Inktober 2019: day 30 - gel pens

There was also just time enough for one more Sweetpea! He really wants to show you how lovely he tree’s Autumn leaves and acorns are.

Inktober 2019: day 22 - gel pen

Sweetpea and some of his friends are comparing the Autumn fruits of their trees.

I was trying to keep this one simple because I was starting to get very tired, but I put in too many characters and props! It wasn't hard exactly, but it was time consuming.

Festive Plants

A little out of season, here are my Christmas cards from last year! I went with simple botanical paintings, and I honestly wasn't sure how they were going to turn out as I hadn't done any botanical art in a while. In the end I was really pleased with them! The originals all went out to friends and family members as usual, but I'd like to try some different plants and flowers in this style now that I know how to do it.

The four at the bottom are my favourites from the set, I think if I had to pick one favourite it would be the Hellebore. I was so pleased with that one when I finished it!

Shaggy Inkcaps

I haven't used pen and ink for a while, I always worry I'll have forgotten how to do it, even though I've been working this way for years!

These are Shaggy Inkcaps, which are a tasty mushroom native to the UK. It's recommended to pick the young ones, as after the caps open they dye other food black! They can also be used to make real ink.

Some Common British Trees

Here's a little side project from the last few days. My pal Sammy Borras has been drawing a new comic (about a monster Riot Grrrl band!) which needs more rural backgrounds than her usual work and she wasn't happy with how she was drawing trees. I think the trick is to know what type of tree you're trying to draw so you can give it more distinctive features, but that takes a lot of research if you don't know much about trees to start with.

I'm a great believer in just asking someone who already knows before wasting time and energy starting from scratch, so I made her a cheat sheet showing the major visual features of 8 common British trees. Maybe someone else will find it useful too?

Fret

I recently got a job at the Barnes Library at the University of Birmingham, working in the evenings. It's incredibly quiet at this time of year, and much to my surprise I'm actually allowed to bring a book or draw to pass the time! I'm used to retail jobs where doing anything non-work-related is strictly verboten no matter how quiet the shop is.

So here's a nice pencil drawing of Fret, the product of sitting at the library counter with nothing much to do. (I'm sure it'll pick up in Autumn with the new intake though.)

I'd like to do a painting of Fret soon, now that I've worked out his design properly. I'm fairly often guilty of designing characters in colour, and then only drawing them in black and white.

Plants etc.

I realised I never posted these diagrams I drew last year! I've been working on some non-fiction illustrations to expand my portfolio.

Maroon Flower

A miniature painting I included with a notebook sale recently, by way of apology for a shipping delay.

Windflower

I heard my Grandma has shingles, so I whipped up a get-well-soon card for her. I hope it cheers her up until she feels better.

These... may not be the most botanically accurate windflowers I've ever drawn...

Blackthorn

Cropped out of the cover of What's the Time, Mrs Woolf? Spring 2014.

Baby Portraits - Effie

Since I’ve recently added a commissions page, here’s one I did this January as a christening present. I’ve done these baby portraits that incorporate birth information several times before, but I think this is my favourite so far.
I was given no guidelines aside from ‘they like purple and butterflies’, so I was a little relieved when I heard it had gone down well with the parents!