Primrose Art Journal Spread

At the time of sketching up this spread there were dozens of wild primroses peeking their heads out of the grass in our garden. They’re one of my favourite flowers, not just because they are one of the first flowers to bloom in spring, but mainly because it reminds me of walking around my grandparent’s farm in Cornwall, where these flowers thrive! They feel very nostalgic!

I paired the primrose sketch with an illustration of some roses and a reminder for when I’m being too hard on myself for not getting through my overly ambitious to-do list. I don’t use text in my work often but it is interesting to work with and I may incorporate more in future work too!

St David’s Day Collection

Here are my collection of sketches to celebrate St David’s Day! To me, there is nothing more quintessentially Welsh than Daffodils and Red Kites. All the Daffodils were blooming in the garden at the time and I see so many Red Kites here in the Brecon Beacons that they’ve quickly become one of my favourite birds of prey.

This collection was a naturalist take on celebrating Wales and I’m really pleased with how it came out.

Roe Deer + Crescent Moon

A sweet little Roe Deer buck! I wish I could see wild deer more, they’re notoriously elusive though. I’m aware that there are some kind of wild deer roaming about in my area of the Brecon Beacons, the farmers often talk about them in the local Facebook groups that I’m in. I’ll have to look into what kind they are so I can draw more since I enjoyed drawing this one so much.

I chose to go with a scribbled black arch for the background again, for no other reason than I think it looks striking when surrounding my sketches. I also really like the added texture it adds to the illustration!

I also experimented with creating a colour version too! I really admire artists and illustrators who are able to use colour effectively in their work, I always seem to struggle with it. I much prefer my black and white version but I’m glad I tried adding colour as an experiment.