A young queen falls ill at the beginning of her reign. Initially unable to leave her bedroom, she fights against fear and hopelessness in her dreams. But as Kinsey grows strong she remains in the dream world, avoiding the kingdom she left behind … Take a peek inside: I’ve shared bits and pieces from Kinsey’sContinue reading “Kinsey’s Sword Sneak Peek”
Tag Archives: black
Inktober 2018 #16 – Miss Minton
Miss Minton is a severe but wonderful woman in Eva Ibbotson’s Journey to the River Sea, a beautiful book set in the early twentieth century about a young girl discovering the Amazon and the people who live there. I’ll be drawing a couple more of the characters over the next few days.
Inktober 2018 #13 – Manaus
Manaus is Rudy’s son and as such has been through many of the trials she has. There is something very interesting about the ‘relationship’ between a writer or artist and their characters. It’s possible to be very cruel to them to serve a story. I don’t remember thinking much of it at the time, butContinue reading “Inktober 2018 #13 – Manaus”
Life Drawing, 20th March
Drawings from a couple of weeks ago, with Tamara modelling.
Giraffe
This is a little ink illustration I drew for a friend’s birthday card. I coloured it in Photoshop, but I think I prefer it in black and white.
Study Squares #4
Here are some quick pen studies of the views from the train today – mist in front of trees, stubble in the snow, hedges, ploughed fields, footprints, snow melting.
Climb Ev’ry Mountain
While watching The Sound of Music again recently I was struck by the scene where Mother Abbess sings ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’. I decided to do a tone/composition study because the lighting and cinematography of the scene is so lovely. When Maria enters the room, it’s very dark. The lighting is harsh and dramatic, and allContinue reading “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”
Kinsey’s Sword
A little over a year ago I set myself the challenge of illustrating a short story I’d written. I’ve posted some concepts and development of these illustrations before, but now I’d like to share a few of the finished drawings. Most of the drawings below are spreads, and are viewed over two pages when printed. OddContinue reading “Kinsey’s Sword”
Elsa in Ink
Goodbye Trees
My grandparents are moving and leaving behind the house that my mum grew up in. It’s a huge change for all of us as it’s been such a big part of our lives. Behind their house is a large field filled with beech trees where my mum, and then my sister and I, grew upContinue reading “Goodbye Trees”
Story panels from The Gael King
The Gael King is an independent feature I am a storyboard and concept artist on. I recently drew some storyboards for the next stage of filming. Here are a few of the panels!
Book Illustrations
Though I’ve been working on a few different projects I can’t share much from them yet. So here are some drawings from my personal project, a story of mine that I’m illustrating. I posted some concepts for it back in February (see them here). I began with very loose digital sketches, brainstorming ideas for each page.Continue reading “Book Illustrations”
Elsa, Dog Monkey
Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday) was yesterday here in the UK. I made a little card for my mum with a Charley Harper-inspired caricature of Elsa, our Border Collie. Though my sister immediately knew what it was meant to be, our parents thought it was either a bear or a monkey. So here it is,Continue reading “Elsa, Dog Monkey”
Illustration Concepts
I’m illustrating a short story of mine, something I’ve wanted to do for a while! Here are some of the concept sketches. I’ll use a similar style for the finished pieces; I didn’t initially plan for them to be black and white but I love how these have turned out.
Profile
I now have a Tumblr and a Facebook Page! Here’s a new profile picture to celebrate.
How do I delete the white background from line art?
Over the last year I’ve been Googling the sentence above – how do I delete the white background from line art? I know that I know how to do this, but I keep forgetting. So I’ve decided to write it down so that I can reference it in future, and hopefully help others as well.Continue reading “How do I delete the white background from line art?”
Vases
This morning I attended the fantastic Animation Masterclass with Ronnie del Carmen (@paperbiscuit on Twitter) at the EIFF Youth Hub. He spoke about the creation of Pixar’s “Inside Out” (which I have not yet seen, but am very much looking forward to) and emphasised how important it is to “Make stuff. Show it. Get feedback.” FeelingContinue reading “Vases”
Life Drawing, 9th
I’m pleased with many of the sketches I did last night! Regular drawing helps so much, yet it’s so easy to fall out of that all-important habit.
Life Drawing, 2nd
Some sketches from Tuesday. Pencil, pastel and pen.
Bird Animation – Development
For a while I’ve been scribbling down ideas for this bird project. This weekend I began to do some more research into the location and character design. Here are some of my sketchbook pages! These were all sketched using Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens by Kuretake. I like how they give a good variationContinue reading “Bird Animation – Development”
AJAiken 