I’ve been working on new colour images for my portfolio over the last few days but so far it is looking suspiciously like a black and white portfolio that I’ve coloured in… hey ho! Here is one of the things I’ve been working on; this is Gnat, a brave little fellow flying all alone into the deep dark forest.
I have been away from my studio recently and travelling light with just my tiny water colour set to keep me company. I had forgotten how lovely water colour is and how different it is to acrylic ink, which is what I use most of the time for illustrations. I love both mediums in different ways; FW inks are incredibly vivid and very versatile, but water colour has a beautiful quality to it. The colours are subtle and each one seems to settle on the page in a slightly different way. I am by no means an expert but I do like to play – here are some patterns I’ve been working on, the first three were painted with water colour and the ones beneath that are FW ink.
It’s high time I redressed the balance and showed that I DO like dogs every bit as much as cats. Well, almost every bit as much… Here are a couple of new pictures for my portfolio featuring friendly hounds painted in watercolour.
I know it’s only February but it’s time to start thinking about Open Studios again! We’ll be opening our studio here in Derby Road for the last two weeks in July but the deadline for the image to put in the OS guide is this Saturday. So I am getting my skates on and trying to produce a picture for the guide which will look good tiny. I’m not quite there yet, but here is my first attempt:
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Next week is going to be a busy one for me with workshops in Cherry Hinton, Chatteris, Bar Hill and Cambridge Central libraries. I haven’t 100% worked out what I’m doing yet but it is very likely to involve cutting, sticking and generally having quite a lot of fun making monsters! The theme of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge is Mythical Maze so I’m going to be creating some monsters that haven’t been seen in a long, long time….Sort of like these guys:
Open Studios is coming around fast and here at 22 Derby Road preparations have started getting underway! We are opening our studio on the 19th/20th July and the 26th/27th July so if you live in or around Cambridge then do come and have a look. Myself, Nicola Killen, Neil Warmsley and Ian Farrell all share a studio and we will be showing illustrations, paintings, photographs and prints. You will also be able to buy copies of some of our books, my Grubbies scarves and Ian will be taking photographs for a live exhibition of portraits throughout both weekends!
marion lindsay 