Little King Wren

A Wren illustration inspired by the tiniest Wren that was hopping about my windowsill the other day. They’re one of my favourite birds since they’re so small and cute! They’re also known for their relatively loud song and personalities.

In Druidry, Wrens are known as king of the birds, hence the reason why I drew him with a little crown. I also sketched him perched upon an upturned scribbly crescent moon to mirror my other illustration which features some Alstroemerias.

The Welsh word for Wren is Dryw, and it means Druid or Seer which I think is really cool, and adds to the symbolism even more!

Brecon Beacons Landscape

Here’s a landscape sketch featuring a few mountains in the Brecon Beacons. Since I live here now, I thought I would get to know my new surroundings by drawing them. I had to reference this from a photo online as we’re currently in lockdown and it would be quite an intense hike for me to go in person without driving some of the way haha. I’m looking forward to exploring the mountains once lockdown is over!

I experimented with some gouache style Procreate brushes for the sky and although my understanding of how to paint is very basic, I am quite happy with how it turned out! It also helps that the brushes I used are amazing, they’re the Gouache Wash and Gouache Flow Detail brushes from the Retro MaxPack!

Portrait Practice & Dying Flowers

It’s been a very long time since I’ve drawn portraits, I’ve always found them to be the most difficult, but I thought it was worth experimenting with. I drew this lady (@eve.frsr) after stumbling across her photo on Instagram, and I just thought that she had a very drawable face. The reason I suddenly started a portrait was that I wanted to practice one as part of a “new year art reset”, a self imposed set of mini art challenges so I can reassess what I enjoy creating and then use those findings to course correct my art direction if necessary. I’ve found them useful in the past!

Drawing this portrait was fun but I’m not sure if it’s something I will do a lot from now on. I get more inspired when drawing things relating to the natural world, however, I do still want to try some life drawing with some photo sets from Drawing Life Studio, as recommended by Emma Carlisle. I’ll be sure to show you all how that turns out!

I also drew this little still life of some dying flowers that were sat in my kitchen. I sometimes think that dead flowers can almost look prettier than live ones, they’re certainly interesting to draw at least!

I really like how gestural I was able to draw some of the flowers, and I think the juxtaposition between the non-shaded leaves and the busy flowers is quite aesthetically pleasing.