if: dusty

I usually spend ages working on my illustrations as I never know when to stop and I am always unhappy with the result (especially when it comes to photoshopping). With this one I decided to have a little excercise and draw it very quickely without playing around with colours, textures, techniques. I also decided to be brave and to post it!

ages ago

I found some sketches in my moleskine that I've never posted for some reasons.
Our friend Amelia during one of our very long board game sessions. I know that Amelia is a regular visitor to this blog but she never leaves any trace. Perhaps she will leave a comment this time...

A beautiful, dark and rainy Monday morning in a coffee shop...

Our friend Basia one day before she left Edinburgh.

One of the very rare occasions, when there was no traffic on Lothian Road and I could stand there and make a sketch. A peculiar event to watch too.  .  

A couple I saw in a coffee shop and absolutely loved the way they looked. 

I feel like making more sketches of people again.

tiny mice

I almost lost eyesight yesterday when drawing these guys. For some reasons I decided to draw them very tiny, in 1:10 scale and mice are already very small animals so it was not the wisest thing to do. It was early in the morning and still dark in the coffee shop I went to which didn't help. Oh well, next time I will remember to draw things in some reasonable scale and then scale them down in photoshop .
Otherwise, I spent half of last weekend decorating the house where my new characters are supposed to live. They are moving in soon. I have been busy designing and drawing wallpapers and now all I need to do is to stick them to the walls.

IF: Chicken

I had quite a few illustrations to choose form for this week's Illustration Friday... This one was made over a year ago and it was the first etching I have ever made. The illustration itself is not perfect, kind of unfinished, but I feel very nostalgic about it. 

west end

bear the photographer

I had a very nice weekend with plenty of fun stuff, nice meetings, good books and no drawing (my studio got locked and I was not allowed any drawing for two days - a good thing to do). Yesterday we went for a little winter trip, met a herd of sheep grazing in the snow, agreed that sheep are good because they produce good stuff (wool and cheese of course) and made a snowman that looked like a huge bird. The landscapes are absolutely beautiful now and we were taking pictures with a small analogue camera, which gets rather tricky when you wear huge woollen mittens and you don't feel like taking them off. I felt like I was a huge bear trying to take a picture with a tiny camera and all he can see through the lens is his own paws and fur.

fish

So I spent the whole morning arranging fish. If you think it is easy to arrange five fish on an A4 page you are wrong!  I feel like giving up for the moment...
The good news is that the mighty Epson Stylus Photo R1900 arrived yesterday!

winter holiday

It has been very pleasant and productive Christmas break. We managed to go for a little trip to Highlands before the New Year and enjoy fantastic Scottish landscapes and ... breakfasts. And then back to my studio work. I am working on a several projects at the moment, which is good as I don't get bored and can jump from one to another. The bad thing is that getting to the final result takes more time. Anyway, I have been busy drawing dogs, cats, pigeons and bears, designing interiors for my new book (I must admit it is far more enjoyable to do interior design for animals then for people - they have better taste and you don't need to worry about budget!). I also spent considerable amount of time researching patterns, colour palettes and textures. This is part of my illustration work that I struggle the most with - so many possibilities! I am also playing around with the new techniques, which is exciting but sometimes gets very frustrating.
Otherwise, my etsy shop did really well and now I have to make more prints. Reinforcements in a form of an Epson printer and inkjet watercolour paper are supposed to arrive today! Scary...

1.1.11

First sketch I made in 2011.  Happy New Year everyone!