have you ever had it blue?

Damn, I'm going to miss this place this year. These are drawings of Clermont Ferrand. They're a kind of mixture of realism and imagination, fact and fiction. I like that place in between both. I have an idea for a small series of these drawings. So, if I will not get to physically visit this year, I will travel there through drawing.

Ask Andrea

I am currently beavering away, creating my fourth zine in the 'How To Draw' series. This one is, again, about drawing with the ballpoint pen and I'll be taking a closer look at the colour ballpoint. For the first time, I'll also be including a 'problem page'!

So, if you have any questions about drawing with ballpoint pens please ask away. I'll choose a few that I'll endeavour to answer in the new zine - available at the beginning of August.

I'd better get my socks on!

Previous zines available HERE.

penanarama

Here's a piece  made for one of my favourite sites; Cult Pens. I'm often asked to do link swaps or advertise or review products or sites but never do it. It's not my thing. I only ever mention a product or business if I feel passionate about them. And, Cult Pens I do. They, to me, are the best place to buy pens in the UK. Huge stock of millions of pens. Every pen you could need. Plus, the service is excellent. Pens delivered to your door the next day. Fab.

Anyway, the reason I did this drawing was for the banner of their newsletter and because I'm 'Artist of the Month'. So, there are drawings, an interview and, erm, photo HERE.

Plus, this original drawing is for sale HERE.

for such a long time now

Oh folks, my technology issues continue. But, as bored and frustrated as I am with it all, I'm not letting it get me down. No.

It's giving me more time to draw, create and make some new products ('citing!).

Still haven't got around to cleaning though, as you can see.

So yeah, I'm coping.

Missing you guys though.

crazy love

Hi guys, just a heads up here; my third zine How To Draw Like A Nut is now VERY limited. My shop has about twenty left in stock. And, that's it. All my zines (apart from some special limited limited edition ones) have runs of one thousand. So, if you are new to my work, and don't already own a copy now is the time to get one HERE. There's also an offer on the first two ballpoint zines HERE.

Right, that's it for the selling, for now. I hope you understand that I have to do it. It's how I get the time to draw and post all this crazy stuff. Back with more crazy stuff very soon.

feathers fall around you

Later this month, the Bank Holiday weekend of 25th-27th of May to be precise, I will be exhibitng my work as part of the Derbyshire Open Arts annual event. A photographer friend and I will be showing our wares at Pear Tree Cafe in Whaley Bridge.

There is an information board just outside the cafe. You can just see the top of it in this picture. It's in the hedge, next to the road sign, across the road from the car, got it? I said I'd knock something up, you know, a quick sketch to go along with the official event poster, to tell people we'll be there.

A quick sketch, my arse.

squashed tomatoes and stew

You know I should never ever mention anything I have lined up. It's it the kiss of death. This is not the exciting project update I mentioned in the last TWO posts. My excuse this time is that something else popped up. A birthday to be precise. My little old blog's birthday. Apparently this blog is actually five years old. Well, it was about two weeks ago. I forgot. Again. Which, my family and friends will tell you, is also very typical.

So I'd like to say a Happy belated Birthday to my blog and I. And, I'd like to say thanks. Thank you for all the visits and comments over the past five years and 568 (!) posts. I appreciate each and everyone of them.

oh tonight oh tonight

I'm just rounding up the last couple of drawings for the next zine. I'm looking forward to getting a new one printed. It's been a long time.

The 'classified ads' drawings (see last post) are just about finished and I'll try to post them by the end of the week. So, if you've bought some advertising space come back to see your hand illustrated ads. In the meantime I leave you with this craziness. Who knows what I'm ranting on about in this drawing. It's very late at night, the time of night when you shouldn't really be allowed a pen and paper and a blog.

ink on a pin

For probably about two years now I've been meaning to do a FAQ post. It would then provide me with a link that I can send to people when they write to me asking about pens and stuff. This week, while I'm being all pro active, that is what I am going to do. I originally thought I'd do it today but I'm going to push it back to the end of the week, to coincide with my birthday (eeek). It feels right to do it on that day. I don't know why.

So, if you have any questions you'd like to ask about my work then please do. You can ask them in the comments and I'll answer them to my post.

Another thing I am going to be doing is a pen review. This drawing is me warming up for that. Click on it if you'd like to read the low down on this selection ballpoints.

i remember it was that Wednesday

This is actually a new drawing, although it might look a little familiar. The original washing machine drawing that I made was a personal favourite and I wanted to rework a couple of my favourite pieces for my current exhibition (see last post). I'm never sure about doing that kind of thing. There is something in the spontaneity that's lost when you go about doing something again. This is a larger drawing too. I always felt this subject deserved bigger paper and wanted to give it more impact. The colours, although different from the original, look quite good, I think. But what the hell do I know?

sleeping through the day

WARNING; zinemaking can seriously damage your sanity.
'How to Draw Like a Nut' is still available HERE.

to follow where you are

So you might have seen a bit of this drawing before. Half of it to be precise. This is the last piece of artwork to be finished for the new ballpoint zine. I'm looking forward to seeing it all printed and assembled. It's quite different product from my previous Molezines so, as yet, I have no idea how it'll turn out.

I'm hoping it'll look pretty cute. I'm quite happy with this spread, anyway. But, to bed now. I've been awake until the wee hours for the last three months. Or at least that's how it feels.

Night night.

a song that i know

Here's one that started life in one of my sketchbooks and has now been reworked on paper. I was looking for a final image to complete the new 'drawing with a ballpoint' zine and as these were such a hit when I exposed them in France (I can't think why) I decided to go with them.

I've added a little extra something to the zine version (no. I'm not getting my bra out again) but you'll have to wait until you get it in your little paws.

something to be

So here's a little thing I've been working on for a little while. It's a new zine. Or rather this is the cover. It's not a Molezine, it's a bit different. Not quite as posh as my little Molezines, but, I think, more in the spirit of zines. It's also a kind of 'drawing with a ballpoint/biro/stilo/bic' zine. It'll be out in the next couple of weeks (bad timing I know, with the Christmas mail, but that's typical).

I did wonder about putting it for pre order, but after the debacle with the last one I'm not too sure. What do you think?

seems i've got to have a change of scene

A couple more spreads from my travel themed Moleskine. It's a tale of two drawings. A game of two halves. Or something like that. The drawing above is of some bouquet garni I bought in Lyon. Now, I know some twigs and sticks wrapped in leaves isn't going to float every bodies boat, but it does mine.

I enjoyed this drawing, loved the subject, colours and the textures and I like to think it shows.

In contrast, the sea anemones, below, turned out to be quite the opposite. Although, the subject is very beautiful I couldn't get a handle on it. It really should have been lovely - gorgeous shapes, amazing textures, patterns and colours - but I just couldn't make it work. I end up getting so frustrated when I cannot achieve on paper what I see in my head. I didn't enjoy this one, at all.

And, I think that shows too.

Anyway, enough moaning. You can see the rest of my travel moleskine HERE.

she's in my head

So, as I said, some brand spanking new drawings from my travel Moleskine. Ah, I just love those sketch books so much. That beautiful smooth cream paper. Plus, of course, it's a heavyweight paper which means it can just about withstand all my obsessive cross hatching. I don't think there is anyway you can improve the Moleskine product - although I'd love them to add a bigger size paper size, and perhaps a nice bright white paper to their range. Not that I'm complaining. I just love these books.

I am now feeling determined to finish this travel themed Moley. Maybe by the end of the year. I know it might not sound like the most ambitious ambition (?) in the world, but these spreads do take hours - and sometimes I'm talking about double figures. Not that I'm complaining. I just love to draw, so I'm going to go hell for leather in this sketchbook. Time permitting, of course.

Anyway, to celebrate my return to the travel Moleskine I've put a sale on the zine that I've produced from this book. It contains nine drawings all with a travel theme. Buy it now by visiting my little shop HERE.

Cheers, my dears. And, in case you are interested the travel Molsekine set (so far) is HERE.

and it just don't matter now

As I've said a million times before, when it comes to drawing with ballpoints (or biro, if you're British) I'll use any old make. I have no loyalty to any particular brand. Biro, Bic, Papermate, Staedtler, unbranded, Tesco Direct. Any. Found pens, old pens, new pens, free pens, chewed pens. I'll use anything. There is just one problem with this. When your pens run out you can't always find replacements. That's especially annoying when a pen becomes a favourite. Like this one. This drawing of Josh's Stan Smiths has finished off my favourite trusty non blotchy unbranded ancient chewed up old biro.

This drawing is now available to buy HERE.

how to draw a shoe

As promised, here is the second method I use, when it comes to drawing shoes. This, it has to be said, is my favourite method of all. And, I use it not only for drawings shoes but for most of the still life drawings that I make. In fact, this is probably how about 90% of them were created. A friend of mine says it's cheating, but I don't think so. This method means that everything I draw is the actual size of the object. Plus, for me, it brings the object and the drawing closer together. I feel that the object really becomes a part of the drawing when I draw like this;

Method 2

Oh, and by the way, I have used exactly the same tools as in the last post minus the tracing paper. You don't need that.
Step 1. Get your Converse boot, or whatever it is you want to draw, and draw around it. Yes, actually put it on the page and draw around it. I've used pencil to get the initial shape in the drawing above. It'll never be true to shape, because it depends what angle you are coming from (in so many ways), but I like that.
Step 2. Then draw around the pencil outline with a ballpoint to give you a ballpoint outline (apologies for the totally bloody obviousness of what I'm saying). It doesn't matter if it differs from the pencil outline, it's your shoe and your drawing.

Step 3. Adding 'values'. I'd never actually heard this term before I started drawing-blogging. I think it might be a US term (?) or even a technical term. As I said in the last post, I've had no training so maybe that's why I'd never heard it before. So, for those, not in the know, like me, add some shading. By looking at your shoe you can see where the darker bits are - hatch there.

Step 4. More hatching. More more more. Continuing on from the last step, building it up and adding some texture.

Step 5. Adding more detail and continuing with the therapeutic cross hatching. Really feel those textures. Touch your boots!

Step 6. Finishing touches. Adding the lovely details and, again, for this drawing I've added a bold outline. If you don't want a bold outline leave it out. Not every drawing needs one. Finish when you want to finish. It's your drawing. Let the drawing tell you when it's done.

Well, that's the process I go through. But, hey, don't listen to me. I'm sure you have your own thing going on.

Check out THIS LINK to see the other method I use for drawing shoes.
Plus, you can buy my 'How To Draw...' zines, and other stuff, HERE.

how to draw a shoe

Over the past few years I have worked through many different processes, when drawing from still life, to get to the one that I am happy with. As I'm self taught it's been a process of elimination to find the ways that work best for me. I have narrowed it down to a couple of methods actually. I'll show you both in the next two posts, and demonstrate with my favourite subject matter; shoes.

 Above are all the tools I've used. They are; a cartridge paper sketch book; tracing paper; pencil; rubber (I believe that means something different in the US?!); three blue ballpoints; one red ballpoint. I want to stress at this point, because I'm asked so frequently, I use ANY kind of ballpoint pen. No special makes or brands. Any. As long as they aren't blotchy I'll use them.

Method 1
Step 1. I am pretty obsessive about getting the shape 'right', so if I'm sketching something, for eaxmple an Adidas trainer, I will do the sketching stage on tracing paper. I realised, a while back, that I do not have any 'sketchy' books as such. I only ever produce finished drawings. I do, however, have huge amounts of roughs on tracing paper. Doing things this way means I can work on the shape I want to achieve and then transfer it easily to paper. It also means that, if I should want to, I can reproduce the same image (in different mediums). Which is something I do quite often.
Step 2. When I've got shape I want I transfer it to paper. In the image above you can see the ballpoint outline. I would obviously start with a pencil outline, but the scan I did for that was rubbish - you couldn't see anything. So when the pencil outline is put down on the paper, I go over it faintly with a ballpoint.
Step 3. I have started to add some shading (values?) to some areas. I work out where this shading should be by observing the shoe and where the shadows and light fall. Excuse me if all this sounds really patronising, it's not meant to. It's just how I have learnt to draw. Step by step.
Step 4. Here comes the cross hatching. This is the part where I feel I can really get into the zone with this drawing. I love this bit. The shoe is starting to come alive, and more texture is being added through the hatching.
Step 5. A continuation of the last step. More building, more hatching, more texture. Also at this point I'm starting to add the detail. That's another bit I love doing.

Step 6. The finishing touches. My most favourite bit. Details, a bit of extra hatching and a splash of red. In this drawing the final finishing touch was to outline the shoe with a bolder line, using a ballpoint that has a bigger nib.

I'm sure there are more sophisticated methods of creating drawings but when you haven't had the training you don't get to learn them. That's OK with me, though. I found my way of doing things through practice.

Check out THIS LINK to see the other method I use to make my shoe drawings. Hope it's useful in some way.

running over the same old ground....again

Look better like this, don't they?
Click on drawing to view.

In the last post I was considering giving up this kind of drawing. I will never give up the ballpoint, though. Never! I love it far too much. I don't understand why everybody doesn't draw in ballpoint. It's more the doodley style thing I was thinking of putting to bed. However, I do have an idea for them, and I need to get that out of my system first. And, it's a rather large idea. After which, you'll be as bored of these kind of drawings as I am.

Click HERE to see more of my ballpoint drawings.