The Chapel in the Woods...

Oh how I hate artist's block! Let's admit it, it happens to all of us. Along with studying for my exams, it is the reason why I haven't posted in over a month (ouch!). But fear not my dear friends. I have a lot of very exciting things to show you!

All it took was an afternoon stroll in the beautiful Jesmond Dene to fill me with wonder and inspiration. Now for the eagle eyed among you, you'll realise that this post does not contain any of my own artwork (sorry about that) however, these pictures are jam packed with inspiration- something we all need more of from time to time.

Finally, I apoligise in advance for the quality of the pictures but as our walk was rather unexpected I wasn't carrying my camera. Instead, I went for te next best thing and used my mobile phone.

Let's get started...

Deep in the woods we uncovered this absolute gem! An old derelict chapel with gorgeous shrines tucked away in every nook and cranny; each one collections of perfect little statuettes and fascinating objects...

There is something very sacred and special about these pockets of remembrance on Easter weekend...

 You may also notice that I've put a film grain effect on these photos. I felt that they needed it in order to capture the incredible atmosphere of the chapel. It really is such a special place...

 So as I said this post contains none of my own artwork- actually I guess you could consider the photography artwork...anyway I just thought it would be nice to do a post solely based on inspiration. I just wanted to make a collection of interesting things to look at and get your creative cogs turning. Hope you enjoyed my photographs 

Until next time...

Emma x

Hair!

Hi everyone! 

So I've had this beautiful new set of fine-liner pens sitting on my shelf for some time now and I've been absolutely itching to use them. I decided to Google 'fine-liner art' for some inspiration and found these gorgeous hair pictures made up of separate spaced out lines. I had to have go...

In true Emma style, I felt like a had to take some photos of my own before putting pen to paper. I plaited my sister's hair and took a snap or two.

This is the initial line drawing before I added felt tip pen lines and pencil

For this next one I wanted to draw the back of a full head of hair

These last two were just little doodles

So there you go! Sorry it's not a very long post; i just wanted to do a little bit of drawing with my wonderful fine-liner set (in my opinion, one of the essential tools for any avid doodler).

Until next time...

Emma x

5 Reasons to Love Oil Pastels...

Sorry I haven't put up a post recently; I've been very busy. I haven't had my sketchbook out in a while so it was nice just to have a little play. My chosen material this time was of course (drum roll) Oil Pastel!

This very bright array of pastels are Farrel and Gold and I bought them really cheaply from the best place to buy art supplies: The Works.

So without further ado, here are the 5 reasons why I LOVE oil pastels.

1. Improving existing artwork

I did these pen drawings of faces a while ago and felt like they needed a bit of pizzazz. So, I went in with oil pastels and transformed them. It just shows that any failed artwork can be saved with a bit of imagination. 

2. Colour intensity

..need I say any more?

3.Blending colours

I love using different colours and shades and just mixing them together to create rich thick tones. I've used at least 5 different pastels in the picture on the right.

4. With watercolour

How fab does this effect look? The paint just runs off the pastel marks and creates this amazing blending effect. That's the beauty of wax resist.

5. Ease of use

It took me about 20 minutes to cover 2 pages in my sketchbook with a colour explosion. As a finishing touch, I cut these flowers out of a magazine and stuck them on top (as you've probably noticed, a favourite technique of mine). 

So, I hope this post has inspired you to have a play with oil pastels or maybe spice up some of your artwork.

Until next time...

Emma x

Flower Girl Illustration...

Hey everyone! So recently I've been looking at a lot of fashion illustration as it is (in my opinion) a really beautiful form of art. I've been inspired to have a go myself so I've got back into practicing faces.
Also, it seems that I have a slight obsession with flowers at the moment too. All of the clothes that I've purchased recently have been covered floral print. I guess I'm just subconsciously wishing for spring to arrive...

Anyway, bearing all that in mind, I stuck a flower headband on my sister and took some photos for a spot of illustration. These have been edited using Picasa. I based my final illustration on the photo on the right.

 Then I started sketching...

I wanted to experiment with a few different materials in this piece: drawing pencil, coloured pencil, watercolour and fine liner pen. The flower head band didn't turn out as I wanted initially so I came up with a different plan...

I took these photos a couple of summers ago in my Grandma's garden. my cunning plan was to print a few off and do a bit of collage-ing.

 Generally my rule in any sketchbook or on any piece of work is: If you do something you don't like, there will be a way to cover it up. Just a little bit of creativity and imagination can save any piece of artwork.

Here's the finished piece! I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I love how the different materials add contrast and the flower collage really stands out. A big thanks goes to my lovely little sister. 

Until next time...

Emma x

Woodland Walk Inspiration...

Hi everyone! So here the weather hasn't been great (typical of north England). This morning however I decided to brave the cold and the rain and dragged my wonderful little sister out for an early morning walk. I'm so lucky to live just round the corner from a little bit of countryside and woodland; it's so nice just to escape sometimes.

Apologies for the raindrops on the camera lens but as you can see it was very wet this morning. I love how the country always seems so green and vibrant, even on this grey rainy day. My pink spotty umbrella is from IKEA by the way.

I love this shot of the woodland path.

As you can imagine, drawing standing up and getting a photograph all while keeping dry was no easy feat, so all credit goes to my lovely little sister for this shot. Even though she complained all the way home that her hands were freezing off, she did a decent job :)

I did a very quick sketch of a tree branch while in the woods. I know that it's not the most interesting subject in the world, plus the paper got a bit soggy, so I redrew and worked on it when I got home.

I thought my sketch could use a bit of colour so I drew some dark green leaves on using a fineliner that I got in a pack of 12 from WHSmith.

I then used some oil pastels to add more colour and a bit of texture. They're a really great tool!

So here's the finished product! I love how the oil pastels create a wispy, willowy kind of feel to it. The great thing is that this sketch only took me about 10 minutes from start to finish. Not bad for a morning walk in the woods.

Until next time...

Emma x

Step by Step Sketchbook Page

Since most of the posts I've done so far have been mainly snippits of my sketchbooks I felt like I should shake things up a bit. I wanted to show you how I create my sketchbook pages (this one is from 'Emma's Little Book of Quotes' which I featured in my last post). So here goes...

Ta-daaa! Here is the finished page. This only took me about 20 minutes to do.

 For the background I decided to use watercolour pencils. They're such great tools as they're so quick and easy to use and they take much less clearing up than paint.
The general rule with watercolour pencils is 'the more the merrier' as you get a really intense colour. Another great feature is that you can blend colours in the same way as normal watercolour paints.



As you may have seen in my previous posts, I use a lot of cutouts from magazines in my art. For this page I chose a photograph of a model from the waist upwards and decided to add on a crazy skirt made from patterned paper. The idea of using these cutouts is to expand on top of them.

  Once the collage was stuck onto the page, I shaded around the
edges with a drawing pencil and then a black biro pen to make it
stand out.






















Here it is! The page completed with the quote. I hope you enjoyed this post and that it has shown you just how quick and easy it is to create a sketchbook page.

Until next time...
Emma x

Emma's Little Book of Quotes

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great Christmas and a happy New Year. Anyway, I know it's been quite a while since my last post so I thought I'd show you another little sketchbook of mine. This one I like to call 'Emma's book of inspirational quotes' and does, quite simply, what it says on the tin. I use this little book to experiment with backgrounds and try out different techniques.

Firstly I have to mention this adorable personalized stamp that my friend designed for a birthday present one year. I love it and I stamp it on every sketchbook I own so you might see it crop up a few times.

 Brown paper bags are great for crumpling up and creating textured backgrounds. Also it gives a bit of bulk to the sketchbook and let me tell you, there is nothing more satisfying that a full, chunky book!

So as you see I've used a lot of cut out body parts - not in a sadistic way ;) - from magazines to paint around and over them. This technique gives a centre of focus to the page.

So there you have it. A flip through another of my books that I'm sure will continue to grow over the year. One of my New Year's resolutions is to put posts up more often so fingers crossed I stick to it...

Emma x