A Summer Summary

July 28, 2017

My Goals for 2016 post has been judging me for the last eighteen months.

I did run my 10k Race for Life (and came in at 58:54, beating my goal time by ten minutes!) and my friends and family helped me raise £280 for Cancer Research.

I didn't finish five personal paintings by May, although I did a bunch of studies. This is because I did take on two cover art commissions. And then another three for a trilogy by the same author. I went to London for the Schoolism Live workshop where I listened to some amazing artists and met a lot of great people. I ran off to Corsica with my friend and awesome comics artist Rebecca Morse, and return to complete a sadly-still-under-NDA illustration for a Scottish design agency. Then, I created my first painting for a Light Grey Art Lab exhibition and I managed to squeak in one more personal piece, A Midnight Wish, in the final moments of 2016.

Happy 2016, everyone! What's are your goals for this year?

Goals for 2016

January 7, 2016

I had a real whirlwind of a year in 2015. I toured San Francisco visiting Design Studio, IDEO, Facebook, Pixar (PIXAR!) and other creative companies with my amazing Special Edition course-mates, spent a weekend in Paris at IT'S ART's first Masterclass - getting portfolio reviews from Marc Simonetti AND Raphael Lacoste, holy crap - and visited New York with my parents to celebrate my 30th birthday. I crammed in a lot of time with friends, hit 45kg on the bench press, and finally nailed my surf pop-up. I didn't manage to fit in everything I wanted to do, so I spent a lot of time in December thinking about what I wanted to make happen in 2016, and how I was going to do it.

When I took part in Special Edition, one of the best lessons I learned was the importance of setting SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-Bound. Ok, the acronym varies a little depending on who you ask, but you get the idea. I set too many goals for last year and the year before and flumped a lot of them, so this year I'm focusing on Realistic, and keeping the list small. I'm also not plotting all the way to December yet. Once I've hit these milestones, I'll add a few more.

Update on the State of Me

October 14, 2014

Firstly, an update on Duck Dive, which is progressing nicely from the blocky scribble I started with (after much ado about posing, and a few quick studies trying to capture the motion - I'll post those another time). I know, I know, the poor mermaid has currently sacrificed her arms. I'll either get them right soon or call it "creature design" and pretend it was on purpose. Shh, don't tell.

"Duck Dive" - WIP Illustration by Louisa Gallie

Secondly, I'm working on another commission for my wonderful friend Grace Draven (whom I illustrated Entreat Me for, as well as Master of Crows) and after a round of thumbnail sketching, here's the final concept that I'm currently working from!

I took a much needed holiday last month to visit my friend and talented comic artist/illustrator Rebecca Morse or Pika-la-Cynique, as followers of my art might know her better by. We ate barbeque and crepes, went hill-walking and took in the views of southern France, enjoyed Feminist Artist Rants in person instead of on Google Hangouts for a change, and also drank until giggly. There might have been dancing.

I also applied for an awesome training course in Glasgow to kick my senior artist skills into touch, so I'll be travelling down once a month to learn more about the digital arts business, company management, public speaking and presenting (which is something I'd like to get a lot better at, for teaching and workshops and so on) and lots of other good stuff. AND I get to go on a trip to San Francisco with the others in the programme in February! It'll be my first time visiting, and we'll be seeing a lot of awesome Silicon Valley companies so I am very, very excited!

Duck Dive

January 31, 2014

Just a little personal piece I've been sketching on and off a few evenings lately. Still lots to work on with the character lighting. Underwater scenes are so beautiful :)

More WIP and Digging Out Some Old Sketches

September 12, 2012

Dagger finished, started working out the mehndi (yes, I usually start out with scribbles like this until I stumble onto a shape I like). Like everything else, I'm going for a shell/coral design, all whorls and swirls. Listening to the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack while I do it - music distracts my brain so I don't overthink the patterns too hard.

I also stumbled across something while I was tidying out some old folders. My high school sketchbooks used to take a real beating, being carried about to ever single lesson (for that precious 3 mins drawing time before the teacher arrived), to and from my friends' houses, on holiday, and pretty much everywhere else I went. When we got a scanner I started "saving" some of the drawings I liked best by scanning them before the sketchbook fell to pieces entirely. I remember doing this while I was still in high school - about fourteen or fifteen, I think. So that makes this at least ten years old!

Anyone guess what book they're reading? :)

Currently Working On...

August 22, 2012

Slowly but surely getting there on this painting. Finished flimsy transparent bits. Begun work on dagger (many, many revisions and reworkings and deletions not pictured). Added Very Important Sparkles.

I would have added some close ups but it's getting into the early hours now, because of a rather long day at work pushing a game app to the finishing line, and my boss treating us a late pub dinner and rather a lot of alcohol to thank us/celebrate.

(Look, I'm Scottish. You should be amazed I'm not tipsy every time I post.)