patriotic looking Hounds! Also might be down to my daughter Alex loving British Bulldogs (or Baggy Bulldogs as they are known here in NL!) I'm really enjoying drawing some new faces .... and hope to be filling my Etsy store with some new stuff really soon!

Pugs, Bears ... and Bull Dogs!!!!

Have been busy getting things ready to fill the shelves of my Etsy store again! I had a great response last year so working hard to produce some new stuff

Opening Soon!!!!!!