Painted Love

And the second one inspired by Eli... everywhere I look at the moment its reminders of valentines day! I felt at Eli's age, whilst being all girlie it would still be bordering 'bover'd' side of things when it came to Valentines! The character is still progressing and there's plenty of ground work to do when it comes to perfecting the different mediums used, I seem to be having a problem with blues bleeding all over the show!!! But practise hopefully makes perfection. One thing I will say though is, the character is great as the inspiration is with me 24/7, and believe me she really is a character. Drawing in the clothes is almost like dress up, lol and from Eli's vivid imagination I really don't think there's nothing we cant do or conquer on paper!!!!....

Snooks!

Snooks! Feline with attitude......

Please can I introduce Snooks! Our nickname for Noocar, Noocar being Racoon backwards because of the mask like feature on her face! Shes a feline with full on attitude and gives us many a giggle! She happens to be the grumpiest most stuck up cat of all. Five kids, four dogs, three cats and three acrobatic turtles.... its a busy house but there's always something to inspire. Snooks is just one of the feline capers I'm working on.

Here's the first draft!

Ive included a real photo of her, shes an American Ragdoll, and just a fat mass of fur! All the traits of a Ragdoll, moody, lady of the manor, regal and down right bossy, this is a typical pose for Snooks!

Bear Doodles

Stan! Meet Stan!!! I have to admit what with Christmas and the fact Ive been working on a larger Bear, I haven't had time for a bear doodle for a few weeks. This ones from the archives as such. I mentioned earlier that there were technical issues with uploading the pictures, something that's being looked into, and I'm currently looking for a scanner that does my pictures justice. In the flesh Stan is dark and somewhat moody, full of woos!!!!!

I'm quite excited at posting the larger Bear Ive been working on, but for now that will have to wait until nearer the 25th.... from doing the quick Bear Doodles, the larger bear took a lot more time, but is based on the same principle of starting with a cross hatched base, almost like the weave on a real bear, and then layers of fur to build in depth and texture. Practise makes perfect, so each one looks different and in my opinion they get better. But that's just my opinion!!!

Summer Seeds

Another mad monk moleskine page! This new technique is featuring a lot at the moment, and Ive just produced some cheery Christmas cards using this blended pastel background. I love the softness it gives, but then there's an animated feel once the ink goes on. These flying monks are building towards some new characters in my head at the moment so stay tuned! I drew this one a couple of weeks ago now, before the weather turned bitterly cold. In fact the morning I finished this one we had our very first scattering of snow! Fire roaring, I don't think I put pen or paper down all day and went straight from this one to the 'First Snowfall' scene I first posted.... I really cant wait all through the seasons to produce other mad monk entries, its just too long til spring!!!!

Bear Doodles

And finally for today, Bear doodles. Quick sketches using biro, indian ink and pitt pens. The bears were created by cross hatching, usually building in 4 to 6 colours. There's something about bears that i adore, and Eli has taken over my collection, after all at my age i cant be clearing a million teddy bears from the bed each night before jumping in!