It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Mistletoe Mice

Mr Red

Sir Hound

Tweedy Fox



Badger and Hare

  
  After a couple of days of furious scribbling, I've designed 5 quirky Christmas cards featuring various animals of the british countryside. I wanted to design something unusual, yet festive..hence the presence of holly, mulled wine, exchanging of presents, mistletoe and cosy attire!
I'm planning to tea stain them, then paint the characters in oil paint to give them life! I thought to use oil paint because of its richness..I can just imagine the lovely deep red I'll use for Mr Red robin's waistcoat (how apt!).
Watch the post!

Thoughts and Musings

To my sheer delight (and relief) lots of ideas have been popping into my head about the characters and the plot of my book. All of which are quickly scribbled into my trusty notebook, but more about that when the ideas are more solid.
Anyway, my drawing! I'm fascinated with old houses, particularly the victorian variety because they're so imposing and mysterious. I think that they act as time capsules containing stories of the past which unfold as you get more acquainted with them. It's probably why they're often described as being 'full of personality'. It's also probably why I love drawing them so much - you can really focus on the detail and then find that when you step back and look at your drawing you see that it's suddenly full of character. It's all in the detail!
More to come..

A New Direction...







'The Farce'

                                                       (concept illustration)



It is no secret to those who know me, that I am an extremely keen reader. 

I have studied Theatre Design over the past three years, finally graduating in July of this year, only for me to come to the realisation that I'm just not cut out for it!

Therefore, I have decided to take a new direction and embark upon a career in illustration. Furthermore, after becoming enthralled by many a book, I've been inspired to write a story of my own - and illustrate it! I've been working on several drawings that illustrate different potential scenarios. All in all a very exciting new project.

More sketches and blog posts coming soon...

Works in Progress...

The past few weeks have been extremely busy with work, a new illustration project (which I am very excited about!), a title sequence design, storyboarding...the list goes on. I've had these ideas brewing in my head for a long while, so I'm glad that they're finally down on canvas! I'd like to stop using photoshop for a while and concentrate on painting. These two canvas boards are a work in progress, and I'm considering painting them with either oil paint or gouache..can't decide. Either way, I'm hoping for a good result!

It's been a very long time since I last posted! I have a very good reason though! Since February, my life has been revolving around my final project: my hand drawn animation. The past few months have proved to be my biggest challenge yet..a lot a problems cropped up for which I had to find solutions.
Having never done an animation before, I decided to take the risk (brave or stupid?), and along the way I have learned the fundamentals of animation and jumped (or fallen) over many hurdles.


'Lost and Found'
An Animation by Alexandra Shaw
Wimbledon College of Art BA Degree Show 2012

    Click to watch 'Lost and Found':   https://vimeo.com/43678183

I Wish...

All the way back to my first year model making project. The combination of a found site and a film...I loved making this probably because I could pretend that I was part of the production team on a Tim Burton film...

To Be Or Not To Be?

After having a rifle through some photos of past work, I discovered these from my second year project of designing for Hamlet. My obsession with floorboards is evident here..I think I have a problem...

Inspired...

Today has been one of those days where my mind has exploded and I've been bombarded with inspiration! Hence I have not been able to stop drawing! It's been a while since that happened..and I'm so glad it did because for a minute I began to worry that I'd never get a I-Must-Draw-And-Draw-And-Draw-Through-The-Night-Until-I-Cannot-Possibly-Draw-Anymore feeling. But it happened today and here's what came out onto the page:

More to come!

Pencil Test

So today was spent experimenting with my new lightbox and animation paper..I think I'm hooked! I'm quite pleased with this seeing as it's my first proper attempt!

Granny

A New Character...

Introducing my main character for my animation..

Cat studies

It's been a while since I've updated this, so here are some drawings of what I've been working on! They are for my studio project which is an animation called 'Shadow Cat'.

I've decided to go about this the old fashioned way: drawing it all by hand frame by frame! Pencil tests shall commence this week...