Here Comes The Summer!

The weather has been lovely in Scotland lately, I hope it lasts! So I am now officially finished my first year of HND Illustration. It has flown by! Next year will probably be even quicker but I don't want to think about it just yet. Now that I have two months off college, I can finally concentrate more on some personal projects.
I have been doing some charity work recently, for a charity called Funny Lumps which helps children with NF (Neurofibromatosis). I designed a mascot for the kids, they wanted me to design a purple furry monster who has NF. Here's what I came up with :) I'm very happy with how he looks and the kids love him.

I also did some mixed media work and illustrations for 'The Lady of Shalott' poem recently. It is a lovely poem which highly inspired the pre-raphaelites age.

Some recent sketches and an idea for a painting, I have so much in the pipeline! 

Thanks for reading, Nicola x

Red Cap's Revenge

The progress of an illustration. I was influenced by Rik Lee Illustration and Glen Arthur Art on Instagram to do this. I used colour pencil for the figure and the background is painted entirely with gouache. I scanned both in and used Photoshop to alter the contrast, colour etc. 

Here is the finished product and below pictures I took drawing it.

Hope you like!

Also I have an art page on Facebook, check it out and give it a like :)

https://www.facebook.com/StrawberrySkullsIllustration

Nicola x

Princess Mononoke

I did this drawing entirely with Derwent coloursoft pencils. I liked the movie, the characters and strangeness of it. I'm really happy with how the wolf and her face has turned out. It has taken me a while but it was fun!

Using Colour Pencils

I have been trying to use colour pencils a lot more recently. If you know how to use them properly and be patient and layer them, you can end up with a great result. I'm still perfecting my technique as it's a slow process and I prefer to work fast. In this case I decided to try using brown paper. The pencils I use are Derwent coloursoft pencils. They worked really well on the brown paper.

I like to sketch out ideas first in my sketchbook using graphite and then develop it into a final piece.

I am working on another colour pencil piece for the Derwent Colour pencil art competition, the deadline is July, so plenty of time to do some more drawings! :)

Derwent art comp - http://www.graphiccompetitions.com/illustration/derwent-art-prize-2013#.UTUPn2joz3Y.twitter

Nutshell, Illustration & outfits

First post of 2013. I have to say, I have not had much time or motivation for my blog lately. I have a few plans of posts to do very soon, including a book review and a post on my children's book that I wrote and illustrated. This post is very random, but I'm not a professional blogger so hey!

 A graphite sugar skull drawing.

 New favorite trainers - Pink Vans!

 OOTD - leopard print cardigan - H&M I added studs to the top and denim shorts

 A character sketch idea for a flower fairy in my childrens book, done with watercolours.

 Pencil drawing of a crocodile skull I did when I was at the Glasgow zoology museum.

 OOTD - T-shirt - H&M Shorts - New Look 

 Pink Rimmel nails

 OOTD - I got this car dress as a present.

Another character sketch done in colour pencil.

Hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures.