This is, I guess, not part of my ‘art practice’ but is still part of my practice as a whole. Its younger sister.

This year I have a few different personal briefs for illustrations. The first, a card for my boyfriend’s parents. Both in their 70s and have lived in their house for over 40 years having raised him there. The house represents more than just a building to them, it’s a home, it’s memories, it’s become an icon for all these different life stages. When I first saw the house I immediately thought about how it lent itself to an illustration with its beautiful slanted roof so I illustrated it into a wintery scene as a surprise.

I’ve also illustrated a Christmas wreath

I ended up combining the two for the Christmas card layout

I’m now working on a wrapping paper that I’m hoping to get printed before I go on holiday. A curled up hedgehog with a Santa hat with ‘Christmas Bauble’ written underneath. I’m going to use illustrator for the repeat pattern. I haven’t done a repeat pattern in a very long time, something about it really satisfies my brain.

I’ve still got the colour the illustration and I’m currently thinking watercolour.

On Digital Illustration

I’m happy to have gone back to digital. This was always the plan when I stopped myself, to come back in the second year when I’d truly challenged myself.

Skills I learnt with graphite are translating into my digital work and although I still go into complete flow when illustrating on procreate, there is now an awareness that it doesn’t feel the same as hand drawing.

There are now elements of hand drawing that I miss when I am digitally illustrating, which I can only say is a good thing. There’s a somatic, bodily quality to using hands. I am directly making a record of my own movement. When doing this on procreate it doesn’t feel as embodied.

I’m happy I’ve gotten myself to a place where I’m able to digitally illustrate without using it as a crutch and acknowledging it as a whole different medium. I spent a lot of the day digitally illustrating yesterday and I’ve woken up with an urge to practice physical mark making. This is the place I always wanted to be.

Edit:

Here is how the card turned out