Scots Pine

Every year I spot something new, despite always having loved walking in the woods, working in the woods over the last 12 years and being outdoors generally!

Here is a female flower on a bit of Scots Pine and a new cone. 

Recent studies

I love Autumn treasures - I feel like I'm part squirrel when I venture out as I'm always returning with a collection of seeds to draw. There is a section of the studio that looks like the woodland floor at the moment, with so many treats awaiting sketching!

I'm building up a body of work for an exhibition that is running Nov- Dec... more details soon. Commissions welcome - I'm working on several lovely ones at the moment!

Beech nuts

A little Beech nut study I did the other day. It doesn't seem to matter where I go, I seem to always come back home with a natural treasure of one sort or another squirrelled in a pocket, ready for drawing.

Oak in August

The acorns are such an amazing green at the moment! This is now in the shop too! It is an A4 original.

Holly

The Holly at the top of a field near my parents is covered in green berries - I'll have to remember to return and draw them again later in the year

Lime

Trees haven't featured here for a while but I've been keeping an eye on these too! Here are some August updates! First up - the Lime tree. It's finished smelling delicious, and now the seeds are starting to fall -another amazing design really

Helper

Day 19 | #MarchMeetTheMaker is #Helper

As it's such early stages for me I don't yet have the need for an official helper.

However many of my friends and family have been helping by providing encouragement in my illustration adventure...

...and patience as I stop to look at yet another tree !

You can see the dip pen in action on the Facebook page ...just click here!

Goals

Day 9 of #MarchMeetTheMaker looks at 'Goals'.

I've given myself a year 'to try'... to see if the dream of earning enough through illustration and hand lettering to supplement my part time job can become a reality. Otherwise the reality is finding another part time job...

Spring is Springing

I love this time of year as everything slowly turns green and comes into leaf. 

For my Drawing A Day this week I've been looking at different tree species - drawing their buds as a sketchbook study. I'm a bit of a tree geek and love how you can play detective and work out which trees are which. At this time of year the buds are one of the ways to identify the species (as well as the bark, remaining seeds and silhouette). I'm hoping to draw a few more this week and build up my collection. 

I also really like being able to tell what time of year it is in my Drawing a Day book when I flick through - maybe one year I'll manage to do a whole year as a nature journal...

Here is the process...

These studies are the starting point for another project I'm working on... but that's for another day!

A new range

I've started working on a new range of cards that combine my love of trees with my love of illustration and hand lettering. At present I'm affectionately referring to them as my TreeGeek range. This is one I've been tinkering with today...