May 2015 Art Challenge - 'Ancient vs Futuristic'

Here is my entry for Draw with Jazza's May 2015 Art Challenge - Ancient vs Futuristic.  The idea is that they are a kind of secret service MI5 (or Men In Black) top secret government agents in Victorian times, fighting Aliens and Futuristic Robots.  Hence the lady and gentleman on the left, are fighting a spider-like robot from outer space, in a Victorian sewer tunnel.

This is my first artwork in quite some time, I think it might actually have been a couple of years since I last tried to create some colour pencil art.  I still doodle in pen and pencil, but I've not tried to create some real art in ages.  I was really rusty.  But I really enjoyed doing this, and even enjoyed sketching out and colouring in bricks in between ad breaks on the TV.  

I joined this Art Challenge late on in the month, having only a couple of weeks to come up with the idea and create it.  If I'd had a little more time, I would have liked to have continued darkening the background, and just had a light glow around my heroes, and from the robot's laser bolts.  But as it is, I still enjoyed it.  And I want to create more!

My Artwork:  Colour Pencil, on A5 Sketchbook paper.

Manzanillo Beach - Landscape Complete!

Here is my completed Colour Pencil Landscape of Manzanillo Beach on A5 Sketchbook Paper.  

I am pretty pleased with how this has turned out, although of course there are areas I would like to improve.  My rock drawing skills are not the best, so I think they let it down - especially at the bottom edge of the land mass we see in the distance.  I struggled with that!  However, I love the water and how I managed to get a reflection of the light down the middle, and I rather like the leaves (especially the main one with yellow veins) in the bottom left of the picture.  I also had fun discovering a way to show trees growing on the hills in the distance - by drawing tiny circles with a blue pencil on green shaded hills.  It worked really well I think! 

So my Landscape skills are steadily improving, and no doubt the more I practice them, the more they will improve.  I just find them so challenging! 

Thanks for looking, and please feel to leave and tips and suggestions for improvement in the comments below!

Landscape WIP - "Manzanillo Beach"

I have now decided to focus on Fine Art and Illustration, it is what I love the most.  No more design courses for me.  I want to be a Fantasy and Science-fiction Artist, creating as realistic art as I can in graphite and colour pencil.  I have managed to free up my time to concentrate on my Art every day.  Providing I can stick to this, you should see a lot more of my art appearing on here.  Today I have been working on a Colour Pencil Landscape of Manzanillo Beach on Margarita Island, which is part of the Wetcanvas May Landscape Challenge.  I am really enjoying this one, it doesn't feel like a chore, and I am really enjoying creating the ocean.  I may discover a love for landscapes after all!

T-Shirt Design

My Final T-Shirt Design, I tried to sum up the essence of what the U101 Design Thinking course is all about, and I hope I managed that. 

New Sketch - Car Battery Charger

I am currently studying an Open University course in Design, called U101 Design Thinking: Creativity for the 21st Century. This is my latest piece of work on the course, where I have to produce a detailed sketch of an old work tool. I chose an old car battery charger my Dad has, Dad's are great for keeping old bits of junk! I think I may have stumbled across a minefield of old and unusual bits of junk to draw! Here is a photo of the item for comparison:


After this initial drawing, my next task is to do two more drawings of this object, but to make them less detailed and more abstract each time, so as to create my own design from this object. This will be an interesting challenge for me! In the next few weeks I will be practicing this technique further, by designing my own T-Shirt for this module!

What Art Would I Like To Do?

I'm currently planning a new Art Website to showcase my portfolio and link to this blog. I was browsing some fantasy and science-fiction artists websites for inspiration and ideas, when I stumbled across Greg Horn's website, and it made me think about the kind of art I want to do, when I consider my skills good enough.

I would like to do:

• Advertising Posters
• Art Prints
• Calendars
• Comic Book Covers
• Fantasy Art
• Greeting Cards
• Heroes & Heroines
• D&D Miniatures Illustrations
• Licence Art - for use on T-Shirts, Ornaments
• Magazine Illustrations - Vignettes
• Movie Scenes
• Music Album Covers
• Music Artists
• Sci-fi & Fantasy Still Life
• Science-fiction Novel Book Covers
• Space Opera Scenes
• Superheroes
• Video Game Magazine Covers
• Witches & Other Supernaturally Powered Figures

So I guess I need to improve my skills by practising these kind of works! I'm off to find reference images to match these now!

Happy Sketching Everyone!

Trees Landscape - Complete!

I finally completed my landscape! It's been difficult working on this one, but I am so glad I finally completed it. It was worth finishing as now I am proud of it! There are still areas I need to improve on, I am a fledgling landscape artist, I do need to improve the contrast and make the picture darker in some areas. But this is a good start I think with a difficult reference image (see previous post). Thanks so much to Retha for offering me so much help and support - without you and would not have completed it!

It just goes to show that it is worth finishing your pictures, no matter how badly you think they are going - they do improve once completed, and you have something to be proud of!