Owls on a branch
Pen and ink observational drawing.
Artist · Maker · Pen & Ink · Crochet
I See.
I Draw.
I make drawings, crochet and other creative things — mostly by looking closely at what is in front of me and turning it into something of my own.
Drawings
Pen, ink, observation and a lot of tiny lines.
Most of my drawing starts with something I can see — a photograph, a character, an animal or an object — and grows from there.
Hakuna Matata
Character study in pen and ink.
Polar bear
Texture built up line by line.
Work in progress
A close look at the tools and marks behind the finished drawing.
Three little critics
A slightly playful piece — and very much the spirit of I See I Draw.
Crochet & making
Sometimes I put the pen down.
Drawing is only part of what I make. Crochet gives me another way to build something by hand — from small characters to bags and useful pieces.
Little character
Handmade crochet figure with plenty of personality.
Crochet handbag
Textured handmade bag with structured handles.
Chunky backpack
A softer, heavier crochet piece made to be useful as well as handmade.
Shoulder bag
Simple shape, chunky texture and a practical finish.
About
I draw mainly what I see.
I’m an artist and maker who has always been happiest creating things with my hands. I draw mainly from what I can see, whether that is a person, an object, a photograph or something right in front of me.
For years, I tried to draw from imagination and could never understand why the results were so completely different. When I can see something, I can study the shapes, details, shadows and proportions and translate them onto paper. Ask me to create the same thing purely from my imagination, however, and the result can range from slightly strange to genuinely terrifying.
More recently, I discovered that I have a very low ability to visualise images in my mind, something often associated with aphantasia or low visual imagery. Suddenly, the difference made much more sense.
Rather than seeing it as a limitation, I think it has helped shape the way I create. I work from what is in front of me, noticing details and turning what I see into drawings, crochet and other handmade creations.
The logo
My face, my tools.
My logo may confuse people at first.
One half of it is actually my face — don’t judge. It has been my go-to little self-image for most things since around 2004 or 2005. I genuinely cannot remember exactly when I first started using it. It feels like yesterday until you try to work it out properly, and then time has a habit of biting back.
The marks on the other side, which look a bit like claw marks, represent the main mediums I use when I draw.
Faber-Castell TG1-S technical pens
Probably the tools most associated with my detailed line work.
A fountain pen
Nothing fancy. Cheap school fountain pens work perfectly well for me. I also like the control they give me: pressure can change the line, and I sometimes turn the pen over and use the back of the nib for finer marks.
A 0.5 mm technical drawing pencil
The sort most of us probably used at school at some point. Cheap or expensive makes very little difference to me.
A normal lead pencil
Sets can range from 9H to 9B, but I tend to stick with a basic, standard HB. The important thing for me is testing it first. When I erase the construction lines, I do not want — and cannot have — pencil marks left behind. Trust me, pencil leads are not all the same, and no, I do not buy expensive ones.
A paintbrush
I sometimes dilute black ink and apply it with a brush to introduce another level of shading, somewhere between the clean pen lines and the white of the paper.
So the logo is really a little summary of me: my face on one side, and the tools I use to make things on the other.
“I see something, I study it, and I make it my own.”