Polychromos

Recently, I think I have learnt about some very important strengths of my own, and its not just the ability to make nice looking detailed images either. My work has a pretty good sense of humor (my rough dummy book managed to make my tutor laugh.)
I can come up with great ideas and appealing characters which for me, is almost a daily occurence and recently I've been told I make some great compositions/layout for an image. The one major frustration though is that I can come up with so many ideas, yet it takes so long for me to finish one image, so at the moment I've been playing around with Polychromo pencils:

They have been fun to use, and drawing something in pencils is a lot quicker.I've also tried mixing them up a little bit with copic markers which seems to turn out well. I kinda hope these drawings still look like 'me'

Exciting Ma childrens book course

I've been pretty wrapped up in my sequential image project this week- things at Cambridge have felt very exciting, especially after proposing my sequential ideas. Though I'm finally drawing random doodles from my imagination again I did want to at least try and learn something from my observational drawings by making future work not as stiff or static. (though strangely enough, I've been told that my traditional drawing method is working for my current project.)

Looking back on it, It feels a bit surreal that I've been taught and had lectures by many prestigious illustrators such as James Mayhew, Salvatore Rubbino, Anthony Browne and Alexis Deacon to name a few- it was also great to attend a book launch by some of the stars of our illustration course!

I'm not sure who took this photo. Possibly Martin as he was complaining I was too tall for the photo. This picture has been shared on Marta Altes and Jenni Desmonds facebook pages and I just wanted to share.

Out of the three books there,  I really wanted to get Marta Altes's new book 'My Grandpa' Which I think even my professor Martin felt could be a possible 'classic' and in a way, I think I can understand why. I wondered if one day, I too could make a book everybody knows and loves.

Drawings of Ryan

Only two more weeks of observation drawing left and then I move onto my second project so me and my classmates have been drawing quite a lot- heres some great drawings of me!!

Observation drawings~

I've been dedicating a lot of my time to the observation project- our tutors seem to expect a lot from us- eight hours of non stop drawing! Its been tough to get back into observation drawing since I seem to have ended up drawing in a 'particular' way but it has been a lot of fun just learning and people watching in town. I have at least two sketchpads of drawings so far- some good, and some pretty bad but it has been fun at least. Here are a couple of drawings from my books which have been called 'good'.  

Indonesian Leaflets

I thought these two photos were pretty cute and I wanted to upload them on here for a while. My little website has a small following and its thanks to great people like Mira and Metha from Indonesia who wanted   one of my leaflets from the Southampton museum. Thank you both for your kind support!

adventures in Cambridge

I went to go see the choir sing at the Kings College. Not really interested in going to church but it was a pretty ethereal and unique experience- the inside of the building was beautiful (and pretty inspiring) So I recommend giving it a try.

I was also a bit more hopeful about my project after speaking to Martin. I think he wanted less 'drawings that look like 'illustration' and more drawings that look just like drawings if that makes sense. I did at least get some rather positive feedback from my 'regular' style of illustration from Martin though which is always nice. He even drew in my book- so now I have a Martin Salisbury drawing to keep.

Also kinda glad I made some of these cards, I gave one of these to workers at one of the cafes and got a free tea and a glass of water!

Observational

I've been concentrating on my observation project at the moment and I decided that perhaps I could draw the unusual items I have found in Cambridge town. (looking in the different antique shops for example.) We are supposed to have a solid six or five weeks of drawing from observation (its a pretty open minded project.) which feels easy enough.

It was inspiring to look through Salvatore's sketchbook and see that all of his observational drawings were drawn in his own unique way. I was hoping that I could do the same, while at the same time, still follow the brief. I'm not sure how I feel about the drawings I've made so far- I must admit, though the project is definetly a priority, I still find myself dedicating my time to working on my other personal projects. So its drawing all day in town, then drawing the rest of the time on my own thing....