I say potato.....

 

 I think one of the reasons art fascinates people is the way it allows you to see for a moment through someone elses' eyes, to get a new perspective. This goes for us artists too so I'm especially excited to bring you two very different takes on the same thing.

Tina Mammoser is a friend of ours and very kindly invited Rich and I to share her holiday spot at Saltwick Bay for a weekend. When we went exploring, we found the wreck of the Admiral Von Tromp framed perfectly by black rock. Naturally, neither of us could resist so we agreed to work from the same image and publish our results together.

Rock and Wreck by Tina Mammoser

Tinas' approach couldn't be more different - while I'm driving myself batty fiddling about with every pebble in the landscape, she gets straight to the heart of the matter. The focus in her picture is different too - Tina has used the strong lines of the wreck to frame the fantastic Black Nab to great effect. You can view Tinas' work including Rock and Wreck here .

Wreck and Rock by Karen Ruffles

On the flip side, I was most excited about the looming hulk of the wreck and included Black Nab in silhouette to help place the wreck. I used carbon pencil for the wreck itself so it's an even darker black than the surrounding rocks. You can see this piece over in my Etsy shop .

For further amusement, you can read Tinas' blog post here

Snails for all :)

 This week has been a very exciting one for me - I received my very first professional prints of three of my original drawings. I've been looking for months at various printers, choosing papers and getting test prints done before finally settling on the combination that I felt would give the best result across the board.

 I went for Hahnemuhle paper as it has a beautiful smooth white surface similar to the paper I draw on. It also holds black incredibly well so the prints are crisp and dramatic without losing any of the detail in the original.

 I had the snail and the hermit crab done as a set since they are the most popular images in my shop, along with Stephen. I'm currently working on a matched pair of landcape images which I think will be next up. 

It's taken a lot of pressure off work wise because my shop no longer empties out alarmingly every time someone buys a few things and with greeting cards coming soon I can offer something for every pocket :)

Snails for all :)

 This week has been a very exciting one for me - I received my very first professional prints of three of my original drawings. I've been looking for months at various printers, choosing papers and getting test prints done before finally settling on the combination that I felt would give the best result across the board.

 I went for Hahnemuhle paper as it has a beautiful smooth white surface similar to the paper I draw on. It also holds black incredibly well so the prints are crisp and dramatic without losing any of the detail in the original.

 I had the snail and the hermit crab done as a set since they are the most popular images in my shop, along with Stephen. I'm currently working on a matched pair of landcape images which I think will be next up. 

It's taken a lot of pressure off work wise because my shop no longer empties out alarmingly every time someone buys a few things and with greeting cards coming soon I can offer something for every pocket :)