Craft fair thoughts and work in progress.
April 2, 2013
Last weeks fair at Colchester Arts Centre was a big improvement on the previous ( and our first) craft fair. A smaller venue but much more arty in feel, printmakers and illustrators much in evidence and we sold more, and a more varied selection, than at Ipswich, so we are now applying to other fairs, at The Minories in Colchester and Norwich Arts Centre.
Otherwise, back at the Mac, and also using pen and paper, to develop some new ideas and to finish off some old stuff. I’ve got 5 tabs open in Illustrator at the moment, here’s what’s on them….
This one’s finished, just awaiting an upload to my istock portfolio……
this one is a development of the previous one, the sort of conceptual image that can sell OK as a stock image….
this one just finished, a chopped up version of a silhouette I did previously, taken from a photo of my neighbours smart Trek road bike…….
and this, which is just me doodling around with some existing artwork of mine to try and come up with an interesting image. Not finished, but I’m quite pleased so far, and finally, playing around with pen and paper to draw another decorative bird, as we had some good sales of a similar image at the 2 fairs. Sometimes though, it’s hard to recapture the spontaneity of a successful image, and though this is OK, it’s not as good as the previous one.
The top right part of the image is the detail parts from the previous bird, so I can sample the colours off it. The bottom right part of the image is where I have just copied the detail parts of the main image, just to see if they would work alone as a bird without the black background, and, with a bit of work, they may do.
Recent uploads
December 10, 2012
I’ve got a little gap in freelance work so I’m back to uploading images to my istock portfolio,
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/911920/?facets=%7B%2225%22%3A%226%22%7D#600b398
Rather than write much I’m just going to post some newer images and let them speak for themselves. 
Roll up, roll up, see the luverly new illustrations ‘ere…
October 11, 2012
OK, maybe not lovely, but new work anyway. Site issues at iStock are meaning that I have a bit of a backlog of images I’ve produced that are sitting on my hard drive, un-uploaded so far. In between I’ve had a couple of logo’s to design so now those are finished I’m back to work to sell online. Here’s my portfolio of images for sale…
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/911920/?facets=%7B%2225%22%3A%226%22%7D#600b398
The process of uploading requires an eps and a jpeg file, all checked for technical issues, plus a file showing where the reference came from ( usually a jpeg of a sketch, or a photo I have taken) The upshot of this is that each image requires 3 files, so once I have a little queue of images to upload I end up with a lot of files and I tend to lose track of them a bit, so I tend to slow down my production just to avoid an enormous backlog. I’m a bit at that stage now, quite a few waiting to upload, plus maybe 2 or 3 ideas half finished, either waiting finishing or, in some case, me losing interest or just feeling the idea isn’t looking as good as I hoped. Here’s a little selection, obviously I like to make use of elements within an illustration so the bird may be a little familiar! I’ve got a few others too which I may try and show in a day or two…..
Hand drawn stuff
August 8, 2012
I suddenly remembered the other day that I had read that Illustrator CS6 had particularly good live trace abilities, the way that a jpeg file could be imported and auto traced to produce a vector illustration. Having being producing a series of illustrations of American landmarks for a publishing client I’d got used to wielding a pen for a change so decided to produce a series of hand drawn illustrations of my existing vector illustrations of trees, to give a slightly more raw look. Here are the first attempts, all accepted into my iStock portfolio….
More to come as I do them, or get bored and move to something else 
Hitting the blogging wall
July 31, 2012
I suspected my initial blogging enthusiasm might wane and, lo and behold, it has a bit. A new Mac to sort out, new software to install and get used to, lots of sometimes awkward freelance work, some unexpectedly sunny weather ( this is the UK, remember?), all conspired to distract me from my blogging activities. Missed me? OK, I thought not Anyway, as a sort of lazy stopgap I thought I might just post a selection of work as I go along, stuff I like ( plenty I feel a bit meh about will remain hidden) or that’s interesting for whatever reason. I may comment, I may not, but here’s just a start….
I decided to return to my tree roots ( geddit? Tree? Roots? oh, never mind) and draw some more trees for my istock portfolio, they’re my sort of trademark there, so here are a couple more. I also discovered at the back of a dusty digital cupboard some nice peeling paint texture which I had digitised from a photo I took of some paintwork on a barn near here, so I started applying that to all sorts of images with enthusiasm, I could revive old images quite easily with a new look. If anyone is interested, here’s a link to my trees portfolio on stock…
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/3337723/#10c3106c
Rol up, roll up, get yore luvverly trees ‘ere etc etc
The guys who designed our website also asked me to do some drawing for a presentation they were doing to a client of theirs, an Italian paper manufacturer, too… here they are….
Anyway, going to watch the Olympics now, why not join me?
Tree logo
June 18, 2012
I got asked a couple of weeks ago if I could do a logo with a tree in for a new timber company.
They’d seen one of my digital tree files for sale at iStock (this one actually)………
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-3060333-bird-bush.php?st=d5f2751
but were aware one of the few uses not allowed for stock images is as a logo, so asked me if I could come up with a similar type of image, that was different enough to be able to register it as their unique image.
I came up with this image first but liked it myself and thought I’d rather keep this one and do another for the company. I’ve had it accepted at istock today so it should be on sale in a couple of days. I’ll post the one they saw ( and liked immediately) in the next post.
More Owl stuff
May 29, 2012
I’m becoming an owl obsessive for a while, until boredom sets in, so I’ve been producing some more to sell as digital downloads at iStock and doodling some in my sketchbook. There’s something strangely satisfying in the symmetry of their faces. Here are two more I’ve done in the last couple of days, plus some soon to be artworked doodles.
Yes, some fish in there too, they’re for another day though.
Owl stuff
May 25, 2012
I had doodled an owl in my sketchbook, sitting out in the sun and making the most of the weather yesterday so decided to draw it in Illustrator today and see what I could do with it….
I drew a tree recently with a hole for a bird, so I removed the original bird and replaced it with the owl, then just put the owl on a simple branch , so getting at least two uses ( maybe more later) out of one drawing.
New illustrations
May 16, 2012
I’ve uploaded a few new illustrations recently to my iStock portfolio…
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/911920/?facets={%2225%22%3A%226%22}#600b398
I’ve got quite a few new ones in progress but freelance jobs keep interrupting the flow, just finished the cameras, thought I’d finish off some iStock images but now have some more freelance illustrations landed on my desk, these below are just a few recent uploads, nothing too exciting, just the usual pot-boilers…
More tree stuff
April 30, 2012
Almost since starting selling work at iStock I’ve been drawing trees, I find them satisfying things to draw and it becomes ever more of a challenge to come up with new ways of drawing them.
They’re reasonable sellers too, if you’re luck and find one that hits the mark, and I’d guess about 30% or more of all my files sold are trees.
Here’s a link to my iStock trees lightbox….
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/3337723/#5e1425c
and here’s one to my own website where I have a smaller section in my portfolio of tree images
http://www.johnwoodcockillustration.co.uk/
Quite often I’ll watch TV whilst playing around and doodling in my sketchbook, part switched off and watching a programme, partly relaxed enough to let ideas flow.
I’d come up with a little doodle on a new page ( and new pages are always a bit of a challenge, all that white space waiting to be filled)
and sat down at the Mac with the drawing next to me, my favourite colour palette open, and quickly translated that into a digital image….
It had leaves only but something was missing so I just dropped in some little stylised fruit to fill in the holes and felt reasonably pleased with the result.
Whenever the opportunity arises to squeeze a bit more mileage out of an image arises I grab it, so, by using some roots from a previous tree I stuck them on the bottom of the trunk and quickly produced and additional image. I love the speed and freedom digital artwork allows!
