March Meet the Maker - part 5

The end of the month is upon us and so that means the end of Joanne Hawker’s Instagram prompts for the month are also ending. The last few I’ve covered here.

Next year I hope to do the whole month over on Instagram too.

So the final four prompts were;

- Favourite

- Reel

- Range 

- Looking forward

So, first up, Favourite. Long pause. I’m not sure what my favourite is! I think I have different ones in different areas of the business - favourite designs in different ranges, favourite things to do and ways of spending my time... and pieces that stick in my mind (positively) so I guess they are favourites too. 

I’ll go with this piece. I drew / painted it last May. I loved creating it - I cleared the table, got the paints out, got a bigger piece of paper than I usually would and I had limited time before meeting a friend to go and sketch in the parkland. All these peripheral things are part of it too for me. I had drawn each of these flowers before, very carefully and slowly as part of my project to draw a cut flower bouquet for each month of the year. For this piece I worked really quickly, relaxed as I had already got the imagery I had wanted to create, and confident knowing that I had spent a long time studying each species.

This piece is in a frame on the wall in the studio, intentionally so that it regularly catches my eye. I am really drawn to it. I like the green leaves. I love the paint application, generous but not painstakingly going to every edge. It feels like it has movement and fun in it, and reminds me of the glorious work of Quentin Blake, of which I am an ardent fan. 
It’s been catching my eye such a lot recently that I’m starting to really crave doing more work in this style. I am even contemplating making it a monthly challenge - to work in a loose, relaxed way, working freely with my lines and uninhibited with the paint - we’ll see.

- Reel

For those blissfully unaware, a Reel is a new feature on Instagram. It is a short video, or clips of video put together and typically with music as a backing track (although not essential). I have dabbled a little with these, but did make one recently to show the time lapse drawing of some new sycamore leaves I drew on the iPad. Hopefully you can view it with this link, or by clicking on the image below.

 - Range

Well, my range can probably be seen most easily by popping over to the shop section.

One of the first products I started to design were the enamel mugs. These continue to be popular and I love seeing people using them out in the world. 

 

There are so many different ranges however - cards, originals, downloadable items that it really is hard to just have one here.

- Looking forward

Long time readers will know I like to do a drawing a day. This month I challenged myself to draw only on the iPad. I have found this really challenging - mainly as I don’t often leave myself enough time to also draw with pen on paper, and as a result I have really missed it. 

That said, it has been a good exercise for me to have done as I’m slowly learning more about digital drawing. Here is a selection from the month - some familiar in style to my botanical sketches in my sketchbooks. In the past the lettering used to feature frequently and it’s been fun to play about with it again in this format. 

Some of the drawings ended up being of the ordinary items I found in front of me - a bit of a drawing a day classic fall back - the crackers are a good example of this category!

So, back to the prompt - looking forward. As I like to continue this long term project of mine, but just change it about a bit each month, next month I might try the challenge I mentioned above - working quickly (without overthinking!) with pen and adding generous watercolour in a loose style...