Illustration Friday - Sacrifice


One of my personal beliefs are when you get married or decide to live together for that matter; you both sacrifice something of yourself to make the relationship work.
Here is a digital piece “The Wedding Groom” produced in Corel Painter IX

Click here to see a quick step by step progression of the Wedding Groom if you are interested.

Photography

Next to art, photography is my second passion and its amazing what you 'don't' see when you take a photograph, for example I was so intent on capturing the frog I did not see the newt until I downloaded the photo's on to my PC.
One of the best inventions ever is the digital camera which I take everywhere I go, as you never know when you might see something worth recording. I took these particular photos when my sister and I went for lunch the other day. Before heading into the pub we went for a walk around the village and I caught this swallow returning to her nest, it's amazing the way the animals adapt to their surroundings this particular nest was on Lacock high street above one of the cottages front door. I could have stayed there all day waiting to capture better photo's but the noises coming from my stomach would have scared the birds away LOL

One hour painting exercise!

On the AOI discussion board a fellow illustrator, Frog set up an Illustration Wednesday - A weekly sketch-a-thon challenge. The rules, one hour time limit for digital artists, 2 hours for traditional. This week’s theme "Eccentric" I thought I'd give it a go as it’s a great exercise for honing brush skills and producing work quickly. Here is my attempt the eccentric Patrick Moore Astronomer done in Corel Painter IX, brushes used, acrylic, blenders, dodge and burn and my own hair brushes. Time taken, One hour exactly.

The other day I was down by the garden pond watching a beautiful large dragonfly that was flying too fast to capture on camera, so I turned my attention to photographing the water lilies. A few minutes later I heard a splash and was astounded to see that a newt had shot out of the water and captured the dragon fly that I had I had been admiring just a few moments before.

The scene was reminiscent of a wildlife program the one with the crocodiles and the wildebeest crossing a river.

Here are some pics I took of the empty body shells of dragonflys that have already hatched. Amazing that something so beautiful could come from something that looks prehistoric


And a lovely butterfly for those of you that may have been traumatized by the previous photo's

Hello!
I am a freelance illustrator, creating illustrations for children's books, greeting cards and editorial. I am hoping that this blog will encourage me to keep exploring my creativity and force me to update my work on a regular base. You may have to put up with various rants and ramblings, which I apologise for now LOL. I have discovered some really inspiring people while looking around illustrator's and various other blogs. And I have decided to join in!