BLOG

Back at Pleckgate High School this week delivering a Character Illustration Workshop with the Year 9 students. Armed with pens, inks and good quality cartridge paper, we spent the day exploring how simple lines and marks can quickly develop into expressive, quirky characters. The session

This was my second visit to the school, where I delivered a pen and ink Character Illustration Workshop with the Year 8 students. Using simple materials, pens, ink and cartridge paper, the session focused on showing how a few clear techniques and a bit of

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to work with a number of different year groups at Pleckgate High School, returning regularly to deliver illustration workshops with the students. It is always a pleasure to be welcomed back and much of that

This was my second visit to Rode Heath, returning to deliver a repeat of last year’s Digital Portrait Illustration Workshop with the current Year 6 class. It is always nice to revisit a school and see a new group of students respond to the same

This was such a lovely school to work with. The staff and pupils were brilliant, engaged and attentive throughout the day, creating a really positive atmosphere in the classroom. It is always encouraging to walk into a space where students are curious and willing to

I spent a full week at Birkby Junior School, working with both Year 4 and Year 6 students and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience from start to finish. By the end of the week, I had a free session on Friday afternoon which I

Some more impacting digital portrait illustrations from Year 6 at Birkby Junior School. This workshop is one of my favourite workshops to deliver. I love the way that the students really get involved with the task and the amount of diverse imagery that comes out

The Beautiful Mundane Project – Making Graphics from Simple Digital Photography Here is a selection from this year’s The Beautiful Mundane Project produced by the Year 4 pupils at Birkby Junior School. This is a hands on photography and creative graphics project that gets students

Another great workshop at Copmanthorpe Primary School creating some more brilliant illustrations with the year 6’s. Using ink pens, water and tissue paper the pupils set to creating illustrations based around the theme ‘Out Of This World’. There was a lot of fabulous texture work

I always really enjoy these portrait workshops. Especially as the students are creating images of themselves. It makes for interesting conversations and at times some real critical analysis. I visited Westhoughton High School recently and delivered my Portrait Illustration Workshop to a group of Year

I returned to Castleford Academy last week to deliver some more creative workshops. I had a great time working there again. Staff are lovely and the students did some fab work. Here’s a glimpse into some of the artwork created. I worked with Year 10

This was my second visit to Stanhope Primary School, to work with Year 4 and Year 5 students delivering my Space Character Illustration Workshop for a second time. The students did not disappoint, They came up with an array of brilliant characters displaying what fabulous

This was my first time working with this school and I was immediately struck by their enthusiasm for the arts. Creativity is clearly celebrated at every level and the school is filled with inspiring displays of the children’s artwork around every corner. Walking through the

I created this quick portrait illustration working with Year 6 students at Birkby Junior School in Huddersfield. They had already been taken through the process of how to make their own versions in a workshop I delivered earlier in the week. There were 12 students

This year’s digital portraits at Birkby Junior School were as strong as ever, and it was a real pleasure to see the Year 6 students in action. The Digital Portrait Workshop continues to grow in popularity and it’s easy to see why. The session is

The Beautiful Mundane Project – Making Graphics from Simple Digital Photography Back again to work with Year 4 pupils at Birkby Junior School. The Beautiful Mundane Project is always a winner and captures the creative imagination of children. It’s a hands on photography and creative

This was the first time I had visited Stanhope Primary School, nestled up on the North East coast. It was a real pleasure to spend time there working with the Year 4 and Year 5 students, who took part in one of my favourite sessions,

This is a revamp of an old image. I never really did finish it back in the day, although I may have posted the image in various places. So I took what I had into Procreate, which was the file with just the simple line

I have just had the pleasure of working with the fabulous children in year 1 at Woodlesford Primary School in Leeds. These children took part in one of my ‘Portrait Illustration Workshops’ and stunned me with their energy and creative talents. Look at this wonderful

Brilliant work from the Year 10 students at Pleckgate High School. Both the year 10 classes I worked with produced some lovely imagery. Working mainly in Procreate to build the initial illustrations, they further developed their work using various other apps, adding filters, colour treatments

I had a fantastic time at Copmanthorpe Primary School creating these fabulous illustrations with the year 6’s. I love the diversity across the images that they produced. The pupils were shown a particular process of drawing starting with a simple shape and then they looked

I have worked with this school for a number of years now and the children always come up with the goods. There are some super, creative and talented pupils among the children at Birkby Junior School. The digital portrait workshop that year 6 took part

The Beautiful Mundane Project – Making Graphics from Simple Digital Photography Working with the year 4 pupils at Birkby Junior School we looked at taking photographs of really mundane subject matter in order to make some striking graphics. Using the Snapseed app on the iPad,

Creating Self Portraits in Procreate with Bridgewater Primary School This lovely school booked me in to deliver my Digital Portrait Workshops and I got to work with years 2, 3, 4 ,5 and 6. I will never tire of these portrait workshops. Young people always

Feathers McBeaky – Ill Equipped For The City I really like this character. Feathers McBeaky is a brightly feathered bird (genus unknown) who has spent far too long in the big, dirty city. Looking slightly dishevelled, a little oily and wearing a tatty scarf, he’s

Easter Bunny – Post Easter Weekend Bunny Business I wanted to do an illustration of the Easter Bunny. I imagined that he might have been dressed in a smart suit getting on with the job of hiding all the eggs. A smart Easter Bunny out

What is Line Prompt Sketching? There are a few different types of sketching that I do when I’m creating imagery. Full on sketch book sketches with detail, shading and colour using various mediums. Pen and/or pencil sketches with hatching, cross hatching and shading detail. There

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I love to explore the multiple possibilities of a single image. This image, entitled ‘The Spirited Drifter’ is a great example of what I mean by this. Over all I am presenting 107 images here.

Journey Line – The lesson Learned A Compulsion to Create This character is called St. Stives. Named because I drew the sketch in St Ives, Cornwall. I like using certain attachments, loose or otherwise, regarding the naming of my work. Not always, but more often

Coffee, Quiche, Cake and Conversation I love to fill sketchbooks. I always have a couple on the go, but my go to paper of choice is a sheet of A4 printer paper. I’m not sure why I favour this. I think it’s because it’s a

I have had some wonderful feedback from a school in Plymouth, who have been creating their own fantastic illustrative portraits following my Drawable ‘Making Layered Portraits’ resource on the AccessArt website. The images below are some examples of the terrific work that the Year 6

The Upshot Perspective Yücel Eucule This image is one of a series of illustrations that I am creating called ‘The Upshot Perspective’ based on humanoid or cyborg units, or renegade humans living in future city settings in a far off world. All of the images

One of the things I love about creativity and art, are the journeys you go on. Simple sketches can turn into intriguing and fun circumnavigations of colour, texture, tone, shade and line. This simple pencil sketch turned into an interesting head study regarding those elements.