A Coalition of Cheetahs

Here is my artwork for 'A coalition of cheetahs'.

As an illustration group at university, the task of creating and possibly publishing a book as a class was brought up to be produced over summer. The decided theme was collective nouns. 

I chose this one because I knew it would be a challenge (and at the time had been fond of cheetahs so I wanted to go with it regardless of the group name).

I wanted to explore into typography and collage further before my final year at university, as collage is something I want to develop and the text seemed appropriate. The cheetah print was taken from a photocopy of a pair of creepers (shoes) I own that appropriately had the correct print on the top. The newspaper/collaged cheetah shape is made up of articles concerning the animals behaviour.

Medium: Mount board, coloured inks (sepia and gold), newspaper, card.

Size = approx. 40 x 30 cm.

Keyrings

This summer I've started making my own keyrings, which I'm selling for 50p.

 Please get in touch with me on my Facebook (or Twitter) page if you would like to buy one.

The main theme so far is nature and wildlife, but I will take commissions! (can be in watercolours if requested).

A few Pet Problems...

Here are 4 images from a total of 28 'pet problems', the last second year project we were given.

I found this project took a fair while to complete as there were so many to illustrate, and as they are all based around animals I found it difficult. Despite this I enjoyed thinking of ideas and drawing them out. I would have liked to spend much more time on them, we were given 3 to 4 weeks to produce them and as it was around the time we were putting our portfolios together at the end of the year, I had other projects to complete and touch up.

These were drawn using dip pens with black ink on cartridge paper.

Size for each = 14 x 14 mm.

Illustrated pages of 'The Strange Feathery Beast'

Another second year project, we were asked to illustrate a story for children (The Strange Feathery Beast) for between the ages of 9 to 11 years. The requirements were to fill in the space between the text with an image and it was to be executed in black and white. 

I used dip pens with black Indian ink and for the darker areas I used a small brush.

This was a project I really enjoyed and I began this task after I had just changed course (from Fine Art and Illustration to Illustration alone). I found it very challenging, and after changing my characters and ideas many times, this was the end product. 

Prior to this project I had found it difficult to create my own characters from scratch which I feel much more confident about now. This assignment allowed me to progress in areas I felt uncomfortable with, particularly in my first year at university.

'If we could see secrets...'

This is my collage I created for the project 'If we could see secrets...' I produced this in early April of this year for a university project. I feel it is one of my strongest pieces of work I have created throughout my second year and will certainly be looking to produce more collage work.

We were given two words in the project, an occupation and a noun. I was given the following:

LINGUIST/POLLUTION

We had to show this in an illustration, so I chose the materials so that they resemble important factors. For example, I used newspaper because they expose secrets. The articles I used were about the environment, particularly oil spills as they were topical at the time. The black areas were executed with spray paint, for this a stencil was used, this representing the pollution, as spray paint is seen as vandalism and a pollutant itself. 

Influences included Derek Gores and Michelle Caplan.

Size = 270 x 210mm.

First Post

I am beginning this blog after recently finishing my second year at the University of Lincoln studying Illustration.

I was studying both Fine Art and Illustration until around January/February time of this year.

For my dissertation in my third year I will be studying the illustrator Ralph Steadman in depth, a person I have often referred to in my artwork and who influenced my college work greatly. I will be looking at his illustration for Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' in particular (again in college I transcribed some of his illustrations and found his quality of line and mark making intriguing).

Pen and ink is a medium I have felt comfortable working with for many years now. Lately I am trying to work with coloured inks and collage. Collage is also a branch of artwork I have enjoyed working with the past year.

So this blog will be an ongoing journal of my progress, work I'm creating and any ideas I have.



Watch this space.