Art Material Review - Derwent Inktense Pencils

I always love to experiment with new art materials, and this week Derwent Pencils were kind enough to offer me a set of their Inktense pencils to try out.  Exciting!



Yes, they do look like watercolour pencils - but honestly, there's a big difference.  The core of the Inktense pencils are, as the name suggests, ink; which means you get this gorgeous, bright quality to the tones when you use them with water.  One of the main benefits I found was that once they're 'activated' with water and left to dry they're permanent - which is brilliant for base colouring and ink linework over the top, no bleed whatsoever.

Stage by stage: Pencil, activated pencil and ink linework overlay.

Another massive benefit of this is that the permanence means that you can use the pencils with water to paint onto cotton or silk.  That opens up a whole wealth of uses, especially if you're a professional creative - I'm definitely going to look into creating some hand-painted silk scarves or illustrated tote bags to whip up with the sewing machine.

The pencils are easy to use for both professional finished work or quick sketches.  They'd also be great for adding a quick splash of colour to storyboards or concept designs.

Single Inktense pencil sketch and after activation with water and paintbrush.

There's a huge range of colours available, and I'd definitely like to try more than the starter pack I received; but they're easily blendable and with a little creativity there aren't many shades you can't produce.

Stage by stage: 2B pencil sketch, colouring with Inktense pencils, activation and Ink pen overlay.

To be honest I don't often find the time to use paintbrushes and water with my sketches - with tight deadlines I often opt for digital colouring, but I do think it adds something special to a sketch and you can end up with an image you didn't expect - which can be great for the ol' inspiration.  I'd say they're definitely worth choosing over watercolour pencils, if only for the permanence aspect - that's the thing that really impressed me, it's just such a practical quality if you're looking to use ink linework, overpainting or to experiment with textile uses.

If you'd like to grab yourself a pack, or have a look at the full range of Derwent products (the graphitint pencils and inktense blocks look really interesting!) head to www.pencils.co.uk 

Obviously this was only a test over a few days, so I'll keep this post updated as I use them in the future to comment on their durability, usability and any other elements that crop up with more frequent use! 

What Katy Did cover illustration for Egmont

Back in November I was asked to illustrate the cover of Egmont's new Heritage edition of What Katy Did.
It was one of those dream commissions which just flows so easily from sketch, to approval, to final artwork.  It was a real joy to work on, and I'm so pleased with how it's turned out.



I focused on the iconic swing scene from the book, so there's that instant communication of who and what the story's about.  We chose to stick with sketch 3, but take the house and windmill from sketch four - which worked well compositionally and had a really nice depth to it.

I chose a warm colour scheme, evoking one of those hazy Summer days.  The binding of the book looks absolutely gorgeous with the colours of the illustration, so I'm chuffed. I love the gold on the binding!

Egmont were brilliant to work with, and hopefully I'll get to collaborate with them again at some point!  The book looks lovely, and I was really impressed with the quality of the production.  Definitely keep an eye out for these and the rest of the Heritage series in shops soon.  

What Katy Did is officially released October 9th! I'll give you a shout when it's available!

New Norwegian Wood Prints

New in! These Norwegian Wood posters have just arrived in my online shop here.

I illustrated this for the release of the film adaptation of Murakami's Norwegian Wood, and ended up as a finalist in the poster competition.  Had a great little exhibition at the Curzon cinema (and I danced next to Tony Leung at the premiere party, what?!). This illustration has had a surge of re-popularity after being featured on the Murakami facebook page recently.  Pretty chuffed, I love Murakami's work (although The Wind Up Bird Chronicle is my favourite so far!).

These lovely prints arrived today!

These yummy prints arrived today!  They're available in my online shop here.  I'm really happy with the prints, the colours are gorgeous and the paper is lovely (200gsm and slightly textured!). Nice, nice, nice.

Dive!

 It's Summer! Yes! I've been really getting back into my illustration work for pleasure after tying up the last loose ends from 'The Lavender Blue Dress' book project (which was a long and brilliant commission!). Spending Summer by the sea has definitely been inspiring, and having a week off can really help reset the ol' creativity.  I wanted to have fun creating a simple illustration, and to really focus on movement - and with the hot, humid weather we've been having lately an illustration of a cooling dive into the ocean seemed perfect.

I started with a loose pencil sketch (very, very loose!) and jumped straight into working with ink brush pen and traditional ink and paintbrush to create the fluid looking linework.  I then scanned the artwork at a high resolution and worked up the colouring on Photoshop with custom brushes and watercolour textures.  It's one of my favourite ways to work quickly as there's so much potential to switch colours around and make easy adjustments.

I'm considering making a small print run of these available (and potentially have the original artwork up for grabs in my shop), so give me a shout if you'd be interested!

Shingeki no Kyojin - Attack on Titan illustration

Hi guys!

This is actually a bit of an oldie, but I've just realised I didn't upload it when I finished it way back in March.  
A few of you have probably heard of Attack on Titan, and boy did I get hooked on the show - mysterious walls, giant loopy-faced titans that eat people, secret keys and gravity defying battles? - Oh yeah.

I haven't read the manga, and I'll admit that I'm veeery picky when it comes to manga art styles - but I'm trying to not let that put me off some really great stories, so if you've got any recommendations go ahead.

I'm not usually one to do fan art (aside from a couple of X-files ones, Twin Peaks and an Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon one which has been in production for a while...), but I had a spare few days and thought this would be really good to try out in my downtime as it's full of dynamic movement and I could play my own style take on the characters.

I spent some time looking at photos of aerial acrobatics to get the mid-air movement looking right in the sketches and worked it up from there in Photoshop.  As you can see the titans started out with some very silly sketched faces (well, they do look pretty silly anyway), and in general the whole piece edged towards a much happier version than the super-gore and violence of the show.  I like to think of it as one of those brief moments where everything was sort of okay...

Summer escape

 So I took the leap to spend Summertime by the seaside and really re-boot my creativity after a very long (but brilliant) book project working on The Lavender Blue Dress.
Sometimes it really helps just to force yourself to take a break and reasess your portfolio, goals and general working practice.  I'll hopefully have a far more succinct and meatier portfolio by the end of it, that's the plan anyway - you can never stop pushing your work and sometimes you just have to be ruthless!

Above is just a quick Summertime sketch to get me back into the swing of things - it's certainly been that sort of a week! I'll be back up to speed with my blogging soon, so keep an eye out for more new work!

Carbon Dated Art Interview

If you fancy learning a bit more about me, there's a nice little interview just gone up on Carbon Dated Art here. Just a few bits and bobs about the industry, my work and my very favourite childhood stories! Take a look!

The Lavender Blue Dress snapshot

Just a really little peek at some of the linework and movement sketches I've been working on for my new book with Aidan Moffat and Cargo Publishing.  The Lavender Blue Dress will be out later this year; I'm certainly having a lot of fun illustrating it! Sorry I can't show you more right now, but keep your eyes out for updates.

Horrocks at The Harris

Really lovely seeing some of the Horrocks collection and sketchbooks at The Harris Museum in Preston recently. The patterns are absolutely gorgeous!  Vintage inspiration is the best.

The Staves

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get tickets to the BBC 6 Music festival in Manchester (they sold out in five minutes, yikes!).  Some brilliant musicalians like The National and Lykke Li were playing, as well as my most recent musical crush The Staves.  

The main stage was gorgeously adorned with trees and fairylights, which really complimented The Staves folky, lady-harmonies and guitar strums. 

The show really inspired me, and I thought it would be a nice little project to illustrate a portrait of the sisters in my time away from book-illustration (sometimes, you just gotta take a break from it!).  Luckily, the ladies themselves had a look at the illustration and liked it, so phew! I'm always a little cautious with portraits! 

If you haven't already checked out The Staves, I'd recommend them if you like really pin-point gorgeous harmonies and relaxed, warm, folky sounds.

National Art Fund Pass experiences and review

Last year, I was contacted by the very lovely blogger Fritha Strickland to try out an National Art Fund Pass.

Founded by Art Fund, the pass gives you access to hundreds of cultural attractions across the UK - art galleries, museums and historic buildings (you can sometimes get money off food and drink too - yum!).

The pass arrives with a great little handbook and information pack about all the places you can use your pass, and it comes with a free subscription to Art Quarterly magazine - which is full of interesting news and reviews of the arty and cultural.

I have to say that although I travel a lot, I haven't been able to use the Art Pass on it's own yet as a lot of the featured attractions do overlap with other memberships; such as the National Trust, 2 for 1 London by train or places with standard free entry (though with these you usually get a discount on certain exhibitions etc). 

You do get some killer entry discounts at some great places, but I'd definitely recommend that if you're thinking about getting an Art Pass you should know someone else who has one as well.  For me it was just a case of when I stumbled across somewhere I could get in for free, my family or SO would have a hefty price tag for their entrance - so we often opted for other attractions. For example in Stratford-Upon-Avon you can save a huge £12 on entrance to Shakespeare's Birthplace with the pass; and although I'd considered having a nip round on my own, I wanted to spend time at places I could visit with my family.  You can get Double or Family Art Fund Pass cards, which I think would be brilliant (and completely solve this problem!), but as a non driver living a bit-too-far away from major attractions, I have to say I struggled.

I think it's also worth checking where you can visit on the map before purchase; as I said, there's some really brilliant places to check out, but I found that unfortunately the majority of them are in London or other cities which aren't as accessible for me (being out in the North Western sticks).

Snapped at the V&A last Summer after visiting The Tudors exhibition

Some of the places I visited with Art Pass (although many of these did overlap with National Trust, two for one deals or general free entry - many have 50% off exhibitions with the Art Pass):



So all in all, I really do love what the Art Fund are doing with this. I think it's brilliant that by purchasing an Art Pass you are supporting thousands of galleries and museums, protecting the country's cultural assets and helping to make art accessible for everyone.  The Art Quarterly magazines are great, although as an illustrator I'd have to say I'd like more contemporary illustration featured in there as well as classic art practices or modern art (although I must say there have been a couple of goooorgeous editorial illustrations like one in the pictures above by Matthew Cook).  It's a good feeling to be part of a community with update letters on art events in your area, and all the visit options with the art map.  However, as I said, if you don't live in a city and don't have particularly reliable transport links then do make sure that you have a buddy with an Art Fund pass, a Double or Family pass - after all, art is best shared.

Find out more about Art Fund or get yourself a National Art Pass here.

Note: I was invited by Art Fund to try out the Art Fund Pass for a year free of charge and write my honest opinion of it. I was not paid to write this review.