Back to the drawing board; finding a new direction for illustration

Lots more sketching and painting stuff going on this last week. Here are some images of what I’ve been up to - scribbles, refined outlines and some acrylic sketches:

I’ve so enjoyed doing these. The switch from detailed work has taken away all the pressure of feeling I need to get things perfect every time and that’s really important for keeping an enthusiasm and mindset for always trying new things.

It’s about being ok with colouring outside the lines and seeing how little I can get away with to represent a pose - just a minimum amount of outline, using just two or three colours and staying relaxed about proportions not being spot on. Thing is, they don’t need to be. I mean, look at the dark skinned girl in attitude below! They can still look good and in some ways, are more expressive.

Yesterday, I took some time out of art (apart from finishing off some small bits of two pieces) and went to Kingston. I’ve had a few days off work, which has been wonderful, but it’s been a lot of creative hours mixed with working in the garden of the home where I rent space. Lots of winter clearing up and weeding to do and I’m pleased with the results of both.

Anyhow, I just had to go into Pullingers, which is my fave art shop, and ended up buying a plain cotton bag to test out some of my illustrations on and some moulding stuff to start off my ‘new’ faces. This will mean I can cast a mask to lay over a moulded head which will really speed up that part. Faces always take ages to do, which is why I've elected to stay with blanks while working with smaller pieces.

Spent a bit of time trying to watch jerky video of the European Gymnastics Championships in Poland...Very nice to see more girls showing actual style and refined movement. I've not much appreciated recent competitions as it grates on me to see so many world class gymnasts with stiff ankles, terrible toe point and ghastly rigid hands. It's staggering to me that so many, I mean really, SO many girls these days (oh I sound ooold here) have terrible leg lines, zero aesthetic performing qualities and floor choreography which is unconnected to the music. I don't care how crazy hard the skills are. And as for falling off the kit and still winning...let's not go there.

I get it. Things change and I've not been super up to speed with gymnastics but, it's still called artistic gymnastics so it'd be nice to see artistry being better represented. It'll swing round again no doubt, but may take another revamp of the code to find the balance. Maybe this is why the last few years I've been more tuned in to dance - it feeds my desire for grace and elegance in a more satisfying way.