It's hard to relax at Christmas when your favourite pastime is doing your work but in this instance I've chilled out by doing what I prefer most of all - using graphite pencils. I have, however, included a little colour seeing as I have a pile of pencils at hand. It's rare that I'm thoroughly pleased with a completed work (I'm very self critical) but have to confess that I'm delighted with this one. #pencilart #colourpencil #lakedistrict #cherrydidi #art

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

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

A number of years ago I used to paint murals on a regular basis but fashions changed and I moved onto other things. However, the odd project does come up on occasion and I was asked recently to paint a client's dining room and kitchenette. It was rather an unusual shape of house (clearly designed by and for an architect) in a rural setting and my brief was to cover the walls with lots of flowers as though the garden was indoors, and colour was to reign heavily. So while they