It's all about the local talent...

So, last weekend, I was showing my art work at Native Makers summer fair which was great fun and an overall, successful jaunt.

We were Devonport Guildhall, a newly found gem of a building, an absolute corker.  When I was setting up early on in the day with not a cloud in the sky, looking up at the entrance, made me think I was in a Mediterranean country.

The local talent oozed out of the hall and it got the following it deserved too, through out the day the craft spotters came and went, ebbed and flowed, keeping us all busy and chatting.  The live music from Broder and Mary Jane acted as added bonus' for everyone, giving the whole place a great vibe all day long.

The shots below are taken from the Native Makers facebook page and taken by Steve Holmes and I also nabbed some from The Plymough Blogger where Meg and Aimee have also written a lovely piece about the fair here.

Back to school...

So today I;ve begun editing the work I went and created with the middle class at North Petherwin School.  It was amazing fun and I have to say, I'm super impressed with the amazing work the children came out with.  

I begun the session with them looking at my work, the detail in it and the animals themselves.  I then showed them my version of 'The Forgotten Fieldbook' and how I had used it for my final show in my degree and it had looked at different endangered species in Plymouth and Devon.  I explained to them we would have a look at endangered animals around Cornwall and Devon and talked them through all the animals and plants they could draw.  The idea was to pick and endangered species and draw it out onto an A3 sheet focusing on the detail and interesting parts of the species.  And my, my, didn't they do well...

It was a process of pencil first, then pen once they were happy with their outlines and then finally colour and maybe adding a bit of background in.  This is a drawing of a Ring Ouzel.

Looking at examples of my work seemed to aid them in their detail.

I had two boys drawing the white clawed crayfish and they came out magnificently!

And this is the beginning of the fieldbook.  Taken from the idea of my final show piece, each page will show each species, the reasons behind why it's endangered and the drawings to go with it...watch this space.

Drawing January...

So, it's been a while and I apologise.  I'm not very good at keeping up to date with all my social media, just sometimes!

I've been off work fixing legs and things so have had plenty of time to have been drawing lots!  I've done plenty of commissions, tattoo designs, stuff for fun and stuff to possibly sell, anything I've been doing, I've really enjoyed.  I love drawing!

I'm also really excited as I'm going into a local primary school as a visiting Artist.  I'm doing a session on local endangered species, teaching the children different techniques which I use to draw an image, giving them each an animal to go away and draw.  Then once they have their final image I'll give them a bit of text about the animal highlighting what the animal is, where it lives and eats and why it is endangered.  I'll gather all the work in at the end and take it home to create a pamphlet/booklet to use for advertising my educational work with children and for the school to keep.  Well, thats the plan, I don't think it'll go that smooth but fingers crossed!

I'm also going to begin to start trying for a couple of art and design fairs over the summer to keep me busy and focused with my art work.

But anyway, what have I been doing!  This is a feather design I've started for someones tattoo...it's a bit basic but I'm planning on adding more texture of an actual feather to the parts I haven't done yet...watch this space!

This wave came about when someone asked me for a tattoo of a wave.  I started just sketching down ideas.  This was a bit realistic in my eyes but I might carry it on for a print? 

This is the beginnings of said wave tattoo.  It's only a start as it's the wrong shape but the ideas there.  I need to extend it upwards and downwards as it's a side piece.  I need to work out if it should be a colour piece as well, or just as it is so far...

Now this is the eye of my new friend, Mr. Fox!  We've been close over my healing time.  I've done more than this so far but I'll show you the final piece when I'm there.  It's going to be a really nice print.

And this is another tattoo for on a female sternum, in-between the boobs.  She seemed to like it so I'm happy!  I've done a few others but I either haven't finished them yet or haven't got any photos of them!  I need to focus on recording all my work!

See you again in a month or so, if not before, with more updates of what I'm doing at the moment.  It'll probably slow soon as I have my teaching exams coming up so need to revise the hell out of those!