Stromness sketchings - Northlight Studios

In Stromness, my home, the winding streets are filled with strange corners and unexpected turns. I love how this corner next to Northlight studios is cut out to let cars through the tiny inexplicably two way street. There is nowhere quite like Stromness ... as George Mackay Brown said "The street uncoiled like a sailors rope from North to South"

Stromness Houses

Some more skethes of a slightly less stormy Stromness, to get me out of the house after yesterdays over indulgence on turkey and christmas pud. Happy Boxing Day everyone!

Christmas Eve Snowmen

Some snowmen that I drew by the fire on this cozy christmas eve... (The very bottom one is an homage to my first ever attempt at a building a snowman when I was 2 years old - it did not go well...)

stormy sketches

A Stormy day back home in Orkney.

christmas penguins

christmas penguins!

All copyright reserved by the artist

Casette tape

Jumpin' hedgehogs

Jumping hedgehog - because who doesn't love hedgehogs...

life drawing

I've started attending the wonderful "All the Young Nudes" life drawing nights at The City Cafe, in Edinburgh. They are brilliant fun, hosted by a very lovely lady who makes great mix tapes for the night...I had no idea just how rusty i had become though - must practise more!

Wedding Artwork

I recently produced some artwork for one of my best friends wedding. She had such an amazing idea to name her tables after their favourite books - et voila! Brilliant fun to illustrate. Congrats Fi and Martin!

Above is their wedding card... Below are my illustrations for the tables:

'I am Jake' is printed!

In my last post I showed some artwork from the book "I am Jake" that I recently illustrated for Orkney Young Carers...well it's here! Ta Daaaah! It's finally printed and has been distributed all across Orkney schools and drama groups. I am so proud to have been part of something that was not only written by my mother, but that it is also going to help in children's education all across my home town! I hope they enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed drawing it.

I am Jake

Some recent freelance work that I produced for a novel written by Pamela Beasant, for the Orkney Young Carers. It was called "I Am Jake". The story was set in Orkney, and centred around a young boy who cares for his disabled brother. I really loved doing this, I hope you enjoy!

All images copyright to Orkney Young Carers. ( http://www.orkneyyoungcarers.org/ )

A New Door Opens

A birthday present for a friend who's made a lot of amazing and scary changes recently.

New work

A selection of some of my more recent doodles. I've been taking a lot of inspiration from my childhood growing up on the island of Orkney. I hope i'll get a lot more of these doodles up here soon, i'm loving drawing my home.

Black cat...

Another cat sketch - just trying to get to grips with the style and the character - this one seems to enjoy being drawn :)

Super Secret New Project

I've been completely snowed under with work for the past few months, so I've let my personal work slip a bit. However, now I have the drawing bug again, i've decided to channel it into a very personal, personal project. It's nowhere near blog worthy as of yet, but i've been beavering away with it for a while now, and I hope that i'll have a lot more posts to follow. For now, here's a very early preliminary sketch of my main character...what do you think?

Greyhound

colours

Playing in illustrator.

tea?

To match the cup of tea I drew earlier - tea anyone?

30mins, Illustrator and Photoshop

english bull terrier

my dad's favourite dog, and a get well soon present for him.

lunchtime doodling

just playing around with illustrator for 30mins

cuppa?

just a wee thing done on my break - 30mins - PS and AI

unfinished work....

don't get lost in the woods.....

needs more work - but here's a wee taster: