From my basic calculations (ie. checking dates of posts on tumblr) I can tell you that it’s been 2 3 weeks since last finishing a picture! You might think 3 weeks is more than sufficient time to draw. I do too. I’m worried this blog is going to become a list of excuses interspersed by artwork, but I won’t let that happen, by simply not supply any excuses.

I still think I’m progressing and refining my style a little bit at a time. If anything, my confidence is constantly building. I’m starting to like what I draw a bit more and become satisfied with the final product. This gives me motivation to want to draw more so it’s a good thing!

This has to be, without a doubt the most time consuming and complex piece I’ve done so far. It’s taken just under a week to finish.

I actually made myself a little bit ill yesterday forcing myself to stay awake and work for as long as I could. It’s amazing how quick the hours go when you really get in to something.

I never did manage to finish the picture that night, but I did manage to give myself a massive head, neck and back ache that wouldn’t go thus resulting in another bad nights sleep. Thankfully, I managed to complete it today. The amount of shading and layers I had to work with made colouring the artwork very laborious.

Although I complain about how long I’ve spent on this, I really enjoyed the process of creating the picture. My biggest problem this time round was dealing with colour. The artwork looked really nice as just a 2 tone outline, and halfway through colouring, the picture started to lose what I felt was it’s impact. Maybe I’m using too much colour, or mixing too many pastel colours with strong primary colours - I don’t know. I’m still experimenting. But what I do know is my next picture won’t be as time consuming as this. Simply because this one physically exhausted me!

I think out of the 3 most recent pictures I’ve done, this one really deserves being printed up big as shrinking it down really doesn’t do it justice (hah!- get a load of my modesty!). I’m going to see if I can get this printed professionally. Maybe just a few copies at the moment around A2/A3 size to give away.

Okay, well that’s me done for tonight. I hope you’re enjoying my artwork as much as I am enjoying it.

Speak soon.

I’m happy to let you know I’ve finished my latest drawing! It’s called First Try.

I would say that this is another example of how I’m still finding my feet in terms of how I like/prefer to draw. About 5 years ago, almost all my pictures were started and completed using a computer. At no point did I ever use a real pen, pencil, paper or paint. I’m now spending a lot of time sketching on paper to the point where I would say the actual line work I’ve drawn in my notepads will be 98% what is then brought through on to the computer.

I think the transition from not depending on the computer so much has definitely improved my drawings! It’s also really nice to get away from a screen and to just relax while drawing!

I really like the busyness of the image. I do wish that I had filled the rest of the artwork area more, but this is a step in the right direction and overall I’m still happy with what I’ve produced.

I’ve already started work on my next illustration. It’s going to be a lot busier with more going on!

Right. Better get on.

Update: Comments are now enabled on the site! YIPPIE!

This is what I was working on over the latter end of last week for my girlfriend. It started out (like a lot of my recent illustrations) as a pencil sketch that I added bits to over the span of a few days.

I spent quite a while on shading this image. You won’t notice at such a small size, but I tried out a more natural, subtle shading technique for the baby’s face.

In relation to some other pictures I’ve got in the works, this image is relatively small, but was good practice for me! I’m still playing around with colour, stroke weight, and other effects to see what works and won’t doesn’t.

It feels good to have something to show everyone as I know I havn’t been updating my TOLI blog in a good long time (July to be exact).

I hope you enjoy it, and please post comments and let me know what you think if you feel you want to!

Speak soon! BYE!