Drawings Lately

I have been trying to do as much drawing as possible lately, as well as my 30 day a sketch a day challenge I've set myself. I feel like I do need some improvement drawing faces. I find drawing from the imagination quite difficult sometimes but then other times it just flows out of me. I love it when that happens!
For college just now I basically have to write my own brief, which is good in a way but quite difficult because I will have to pick something that I will enjoy and also my course lecture has to like it too.

I did this drawing last night using a comic book sketch pencil. I was inspired by Richy Beckett his pen drawings are fantastic. I especially like his attention to detail, it is painstakingly good. 

I upload every one of my #asketchaday's on my Instagram - @strawberryskulls87

It has got so cold in Scotland lately. Winter is here (sigh). I had to scrape my car for the first time. I have had it for a month now but it seems like so much longer. It has been great not having to rely on public transport to get everywhere. I have got much more confident on the roads compared to four weeks ago.

Nicola x

Sketchy

I have set myself the challenge of doing a sketch a day for 30 days. So far I am on day 5. I enjoy doodling away, even if it's not a perfect drawing, it's a good way of stretching your imagination kinda thing.

Speed Paint Watercolour

I made another attempt at using watercolours last night. I did this Dia De Los Muertos inspired sugar skull girl. I used the paints very loosely, I like splashing on the paints and using them very watery. I used a black fine liner for the details. I made my first YouTube video doing this too :)

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

A Midsummer Nights Dream Illustrations

As I said in my previous post, I was illustrating magazine spreads based on the play 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' for my graded unit at college. These are a few more pictures of some of my finished illustrations. These are three different illustrations featuring Titania, the queen fairy. I'm so glad this unit is over it was so stressful trying to get it finished on time! I will find out if I've passed by next week hopefully! 

I scanned them in and altered the colour on Photoshop slightly.

I mainly used inks, pen and graphite. 

Thanks for stopping by

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!

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.