Hay, I'm Back.

So recently got back from Cornwall with my folks and it went well, we did what you would normally do when you visit Cornwall, except of course body boarding, way too cold to do that...I see you judging me but I'd like to see you try it. Anyway we visited Mousehole which for those of you who don't know is this coastal town close to Penzance where the Penlee Lifeboat Disaster occured and it is full of shops which sold the same things so it was a case of "once you've seen one, you've seen them all". But despite the constant feeling of deja vu you start to admire how lovely it is. The narrow streets and tall houses with uneven roofs begin to play with your mind and you can come up with all sorts of ideas. Plus there were a few galleries which featured lots of prints!

Of course every holiday has its ups and downs, we certainly had our share but, I wont go into that, it's all very boring but I have to say that our holiday let, just outside Porthtowan, was brilliant. The bathroom or wet room as it was known was massive and the shower heated up instantly. But the best thing was that the beds, not only comfy but adjustable so you can tell how I spent my spare time.

So while in Cornwall I remembered this illustration I did of a Murrough (a sort of mermaid thing) and since I spent five days among the sea I thought that it would be appropriate to include it in this post. So here it is:

 

 

Now, of course this is just my interpretation of what a Murrough would look like. You may have your own image of what one is but I like the idea of it looking less mermaid typical and more "fishy". So anyhow for this illustration I mapped out my design in pencil with just lines and cross hatching. I used my good old Winsor & Newton sketch book for this. By that point I had a plain line drawing with no colour or shading.

 

Once I had the design looking the way I wanted it to, I bulked it up with the Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens I mentioned in my last post. Once I had finished I cleaned it up by erasing all of pencil marks so it looked less hairy and sharper.

 

Next came the colour. I used Daler Rowney watercolours for this. I had the idea of using blues and greens to give it a deep sea look. I started with the lightest colour and then built it up using a wide range of soft and hard edges. By the end I had a coloured illustration of my Murrough.

 

Many people have asked "how do I do the hard edged shading?" Well I paint on the lightest colour and allow it to dry completely and then add the darker colour over the top in the area I want dark and that should get you the sharp colour change. 

 

If you have any other questions then feel free to drop me a line.

 

Bye Y'all