Close to a month ago, I had found out my design was selected for the Art Stop Program, and, yes, this is mainly what I've been working on since. I've never worked on a piece this large before, 72in x 24in, and I rarely make sketches of pieces before creating the final work. It's definitely a cool feeling to look at the finished board and see how the drawing actually came to life. (The Art Stop Program selects a handful of entered designs for the artists to create on a larger board, and these boards will then be inserted into bus stop benches around Niles, IL.) I can't wait to see the bench this will be in, and I'm so lucky I got to be part of the program.
I first bought some cheap soft pastels back in 2018 and did a couple of sketches. I bought a nice set of Rembrandt pastels a few months later — didn't use them. I bought some pastel pads, none if which seemed right. September 2020, I bought a couple more sets of bargain pastels and tried a couple of pieces — no good, still couldn't bring myself to use them. Jess bought me pastel pencils for Christmas — I was too scared to use them. I even bought a pad of Pastelmat which is supposed to be THE paper to use for pastel paintings in January. I was too scared to use that as well!
FINALLY, after a few unsuccessful attempts at working with watercolour (brush issues), I cast aside my fear and thought I'd mess around with pastels. Some time later, and this was the result. I've finally broken through my pastel fear-barrier.
I've got to say, I love soft pastels and I'm excited about doing more pieces in this medium.
I started sketching a scene and thought "I'm not that good at drawing trees", so rather than do an entire scene, I thought I'd have a go at a single tree as an exercise. In hindsight I used too thick a pen. Time to break out the 0.1 pens for future sketches.
My last finished painting of 2020. A morning in the woodlands of Ystradfawr Nature Reserve near my home. This is the final result of one of my colour sketches - Spring on the Line. It sold to lady in a care home who's lost her mobility. I hope it gives her a bit of the great outdoors when she's sitting in her room.
Doodling will give you ideas for projects that you didn't expect. The characters for my book, Flight of the Silk, came from sketches. This picture is one illustration for the book.
what will probably be my last drawing of 2020 I sort of surprised myself after months of kind of muddling through half finished sketches I worked into the small hours of the morning to polish this sketch. I'm pleased with how its turned out.
I don't usually post my instagram & twitter art here, but why not? I'm so excited that it's finally October! I made this quick little doodle yesterday for the first day of October. Also, I have photoshop but I'm using Krita more and more. Krita has a more intuitive feel and I'm able to make quicker sketches with it.
