Monthly Archives: October 2015

Pretty Creepy Horsey for Hallowe’en

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skeleton, horse, halloween, day of the dead, roundabout, repeat pattern, illustration, surface design, This piece was inspired by the beautiful carved wooden horses of the Jubilee Gallopers carousel at Carter’s Steamfair.

horse, carousel, fair ground, roundabout, pencil drawing

I started off with a conventional pencil drawing, working from photos I had taken while visiting the fair in the summer.

horse, carousel, fair ground, roundabout, pencil drawing, digital colour, illustration

Having scanned the drawing into Photoshop I coloured it. Nice but boring, I thought…and that stripy saddle looks a bit like a rib cage…

skeleton, day of the dead, halloween, horse, carousel, fair ground, roundabout, pencil drawing

…so I kept drawing and developed the skeletal theme which I found much more interesting

skeleton, horse, halloween, day of the dead, roundabout, repeat pattern, illustration, surface design,

I scanned the new pencil drawing into my computer, vectorised it in Illustrator, then coloured and duplicated it to make a repeating pattern in Photoshop. I also added noise to the image to improve the texture.

I like the way that it’s not until you look closely that you see the dark creepiness of this image.

I’m eagerly awaiting delivery of a sample of digitally printed fabric in this design….it’s been dispatched today….dead horse cushions, anyone?!

Silk Scarves

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2cv, dragonfly, silk scarf, fabric, silk, textile design, surface illustration, digital collage, sewing, dress making, handmade

I recently sewed these two scarves featuring my dragonfly and 2CV designs digitally printed on super soft silk. What luxury….

Autumn Sketches

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grape harvest, andalucia, sherry, jerez, bodegas faustino gonzalez, pen and wash, pen and watercolour, pen and watercolour, sketch

 

 

The pen and watercolour sketch to the left was my first of the autumn season, having been invited to see the sherry grape harvest in the the Faustino González vineyard just outside Jerez.

The grape pickers moved too fast for me to capture with my painting hands!

bodeguita, andalucia, vejer de la frontera, arco de la segur, pen and wash, pen and watercolour, pen and watercolour, sketch

 

 

 

The sketch on the right is of one of the old town gates in Vejer de la Frontera, you can see one of my fellow sketchers on the left.

 

 

roman aquaduct,santa lucia, andalucia, vejer de la frontera, arco de la segur, pen and wash, pen and watercolour, pen and watercolour, sketch

 

 

The last sketch in this trio is of the Roman aquaduct in the beautiful village of Santa Lucia.