Happy Christmas 2013!

It's Christmas Day, so I'm having a week off from updates. Merry Christmas everybody!

Circus poster commission

This is a recent commission- a custom vintage style circus poster which I drew the bike sketches for reference. I like the colour scheme, very retro.

Coventry roadworks

I had a hard time liking Coventry when I started working here, which is partly why I started sketching there over the summer. I can't help but like something if I spend time drawing it. I've learnt some interesting local history on the way too, but so far I've concentrated on the more scenic parts.  Which is a bit misleading. Here's a more typical street scene, about 100 m from where I work. Note scenic road works and 1950s concrete buildings. The building at the centre back is the courthouse.

Indian wedding invitation comic

This is a comic which will be used for a wedding invitation. I tried out a new inking method. It cuts time, which means I can spend more time on the drawing and colouring -hopefully leading to cooler looking artwork.

Bike sketches for illustration of monkey riding bike

Some prep work for a circus illustration. These bikes are a bit old but I'm guessing a monkey wouldn't get to ride the new models. Top one is a 1889 Hume/ Edlin/Sinclair model, the first ever bike with pneumatic tyres.

Bad sketch/drawing- and waffle about Chris Oatley

I was listening to Chris Oatley's podcast back catalogue recently and there was a episode which talked about the importance of bad drawings- how you shouldn't be put off by doing awful drawings because (oversimplification alert) you need them in order to improve. So here's one of my shitty drawings recently: eating lunch on the stairwell at work . I usually vet them before posting.
I highly recommend these podcasts . Chris talks about the practical aspects of working as an artist and has lots of nuts-and-bolts tips to improve.

Car sketches-1913 Morris Oxford sketch and 1929 Austin 7 Swallow

It's too cold to draw outside in Coventry at the moment, so this is one of the displays at Coventry Transport Museum. A 97 year old woman chatted to me about this car and wanting one of these when they were made-they were about ten times an engineer's total average salary.

Also a 1929 Austin 7 Swallow (pre-Jaguar Jaguar) top speed 35 mph.

The Fast and the Furious- the Bury St Edmunds Years

 A spoof poster for a friend's birthday. This was quite fun to do.

Coloured version of honeymoon comic

I'm getting a bit behind on this sketchblog. I built up a nice stack of sketches over the summer but the autumn weather is too horrible to sketch outside and work has been crazy lately. Still, have a coloured version of the honeymoon gift comic I sketched. 

It was fun to draw. If you would like something similar feel free to contact me!

Parsec-winning podcast Dunesteef episode live

The episode of the Dunesteef podcast which I illustrated, Tethered to the Cold and Dying, has gone live on their website here. They've also just won a Parsec award, which is pretty cool.

Custom comic page sketch

I'm working on another custom comic about a honeymoon in South East Asia - here's the storyboard

Canal boats on the Grand Union canal

This was a really quick sketch. I'm currently based in Leamington Spa. We're pretty close to Birmingham, which has the biggest canal network in the world, apparently. I'd like to live in a canal boat. I'm the right size for one.

The Drabblecast -Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain

This is an illustration for The Drabblecast that should be coming up in the next couple of days, for a story by Cat Rambo.  (which you can now read here)

Here are some of the search terms I used on Google to gather reference for the story: milagros, porcelain doll parts, the Wailing Wall, Ankor Wat, artificial limbs. 

I'm glad that Google exists and that my local library has an automated checkout system. It saves a lot of strange looks from librarians.

Croatia- Church of Sveti Nikole on the Marjan and the view from Ivan Mestrovic's House

I stayed in Split, Croatia for a week recently. Here is a quick sketch of a little church on the Marjan hill (large park on a hillside outside Split) Very hot.

And here is an attempt at some culture- the view from the Ivan Mestrovic sculpture museum, set in the artist's former house (which is enormous) though he lived there for less than a decade, leaving it at the start of WW2.

Sketch of camping in Cornwall

Camping at St.Agnes, Cornwall- one of the few days where it wasn't chucking it down with rain.

Sketches- animals and birds at London Zoo

I went to London Zoo last week- here are a couple of pages of sketches.

Illustration: Whitefriars monastery in Coventry

More sketching in Coventry at Whitefriars Monastery. The website says that it's a museum but it looks abandoned. The shapes in the background are Coventry ringroad.

Custom Comic Illustration Commission- Molly's Big DC Adventure

 Here is my first commission from Etsy- a one off art page comic called "Molly's Big Adventure" about a dog and her adventures in Washington.

Tiger portrait illustration in watercolour

Ta-daah! I've been sitting on this tiger portrait for a while as I painted it a few weeks before the deadline. It's the first pure painting I've done for several years and I wanted to give myself time to do a second version if I needed to. I was surprised by how well it turned out.

Drawing of the Serpentine, Hyde Park

This is the Serpentine in Hyde Park, where slightly crazy people swim on Christmas day. Very hot while I was there (the UK is having a bit of a heatwave) but couldn't see anyone swimming.

Victorian and albert cast courts

Drawing in the V&A cast courts. This gives you an idea just how much stuff there is in there.

Drawing statues at the Victoria and Albert-Eve, Truth and Venus

I drew some statues at the V&A on my day off.

 This is "Eve listening to the voice of Adam" by the same guy who made the sculpture of Nelson for Nelson's column.

This is "Truth and Falsehood" It's difficult to draw her from the other side as that would mean standing in the middle of a busy corridor, but if I had you could see that she's tearing out his tongue.This sculpture didn't seem to be as well-made as the others-is the snail type curve on the bottom right supposed to be drapery or part of the plinth they are sitting on, or a weird decorative element?

 This is the Kneeling Venus. She's pretty cool. While I was drawing her a museum worker started to clean her with a feather duster.

Illustration, websites and tweeting at CPCoventry

My website has updated and had a bit of a redesign. Check it out!- or you can use the link below.

I am now tweeting/twitting- follow CPCoventry -or click on that handy little button at the top right hand side of the page to read my tweets!

You may have noticed for the last couple of weeks the blog's moved onto a Wednesday update schedule. I'm trying to post regular updates for a bit- let's see if it works.

All the best,
Caroline

Coventry University Square with Coventry Cathedral sketch

A sketch of  University Square in Coventry. You can see the St. Michael statue (last week's sketch) on the right.

Sketch of St Michael and the Devil from Coventry Cathedral

More sketching in Coventry Cathedral. These are random sketches of visitors (not very good, it was hot) and an illustration of the large statue of St Michael and the Devil outside the main entrance. I like the detailed feet of the sculptures and the way that the statues are placed so that the angel is almost, but not quite, stepping on the head of the Devil.

Coventry Priory

Another lunchtime sketch in Coventry, this time of the Priory ruins

There are some really nice places round the back streets which are good for drawing and a bit out of the way.

Shells

More lunchtime sketching in the Herbert Gallery. I bound my sketchbooks a while ago and date marked them. I'm only 10 pages into the "2012/13" book and am feeling a bit of pressure to fill it up by the end of the year. After that I'll likely have to buy a couple of new ones as an exciting trip might be on the cards. More news later!