Nimue - stages of production

For my recent piece of work I wanted to push myself and try and bridge the plateau which I felt my work was on. I decided to browse some fashion photography mainly because there is a high chance of viewing posed models in a professional manner and not selfies. I found a few for inspiration and compiled a very rough photomanipulation of all the elements which appealed to me and this was my starting point. 

I started this project in a completely different manner than any of my others. Normally I work completely freehand which works well from side profile work but I wanted this piece to have a natural symmetrical look without one side being completely off from the other. To tackle this I very faintly drew a grid on my paper and also created a digital grid of my manip and started drawing this way. To be frank I found this a quicker way of creating a sketch than completely freehand. I was also naturally more able to 'ad-lib' and steadily work over the initial sketch adding in my own variations and composition elements. 

Next I added in my watercolour washes which I use as a guide and also a 'fill' of background colour to work up from. I then proceeded to add in detail with watercolour pencil/artist colouring pencil in a layering technique. Beforehand I had tended to add in all the details in one small area in quick layers but this time I tackled a complete area [her face] and found that all aspects blended in a lot more effectively. I also used some colours I would not have normally regarded as skin tone colours but found this really effective in creating a more realistic look. Further more I used blenders etc to tone down the pencil strokes and create a more fluid aesthetic.

Each area was tackled individually which allowed me to work around the piece more freely. After her face came her hair and beyond that the fossils, shells and then the fish. The background elements where tackled last. The final stage is the stage I find the hardest, adding in the shadow tones and final lines. I tend to use way too much black/blue/grey so I really hard to restrain myself. When I thought I was finished I walked away and left the piece for a while. I decided if I returned and genuinely felt something needed altering then go for it but if I was being nit-picky over shading to really regard the work and see if it was a genuine alteration. 

Once I pack everything away I do not then go back and edit things so I felt relieved when this piece was finished. I feel I have evolved quite a bit since I started this type of work in earnest and I would be very interested to compare my first piece, this piece and say a piece next June to see how my work has changed. Sadly to some but not to me I find this such an exciting and interesting phase in my artistic career. 

Exciting few months!

Where does the time go??

The past couple of months have been super busy what with one thing or other and with Christmas just around the corner everything is busy busy busy beeeee!!

I have been doing a lot of sketching lately, I've been really wanting to improve on how I draw people and faces. Looking through my old work I see a lot of my illustrations held the characters in poses where the face was obscured or turned away, which compared to now is the complete opposite. I really think you have to put yourself in a position of being uncomfy with your work. To begin with it might all turn out rather dire but the next try and the try after that will show a marked improvement and then a couple of months down the line to compare the first with the most recent will show a dramatic difference.

[© Laura Ashford, 'Cinderella']

[© Laura Ashford, 'Vampire']

What style are my illustrations based on? I really do not know, I tend to garner inspiration from a variety of sources and I hope my own style is created the process. I don't sit down and copy other peoples work, I tend to look at what they've done over time and when I sit down to do my own work I do not look at anyone elses at all. I just create what I can, what my hands will let me.

More recently still, the last week in fact, I have been concentrating on fairies again. My aim is create the fairies in triptychs with each triptych being on a slightly different theme. With Christmas soon and snow and winter in general the first set will be based around snow and snowflakes.

I would say the biggest body of work I have finished lately is the 1-10 project which was quite a bit more demanding that I expected but equally as fun and very skill pushing. I draw the master copies out and then, like a deck of cards, mixed them up and tackled each one in turn that way. This also allowed for the monotony of 1, 2, 3, 4... to go out the window. I was asked which one is my favourite recently and if I had to say probably numbers 5 and 6 just because they were so fun to do. Number 9 was the first one I completed and number 7 was the hardest. Maybe I like number 10 the best just because it is slightly different, the character is posed face on instead of profile to mark a change from single to double digits. In fact, I enjoy them all equally I feel thinking on it properly.

[© Laura Ashford, '1-10 Preview']

So all in all a hectic few months but exciting none the less and more so now than ever. The bubbly feeling that if you put in all the hard work, don't cut corners, don't take breaks, don't sit on your laurels, don't holiday, is finally starting to kick in and everything is exciting! 

The Frog Prince

My latest piece is entitled 'The Frog Prince' and consists of watercolour paint/watercolour pencil/artist colouring pencil. The final size of the original is A2.

Here are some progression images showing a rough idea of the process. Please forgive the somewhat poor photography, I tend to take progression shots whilst in the middle of still working on it but then again maybe that adds to the realism.

[© Laura Ashford, 'The Frog Prince - Progression']

Stage one:

This progression shot is basically just after the initial washes have been put on [hence the paper bunching] and ever so slight detail has been placed in. When a face is in my work I tend to start there and work outwards, I feel it gives my work more life which probably sounds quite naff but I do feel that if you are working with characters you are responsible for bringing them to life so to speak. 

Stage two:

I know what sort of artist I am in the sense of if I stay to long doing one thing I'll overwork that area and ruin the work before it has even really begun. So I then decided to move on. I started shading in the frog prince just casually because I knew the hardest area of this piece was going to be the hair... I wanted to up my game hair wise. I researched other artists and how they drew hair, I also look at a lot of hair [which doesn't sound odd at all!!] and then decided to take the plunge. 

• N.B I worked the hair in phases starting from the top and working down. I did this because hair flows downwards from its source and I wanted to allow for natural flow to occur when adding in the initial colour wash of the hair. Basic shading was also added in at this stage, bulk hair partitions etc.

Stage three:

With the hair bulked in I then went onto the headdress, the tiara. I went over the hair again to bring out more of the bulk partitions.

Stage four:

This is the finished version. I added in more detail layer upon layer until finally going into the dark areas with black... I try and limit my use of black as I didn't want bulky shading and thick, heavy lines. 

• N.B The hair was worked in over several layers. I ended up working strand by strand at the end, using the initial bulk outlines as a guide and allowing the natural flow to work over them if need be. Shading was done in bulk where required and then filtered out into the strands. 

I also took the time to redo the frogs face here as I wanted him to be a slightly more fun character without loosing too much of the realism [yes... because there is realism in an enchanted frog!]. The borders were added in as I love Art Nouveau and I wanted a subtle nod to that period of Art without overdoing it. 

In short I feel that I am improving with my work and considering the time scale I would say I am doing quite well. I have grown more accustomed to A2 and feel confident using the space, who knows I might start going up to A1 or A0... maybe... probably not just yet though! Seeing as I hated drawing faces prior to this whole exercise I feel they are turning out quite well. 

The finished piece:

[© Laura Ashford, 'The Frog Prince']

Prints available: Etsy Store

and now... as ever... I am off for a cup of tea! :D 

Hello creative world

So I haven't updated in a while and that is because I have been super busy with everything. I have amassed quite a collection of preliminary sketches... some will come to fruition and some will probably just stay as rough concepts. I recently finished a piece entitled 'Bubble Bath' which has a cheeky little chap playing with some bubbles which include a duck floating away in one.

[© Laura Ashford, 'Bubble Bath']

There were so many sketches for the childs head. I am a fan of lowbrow/pop surrealism and I wanted to incorporate the basic ethos of exaggerated body proportions whilst keeping the image clean and not so grisly. This fundamental basis led me to Haitao Su and his book 'Alive Character Design.' There is a segment in there about 'Q Characters' which basically have a small body to head ratio. The book overall is quite a good point of reference and was well worth the purchase. Finally having completed a rough draft of first the head and then the body on A5 I then scaled the drawing up free hand to A2.

And then... I got bored? Fed up? Something happened and I didn't want to finish it because I didn't want to rush and ruin it. So I went on to do 'Hey Diddle Diddle' and some photographic work. I even sketched out a rough draft for [what will be next] 'Pat a Cake Pat a Cake.'

So a while passed and then one day I decided to finally finish it and the above is it completed. The bubbles were the most challenging and I think I did quite a good job seeing as I have never studied or drawn bubbles before this work. It allowed for some new skills to be learnt, new techniques to be engineered... there is something to be self taught drawing wise after all! 

A couple of 'behind the scenes' snap shots:

[© Laura Ashford, 'Bubble Bath - behind the scenes 1']

[© Laura Ashford, 'Bubble Bath - behind the scenes 2']

I have spoken to a few more established illustrators of late and have garnered some rather interesting and insightful viewpoints. The most valuable I think was from David Griessel: 

"I'm not sure how you stop comparing yourself to other artists, since I myself compare myself constantly with others. This is not a bad thing, since you can learn a lot from other artistes and it also gives you motivation to observe what others are doing. Just don’t get obsessed by it."

Also the past couple of weeks I have managed to change my Facebook page from photography to Laura Ashford Art and even though in the scheme of life this is a very minor detail I feel like a weight has been lifted. I feel a creative world has been opened to me instead of a small field. All the hard work, the sweat, tears, spilled paint, broken pens and pencils... it is all finally paying off. Major lessons have been learnt, don't quit... no matter how low things get, no matter the odds, keep going and don't quit. The moment you quit, the very second you stop is the the same second you have lost, respect gone, game over.

I think I'll celebrate with a nice cup of rosy lee.

Super Busy

The past few weeks seem to have completely flown by, it has all been super crazy busy. I have been spending a lot of time on my illustrating technique. I have been reading quite a few books on a broader spectrum on Watercolour painting just to try and understand the medium a bit more. In a previous blog I said how watercolour is more organic, more freeflowing and as a person who quite likes nice neat edges to everything in life branching out into such a unpredictable medium has been quite hard.

So I made a compromise with myself over the watercolour. I first sketch my image and then use the watercolours as a general wash to block in the areas with a base colour and this colour will form the concept for that area for the entire piece. I then add in layer upon layer of highlights/shading/midtones and that is where my confidence with watercolour fades away... but it has come a lot further than not even wanting to use the brush and seeing as this is a self taught process of literally trial and error I don't think I'm doing too badly.

After the watercolour 'washes' I then go over in coloured pencil and I use 2 types, both watercolour and artists colouring pencils. Within the colouring pencils I use both the standard spectrum and metallic pencils. I find the metallic softer and this bridges the gap between having an idea and phasing it in with layers instead of going boldly into a strong shade. I feel this is more a confidence thing as opposed to a necessity, more about getting to know what the colours can do or can't do and finding out how to blend them all together.

The whole process is, some would say obviously, different to photography but on some levels the playing field is the same. I try and see a rough idea of the finished image before I start even before I do preliminary sketches. I would have thought about the proposed drawing for some time before I have even put pencil to paper. Also after having an initial concept I will then look to see how other artists have tackled certain areas before starting as opposed to half way... why?... I just do not want to copy other artists as then really I am not learning anything other than someone elses style. I feel if I have seen it, researched it, absorbed it, when it comes to replicating the concept within my work it comes out tinged my own way.

I just then spend a lot of time going from layer upon layer of shading until the final stage where I add in, very very carefully, black. I use black for line edges and subtle shading but not as a block colour in itself... at least not yet.

Part of me loves Photography and everything it has taught me but part of me feels restricted by it... I want to go beyond the camera a little more, push myself. I am a goal setter by character [a recent trait honed by losing 6 stone] and I feel that I want to be the best I can be at drawing and run it along side my other arty ideas of which I have many... my head is always buzzing with ideas... I have so many craft books it is ridiculous!!

I also was asked an interesting question the other day and it has made me ponder quite a lot since. I was asked if I could do time over again would I study BA Hons Photography.... no probably not. Not that I am ungrateful it the experiences it brought me, the realisations it shared, the changes in life it propelled but as a whole I feel my work is not typical of someone who has studied a degree in Photography. I learnt a lot on my course and I had some amazing lecturers and I love everything they have taught me but I think if we all sat down we would agree that I'm not a photo journalist, I'm not a Wedding Photographer and I don't really fit into a lot of typical 'Photographer' categories. In hindsight and under the condition I could take what I have now with me I would most likely have studied something within a broader art range.

I feel like I am on a the cusp of a revolution. I've said in a previous blog I feel that artists go through stages... their work goes along on a nice path and suddenly POW and it notches up a gear... something has changed, maybe something subtle but their work has transcended into a whole new ballpark. I feel like I have been trundling along for a while now and that I am just now grasping at the next level and I am excited where my work might be going next.

So I thought I would share my latest concept:

[© Laura Ashford, 'Gazing']

All work contained within this post and within this blog in its entirety is subject to the respective copyrights of the owners. All work created by Laura Ashford is copyright and is not for redistribution, editing, appropriation without prior written agreement. Work may be shared with a link and an acknowledgement to Laura Ashford as the creator. 

This past week I have been exploring watercolour techniques and I found the whole process rather more educational than I first expected on numerous levels. I entered myself into the self proclaimed challenge with little thought or skill other than what I had picked up myself as opposed to being taught. I have been taught Photography and Graphic Design but not so much the other side of the spectrum.

I learnt the fundamentals of Graphic Design when everything was crisp and very linear. Within Graphic Design every element of a final piece has a meaning, a reason for it being there from the main focal point across to the most minute of details. To some extent this is the same with Photography; when you look through the viewfinder you are already anticipating on some level the end result. With watercolour art... and I say Art because this piece of work served no rhyme or reason other than to bring myself joy in its finished state, it was not going on sale and it was not a commission piece... the whole process seems more organic.

I have become so used to perfect shapes, I would wager 99% of my Photographic Fine Art holds some linear,crisp element to it. I am comforted with repetition, with knowing within [artistically speaking] a close proximity what the final outcome will look like. I thrive on routine both within my work as well as my everyday life, every hour has its designation with very little free time accommodated and until recently that worked hunky dory.

Recently I have wanted to blur the straight lines, go beyond the standard canvas and in all honesty it has been hard... HARD... work. I started my recent piece by sketching out the basic elements and found this relatively easy because this is my standard practice before I normally ink in over and add detail etc. However this time my lines were finer, less defined, a mere ghost on an A2 canvas. The canvas size alone was daunting enough, personally I have never worked on a tactile piece of this size in my life. I then started adding in watercolour, defining my subject and the piece in general and then something happened... in short terms I went wrong but this time there was no undo, no CTRL Z... before my eyes it had failed.

To begin with I was angry at myself and it took me a while to remember I haven't worked in watercolour on this scale, to this expected accuracy and to the dimensions of this canvas. I also had to remember that if I deemed the piece already ruined then working on it further, gaining experience, trying new techniques... I couldn't make it worse.

I ended up completing a mixed media piece of both watercolour and colouring pencil and although I know the piece is not the best ever work created I found myself looking at a step up, a rise in my work. I learnt to not be afraid of colour, nothing everything has to be wishy washy, to stand true to my convictions. Perseverance was another major skill learnt, thinking it was all over and carrying on anyway proved [in this instance] a good thing.

I have also spent time reading extensively into the art of watercolour as well as researching into artists which have appealed to me or who I feel I could learn from. I feel my eyes have opened somewhat and that there is much to learn from this art and I wish to undertake this challenge wholeheartedly.

My goal now is to do a 'major' piece a week... in the sense of major to my skill and expertise, each piece designed to go beyond its predecessor. I also plan on doing this for a year... 52 pieces of work which will [hopefully] show my improvement in tactile art predominately within the collaboration of illustration and watercolour. I feel, no matter how bizarre this sounds, this is an evolution within my work; rising from a plateau and moving upwards a notch.

Fingers crossed it all goes well, no doubt something will be learnt in the whole process and when I have built up a small collective I shall launch them online. Now to just flick through my extensive photographic stockpile and let inspiration do the rest. :

You only live once...

So recently various factors in my life have led me to believe very strongly in 'you only live once so make it worth while.'

I am a dreamer by nature, I have massive dreams and I try and make the majority of them a reality. I love art so much, it is such an expressive environment with so many mediums and disciplines that you could never get bored in the Art world. I also think in the contemporary world we live in you can't even read to the bottom of the first page of the paper without feeling despondent and depressed. There is so much violence and hatred in the world it is hard to not get sucked in to being a cynic and a pessimist.

I think my ideology is naive but I really couldn't care less, I want to spend my life living my dreams and being the best me that I can be. I want to be an Artist of some nature because in my heart I know that's what makes me happy, what makes my soul sing and so far I feel that idea is going really well. However sometimes it is easy to get trapped in a rut and feel like nothing is moving forward but that is the very moment I look back at the path I have traveled.

Personally I have invested not only a lot of money [inconsequential reality] but also quite a bit of time pursuing my dream. People who read my blog might have read a previous entry where I have explained my journey but in brief I looked into Art as a form of escape when I was 16 and next year marks 10 years of perseverance and I only really realised that last Monday on my 25th birthday. My style has majorly changed since when I first began and my confidence within my work has grown but both of those are naturally consequences to any form of work. I would say out of those near 10 years the last couple have held the steepest learning curve and I can safely say I can add that I do not suffer fools gladly to my ever growing list of qualifications attained from the University of Life. I believe that if you want to do something then you do it, life is too short and excuses are way to easy to come by and regretfully only old age holds a steadfast guarantee of forgetting and forgiving. Actions [big, small or non-existent] do hold consequences and consequences by nature are constant and resolute; non moving in their rooted position in the history of life and the world and that is a stark reality in any existence.

So my point? Don't make excuses for not doing what you want to do no matter if your dreams are big or small. The moment where you form a seed of a dream and the making of that dream a reality is very fleeting indeed and before you know it the chances of the dream being reality have gone... and then the dream becomes a distant memory of a possibility that will never be. Excuses build monuments to nothing but a big sign of your own idiocy. Some people are happy doing nothing and that is amazing in its own right and some people want to travel the world and they should keep dreaming that dream.

Life is a fragile beauty, a fleeting spark in an old fire and so to waste that time is futile. We should all be striving to be better people physically, mentally, spiritually [whatever beliefs you might hold] both within our personal lives as well within our work.

Right now, this very moment, I want to go and sit in the sun and just watch the world go about its own merry tune, sometimes beauty is in the simplest of wishes... so sitting in the sun is exactly where I am about to go.. :D

To end I wish to share an important piece of work from my 'Macrocosm' project which I have dedicated to my lovely Nan who is awesome.

[Laura Ashford, 'Macrocosm']