this northern boy

Illustrations for an imaginary age

Tag: painting

August 17, 2016

August blogfest – day 17

A busy one.

I’m still working on sketches and final inked illustrations for the client in California, feedback has meant a few changes – and the addition of helicopters! Not something I’m used to drawing, Google coming in very handy.

I’m also working on the branding project, again feedback has come in so I have a few amends to make before I get stage two over to the client.

Good to be busy though.

As I haven’t had time to write a more interesting blogpost today, I’ll just leave you with my favourite painting, if you’re ever in London drop in to the National Gallery and stand in front of it for a few minutes. It’s a treat for the eyeballs.

 

Whistlejacket_by_George_Stubbs_edit

Whistlejacket, painted in 1762, by George Stubbs.

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August 12, 2016

August blogfest – day 12

Mouthmill.

 

When I was seventeen, studying Graphic Design in York, I bought a book called The Anatomy of Illusion. It was the collected art of a British illustrator called Michael English.

The work in the book varied from early psychedelic posters for shops on the King’s Road in London, to hyperrealistic paintings of trains.

All the art was amazing. Staggering really for me to comprehend, as someone just starting out on a career in design / illustration, the level of talent, technique and precision.

There was one painting, part of the Nature Series, that absolutely stopped me in my tracks. Mouthmill, an astonishingly realistic rendering of water flowing over moss, over hanging ferns stand out against the dark background… It’s flawless.

Michael English simply said of Mouthmill – “This painting marked the climax of all my nature work in the 1970’s. It has no equal.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Michael sadly died in 2009, you can read his obituary here.

Michael-English

Mouthmill, Michael English, 1980.

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