A portrait of Lola, charcoal and chalk
Lola
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Yuki
A portrait of Yuki, chalk and charcoal
Cockerel
This piece evolved from a little pencil sketch I made of a neighbour’s cockerel during an exercise for a distance learning illustration course.
I scaled up the sketch and used it to cut a stencil through which I applied acrylic paint to reclaimed wood. It still serves as a house sign for the home of the cockerel and his human companions.
This image is now available on postcards and as digital prints (A3 and A4) and I can stencil him onto almost any surface.
Yet more Discord Nancy
Having made a stencil type image of the Discord Nancy portrait I tried it out with some spray paint:
on wood
and on walls
More Discord Nancy
Discord Nancy Charcoal
I gradually darkened this drawing with layers of charcoal, accentuating the planes and regions of the face. I developed it to make a stencil type portrait which I manipulated digitally and used as a template for a screen print (see below).
Discord Nancy Stencil
Discord Nancy Roses
Discord Nancy Roses-multiples
Discord Nancy Pink Roses
Discord Nancy Screen Print
Discord Nancy
Discord Nancy 1 & 2This portrait was drawn in charcoal from a photograph and then manipulated digitally, using scanned fabric from the 1970’s as a collage for her hair, which is so ‘busy’ that I decided to keep the rest of the colours quite simple. Fingers crossed there’ll be more of these…
Edu
I was out at a concert in a bar in the village one night when I noticed a local photographer checking his camera at the bar; he’d taken some really striking portraits of the band and audience in black and white and I was particularly struck by the dark intensity of one of the shots and knew that I must make a drawn version. The photographer very kindly gave his permission, so I set to work with a charcoal version.
Having fixed the first charcoal layer I added to it to make the background and facial shadows more intense.
I then decided to ‘age’ it and to give it more warmth by adding an acrylic wash in a sepia tone and a layer of crackle glaze before applying stains to highlight the cracks.
It took several weeks before I ran into the subject of the portrait and was able to gain his permission to publish the piece, which I cropped close to emphasize the intimate pose.
Casa del Sol
I was commissioned to design a sign for a house called La Casa del Sol, which could also be used as an image for business cards by a lovely lady who is a ’Lightworker’. She wanted a representation of the sun, sky and sea in the form of a mandala, painted in bright, positive colours.
Having researched the client’s ideas I made small preliminary sketches, developing the one which stood out as being particularly harmonious into a larger line drawing, which she approved. She also decided on the size and shape of the sign at this point and approved the colour samples I’d made.
I painted the sign on primed marine plywood in gloss paint, using several coats of varnish to make it weather proof and used a simplified version of the sign for the business cards. The client was delighted with the results.
Mr Groovy and the Blue Heads
I was commissioned to illustrate the cover for ‘Jauja’ the new CD by local blues band Mr Groovy and the Blue Heads
They wanted a New Orleans-voodoo feel but in Andalucia, so I chose Cádiz as the backdrop and represented the band as skulls on sticks, designing the text from scratch.
The image was first drawn in pencil then in ink, painted with gouache and then scanned and digitally manipulated to give it more oomph.
The cover has had a great reception from the band and their fans, some of whom have pre-empted the band and used the design to have their own t-shirts made. I saw them at the weekend-they were great!