two great tastes

This past year I've been struggling with my art: I want to move up to the next level but I also want to have a regular job that I also enjoy, with a steady paycheck. So it's been less a work/life balance issue than a work A/work B/life balance issue.

I'm finally finding that balance, and a few days ago I got some very cheap but inspiring tools!

The Kuretake Brush Pen no.8 doesn't have the stellar reputation of its high-end sibling the no.40 (which has sable hair like a real paintbrush), or even the slightly more expensive no.13, but it's a great workhorse and I started using it right out of the box. A few sketches:

The second tool I got was pretty unexpected! Like lots of kid-friendly museums, my workplace sold spirograph sets, but we've stopped stocking them and I was able to grab the last unit for £2. I started using them and found them weirdly therapeutic.

Note for grammar nerds like me: it's (im)perfectly, not (I'm) perfectly.

The best results come from combining the two - the light tone and mechanical symmetry of the hypotrochoids plus the organic black line of the brush make an intriguing combination.

It's the marriage of science and art! Or maybe the marriage of mechanical art and intuitive art, which I also enjoy.

look to the stars

I am incredibly sad about Leonard Nimoy's passing. I already wrote about it elsewhere, but here is a small tribute anyway.

As his friend and companion icon of SF William Shatner said in his memory... 'love long, and prosper'.

hair

An enterprising person decided to give the hairstyles at the Dolce + Gabbana Fashion Week a gorgeous colour treatment. I decided to challenge myself.

Tools: iPad, Daler-Rowney Jumbo Square Heavyweight cartridge pad,
Inktense and Art of Giving watercolour pencils, Cotman pan watercolours,
Da Vinci and ProArte brushes, Signo white gel pen.

And here is the final raw illustration:

London Is My BF 4

Footbridge near Mansion House Station. Lexington Gray ink in Pen&Ink Sketch fountain pen, Cotman pan watercolours.

fashion sketches

Drawing with coloured pencils and spot colouring with watercolour.

Note The Gap.

Chainmail skirt.

Daler-Rowney Art of Giving watercolour pencils, Cotman pan watercolours in A4 cartridge sketchbook.

more journal pages

Fairest.
Gold Liquitex acrylic, Copic Fineliner, Sharpies, rub-on letters, collage.

Winter Boots.
Liquitex acrylic in Cobalt Blue, Titanium White and Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue,
silver Uni-Ball Signo gel pen, collage.

Handmade paper journal by Phasha. Here's a cool blog post on the journal company.

draw the rude 2: fortune cookies

More Hannibal coping sketches. I drew them in a notebook where I had earlier glued a cookie fortune. I'd thought the two were unrelated, but...

The fortune is a bit of a weird look into Hannibal's possible point of view of his own life. Then I turned the page over and saw that on the back of the fortune which I'd glued in...

...was the Chinese word for delicious.

Mushrooms

A warm-up exercise that turned into something in its own right. Inspired by this post on Colossal.

Pencil, various pan watercolours. Lettering and borders,
Noodler's Lexington Grey in extra fine fountain pen.
Fabriano small artist's journal.

Macrocosmos

Petapixel made a post on clever things you can do with a smartphone camera, and I was especially excited about the water drop macro lens.

First attempt: strawberries. I found it really difficult!

Apparently the water droplet is for very extreme closeups only and magnifies quite a lot more than a regular macro lens.

I tried again with my Hero 9296 fountain pen and was really pleased with the results.

For comparison, this is what that pen looks like in normal photography:

So it's a fun technique, but a bit difficult to control. I look forward to playing with it more.

I have a book!

Click here for the book launch page!

What My Grandmother Told Me is in Spanish and English, and published by Tahanan Books. At the moment it's only available in the Philippines. I'll be informed when it becomes available in local bookstores and online, and I'll pass on the dates!

Page previews:

Some illustrations that didn't make it into the book: