Painting: Tilly

This is my gorgeous friend on her wedding day. She's very kindly given me permission to post this.  =)

This was never meant to be anything spectacular, I just wanted to try my hand at watercolouring a portrait, which isn't something I've ever done before. I cracked, and used some coloured pencil in the background and in her hair, partly because I was in a hurry to get it finished; work had appeared, and I couldn't leave the masking fluid on the paper for ever! 

Obviously I still have a way to go with watercolour portraits, but I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt. I'll have to try some more some time. =) I certainly haven't managed to bring in the contrast that I like to have in my work, but it's a start. 

Winsor & Newton Watercolours, Reeves watercolour paper, Prismacolour coloured pencils.

Here's the original sketch:

And because anyone I have photos of is fair game, here are two further sketches of her, done some months ago, after her engagement party. She's very sketchable (and very photogenic). 

All of these are from photos taken by me. I took lots at the engagement party. The wedding photo was a spur of the moment shot, for which I swiped my father's camera. I wasn't carrying a camera that day. 

Speedpaint: Little Girl

I saw this sweet little girl in the doctor's waiting room this afternoon. I was there for allergy desensitisation, but I also had a splitting headache, so didn't manage to motivate myself to do any more than a very very rough sketch of her. This was done from memory, some six hours later, while I was feeling better enough to do something, but not yet good enough to lean over a desk – digital sketching it was, then. 

~90 minutes, Adobe Photoshop CS4. I need to get more speed into my speedpainting!

More Regency Mice

Remember my Illustration of the dancing mice? (The Minuet) 

The wonderful and very talented Makenzi Crouch wrote me a short story to accompany it. To read an excerpt (the part dealing with the original painting) visit her fledgling blog The Bluestocking Firefly (which also contains excerpts of other things she's written). It's a sort of merging of mice and Georgette Heyer, so I'm pretty much guaranteed to love it (she obviously knows what I like). I think it's adorable, so go read it!

So last night I took a break from what I was doing, and did three small vignettes from other parts of the story on an offcut piece of watercolour paper, trying to loosen up my sketching style a bit. I was trying to channel Randolph Caldecott a bit, but I think I've got a way to go! However, I quite like them, all the same. ^.^

These are all roughly 10 x 10cm, and I used two Faber-Castell PITT artist pens in sepia/brown – the Brush nib and the small nib. 

Wedding Cards

Hello to new watchers! =)


I've done quite a lot of wedding and engagement cards recently, so I thought I'd share some of my favourites:

Top to bottom, left to right, we have:

– a wedding card, with the couple raised above the background and embellished with pearlescent confetti glitter. Original illustration done in Adobe Illustrator. The inside read 'Let the magic begin'

– An engagement card, featuring a henna-style motif in pale blue glitter on bronze card.

– An engagement card, hand drawn and hand-cut-out, with embellishments in silver glitter. 

– A wedding card for a farming couple – My client wanted a windmill on it, and she wanted it green, so this is what I came up with. Adobe Illustrator again. The inside read 'May your love for each other be as sunshine and rain upon the land'

– And finally, my most recent wedding card. Hand painted and hand lettered with a dip pen and brown ink, with highlights of watercolour and gold acrylic. Inside read 'Love and laughter. For now. Forever.'

Here's a clearer view of the first card:

And finally, for a bit of variety, here is a baby card, also done recently, but utilising a cleaned-up and modernised version of a stork card I did several years ago. Also Adobe Illustrator, with the clouds making up several layers for a 3d effect. And confetti glitter for embellishment:

I really need to take better photos of my cards – or at least choose days when it isn't windy or very overcast. =P