Artists of the Moment

Recently I've been taking a step back to every artist's roots, traditional art. Everybody learns to draw the old fashioned way with trusty pencil and paper, but I think for many new artists in the digital age it's easy to abandon your pencil case and replace it with a shiny new tablet. Maybe school knocked the love out of you by forcing still life down your throat for years, maybe you've just embraced the precision and convenience of digital art; whatever you're reason for leaving traditional art behind, here are a few works and artists that will make you fall in love with it again. be sure to check out their galleries too:


Zombie Self Portrait by ~WolfesClothing on deviantART


Within White by ~MichaelShapcott on deviantART


The Grand Doctor by `hibbary on deviantART


....Hopefully my own traditional images will be up soon, I hope you've been inspired too!

Ok, so it's been a year and a half since my previous and only post, but plans are to keep this blog rolling as of today! Seriously this time. I'm hoping to use this as some sort of artistic, career, general diary of all the important and interesting things in my life. I am hoping that forcing myself to update this on a regular basis will push me to create my own important and interesting things, and serve as something of a productivity aid during my degree and ventures into the creative field. I also take inspiration from a wealth of artists of all disciplines and want to showcase and share this amazing work with others.

I am a 20 year old English student about to go into my second year at Derby University studying Illustration. I'm a keen artist and photographer and am happy to have found imagery to be my calling. I am eager to sink my teeth into some really interesting work and projects as well as meeting and working alongside other creatives.

My dream career would be to work as a freelance concept artist for videogames; I'm a big geek at heart and have wanted to design games ever since I was given a Sega Master System at the age of two. As specific as my goal is, I like to keep an open mind and a busy pencil by appreciating and mastering all forms of art and illustration. I have a big interest in tattooing, love both traditional and digital art and am always on the lookout for new artists and inspiration.

I'm also a drummer working towards my diploma, a beginner juggler, culture and food lover and am setting my sights on travelling the world. And of course, I drink a lot of tea and coffee.

I'll be posting all my work, projects I'm involved in, inspirational work as well as some general updates on life, thoughts and ideas.

Until then, cheerio and watch this space.

The Joker

My parents were kind enough to get me a fantastic A3 Wacom tablet for christmas, so that I could colour and draw digitally without having to do it with a clumsy mouse. Digital art is something I've been aching to try for ages, and this picture is my first attempt at getting to grips with it. In all honesty, i have no idea what I'm doing. I really ought to read some tutorials. So this picture 'Here's My Card' is sort of trial and error and experimentation.

I drew the entire picture with a mechanical pencil on paper, and then scanned it in and coloured it in Coral Paintshop Pro XII.

I'm planning to do more like this of my favourite characters from movies, books and games. My friend suggested Sweeney Todd which would work great with the same blood effect. Others I'm considering are Vincent from FFVII, Sylar from Heroes & L from Death Note.
Watch this space...

The Caffeine Queen x