The Drawing Circus

 Image from http://brightondrawing.tumblr.com


It's been quite a while since I did any proper life drawing sessions, so when I saw that Draw were holding a circus-themed life drawing event at the Sallis Benney Theatre in Brighton in October, I booked up a ticket straight away.

I haven't really posted much like this before, so I hope it'll be of interest. I think my drawings got better throughout the day (we were there for about 6 hours or so - rather intense!) as the poses at the beginning were very short, and gradually worked up to much longer ones. I'm not great at capturing poses very quickly, especially as I'm not a very expressive drawer... I like to use a mechanical pencil and be precise (probably to my detriment - I hear you're supposed to draw with your arm not your wrist!)

It was really tiring but a fun day... there was live music being played that was written for the event (which really helped, as I find listening to music while drawing helps me to concentrate) and some lovely models - who I apologise to if I've not got a good likeness of here or have been unflattering!

If you're interested in taking part, I believe another Drawing Circus event is being held in the New Year, so keep your eyes on the Draw website

So here's some drawings from the day... I'll put a little jump break here in the post as obviously there's some nude drawings which might not be safe for work! Just click the 'Read more...' below to see my sketchbook pages :)

My Home Studio

It's been a month or two now since I shared some pictures of our new home and the renovations, and I've finally found a spare moment to share the pictures of my studio with you! I love having a good nose into other illustrator and artist's studios, so I hope this will be interesting. If you have any blog posts etc featuring your studio spaces, please do share them with me in the comments section below, I'd love to see!

When we first moved in the room was purple and white, with some scratchy beige carpet, lumpy artex ceiling and a fitted wardrobe in one corner. We ripped the fitted wardrobe out to discover a patch of even older carpet and a couple of decades worth of different paint colours. My fiance smoothed over the ceilings, and we painted everything magnolia as a nice base.

We painted it a rather fetching shade of 'Perfectly Taupe' which was less perfectly taupe, and more 'slightly purple', but I liked it anyway. It's a nice neutral shade to be a base for all the lovely illustrations and artwork that I have been collecting to brighten it up. Everything was incredibly dusty and slightly stressful by this point, and I spent the majority of my days lying on the floor doing edging or nearly falling off a wobbly stepladder. We ripped all the carpet up, put down some laminate flooring (easy to wheel around on in my chair, and to clean up any paint/glue spillages!). Everything starting to come together and look exciting by this point!

A couple of days of intensive Ikea assembly later and the studio was all finished! There's a long desk unit that runs the length of the room, one end for computer stuff, the other for crafts and 'general putting things together and making things'. On the opposite wall there's an angled drawing table with a fancy integrated lightbox (i.e. a bit of glass in the middle that I sit a lamp under). I use one of my grandmothers old chest of drawers under the desk as a plan chest, and there's various filing cabinets and drawers to house all the collected bits and pieces.

And some of my favourite bits and bobs from around the room :)

Is there anything else you'd like to see? :)

Oh and before I forget! I'm in Digital Artist magazine again this month (issue 26!), very briefly in an article about studios - there's a few little pictures of my studio renovations and a couple of quotes from me regarding working from home!

Society6 Products & New Illustration Newsletter

Just a quick one to let you know that Society6 are running their free worldwide shipping promotion again (very useful to save on international shipping costs!) until Sunday. 

Don't be put off by the dollar pricing - you can order easily from the UK and other countries. I've just made an order, and $22 currently equates to £14.24

I've just uploaded a few new products to my shop including the new rooster tshirt and phone case above :) There's also a load of other iphone skins/cases, laptop skins, hoodies, tshirts and canvas prints that aren't available through my Etsy shop at this time, so it's a great opportunity to grab some unique presents or treats for yourself while the shipping charges aren't applied.

And in case you didn't know, I also have a new email newsletter which I'm about to send out. It's only monthly, so you won't get constant spammy emails from me, just occasional news, new product features and some great exclusive offers and discount codes. If you'd like to sign up, you can do so by clicking here!