Renly Baratheon colouring finished

I managed to do this one in 2 takes, not sure if I'm getting quicker, or more slack with my detail (I can be such a 'glass is half empty kind of person sometimes):

I've done the line drawing for Robert Baratheon, which I'll be colouring in this week.

The big news of the week has been the referendum in the UK, whether to stay in the EU or leave. After the votes were counted 52% (just over 1.2 million votes difference between remain and leave) were in favour of leaving. I voted to stay in the UK, and feel a bit disappointed that the UK will leave the EU. However, both my boyfriend and myself are still confused even though everything has happened (he voted leave). I've been of the opinion 'If it isn't broke don't try to fix it', but other countries in the EU now want to leave the EU, which suggests the EU has problems. Also, my boyfriend now regrets voting leave, as do many other people who thought their vote wouldn't count! It just feels like people voted to leave to stick it to the man and didn't research the facts (although from the Leave campaign they didn't have many facts to research). It's all a bit weird, and even now people are quitting the Labour party, and over 3 million people have signed a petition calling for a second referendum (where were these people when voting was happening?!). I'm not happy with the decision, but that's democracy for you, but I feel like the margin that the leave campaign won with should've been more than 52%, it just seems a bit indecisive to me.

Anyway, apologies for the political post this week, I wouldn't normally do it but the referendum could seriously affect my future. Something a bit more relevant to my blog, I'm starting a free graphic design course with Shaw Academy tomorrow, it runs 2 webinars a week for the next month, and I'm excited about starting!

I'll sign off with my Pinterest of the Week, it's good to see with practise and dedication you can improve in what you want to do: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205789845/

Stannis Baratheon finished, also Renly Baratheon is done too

Well, I've really got my skates on this week, I've finished two characters from my Game of Thrones epic drawing quest:

Stannis

Renly

That's all of the Baratheon brothers finished! I totally forgot to draw any poses this week though.

Hopefully some of you more eagle-eyed readers noticed I changed the theme on my blog. I've gone from the vibrant, orange, in-your-face colour scheme to something more muted and subtle.
Some of you may have noticed the theme change, but did any of you notice the new web link I added to my blog? It's in the menu on the right-hand side. I have my own website now! Granted, it's a free website, and it's very basic, but I have one, and it showcases some of my work. Go check it out: http://kimberleykirk.wix.com/illustration

Something I bookmarked a couple of weeks ago is the following web link: http://www.creativebloq.com/illustration/master-art-figure-drawing-new-artists-model-21619041 I'd love to get one of these but can't stretch financially to afford it. Especially as my wooden mannequin is rubbish. Guess I'll have to keep using my pose app on my phone for now.

Also, the amarylis has come back to life, and looks better than before! not sure why it's come back, but it's welcome in my house:

And on a final note, here is my Pinterest of the week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907501/ Daffodils are my favourite flowers, and I have a bunch in bloom where I live. Also my boyfriend bought me a bunch last week, and they've all opened. You may remember a post where I sketch a daffodil on my tablet using a free app, I didn't realise how grey I made the final picture! http://kimshibbybob.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-lady-in-greyscale-and-daffodils.html

Cat WIP

I think I'm over my laziness now, I've been working today on drawing my friend's cat today (she tasked me with it on Monday as I didn't have any ideas on what to draw), and I have a few progress photo's:

Milly, the spawn of satan

I've quit Facebook again, as I spend way too much time procrastinating on there. I'm still on Twitter though. Funnily enough, I do feel like I've got more done since quitting Facebook.

I bought a new colouring pencil kit the other week (a half decent kit this time, not cheap pencils), and I haven't used them! Instead I've been using the kit my parents bought me for Christmas, the cat pictures above have been done with a graphite pencil only. I have an amarylis, and I'm waiting for it to bloom before using my new colouring pencils. It's nearly there:

How many flower heads?!

In November I bought 10 yoga classes at my local leisure centre for £10, which is a bargain. However, the site I bought them from stated it was for yoga, but the leisure centre stated it was for Pilates. When I arrived it had changed again - to Stretch and Tone! Whatever, I enjoyed the class anyway, and even after going to the class on Thursday I'm still aching today. I've also been doing a daily yoga practise using the DoYouYoga Youtube video's, however I can't do them for a little while now as I put my back out today.

Anyway, I'll continue with the picture of the cat and see how far I get. I'm also going to try upgrading my laptop to Windows 10, I'm really apprehensive about it as when I upgraded my tablet the integrated Wacom pen driver wouldn't work anymore. Plus, the tablet kept crashing, so I reverted it back to its original operating system. Here's hoping my laptop copes with the upgrade.

One last thing that I nearly forgot, it's my Pinterest of the week, hope you enjoy! I think it's really pretty https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204375006/

A full-on week

2 days left of the Schoolism subscription, and I've done nothing since last Sunday. I watched the last video on finishing touches, but there's a book excerpt at the end I've not found time to listen to yet.

I travelled to Center Parcs at Longleat on Wednesday on a business trip, and had a wicked time :) This was the view from my apartment:

It was a couple of long days though, the traffic on the drive back was horrendous.

I've been back to Center Parcs today (this time to Sherwood Forest) with my friend's family, and had a wicked time, although I didn't feel like we did much. Totally shattered now, watching the Formula 1 before going to bed.

So I've struggled to do any art this week. I'm still keeping in touch with it though, I finished the TV series of Landscape Artist of the Year this morning while doing the week's ironing. I live such an interesting life...
I've added my colour to my dragon a la Bobby Chiu, however I cannot get it to look anything better than washed out. I don't understand his technique enough to fix it, so I'm going to figure out a different way. This is the best I have so far:

Anyway, as is the norm now here is my Pinterest of the Week: http://theultralinx.com/2012/06/art-colour-coordination-infographic/

I've also come across some more relaxing music here for anyone that's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYk9CRx0g8

Scaly things

Last week I kind of cheated with my dragon. I wanted to draw scales, but couldn't be bothered to draw every single scale individually, so I made a custom brush and painted them in. I didn't think it looked too bad.
The next Schoolism video showed me how to paint eyes and scales, so I've gone back to the drawing board with the scales on my dragon and refined them:

It looks subtly better now. Oh, and I did some work on the rabbit! I will probably shrink it even more though.

I'm hoping to get the Schoolism course finished now, I'm on lesson 7 out of 9, and I still have 2 weeks to do it. I've also quit Slimming World now, so I'll be getting my Monday nights back. I'm also still a week behind on my writing course, and I'm still as blasé about it as I was last week.

Nothing much to report on from the past week. I have a busy schedule for the next 6 weeks (including, but not limited to: work visit's, seeing my nan, Xmas party, work away-day, Amsterdam and Xmas to name a few!). I think December will be a quiet month for drawings, as I'll be so busy, I'll try to get some things done though.

Also, I've come across a few websites where you design something, and if you upload it to a particular website it can be printed on things like phone cases, cushions, you can earn a commission from it if people buy it! Let me know in the comments below if you're interested and I'll post the links next week.

Anyway, that about wraps it up for this week, I've re-discovered a playlist on youtube, it's called a Study Playlist, but it's good for having as background music while I draw: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx65qkgCWNJIs3FPaj8JZhduXSpQ_ZfvL It's totally not my style of music, but sometimes I don't like listening to someone sing while I'm studying/drawing as I find it off-putting.

And here is my Pinterest of the Week, hope you have a good week everyone! http://lisapace.com/files/2014/07/1601284_802860943081664_2679415269977914934_n.jpg (sorry, I have a thing about rabbits)

Here be more dragons!

I carried on with the Schoolism videos, and I spent quite a lot of time on the 'fur' videos. I quite like drawing straight fur, but curly fur is quite difficult. I also felt like I spent way too much time on fur, so towards the end of the video I glossed over the last points. Then it was back to the dragon.

So I've spent quite a lot of hours refining my dragon. I feel like it was worth it, although I was feeing pretty down about it earlier today. It's nothing spectacular, but I feel it's a pretty good effort on my part:

Please excuse the giant rabbit. I wanted to get the silhouette down before I called it a day with this today. The rabbit won't be that big when this is finished!

I'm not sure if I'm going to get the Schoolism course finished. I have learned some key points already though, even if they're not the ones I'm supposed to be learning! I've learned that:

• Making a small thumbnail as an extra window on your screen helps you see the bigger picture while working on small details
• Use lots of reference
• Try to make sure whatever you're drawing has virality ie is cute/clever, etc
• Make sure you're drawing is clear and concise, the 3-tone drawing is good for this
• Always start with big brushes and work down to small for finer detail. Seriously, I never realised how useful this was
• I can pay for all of the tutorials I want, but unless I learn the basics and use basic techniques I'm never going to get better!

My writing course is going OK, I'm a week behind now, but I'm not stressing too much about it as this course is free, and it restarts in January anyway. If I get behind on this course because of my Schoolism course it's not a big deal.

I follow InPursuitOfArt on youtube, he posts some pretty good videos about being in the art industry, and I've just watched one of his recent ones this weekend, it's driven home a point to me that I don't need a Wacom Cintiq with state-of-the-art computer to be a good artist: https://youtu.be/1rg2c8FPf2E

And my Pinterest of the week is the following, hope you enjoy! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/164386055/white-rabbit-print-rabbit-time-rabbit?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

Here be dragons!

As it turns out I did do the first Schoolism video wrong, so I've had to go back and redo it. This week I had to do a 3-tone sketch of my design, and it still has to look recognisable:

I'm going to watch the next video once the Formula 1 is done with, although I got wasted last night, and as a result today has been wholly unproductive, and this blog post will be fairly short. Although we did go and watch the fireworks show at my place of work, the fireworks were pretty spectacular. The even has to be called Guy Fawkes night, they can't call it Bonfire night as they can't have a bonfire in the middle of the forest.

On the walk to the pub yesterday I did manage to get some nice autumnal shots on my phone of our local park:

I've completed week 2 of my writing course, I had to listen to a line from a radio station and build a story on that. The line I had was 'Once you come out of a situation like that, it's like coming up from the sea-bed'. Week 3 starts tomorrow.

I've not watched any interesting videos this week, however I do have a Pin on Pinterest, hope you like: http://www.zeutch.com/graphik/moleskine-doodles-50270#

Week 3: 1000 days of drawing

Hi all, it's getting late on Sunday evening, and I've had a very busy weekend redecorating my house and packing for holiday (again)! I've also found 4+ hours to draw today, and it's substandard, I'm not happy with it.

Anyway, before I go to bed I'll share with you this week's drawings. I'm still enjoying the daily challenge, however I'm having a break from it this week. I'll take my tablet on holiday with me, but I doubt inspiration will hit as I'll be in the pub for most of it! Maybe I'll do what this guy did... http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/07/michigan-tech-student-drunk-designed-plane-twitter-viral-mark-keith

15. Family Portrait. I ran out of time to add the facial features, but on reflection I'm glad I didn't as I wouldn't want to you see them, or for me to do them an injustice with this image!

16. Inspiration. I was trying to use Bobby Chiu as inspiration but it wound up nothing like what he produces, oops! I was also playing around with a different brush option in Photoshop. I'm not sure if I like it yet.

17. Favourite plant. Mine is the daffodil!

18. Just doodle. Did this at the pub while doing a pub quiz. Everyone thought I was being antisocial!

19. Something new. This tomato was picked fresh off my tomato plant just before I drew it. Now it's been peeled and put in my freezer for later consumption.

20. Something Orange. I don't really own anything orange, but a suggestion made to me was to draw The Orange Box. I spent far too long on it though.

21. Something You Want. This was quickly rushed, as I want to go to bed. However I want to be recognised as an artist, although the above is symbolic of an art gallery I don't necessarily want this to be how I'm recognised (although I wouldn't complain)!

Another quickie...

Sorry for the lack of material this month, I really am finding it a struggle to find time to draw at the moment! I can't believe it's the 28th of June already...

I started at my new job on Thursday just gone. Handing over everything in my new job was every bit as stressful as I thought it would be. Starting was equally as stressful, I've gone to a large company where there are lots of employees, and I was also invited to a team-building event after work on my first day. I felt like a lemming stood in the Rounders playing field, but the BBQ they put on was nice. I got on well with my new colleagues better by the Friday though, they seem like a nice enough bunch :)

I am so envious of their designers as well, as they do proper designing, not the half-arsed repro attempt I've seen in both of my long-term jobs in the past. One lady was even drawing owls and foxes for some promo material. So jealous. But they've all been to Uni, and I haven't. I can see now why no company would employ me as a designer. But I quite like my new job, it's all about being organised, which I love doing.

In other news, we're slowly getting ready for going on holiday. The trailer tent was put up properly for the first time in our local park on Tuesday:

I'm glad we've got all of the arguments out of the way now! I just hope the weather doesn't turn typically British while we're away. Also, as part of my leaving present from my old job my colleagues got me the following book. I've had a read through it, and it's frickin' amazing, it's definitely coming with us!

They also got me a Festival kit full of goodies like a bright pink poncho, cleaning stuff like shampoo and baby wipes, lip balm, glow sticks, etc, it's really cool. Also a nice box of chocs (already snaffled) and some bottles of cider. The sales reps who looked after me got me a bottle of rum (they know me so well).

I do miss my old work friends, but I really am quite anti-social. After going out with some of my colleagues for a leaving meal and with the gifts everyone got me I feel I really missed a trick not socialising with my old colleagues. I'm going to make more of an effort with my new colleagues (whether they like it or not, ha!). I have let my old colleagues know about some good perks I get with my new job, but I've not heard back from them :( Oh well, if they don't want to abuse my perks after I'm gone I'm sure I can get them used instead :D

Well, aside from Fat Fighters tomorrow I don't have any plans for the week ahead. I get to finish 30mins earlier than my last job, so there really should be no excuse for a lack of art next week. I think I have a bit of an art block going on at the moment, but I'm just going to find things to draw to get me back into the swing of it.

Until next week!

Only a quickie

I haven't done any art this week.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

2 reasons for that, number one is the usual 'not found time'; again I've been out every night in the week just gone, and I have no intentions of slowing down! I think I have plans for every night this coming week as well. I'm itching to draw, but I'm barely getting time to sit down at the moment. I'm hoping when I go on holiday I'll have loads of spare time to sketch. I'm certainly taking my tablet, and a pencil & paper too.

Also, I've found last week to be the hardest at work since being in that job for nearly 4 years. Handing over to someone who doesn't know our systems, or our customers, has been absolutely draining. I don't think it's been handled properly. Normally my colleagues have a shuffle round of accounts, so the newbies get the easier accounts, and the more experienced get the difficult accounts. Not so in this case, they're very short staffed where I am at the moment, also my replacement looks promising so they've just done a straight swap, the poor soul is getting all of my work. It also doesn't help that she has tomorrow morning off work, I have tomorrow afternoon off work, and my last day is on Wednesday! I hate caring so much sometimes...

On a better note I was given a day pass to visit one of the holiday villages of where I'll be working, so I've gone for a visit today, and all I can say is Wow! I can see why guests love this place so much. All of the staff look really happy too, so I'm hoping my new job will be good!

I finished the Leonardo Da Vinci documentary. I'd got most of the way through it by my last blog post, but finished it off yesterday. There wasn't really much left for me to watch, Peter Capaldi was good in it acting as Leonardo Da Vinci.

So, sorry for the week of bitching, Turns out this blog post wasn't a quickie! I'm not sure what this next week is going to bring either!

30 days of lacking!!

Well, I've had a better stab at drawing more this week:

Random lamp study

Quick ornament study

Another hand study

30 days of graphic design. Redesign the nearest shop's logo. This is only a quick sketchy idea

30 days of graphic design. Pick 3 designers and make a new design mixing their styles. I chose Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister & Paula Scher 

I've also watched a film, Inside the mind of Leonardo Da Vinci, which I've found immensely interesting. For example he was an illegitimate child, and because of this received no formal education during his childhood, yet to look at his sketches you'd think he'd completed an engineering degree at university! It's another proven point to me that you don't need to be educated to a higher standard for something in this industry (although I'm sure it helps of course).

I'm not sure if I'll carry on with this particular 30 days of art/graphic design, as I feel it's not drawing. While I enjoy making the initial sketches I don't have the time in the day to make a fully refined drawing every day. After coming home from work, eating dinner, etc I'm lucky to squeeze in an hour to sketch (and most days I don't!). There's loads of other '30 days of art' out there, so I'll find one that will give me the motivation to finish it!

Anyhow, not long now until the first holiday of the year, but first we have AC/DC to see before that in a few weeks! I only have 1.5 weeks left at my current job, it's all happening at the moment!

30 day challenge, logo completion and an annoucement!

Hey all, I've done a little more art this week, although I've had a headache pretty much all week.
I've watched a random video on Photoshop on how to draw smooth lines, and it pretty much boils down to doing it quick, and drawing from the elbow, not the wrist. I knew this before (the wrist thing), but never really applied it, so I've been practising with the motion today and guess what? My lines are better :)

The kickstarter campaign for Schoolism has finished, I think I'm starting mine in October. I've been watching a few of Bobby Chiu's vids on youtube this week, so talented!!

On twitter I noticed in my feed a behance page called The Pocketbook of 120 tips from featured creative from the design world. I'm not far into it but there's a pretty decent 30 day drawing challenge. So day 1 is to tell you I've started. Let's call that yesterday. Day 2 is today, and although I kind of started it yesterday I've done most of the work today:

Make a logo of your face with your name which describes your personality - smiley and bright! I did want to use bright purple text, but it was lost in my brown hair

So for the week ahead (it'll be interesting to see if I do all of these!)
Day 3: Make an illustration of your favourite number
Day 4: Choose 3 awesome graphic designers and try to make a new design mixing their styles.
Day 5: Redesign the logo of the nearest shop.
Day 6: Choose 2 objects. Mix them.
Day 7: Make a logo for an astronaut's umbrella shop.
Day 8: Draw something with your left hand.

The link for The Pocketbook can be found here:
www.behance.net/gallery/24768773/The-Pocketbook
And it's on a Creative Commons license :)

Oh, and I think I've finally finalised a design for my logo!! Although I'm torn between 2, so please see both below, let me know if you prefer one over the other!

I was eating dinner yesterday and heard something fall over in our bedroom. My canvas I've been working on had fallen over. There's no damage to the canvas or the frame, but I've now put the canvas away as I have no motivation to finish it right now.

The London MCM Comic Con was last weekend, and I really wish I had gone. I've not been to the one in London, but I've been to the Birmingham one, and Collectormania in Milton Keynes. Both have not been great. There's a really good convention on when I'm on holiday, there are so many Game of Thrones stars there, and we'll be nowhere close to go :( I've even looked into getting a little flight from where we're holidaying to London, but there only do 2 flights a day, one there and one back, so it's not worth it. Oh well, there will be more cons in the future.

The trailer tent is coming on nicely, we picked up a bottle of gas from our town, hooked it up to the little oven that came with the trailer tent and it works fine! The lights don't work though, I think we'll need to buy a light board to make the trailer road-legal. While I was at the shop buying gas they also sell a small range of tools, so I managed to get a drill bit for drilling a 30mm hole for my brewing buckets so I can get a bitter and a lager kit brewing. Although to be honest since I started Slimming World in Feb I haven't been drunk since then, so 2 beer kits will probably last us into next year!! We're supposed to be having a heatwave next weekend, I've asked the other half to get the summer clothes out of the loft, I wonder what clothes will be too big on me now?! That's the nice thing about losing weight (I've been overweight for 10 years), I can buy clothes that actually look good now rather than fit for funtionality, and I get a massive confidence boost to boot!

Anyway, I have an announcement to make (which I can't make until tomorrow, all will become clear). It's probably not a big deal for anyone reading this blog, but it's a huge deal for me. I don't know who reads this blog from my twitter feed, as I have friends and colleagues on there, so I need to keep it secret until tomorrow. And for anyone wondering (and for the people that know me), I'm not pregnant!!