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Parsnip Pottery

~ Parsnip Pottery, Rattycorner and Doodle Artist all in one happy package.

Parsnip Pottery

Tag Archives: digital art

Drawing Butterflies

03 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by parsnippottery in colouring, digital art, drawing

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colouring, digital art

I’ve had something of a side project on the go. When my children were little I used to draw butterflies for them to colour in. They would stick them to pencils and run around making them flutter.

Somewhere along the way the world has caught up and drawing things to colour in is once again a useful skill, so I’ve revisited the pastime and made a book full of butterflies to colour in. (I don’t expect anyone to cut them out and run around with them this time.) 

Here’s a colouring sheet to give an idea of what the pictures are like. This butterfly isn’t in the book, I kept her free to fly the Internet. It would be great if you could share her picture wherever you want to.

I love rats, I do!

16 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by parsnippottery in books, digital art, drawing, pet rats, pets, rats

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digital art, pet rats, pets

That’s the title of my new book. The phrase is something of a family joke, because many years ago, whilst running a ratabilia stall at a local rat show, there was a small girl with an enormous pet rat who repeatedly came up to us to say ‘I love rats, I do’. Ever since then, whenever the rats have done something particularly cute, silly or gross, we’ve come out with the phrase.

ilrbook2

I knew that this book should be a children’s book, but it’s taken me a very long time to put it together. First of all, it needed pictures, so I bought some graphics software and a graphics tablet to plug into my pc, and set about learning to draw. Well as I’ve said on here before, it turns out that the best way around my colour-blindness is to draw directly onto the photographs. Smudge painting. Even cheating like that, it’s taken me several months to gather the right photos and turn them into images that work with the book and that feel good enough to inflict on the public. Then there was the text. It took a couple of false starts to begin moulding it into something I felt right about. Somehow I hit upon a look and a style that suited the topic, and off I went. It felt as if the images were taking forever to produce, and then suddenly they were all finished and it was just the text that needed a final polish. The typeface was a particularly happy find. It’s opendyslexic alta, which is very easy to read and suited the style of the book beautifully.

So now I’m watching the first few purchases and waiting to see how the reviews go, if any come along.

Time to start work on the next book, I guess.

Getting ready

06 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by parsnippottery in pet rats, pets, rat show, rats

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digital art, pet rats, pets

trentfullsize

I got around to updating my Deviant Art gallery today, which is probably a good thing but I’m supposed to be doing other stuff really. Like getting ready for the show tomorrow. I’m down to four entries now, so not too much stress on the rat side but I need to get set up to do a ratty photo shoot as well. The Sawley hall is a great venue, there’s always a real buzz there. It’s gonna be good! Bounces away…

Reworking NooNoo

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by parsnippottery in digital art, drawing, pet rats, pets, rats

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digital art, pet rats, pets

I did a drawing before Christmas of a friend’s heart rat, NooNoo, shortly before one of the light-bulb moments of my learning curve with the tablet. Looking back at it, it wasn’t that good at all, so I had another go. So much happier with the new version.

oldnoonoo  Out with the old

newnoonoo  In with the new (Noo?)

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