still life – Radio Blackbird Illustrations https://radioblackbirdillustrations.com Illustrating history – illuminating ideas Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:23:18 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://radioblackbirdillustrations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cropped-cropped-Radio-Blackbird-Logo-1-32x32.jpeg still life – Radio Blackbird Illustrations https://radioblackbirdillustrations.com 32 32 An old post from last year! https://radioblackbirdillustrations.com/2025/03/07/an-old-post-from-last-year/ https://radioblackbirdillustrations.com/2025/03/07/an-old-post-from-last-year/#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:15:16 +0000 https://radioblackbirdillustrations.com/?p=390 After a long time away from this little blog, I returned and noticed this old post sitting there patiently in draft. I thought I might as well publish it, so you get something to look at while I cobble together the next one. After almost a year in the job (and a marathon that ate a lot of my free time!), I am finding a bit more space and maybe even a rhythm to post again. Hope springs eternal!

Click through on the big pictures to see them on Flickr for Alt Text and some more detail

Phew! It’s been a while! Since I started my new full time (and awesome) job I have had time to draw but not to post. Enough of the excuses already, let’s have a look at some of the drawings I did since the last post 👀

Art school finished in June, and I got a good report card 😁 The teacher kinda liked this, based on the feedback he gave 😹

Reflections challenge - still life with bottles, done
Still life with bottles, “Symphony in Green” aka “The Reflection Challenge” – colour pencil on paper.

Below you see the original and some shots of the progress. It took me quite a few sessions (of 3-3.5hrs each) to get there, but I learned a lot.

Still life for a colour pencil drawing, with a set of glass bottles against a green background, with lots of reflections
Still life “Symphony in Green” or rather “Reflection Challenge”
Sketch and hesitant first colour on the bottles on the left
Sketch and hesitant first colour
Close up of the drawing showing the reflection in the glass while the green background comes through
Glass bottles in colour pencil, layering gently
Four out of five bottles done, but no background
Drawing in progress with four out of the five bottles coloured in

I also entertain the vague hope that 500 years from now I may be known as ‘The Master of the Bottines’, like my late medieval heroes. Not sure how it happened, but at one point that was all I was drawing for a couple of weeks!

bottines - pencil drawing
Children’s boots in graphite pencil – adding the stitching details was fun!
bottines - colour pencil drawing
A classic at our Academy: the old boots. Needs some work on the perspective but texture is ok.

I’m starting to know what boots look like…

I can’t wait to see what the second year holds! But before that one kicks off, I’ll share some more drawings from the 100 day challenge – I completed that and it was a blast ⚡

Post script: The second year is good, too. Learning new things. I might even share some pics soon 😉

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