Spring

Well hello there, it’s been a while! I hope you’re all keeping well and are looking forward to the Spring (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere that is!). Rather than spend time making excuses for my rather long gap from blogging (everything’s fine, it’s just been busy times) I thought I’d do a little update of what’s going on with Owlstation right now.

Aside from client work, which I’m glad to say is ticking over nicely, I’ve been focussing on building my new portfolio website. It’s so nearly there!! And it’s been quite the learning curve, creating and building it all myself on WordPress using Elementor. It has also taken TIME – lots of it. I must confess I am very eager for it to be finished so I can get back to working on new products for the Owlstation Store, developing my creative skills, personal projects and blogging here of course! I want to make drawings again and get lost in art. Hopefully I’m just a few bug fixes away, though it is hard to tell when you don’t really know what you’re doing!

I’ve managed a few outdoor drawing sessions recently, which I’ve been better at documenting on my Instagram page. I’ll try to upload some of those here soon, and am definitely hoping to do more in 2023. A piece of work I was especially pleased with recently, was my Forest Guardian illustration. You might remember that a while back that I’d shared some character sketches for ‘forest guardian’ concepts. My plan was to hone in on a character and then illustrate a forest to drop them into (so that they could guard it). I used Crayola felt tips, oil pastels and coloured pencils to sketch a forest inspired by the Japanese Island of Yakushima. An incredible primeval forest covered in moss.

I thought the bright colours would make this a good image to share for this Spring update post. As where I am, the flowers are starting to show their heads, the evenings are getting that bit lighter and it’s even warmed up a little. Any signs of Spring where you are? Or if you’re heading into Autumn perhaps you’re enjoying the first blaze of colours. Either way, it’s nice to be back with you again! 🙂

Frolic In The Forest…

I haven’t had too much forest time lately but will aim to put that right in February. There’s something very vital about getting out under the trees, jumping over logs and generally frolicking about like an excitable fool in the woods. This is the third of four illustrations I created for the Drawn Chorus ‘Words to Live By’ show (do check out my previous posts if you missed the first and second!).

I hadn’t left myself much time to create my submissions for the show and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make something I was happy with before the deadline. I have a tendency to move very slowly and be a bit of a perfectionist when creating personal work if left to my own devices.

So this show actually proved to be a really good challenge for me as I had to just let go and keep moving in order to get the work done. And as it goes, I was pretty happy with what I produced. Sometimes ‘done’ is much better than ‘perfect’ and can get you further and more quickly than obsessing over details and re-hashing things that already work. Something for me to remember for the next show and coming projects anyway!