Another Birthday Card? Its True! I Draw Quite A Lot Of Birthday Cards For My Friends And Family.This

Another birthday card? It’s true! I draw quite a lot of birthday cards for my friends and family. This friend loves both dragons and books, so I tried to combine the two. Then I put a pun on it because I can’t resist it once I’ve thought of one.

Hi there! I'm really taken by your style - it reminds me of some books I used to love as a kid. I can see you're influenced by older classic illustrators, but I can't put my finger on which ones. Who are your inspirations in terms of style?

Oh gosh, I’m sorry! I don’t know how long this has been sitting in my inbox! There was never a new message icon so I only spotted it when I was hunting for something else, I hope it hasn’t been here for too long.You’re absolutely right that I’m influenced by a lot of older illustrators! Unfortunately I saw a lot of them in books that were so old the illustrator wasn’t necessarily credited (in the 1970s that was fairly common), so I can’t tell you who all of them were. I liked the simple style of paperback illustrations in books like The Chronicles of Narnia, which I thought at the time had been done with a fountain pen but were probably more complicated than that.Some I can actually name are all the obvious people like Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac’s early work, Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and so on. Back then most illustrated books had a large number of inset black and white illustrations done in pen and ink, and a much smaller number of colour plates done in very highly rendered watercolour, so I copied that same style. (I’ve learned to use other media over time, but as a child I had the idea that ALL book illustrations were done that way and I happened to like those two methods so I didn’t really question it.)I was also very inspired by modern illustrators who work in the same style, like P. J. Lynch and Tony DiTerlizzi, or Alan Lee and John Howe who did some of the best-known illustrations for The Lord of the Rings.I should probably admit that I also learned a lot of my technique from a certain set of How To Draw Manga books that I’ve seen getting a lot of flak online, but actually do contain some good exercises. My dad went on a business trip to Japan when I was about 12 and brought back a couple of those and 2 volumes of Sailor Moon for my big sister, which she handed off to me when she got bored of them. I LOVED those books and still have them now! There’s some similarity in technique between manga and ‘Golden Age’ British illustration (believe it or not) so it’s not always clear to me which parts of my style come from which source.I hope that’s helpful. Sorry to have left this waiting for so long, I almost never get any asks so I feel bad for not seeing it!

Inktober 2017 : Day 21 - fineliner and felt tip Eventually the school agreed that Nettle should just sit out of P.E. lessons.

Inktober 2017 : Day 25 - cartridge pen

Lottie is fairly sure she shouldn’t be talking to the Crow Boy, but she doesn’t really want him to leave either.

Is there still time for another Mermay picture? I should probably admit I drew this last year, it was a birthday card for a friend who likes mermaids and ocean imagery. (Although she’s also one of the only people I know who can’t swim.) I love drawing the ‘white horses’ on waves.

Inktober 2017 : Day 27 - fineliners and grey pen I was helping my pal Sammy on her table at London MCM for the last three days, so here are the Inktober pictures I did while I was away! Sammy requested ‘Poppet’s friends with a musical instrument’ so here are the two we didn’t see in the tea picture earlier.