When I came to art college in 2011, I was pretty much clueless when it came to using Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I learned how to add colour and texture digitally to my drawings. This meant I could easily change colours or composition and add or remove elements from the artwork. I liked it. This is the way I work almost all the time now I'm out there freelancing and whatnot.
However, I've begun to realise something: I miss painting. Recently I've found myself pouring over images by some of my favourite illustrators (including Debi Gliori, Alex T Smith, Quentin Blake, Oliver Jeffers) that are paintings created 100% by hand in the 'real' world. No computer necessary (well, apart from the magical part where they go from artist's studio to the pages of books all over the world...)
So, I decided to step outside my nice neat comfort zone and see if I could paint something. Something that wasn't awful. The jury is out on that one, but it doesn't matter because I had fun.
I started with a pencil sketch for a wee story I've been working on:
Then I took to the lightbox and got my paint on! On everything. Face, hair, floor and a little bit got in my mouth. Painting is messier than I remember.
I took photos as I went! So paint also got on my phone, add that to the list.
Here is the finished article - Harold the tired (but colourful) owl and his noisy neighbours:
