A Seal of Approval

Trying out those coloured pencils: Faber-Castell Polychromos

Polychromos pencils on cartridge paper, copyright 2015 Alison Moon Illustration

So, this week, having got a lovely set of Faber-Castell polychromos water resistant pencils for Christmas, I finally found that I had the time to actually give them a go. So I did, and had enormous fun while doing so.

And the first thing I noticed? They were so easy to blend, and it was literally twenty minutes into working before I realised that I had to sharpen them again. I worked in layers with this piece, and used Zest-It solvent to blend, which worked very well over the 200gsm cartridge paper I used. I was quite happy to find that there was no paper discoloration where the solvent bled as well.

In terms of smudging, I noticed that there was a little issue with the dark colours on the seal's markings. I found that the pigment tended to cling to the skin of my palm, but it certainly wasn't anything major and was easily solved with a little tracing paper.

Once all the colour was layered as needed, I finished up the details with a titanium white Liquitex marker, which I found that did a nice job of pushing back the colour where the light hit the animal's fur.

So, Overall, it was a lovely experience - definitely one that I'll be using again. 

The Folio Collection of Ghost Stories Competition Entry

The Folio Illustrated Book Competition 2015

This Years' competition brief was to design three illustrations and a book cover for an anthology of ghost stories - always a fun theme to illustrate,

so I thought I'd give entering a go.

For the front cover design, the challenge for me was to come up with something graphic and interesting. I love Gothic style imagery, and since the stories featured all had a Victorian or Edwardian feel to the writing. To find out more about the stories and the competition itself, here is the link:

 http://competitions.houseofillustration.org.uk/book-illustration-competition-2015/about-the-book/

I felt that old fashioned was a good way to go. In the end I chose a raven to make use of the symbolism and the appropriate link to the poem 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe.  

The Abbott's Treasure by M. R. James

Mixed Media

The Upper Berth by F. Marion. Crawford

Mixed Media

A Tale of an Empty House by E. F. Benson

Mixed Media

Overall, I'm happy with what I've done, and i was glad to get stuck into an intensive project again. More of my work can be seen at http://www.alisonmoonillustration.com