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This is where I publish updates on what I am illustrating and for whom, and also any funny anecdotes about things children say - I also work a few hours a week in a library with children, who say the most extraordinary things at times!
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Drawing graffiti can be a challenge - especially if you are doing it illegally, which I disapprove of completely! This video shows a simple technique that will help improve your drawing skills. I recently shared a video with you on drawing waves well this one concentrates on getting great lettering.
Drawing graffiti: Over the past two years I have worked in collaboration with www.videojug.com to produce over forty 'how to draw' videos. This is one to help people improve their technique when drawing lettering. Some of my videos have had over 8,000 hits!
What's great about these videos is that you can pause and rewind as many time as you like and so it's a bit like having a tutor in the your own home. It also means to can draw along with me in the video! In this video I show you step-by-step how to draw cool letters in a series of sketches, which I narrate.
I am always happy to receive feedback from people and so have a go and then maybe email me the results of your efforts! Today I looked at some of the reviews of my videos and apparently I'm 'awsome' and I 'rock'. I have to say at my age I never thought I was either, but it is nice to know people have enjoyed watching. Learn drawing graffiti today!
Today I thought I would share with you a video I have put together of all the illustrations from the book Hobbledown. As there are so many it was the quickest way I could think of that would allow me to blog about all of them!
I know I've blogged a lot recently about Hobbledown, but this will be the last one now until the next book, as I have lots of other exciting things to share with you!
This book had thirty-two illustrations inside. All drawn using a simple soft graphite pencil. The larger images took up to eight hours to draw, as they are very highly detailed!
If you would like to see more of my illustrations from this book, visit my website at lynstone.com and view my on-line portfolio!
This is my first YouTube video and so I hope it's OK?
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Well yesterday I really struggled to upload images to my blog, due to a very over-used Internet. I'm guessing everyone came home from work and started streaming the Olympics on-line and everything just got clogged up. So today I thought I would attempt to share more pictures and photographs with you that I was hoping to share only yesterday!
Firstly here is the second photograph from the grand opening of Hobbledown. In the shot the author and myself are in the background just about to finish signing books, and there's Huck in the foreground with his little fan club! The poor young man playing the part of Huck must have been very hot that day in his adapted soldier's hat! It was a sweltering day and very hot indeed in Merry Makers (Hobbledown's shop).
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It's official! Photographs of Hobbledown book signing session...
Earlier this week the PR company covering the grand opening of Hobbledown sent me copies of some of the official photographs from the book signing, and I thought it would be nice to share them on blog!
You can see how hot I am in the photographs. Hobbledown was blessed with a dry and very sunny day. However this meant the author and myself were signing in very hot, rather humid conditions! However it was such fun, I don't think it bothered either of us too much!
Anyway, here are two photographs from the signing, which you may like to see. The young man that dressed up as Huck from the book was particularly good at playing his part! Well one photograph, blogspot is playing up something chronic and I have been unable to load the second photograph - most frustrating. Come on blogspot, pull yourself together!
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Good evening everyone. I said I would share some more photographs from Hobbledown with you and so here you are! I am also posting a video filmed by my friend, Stefan who came with me to the book signing and grand opening of the Hobbledown village.
Here are some more great Hobbledown photographs! Some included my artwork, which was used on their education boards and the signage when you first arrive – in fact everywhere! Kidspace Adventures Limited have done a fantastic job transforming what was a local children’s farm, into something more and lots of fun!
Hobbledown photographs: I was pleased to see when I arrived at Hobbledown for my book signing that they had used my silhouettes in their signage, which is very effective and works so well. It was lovely to see all the animals there too. There were unbelievably cute Meerkats, miniature donkeys, Shetland ponies, goats, ducks, albino wallabies, and a lot more! For children some of the best aspects of the site must have been the amazing climbing frames, which were disguised as Hobbler homes (I have included some photographs of those below).
They intend to publish more books on the land of Hobbledown, including a poetry rhyming book for younger children, which I will illustrate and so I think I am going to be kept busy by them for some time yet! I can now of course share lots more artwork with you and so will in future posts, but today I am showing my artwork through photographs of the site.
Signing books at Hobbledown's grand opening last Thursday turned out be hot work. I signed over 250 copies (well we estimated about that because within half an hour it was over 120!). It was such a hot day too! At one stage I ended up with a sturdy baby boy on my knee and I’m not quite sure how that happened!
So today as well as pictures taken by friends of myself and the author signing books at Hobbledown opening (taken with lots of camera shake I’m afraid), I thought you might like to see some pictures of Hobbledown itself! My artwork was dotted about everywhere on site! It is a really weired sensation seeing your drawings come to life in 3D with kids climbing all over them! They even had the characters from the book in full costume wandering around the site.
There was a giant whicker Rumpletump, which was a superb sculpture – very impressive! Hobbledown village, which doubles as a giant climbing frame site and lots more buildings from the book, including Fern’s fairy treehouse in the giant Quarcus Oak.
As so many pictures were taken I am going to share them with you over a couple of posts and so today, it’s pictures of the author and myself signing books (looking hot and bothered), and the wonderful sculpture of Rumpletump. I have also included below one of my pictures of Rumpletump that are in the book!
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It's Monday and although that in the day I thought I'd share some videos today all about drawing, well farm animals! So here you can learn how to draw a chicken, a sheep and a pig! Oh and a duck if you like!
Have had a very interesting day and will hopefully have some exciting news to share with you tomorrow, if all goes well (fingers crossed). A small but perfectly formed commission has come my way and hopefully if they are happy with the fee I will get started tomorrow! I only have ten days to deliver the finished artwork and so once I get started I've got to move fairly quickly! Worst still I won't be able to share the artwork with you for some time either!
Anyway back to today's tutorial! I would love to get feedback on my videos, because if I do anymore it will help me do a better job next time. Enjoy....
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I have just found some time to work on some new artwork samples. Firstly I am revisiting a project that I did for Templar Publishing about two years ago for the book fairs.
Unfortunately at the time the project was not taken up and it is hard for publishers to why sometimes. It can sometimes hinge on what mood the buyer was in on that day - quite literally - do they have a hangover? Have they had their morning coffee or not! It is all very precarious at times, but that's the nature of the business. However the one snippet of feedback I did receive at the time was that everything was lovely, except the little girl did not look 'generic enough'. So today I have been scribbling some new versions of the little girl.
The following may not be what she ends up looking like at all and are only my initial sketches, but I think she is looking less like a portrait and more illustrative, and more importantly I feel she has a wider appeal.
I am also aiming to loosen up my style in my reworking, because I just feel it is all a bit too ridged at the moment. It is good to objectively assess your work regularly and to be honest about what you think you've done wrong - it is how as an artist you grow! I am very brave sharing my initial sketches with the world. That or mad!
Here's the first sketch:
Here's the second, but looking at it again, I need to redo the shape of the face,
as it has lost some of the detailing that the first has around the chin area. Hair is looking less convincing too! Huh some much to do...
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Oh dear! It would appear that yesterday I loaded up the same video twice - sorry about that. Please find below the second video I meant to show you yesterday (bottom one), with an additional one to make up for it!
This one is entitled 'how to draw the human body'
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I am sorry I haven't blogged for a few days now, but I have been busy with an unexpected deadline that was rather short! It was for The Agatha Christie Book Collection. I think the brief was intended for another artist, who may have had to pull out, because I usually get more time. This time I was drawing suspects for Sad Cypress. Very difficult to make it all gloomy when you've got to draw a garden full of flowers and a pink climbing rose in the background!
Anyway this brings me on to today's post. As I having been doing a lot of figurative work this week, I thought it was a good idea to share two videos with you that I did for videojug on how to do figurative work.
One is all about drawing the human body and the second about drawing faces! Have a go yourself and see how you get on!
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I know it doesn't look like my blog at the moment and that is because I have changed it temporarily just to demonstrate to a friend how blogspot works for them to consider! It will look it's usual purple/lavender self next week!
1 Comments on This is still Lyn Stone's blog, last added: 7/17/2012
I just found your supercool Jane Austen silhouettes, thank you so much, they are ever so pretty!! I am considering using (one of) them in a new creation I am working on, will of course mention this on my blog when I'm posting it! All the best from the Netherlands, Ira irascreacorner.blogspot.com
Sketches of ‘fairy superheroes versus giant’ is quite different from what I am usually asked to draw. I did them to help another artist out who was unavailable due to illness to do the concept stage on this project and so I stepped in to help.
Fairy superheroes versus giant: In addition to creating these strange fantasy characters I had to use extreme perspective. Everything had to be drawn at quite an odd angle, as previous books using this artist had all been drawn using this particular perspective. This made the project more interesting for me of course!
I only did the first set of concept sketches for this project, but thought I would share them with you today. These are only pencil sketches drawn using a technical pencil, as that was all that was needed by the client at the time.
The giant is really from the
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Hobbler homes: The lovely houses are now built at Hobbledown and look absolutely great fun for children to climb all over and explore! The company that has built the wonderful village, shops and animal homes is German, and so as you can imagine everything looks very well built indeed!
Below are some photographs of the Hobbler homes and other buildings, as well as my drawing of the cosy-looking village and some other great houses! The artwork was drawn using a technical pencil, which never needs to be sharpened. I also use a very soft led usually a 2B or even a 4B, but you start to lose control with a softer led. I therefore switch between the two to get the effect I want to achieve.
The official opening is on the 26th July, but I understand it will open to the public by the 18th July, according to their Facebook page anyway! If you would like to see more illustrations and other artwork for this large project, go to my ‘fiction older children’ page or look under ‘subjects’ for ‘silhouettes’.
As well as illustrating the book, I also worked on their logo and produced a whole range of vector silhouettes of the characters from the book. Also silhouettes of animals and Rumpletump – a scary monster who’s partial to corn custard pies! If you want to read more news, you could try my blogspot
Drawing elves: It is monday and I am trying to get into the habit of sharing my ‘how to draw’ videos with you! This week’s tutorial is aimed at helping you to improve your drawings skills and producing a really good drawing of an elf. In this video I am just concentrating on the head of an elf, because that’s where most of the distinctive features of an elf can be found.
If you would like to follow this video and learning about drawing elves, you’ll need a sharpened pencil, or better still a technical pencil, which never needs to be sharpened, a good eraser, and a sheet of cartridge paper to draw on. The advantage of watching and following this video is that you can hit ‘pause’ whenever you like or even go back over something again if you need to!
I would love to get feedback from and you so by all means use the message box on this page to send me your thoughts on this video. If you would like to see more videos I have worked on, just got to www.videojug.com here! Or visit my blogspot blog page, where you can find many more tutorials and tips, click
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As I posted my logo for Hobbledown yesterday I thought it would be appropriate to share with you today my video on 'how to draw cool lettering'. Not that I go around vandalising railway sidings and bus stops, to develop cool lettering, but it was one of the many things I was asked to produce a tutorial on by videojug.
But before I reveal the video I thought you might like to see a few of the many ideas that I played around with early on when thinking up logo ideas for Hobbledown. All included silhouettes, produced as vector images that Kidspace Adventures Ltd are now using elsewhere!
This was one idea from very early on in the project when we were thinking more about animals and less about everything else that will be happening at Hobbledown!
This is another idea and I did a whole series with different colour combinations, but we all felt this was a bit fussy and the tree just didn't work! However the animal silhouettes went down really well and in the end I produced those all on their own!
Now I've shown you a few lettering ideas, see if you can follow my video and have a go yourself right NOW!
I have been told only this afternoon that the grand opening of Hobbledown, near Epsom will be taking place on Thursday 26th July! This means that after this date I can blog about all the many illustrations I did for this project and there are many of them to share with you and I can't wait. I have been waiting months to share some artwork with you!
However as they have already started using the coloured logo I did for them in their promotional newsletters I think it is OK for me to at least show that today!
Below is the whole logo, but I have also zoomed in a bit in places, so you can see more detail!
In this image I have zoomed in on Eliza, one of the main Hobbler characters in the book!
Here are some of the wee little animals!
0 Comments on Hobbledown news flash! as of 6/27/2012 10:19:00 AM
Well it's Monday and therefore it's 'how to draw' day on my blog.
Here I will share a video tutorial to help you draw a kitten. I am also showing you some of my own cat pictures and my nephew's digital artwork of his cat, Nicnoy, which he sent me on Sunday. "Nicnoy" is Thai for small. I think it's pretty good and he drew it on his iPAD!
The video takes you through a step by step approach using simple shapes to build up your picture of a kitten. You may not achieve absolute success with your first attempt or indeed a few, but if you persevere you will get it in the end. Just make sure you have sharp pencil or technical pen (these never need to be sharpened), a good eraser, clean sheet of flat paper, and of course patience!
Firstly here's some of my cat artwork. As you can see it's a mixture of quite cartoony stuff and more serious studies.
Here's my nephew's drawing!
Now try drawing a cat yourself and watch my video below - good luck!
Sometimes when you are working on a project you get major challenges and I think having the task of drawing four of Agatha Christie's most loved detectives can be classed as challenging. Especially when my drawings have to be approved by no less than her descendants! The four I am referring to are Tommy and Tuppence, Hercule Poirot and Mrs Ariadne Oliver.
Luckily for me so far all my artwork for these four characters have be approved and have been or will be published. Consequently I can only share with you today the two that have just been published: Tommy and Tuppence.
Below are my pencil roughs for these characters, along with the finished artwork!
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I totally forgot to do my tutorial post on Monday! So a little belatedly here it is. This week I thought it would be fun to show you how to draw a pig, using the video I did with videojug.com.
I also wanted to share a piggy illustration with you too! The illustration has been drawn just using a soft graphite pencil. I tend to use technical pencils, because they never need to be sharpened and it can be quite irritating, having to keep stopping to sharpen a pencil. I am also useless at sharpening pencils and often end up with nothing!
First, here's the video for you to follow
Here's an illustration I did earlier this year - note the pig!
0 Comments on Videojug: how to draw a pig as of 6/21/2012 11:46:00 AM
Sketches Agatha Christie: When doing sketches for the Agatha Christie magazine I find when I am working on a brief I often like the sketches and roughs better than the finished artwork. You can sometimes lose the vitality and movement in roughs when they are translated into colour, which is a shame. So today I thought I would share artwork with you from issues of the magazine that have been published.
I work in pencil. Actually I use a technical pencil, because it never needs sharpening. There is nothing worse than being interrupted mid-flow by an annoying blunt pencil - very irritating!For all the roughs I do a great deal of research first. All are set in different decades of the twentieth century. I have done the turn of the century, right through the 1960s so far, and so my knowledge of fashion for both men and women is expanding too.
The magazine itself is called The Agatha Christie Book Collection and is selling internationally, and can be bought in the United Kingdom in all WH Smith stores (if you're interested.) I am one of four artists who illustrate for the magazine regularly. To read more articles on my work, try going to my blog by clicking HERE! Here's Cust from ABC Murders, Julius P Hersheimmer, Tommy and Tuppence from The Secret Advocacy:
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Kidspace Adventures Ltd have released some fun photos on their facebook page of how the site, to be know as Hobbledown, due to open in July is coming along. I thought I would share them with you today.
For this project I was commissioned to illustrate the jacket cover and thirty-two internal illustrations for the book and website. I also worked on a series of silhouettes of hobblers and animals that have been used elsewhere on site and in their new logo. If you would would like to see more examples of work I completed for Kidspace Adventures Limited, just visit my older children fiction pages on my new website, silhouette pages and also take a look at some of my older posts!
I still can't share artwork with your on blogspot, but not long to go now and then I have loads to show you!
About this time last year I was one of the many artists that Templar Publishing were looking at to become the new illustrator for the famous Little grey rabbit series. Unfortunately I came second. The artist that won it was taken on several weeks before me and was ahead of the game, so won the commission. However coming second was pretty good, as there were many artists all going for the same job who failed. In terms of the X-Factor, I came runner-up.
Despite that disappointment I am still pleased with the work I produced - many, many sketches and a sample piece of colour artwork and I feel now is the time to share it with you! So I hope you like cute animals, because there is a bucket load coming up...will share some more with you Monday. For some reason blogspot would only upload these - very frustrating!!!
I have been working on my new website since March and it's now pretty much finished and can be found on Google and Yahoo.
I still have a portfolio on my new website, but far more categories, a blog where I regularly post and also a nifty search button that appears on every page. The search button is really handy because you can put in whatever you happen to be looking for, let's say 'fairies' or 'pirates', and then hit 'search' and a search results list with links for my website will appear. It actually works too!
I also have facebook 'like' options and buttons for sharing on twitter, StumblUpon, MySpace, Reddit and lots more! I have also added widgets to allow people to link to my videojug.com page and try out some of my drawing tutorials.
You can also leave me messages if you like, and you get to have a monster avatar!
All in all, it's a lot more interactive and extensive and I hope you will like it. To visit my new site just click HERE!
I wanted to show you a screencast of my site that you could watch, but the screenr website is not working today at all - a real bummer! Nor for some reason can I upload any images to show you - a thoroughly frustrating day.
So I'm sorry very dry post today - YAWN!
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I thought I'd share some arty news with you today. I have just finished doing my silhouettes of the Bennett family for an underwear company. I am now awaiting the clients approval (always a bit nerve-wracking). Hopefully if they like them that's that project finished. I will be able to share this artwork with you shortly, that's of course if they intend to use my artwork straight away!
In the meantime here's some silhouette artwork I did for another company earlier this year! I did a whole range of animals, fantasy creatures and children with pointy ears...called Hobblers!
These were great fun to create and were 'drawn' using illustrator. I will share some more with you tomorrow!
0 Comments on Pride and prejudice, and silhouettes! as of 1/1/1900
I just found your supercool Jane Austen silhouettes, thank you so much, they are ever so pretty!! I am considering using (one of) them in a new creation I am working on, will of course mention this on my blog when I'm posting it! All the best from the Netherlands, Ira
irascreacorner.blogspot.com