One of the things I love to do almost as much as I love drawing is to read. I get very clear visual images from a good book. One of my favourite authors has always been Charles Dickens. I have read all of his books - and he wrote a lot! One of my favourite stories is A Christmas Carol. Nearly every year I read it and I never get bored of it. Last year I drew a picture of the Ghost of Christmas Present as a badger. This year I have expanded on that image and have reimagined all three ghosts as British wildlife. The ghost of Christmas Past is a fox and the ghost of Christmas Future is a barn owl (looking a bit sinister). Scrooge is a mouse as are Bob Cratchitt and his family. Mr Fezziwig and his party are squirrels and mice.
Could you guess how much I love drawing animals?
It's quite a long process creating one of these pictures. First of all I think a lot about it - usually when I'm out walking. Then I sketch the whole thing in pencil to get the layout correct. Once I'm happy with that I go over all of that in 0.1 pen adding some detail. I use unipin fine line pens as they are waterproof and don't run when I paint over them. Next I paint the whole thing in watercolours. When that's dry - which takes ages as I use my watercolours very wet - I then go over the entire picture in 0.1 pen and 0.5 for depth and 0.05 for fine details. Then I'm done.
I love using my pens as I feel I can get a lot more detail with them and I do love drawing detail.
That's all for now as I'd better get on with some work!x
