Saturday 21 December 2013

Hello,

So it's almost Christmas and I am very excited to be heading home and relaxing for a bit.  My presents are wrapped and stacked ready to go and I......am not packed but that will happen....soon!
So as it is that time of year here's a Christmas illustration that I completed recently.
Happy Christmas! :)



Sunday 3 November 2013

Hello,

So just recently I decided to treat myself to a trip away.  Just a small one, so I went to Paris for a few days which was just what I needed.  It had been more than a year since I'd left the country, way too long so it was definitely time to go.  It was also the first time I've travelled for the whole time by myself which I thoroughly enjoyed.  So during the day I was out and about gallerying and wandering (and erm eating a bit of delicious food!) and then in the evening I'd come back to my hotel, sketch and put a film on (always in French of course so I understood very little!) Anyway i was really happy spending my days like this and I realised that I really needed a break from my regular life.  Paris is so beautiful and inspiring.  I have been before but this time I really felt like I got to know more of the city from all the wandering around I did, I wish I could speak more French though...next time!  One place I'd never been to before was the Pompidou centre which I loved and I particularly enjoyed the wonderful drawing exhibition from the collection of Florence and Daniel Guerlain.  I wish I'd spent more time there.  Of course there are so many amazing sights in Paris too many to mention.  Below are a few of my sketchbook scribbles based on what I saw whilst I was there.







Also here's my latest piece of work.  Autumn has well and truly arrived here, cold, wind and darkening nights.......but It's not all doom and gloom at least we get amazing leaf colours for a while :).  Bye for now

Breathe






Tuesday 8 October 2013

Hello,

This is what I've been working on recently, all based around the human body, cells, muscle structure and so on.  I've become quite fascinated with anatomical drawings over the last few months, and I wanted to create something based on this theme.  It was refreshing to work with a different set of colours than the ones I'm used to, and I have been introducing felt tip pen and crayons into my work just lately, which are making some really nice marks and textures, a bit of an obsession of mine!
Have a good week!


Monday 26 August 2013

Hello,

Here's the latest piece I've been working on just recently, all about the seaside.

In July we had some really lovely weather here which was greatly appreciated!  On one of those hot days I took a little day trip to Brighton, somewhere I always enjoy visiting and being so close to London it's always easy to get to.  It was so nice to be able to enjoy the hot weather and relax a bit, I even swam in the sea! something which is very rare for me in this country nowadays.

Part of my reason for visiting was that I wanted to do some seaside inspired work.  This piece isn't specifically about Brighton at all, but more the traditional things associated with the typical british seaside town, the fairground, ice cream, fish and chips and so on.  I don't usually make work that's about typically British things but I wanted to with this.  I hope this piece captures some essence of the summer for you.  I worked on it over some lovely sunny weather and one particularly rainy day - a typical summer here :).
Hope you enjoy!


Seaside

Sunday 21 July 2013

Hello,

Summer has finally come to the UK and very lovely it is too.  The gorgeous weather really made me want to draw some summery things especially strawberries so that's exactly what I did.  I am a bit obsessed with using green in everything I do at the moment and it was great to be able to contrast it with the rich oranges and reds.  I wanted the piece to feel quite bright and airy and be quite decorative too.  It was really a treat to be able to work on this whilst the weather was so nice as it really helped inspire me I think.  I hope you enjoy :)



Tuesday 14 May 2013

Hello,

Here's some of the work I've been up to just lately.  Time goes by so quickly and it's about a month since my last post.  I've been pretty busy of late what with one thing or another but it's great when I get the chance to paint for hours at a time :).  The piece below is the latest work i've completed and I really enjoyed creating it.  I love making up little fantasy landscapes where I can get carried away with creating my own little plants, scenes and the like.  This one is pretty calm and thoughtful.



Here's an illustration I did of Tiny Dancer for Amelias Magazine.  It was based on the video for the song 'Who Am I?'.  I really liked the track so I was keen to illustrate something for it.  If you get the chance check out the video.


That's it for now, have a good week :)

Monday 1 April 2013

Hello and Happy Easter everyone!

It's been really nice to have the long weekend although it has been busy.  I thought I'd share some work that I've recently completed.

I really enjoy creating patterns and with the piece below I wanted to experiment with more of this.  I also wanted to stick to a particular colour range.  Unfortunately the colours don't reproduce so well on the screen in reality they are much more subtle and less yellow but you can get the idea I hope. 



I've been wanting to create some work based on some atmospheric, foresty landscapes for a while now.  It comes in part from things I've been watching and reading and in particular at the early part of the year I was watching a lot of Twin Peaks which inspired me quite a lot. I'd never really watched it properly until then and I really got into it.  Once again I wanted to reduce the colour palette and continue with my pattern and texture obsession!


That's all for now, I hope that you all had a nice Easter break!



Monday 25 February 2013

Competition entries

Hello again, 

Just a quick post to let you know about some competitions that I've entered recently.  


Below was my entry for the Nandos menu art competition.  The brief was to create an illustration that describes how Nandos makes people feel, so I tried to mix up some Nandoesque food alongside happiness and a touch of spice.  I also wanted to keep to Nando colours hence the warm oranges and reds contrasted with cooler greens. My entry didn't get anywhere, but I enjoyed creating it and in my book it's all about the taking part, isn't that right? :)


Nandos


The next image is my entry for the 2013 Secret 7" competition.  The idea is based on a continuing journey through the ups and downs in the cycle of a relationship as told through the seasons.  Including the combination of uncertainty and magic that it can bring.  That was my interpretation of the song i choose anyway.
I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has voted for me so far, it really means a lot to me :)
Voting is open until the 26th February (tomorrow, eek!) so if you would like to vote please click here :- Talenthouse
All votes are much appreciated!  Thank you :)



Secret 7"

That's it for now, have a good week everyone! :)


Sunday 27 January 2013

Hello again,

At the end of November I took a little pre-christmas trip back to Norfolk.  Whilst I was there my brother took me on a little trip around Norwich, somewhere that I haven't really been to for years, and it was lovely.  I studied in Norwich and I used to spend a lot of time wandering around there.  It's a perfect size to do just that as it's not that big and it has some really pretty areas.  I forgot how lovely it is.  I had in my head the idea to create some sort of map based on the walk.  It's something I've wanted to do for a while now and a bit of a departure from the kind of subjects I normally choose to illustrate.  So this is the result of that.  Following the little brown dots is the simplified route that we took.  From the Britons Arms we went up through the the cobbled streets of Elm hill, round by the river (with some lovely willow trees on the way), past Cow Tower and Pull's Ferry, up near the Cathedral and on into the main part of the City, (no doubt for some more food!) finally ending up at the Castle Museum.  By the way we did have some really lovely cake in the Britons Arms, somewhere unbelievably I don't think I've ever been!  It was a cold day and when we opened the door and saw the open fire it was a real delight, and then the cake arrived and perhaps the biggest coffee I've ever seen........yum!
A little wander in Norwich

I've done a couple of crops so it's possible to see some areas in a little more detail.



Here's a couple of photos I took whilst wandering also.  This is the inside of Cow Tower, a historic military tower built in the 14th century.  It was sunny at this point, so I like that little streak of sunlight on the brickwork.


Cow Tower
That's it for now.  I think Norwich is a lovely place to walk around and worth a visit if you get the chance!  Bye for now

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Hello,

Just a very quick post to show some work I did over the weekend for Amelia's Magazine.  The illustration was for Martina Spetlova's S/S 2013 collection.  In the end I decided to illustrate this dress as I loved the fan-like pleats.  
It was a very snowy weekend here in London so it was nice to be warm indoors painting!
Anyway for now that's it, I should be back soon with a longer post about the other things I have been working on recently so bye for now!


Martina Spetlova