May it is, and so's my newsletter.

If you didn't understand that, it's because I didn't even try to make sense.

Salutations to all!

I’m sending this newsletter out early in the month because - as I’m sure you’ve heard¹ - my first Draw- & Play-Date will occur on the 13th of May, and I want YOU to be there! So sign up by following this lovely little link.
I will not be recording it (to save my sanity and help us all be more relaxed and silly). But if you can’t make it this time, maybe you can join in another month: I’ll be trying different times and days, so eventually one might suit everyone! (But probably not.)

This week I’m listening to: Italian acoustic guitar music. (I just felt like you wanted to know that.)
Because it’s mostly bouncy it’s helping me not stay stationary, and because it’s wordless it’s not distracting my thoughts, and because it’s happy it’s making me feel summery and enthusiastic.
It’s also been dictating my dinner- and movie-choices. Anyone for lasagne and Luca?²

Gulls of the land and sea

Last month I guided you through the start of a typical commission, and I was going to talk about the rest of the process this month, but I’ve decided to take a little break from jazz and cats. (June feels more like a jazz-cat and cat-jazz month, don’t you agree?) Instead, I’m going to show you how I take my own advice…
In March I told you all about how I turn animals into characters and, ever since then, I’ve been more aware of that process while I’m drawing characters. It really works for me! Right now I’m working on a picture-book idea that involves gulls, so I thought I’d show you again how I follow the steps I described, which I’ll summarise below:³

1: Observational drawing and simplifying:

I watched a video of gulls and occasionally paused it to draw. If you look closely you’ll see the lighter sketches that I drew over with more confident lines as part of the simplifying process.

2: Drawing from imagination/memory:

I used the information stored in my brain to draw gulls from a few different angles.

3: Trying different styles/characteristics:
This helps to simplify and give the animal more of a personality, and it’s a bit like trial-and-error: I’m trying things out and seeing what I like best and what I can discard. Looking at the ways other artists have drawn them pushes me outside my comfort-zone and expands my imagination. None of these are master-studies: they’re not exactly as the other people drew them,⁴ rather I picked parts, tried them, and changed them as I saw fit.

I tried out various “styles” of drawing gulls using other wonderful illustrators as inspiration. You can see their work on my Illustration Pinterest board.

4: Anthropomorphising/Personifying:
This follows seamlessly from the previous step; the character just becomes more of a… well… a character. In my case, I don’t want the gulls to be a lot like humans, so I don’t have to change them much from step 3; all I’m doing is trying out some facial expressions, maybe a bit of body language, and a few things that will differentiate between characters.

My next step is to think more specifically about who my main characters are, how each will be unique and distinguishable, and then to draw them over and over with many expressions and in various poses. But I’ll save that for another newsletter.

A bonus video:

My gulls live in the English countryside, so I used a reference photo to experiment paint-drawing a bit of the wetlands, with a colour palette of mainly blue and orange. Here’s a quick and probably confusing video showing my process: how I started with a light sketch, added a load of pink for something different, then blobbed in colour with Inktense blocks and acrylic ink and added details with coloured pencils. (Listen with the sound on - you don’t want to miss out on the music!)

And then I decided that those colours were far too bright for the dull and dreary setting, so my next paint-drawing will be using a colour palette of mainly greyish blues and greens…
Illustration is an ongoing adventure of experimentation, discovery, and making a mess.

Word of the Week:

Anthropomorphise: to give human-like characteristics or behaviour to something non-human.
(This has been one of my favourite words since I read “anthropomorphic personification” in a Terry Pratchett book when I was 11. I think it was Death talking.)
Let’s use it:
Valerie picked up a slice of carrot from her dinner plate and carefully poked two holes in it with her fork. “I’m going to name him Carotix,” she announced, holding him up to her mother’s face. Carotix’s intense stare unnerved Valerie’s mother. This anthropomorphised carrot is judging me, she thought as she ate another spoonful of his brethren.

Before I sign off I’ll give you one more little link to sign up for my live drawing call:

Toodle-oo. I hope you have a beautiful May.

1. Because EVERYONE’s talking about it. Oh, wait…

2. That Pixar movie from 2021 set in Italy, which I enjoy more every time I watch.

3. This is just how I do it, and your way might be completely different, but I hope you find it interesting anyway.

4. Though master-studies are great practice too (but I think it’s best not to share them online).