I've been working quite hard on new colour pencil works specifically for the new Cherrydidi outlet in the lovely lakeland town of Ambleside. It seems that the clientele there are more interested in original work so I've produced these drawings to hopefully appeal to their wishes. I've been more traditional with these and not introduced any inkwork and at 33x25cm, they're also smaller than what I usually produce. I still go for the strong colour and dramatic light, as is my st

Continuing my self teaching in colour pencils, I undertook this work of imagination to push myself in how much I can get out of pencils. It's become apparent that most colour pencil artworks are very detailed and quite light in their approach whereas I want to be bolder and less photorealistic, creating a painting rather than a technically brilliant illustration. So this piece is about depth, colour, tones and atmosphere. I'm very pleased with it considering I'm running befor

I must admit, I had a bit of an artist's block over the summer but as the first whiff of autumn air appeared over the horizon I had a small burst of inspiration and came up with two new digital works in a couple of weeks. First was a strongly autumnal affair, "Tranquility Way". This was followed by a late summer scene, "Lighting the Way", set at Ashness Bridge in the heart of the Lake District. Both are available to purchase as prints here on my website. #art #digitalart #lak

While digital paintings are fun to work on, I do miss the the feel of working with pencils on the textures of different paper. I can also sit where I like whilst drawing as opposed to being stuck at a computer for the duration of the piece, so I have taken a break from the digital and have been working on colour pencil drawings. I normally use Derwent graphites but for the coloured work I've been trying out Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils which I have to say, I absolutely l

Some months ago, I was asked by Penguin Publishers to take some photos of the recently decorated Wemyss Bay Station with its a beautiful Victorian vaulted iron roof. They'd had a photo by someone else but it was in the old colours, so they needed an update and I gladly made use of the available sunlight to meet their now shortened deadline. Thankfully, they were delighted with the shots and used one for the interior of the book but better yet, one was used for the actual cove

I'm often amazed just how few people understand what digital art really is. It's not the first time that someone has wanted to buy the original of a digital print so I thought I would give some explanation here. As the saying goes, there's many ways to skin a cat, and so is the case with digital art. I personally use two methods: either painting over a photo or combination of photos, or as an original piece on a blank screen. For the photo method, I tend to use photoshop but

I have been a freelance artist since 1992 which is quite a long time now that I think of it. Over the years I have produced original drawings and paintings, created painted glass windows, spent a good number of years painting murals and Trompe L'oeil in houses, restaurants and hotels, produced large backdrops for stage productions and designed quite a bit of graphic work for businesses and sole traders. I had always been a keen amateur photographer with my trusty 35mm Pentax

Aware that people prefer colour pictures to black & white, I have taken my pen drawing of the red squirrel at Derwent Water and have recreated it in colour using digital art software. I've shown here the before, during and after. This should hopefully be more popular, especially in the greeting cards.

Below are some new coloured works. These are all produced digitally, that is that by using a desktop computer and a Wacom Cinitiq tablet with a pen stylus and have painted each one from scratch. No simple manipulation of photographs, they are all created from a blank screen canvas. Except the last on though (Cumbrian Night), which is a combination of photographs taken around the Lakes and then painted over to create the light. All the photos were taken at daytime, just to giv

As my last post said, I have original artworks for sale at Cherrydidi in Keswick Cumbria. Below are some samples of the pencil drawings that I have for sale. The prints of these are also available through my website here. Most of the drawings are by graphite pencil, a medium that I've always loved for the simplicity and monochrome effect. The first drawing with the squirrel is by pen & ink with a touch of charcoal. I've only recently started using ink pens, inspired by ink et