A Doodle A Day: Pen & Ink Illustrations

All of the illustrations and drawings on this site unless otherwise stated are Copyright © 2004-9 Chas Creek. The Characters 'Smudge' & 'Grindle' and associated characters are Copyright © 2004-9 Chas Creek.
Permission is granted to reproduce the illustrations and Drawings for personal and educational use on the previso that full credit is given to Chas Creek including links to www.doodleaday.co.uk and that the works are not altered or used to create derivative works. Commercial use, copying, hiring, lending is strictly prohibited. You may contact me with any requests for other licencing

Illustration 4 - Into the Night

Day 4 and a new illustration idea not a more finished rework of an existing idea. It is interesting but this as many of my drawings just took place on the paper. By which I mean that I have the idea in my head, maybe do a partial quick scribble of any part I feel I need to check first - in this case the pose of the character and then the rest happens / grows on the actual drawing, no preliminaries. This of course may be a bad thing sometimes.

The inspiration for this? Well I am a big fan of Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell and their Edge Chronicles series of books. Another series of theirs is Barnaby Grimes, Barnaby being a 'tic-toc' lad (a kind of messenger / courier) who traverses the rooftops in the course of his deliveries. Chris Riddle illustrates the books, but in the case of the Barnaby Grimes I was left wanting more illustrations and I also found that I had my own impression of the character and I felt that I wanted 'darker feeling' illustrations.

I haven't looked at the book for a couple of months, and last night I knew what I wanted to draw today, so this is my impression of the character and a scene I had in my mind when reading the book. Interesting as well how totally different the styles, Chris Riddell has a very recognisable style, mine here is quite Dickensian I think and how I interpreted the world in the book.

Now if only I could become as followed an illustrator as Chris!

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Illustration 3 - By Nature Bound

Day 3 and another reworking, this time of a piece from over two years ago. Quite different from the last two illustrations in nature with only the medium in common. However it is another idea that I like quite a lot, in fact there is a rather large Heavy-body Acrylic on Canvas painting of one the original series on the wall in the living room over the fireplace.

I think this has a fairy tale kind of feeling to it and I have deliberately kept the background rather in the vein of a woodcut and in contrast the figures have a much finer execution, which the scan doesn't reproduce that well here. This is an improvement of the previous incarnations of this piece and I am not displeased with it.

The decision now is, is tomorrow (Saturday) another studio day or a day off!

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Illustration 2 - The Ink Imp

Day 2. I liked the feel of the Ink Imp doodle from a couple of weeks back and I liked the character so I decided to try and rework it today. This surprisingly took me most of the day, most of that playing with composition of the character and while I am pleased with parts of it I am not pleased with how other elements are working which is a little galling.

This may be one I have to visit again at some point, but not tomorrow as for now one day is enough time on this drawing so I will be concentrating on something else, not sure what yet but the candidates are lined up ready to be selected from.

FootNote: I guess I was in the Studio for around 11 hours today from 8 am apart from lunch and breakfast and fell asleep about 8.30 this even (something I don't normally do), on waking up now around half midnight I like this a little more than I did a few hours ago.

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Illustration 1 - The Apprentice

Day 1! I have decided to re-work six existing illustrations but obviously to a higher standard of finish and to create six new illustrations based on pages from the numerous children's books that line my bookshelves in the study/recording studio come art studio.

Re-working six allows me to break in gently and get straight in with illustrating rather than having to conceptualise first and it's also nice to see some of the doodles go beyond being a doodle.

The concept and doodle of 'The Apprentice appeared here a few weeks ago and I spent today working it up into I hope a more finished work.

One thing that I am glad I invested in this last week is a pair of colour corrected daylight desk lamps which has meant that even though I have spent much longer at the drawing board than usual my eyes don't feel nearly half as tired. Problem now is after a day under these lamps the house lights now seem very yellow to me... mind it makes everything look cosy at least until my eyes adjust!

I liked the feel of the original little doodle of The Apprentice and I thought it would make a nice atmospheric piece.

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About

Welcome to A Doodle A Day! Feel free to have a good look around and leave me a comment if you like what you see, or even if you don't!
A Doodle a Day is a place where I publish sketches created for fun and the love of drawing and more finished illustrations. I draw primarily with pen and ink, either dip pen or fountain pen. I do use other mediums such as watercolour, acrylics, pencil and soft pastels but my first love as a medium is pen and ink, especially dip pen.
I trained and worked for many years as a graphic designer, artist and studio manager within publishing as well taking on freelance projects. I draw for the sheer enjoyment of creating something from nothing but a white sheet of paper and a bottle of ink. I also work as an illustrator concentrating on Childrens illustration. I hope that you get as much enjoyment from seeing these sketches and illustrations as I do from creating them.

If you would like to enquire about my work or commissioning me then please contact chas@doodleaday.co.uk