This is my version of a Polaroid photo of a little girl I created as a intended reader of my invented reading scheme.

Line work/ Signature styles #1

I have recently been considering line work and how illustrators and artists have created a signature style with it. So I decided to begin an exploration of artists and styles that I like and influence me..
Today I've been thinking about Herge's work and how much I love his seeming simplicity coupled with his attention to detail and visual and historical accuracy..
The first thing that grabs me about Herge's work (especially with Tintin) is his line work.
I have found the following passage on Wikipedia to describe his Ligne Claire technique -

Ligne claire (French for "clear line") is a style of drawing pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It is a style of drawing that uses clear strong lines of uniform importance, and does not emphasize selected objects by different thicknesses of line, by shading, or by cross-hatching. (For this reason it is sometimes also called the democracy of lines.) Additionally, the style often features strong colours and a combination of cartoonish characters against a realistic background. The use of shadows is sparse and all elements of a panel are delineated with clear black lines. The name was coined by Joost Swarte in 1977.

raindrops on roses

Sensation of flight

Bonnie and Clyde

This is my version of Bonnie and Clyde (portrait of myself with Steve Marchant) inspired by the cover album art of Serge Gainsbourg's album of the same title (see above)

This weekend

Our weekend at Belgium.
Ohhh how much I'm gonna miss those chips!

John K Stuff

Hi everyone,

John K (you may remember him from Ren & Stimpy) has a pretty cool blog where he explains loads of theories, shares very useful information about illustration, animation and 'the industry'.
There are MANY interesting posts there and I think it’s a pretty cool learning resource to follow.

For example, this post is about background layouts:
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/07/organizing-bg-layout-elements.html

Really useful stuff for me 'cos I always struggle with BGs (among other things!).

Go and check it out!