Five siblings: a portrait

 

In watercolour pencils, 2020. 

An artwork for Zegrac Explains

Fairly recently my brother approached me to do an illustration for a fun project he had been brewing, called 'Zegrac Explains' - which is something he was creating with the children of Yagoona Public School in mind.

The brief was to draw an otter and a bear in Victorian-style clothing sitting in front of a fire place. So, I set out to create a digital oil painting on an iPad using Procreate.

Here is the final result:

And here is a time lapse video of the process:

Summer portraits

Recently a friend of mine gave me a large box of watercolour pencils. And when I say large, I'm talking three layers deep with what feels like a more overwhelming array of colours than a photoshop colour-circle. I also, incidentally, happened to have a portrait commission for a dog that needed to be done, and so had a ready opportunity to use them.

Now, I have collected and used watercolour pencils for some time, but I have been loathe to use them for any illustration work as I have often felt I was able to more easily create a repeatable colour intensity by using watercolours overlaid with coloured pencils (helpful for drawing the same character over multiple pages). However, I think I will try to use them more, as I am quite pleased with how this project turned out, and I think in the process I have better learned how to use this medium.

This is Banjo. 

Something I have also had the joy of doing earlier this summer were some family portraits for friends. Below are two of them. Both of these are done in coloured pencils, and drawn in the  multicoloured style that I have been enjoying over the past few years.

And, should anyone be interested to see the progress shots of Banjo, here are some pics:

Family pets

Christmas has come and gone. And, as I have often done before, I took the opportunity to create some sketches as gifts for family members.

It is with fondness that the Nichols family remembers Cockie and Snowy.