The Clan of Mugzey

Years ago when I was 15 my Mum came back from New York and she brought each one of us (1 of 4 siblings) a bear called Mugzey. They come in small medium and large or junior, norm and senior. At the time they were all named after something about the USA - Hershey, Donut, Pretsal and Soda... but it didn't take long before we carried on calling them Mugzey. Now eversince this moment Mum has not been able to resist buying more because lets face it they really are adorable. The small ones especially with their squashed up face and little beady eyes and pot bellies. What's not to love!? What used to be a modest clan of 4 is now bordering insanity at 14! So I couldn't think of anything more appropriate to give Mum for Mothers day, a hand painted card of the pioneering Mugzey's.

Life drawing taught me something

A couple of years ago the idea that I might be painting portraits would have astounded me. I studied life drawing in college for 2 years and I hated it. Don't get me wrong its all valuable experience, but being cooped up in a small room with 20 other students, trying to fight to get a donkey easel (they were more comfortable) was not my idea of fun. Painting from a photograph is so much more relaxing, you can take as long as you want, the subject won't move and you can sit at your computer desk checking your Facebook at the same time. Did I mention how much I enjoy painting now? I started this painting for my fiance's Dad who had his 52nd birthday recently. I had a feeling this might be a difficult photograph to paint, I've never been fantastic at painting hair. So I started this painting at least a week before his birthday. This first picture is what the end of that day brought, a basic outline of the image and facial features and I deliberately made it high contrast. A technique I learnt (grudgingly) in life drawing was how to underpaint, this is when you paint quite heavily, in big block shapes, often in colours that are not in the photo. (Obviously not in this case but the principle still stands). Then you spend some time with watered down greys and whites to bring the painting to a more likely range of colours. I'm still pretty new at this and still find it pretty awesome when it works. I never really know how well a painting will turn out. After the first day of painting I left it, I wasn't that keen on it and I had no clue what was next. So rather than hitting my head against the wall I left it for a few days. On the day of his birthday I finished it (yes I know I left it to the last minute)! Now I had a fresh idea of what I wanted to do to it. I've learnt not to be too bogged down with your first impressions, after all it is acrylic and you can paint over all that isn't working. So that's exactly what I did, I toned down all the heavy lines I'd created around their faces and slowly but surely brought the tone back. I find it much more difficult to paint somebody I know, however immensely more satisfying. Needless to say he loved it.

Noodle

When I was about 15 we had a pet rabbit called Noodle, I'm guessing the name was ironic since she was a pretty fat rabbit! Watching her behavior over the years she developed some personaility, she was very much like a rabbit version of Garfield. So when she died I decided to start a few one picture frame cartoons.

Conversation without words

One of our projects in University was to come up with a conversation without using any words. It was a 2 week deadline and for about a week I was pulling chunks of my own hair out. I just couldn't seem to come up with an idea that inspired me so I sat around twiddling my thumbs hoping it would just hit me. Following week I had this brainwave and it all became clear, I liked this idea that the conversation is actually between a mobile and a standard telephone, cutting out the middle man. I used stencilled imagery and symbols to create a simple conversation of catching up on the latest news.

Larkinor

When I was 16 I got heavily addicted to a web based browser game called Larkinor, I played it for about 2 years before I moved onto better games. It wasn't a very widely known game, in fact I would say there were only 100 regular players at that time. I joined a chat room and met a lot of people, most of whom were from America, they were all very nice and it made my gaming experience very enjoyable. This image I drew using pen and ink was to commemorate all the friends I'd made during my time there. All of the quirky names on the outside of the image were player names so that when I posted this on the forum they could see where they were.

This second image was drawn specifically for a friend I'd made in the game called Monty (game name). He had lost his Dad that week so I decided in memory I would draw an image and do a similar thing with everybody's names. The game was very much a community of very nice people and it was nice to show him how much we all meant to each other. It was a last minute decision to actually colour this one in, it certainly made it more vivid.

This drawing was the last one I ever did for Larkinor, by this time I was getting bored of the game and a lot of my old friends were leaving. This drawing was for somebody we all called Cinder who within the game was on the top list for being the best robber, so I focused on the robbing aspect of the game. It was a nice way to say goodbye.