Looking For Trouble

new ways of living (ii)

another piece from 'new ways of living' for the looking for trouble exhibition in nottingham.

titled keys, phone, wallet, the objects pictured are three items (cup, knife, compass) that would prove useful towards survival in the great outdoors, but come further down the line in terms of things that are considered necessary for every day life.

remember that lil project i mentioned? well, here it is;, a project in which i illustrate my instagram feed, then post the drawings on instagram.

sometimes i think about how bodies want to be sweaty & smelly & hairy & oily, & about how some of our daily routines try to achieve the opposite.

a portrait of our cooker for a few days. pasta, corn, fried eggs, veggie burgers & baked potatoes. thankfully alan actually knows what he's doing when it comes to campfires. our pillows smell of smoke.

shades of grey

one of the items on my list of things to do this year was experiment with colour pallets; specifically, to exercise a little more restraint when it comes to how i work with colour. i always feel a small degree of awe when i visit the websites of people who constantly work with the same limited pallet. when i'm working, i'm more like a child in a sweet shop, grabbing whatever treat feels right/is closest.

i found this beautiful image by adrienne adams via pinterest the other day. i found myself coming up with a snapshot of a narrative in my head, following the torch light through the bushes to that tiny, hidden snake on the ground. lately, i've wanted to spend some time illustrating some sort of narrative, something more than just a snapshot. adams' image reminded me of a short story i wrote when i was twelve (which, due to an overwhelming and elaborate use of adjectives in an attempt to set the scene, i'll spare you of), where i was lost in the huge public park in my hometown at night, afraid of every rustle of bushes & strange shadow (fear not, i found my way out). after spending today wandering around the forest of our new-to-us local country park, & feeling reminded of reading wildwood earlier this year, i came up with this image.

it might not seem much of an experiment, but there were a few changes in direction for me (using only one colour! drawing the outlines last! a hint of a background!). it feels good to try something new.

studio

in wild waters

my boyfriend recently opened an online shop to sell his prints. all bias aside, i recommend you take a look at his work (including the above print, in wild waters). he's had a few sales already, but he's still offering a free mini-print with the next seven orders. go!

as you might have realised, a lot of the objects in my ceramics shop are derived from drawings of mine or have elements influenced by my drawing style; the tiger that i made a few months ago was originally based on this illustration, using the image as a reference for shape & line. i sold the ceramic tiger pretty quickly, but before i shipped him off i took the opportunity to add to the cycle by drawing my clay version. illustration > ceramic > illustration. i feel like doing another ceramic level might be a bit redundant in this instance, but it'd be interesting to see how far you could take a concept by reworking it over & over in this way.