The Third Floor Corridor

A friend bought the quill for me two years ago when we were at the Harry Potter exhibition at the Writer’s Museum in Edinburgh and I decided to try it out for drawing with some brown ink.    

I dream up a lot of fantasy stuff for myself, especially places and their history in my fantasy world. Environment art is also something I’ve never tried out because it requires you to consider how something looks from a vantage point; composition and proportions take precedence over minute details. Painting and drawing from reference isn’t […]

Just experimenting with taking traditional sketches into Procreate on my iPad Pro and seeing what can be done.  

Been reading a new book series which features some of the creepier villains in fantasy who have iron spikes through their eye sockets, and out through the back of their skull. Otherwise productivity has taken a dip; can’t seem to be able to draw anything digitally anymore, just pen and paper stuff if that.

I’ll add more to this post as I go along; this is stuff that just evolves out of doodles and accidental marks on paper. I find it’s interesting to build up layers of pen marks and watercolours/ copic markers and let the two inform each other. So if I see a shape forming in marker, […]

There are times when work just flows, and times when self- consciousness or pressure paralyses you. It’s very much like having a case of nerves before a big match or performance of some sort. Thankfully there are ways to work your way out of the rut; practical, methodical steps that are guaranteed to revive confidence. […]

It’s the Mnemosyne blank A4 notebook by Maruman, a Japanese make rarely seen in this part of the world. But it’s so, so good. Everything about the notebook oozes quality, from the smooth hard covers to the incredible paper quality inside. The surface of each page is so smooth that even the fussiest of pens […]