Sketchcrawling, Competitions & Picture Books ... and Dreams

I've been trawling the web this lunchtime beginning again to dream about becoming an illustrator, artist, picture book artist ... you get the picture! I happened to re-visit Waterstones to see who won the 'Picture This' competition I entered last year to win the prize of illustrating Michael Morpurgo's version of the classic tale of 'Beauty and the Beast'. The winner, Loretta Schauer, has attended a Picture Book course in London, which looks very interesting. It got me thinking about another illustrator I love, Lynne Chapman, and the "sketchcrawls" she organises in Sheffield. Being a little bit too far from Sheffield to join in with Lynne's sketchcrawls I started to wonder if anyone around here might be interested in creating a sketchcrawl group ...

So, this is kind of an appeal ... ok it IS an appeal to anyone who would want to join me in setting up a sketchcrawl group in the Berkshire area - though folk who want to join in wouldn't have to live in this area and indeed our sketchcrawl locations needn't be limited to Berkshire either - I guess I'm thinking you gotta start somewhere, right? So get in touch at alli@hotmail.co.uk with "Sketchcrawl" in the subject line if this is something you'd like to be involved in. Just to be CLEAR this isn't for A** artists - though they are welcome - it's for anyone who enjoys drawing and wants to have an opportunity to do that in fun/interesting places with other folk who also share that same enjoyment ... it is for FUN and not a competition. The 'I can't draw' line doesn't count either - if you can write, you can draw - all you need is the desire! Don't believe me, read Danny Gregory's 'Creative License'.

This brings me to Picture Books - it's an idea that got me started on developing a thought, just a tiny thought of knowing that I love art and wondering if I could possibly have that be a significant part of my future ... ideally my future career. I am interested in all kinds of ways of expressing that and have thought of becoming a secondary school art teacher (currently the top of my list for lots of reasons), a freelance illustrator, a Picture Book illustrator or an artist in my own right. Right now, these all feel like pie in the sky ideas but you have to start somewhere, so while working on my OCA course - a practical start point - I'm starting to dream again.

To finish off just thought I'd share some scribbles from an exercise I had to do for my OCA drawing course! I love my studies!!! lol!!!!

Beginning again ...

Blogging is an art. At least that's how it seems to me. Nevertheless, I'm going for it again. Since I'm currently studying for a BA in Painting with the Open College of Arts, I thought I'd use this space to assist with that journey. I don't know exactly what this will look like yet, just that I'm going to make a serious go of it.

I do plan to include links to interesting stuff, my sketches and work by artists who inspire me. For now, I'm going to post a sketch ...

It's from a painting, which I make a point of seeing every time I go to the National Gallery, by Caravaggio called 'Supper at Emmaus'. The characters seem to have been caught in a moment in time, it's all so animated, the foreshortening of the hand on the right hand side, the contrast of dark and light, the textures, the genuine emotion is captivating for me.