Travel Illustrations

This year I wanted to use the opportunity of #Inktober to work on illustrations of travel memories. Using the prompts from #theydrawandtravel illustrating the places on the list which I have visited.

Paris

Paris – Homage to the Paris icons of La Tour Eiffel, Moulin Rouge and La Basilique du Sacre-Coeur.

Paris is one of my favourite cities at any time of year. We were fortunate to visit most recently in November last year, which I have used as reference for this illustration.

Cairo – for many visitors this is the gateway to Egypt and its ancient wonders.

Here are my favourite Cairo landmarks brought into a composition – the majestic, mysterious pyramids, the stately Sphinx, the Ramses statue which looked onto to a bustling city square, and a river boat which is carrying intrigued travellers to explore the many temples along the banks of the Nile.

I was fortunate to visit first on a mini-cruise from Cyprus where I was working at the time, later on a trip from Sharm el-Sheikh, and on a work trip was fortunate to have a top floor hotel penthouse all to myself, when I attending the conference in place of my boss. A wonderful city, fabulous memories.

San Francisco – My favourite US city – first visited on a tour of California with my mum. We enjoyed the steep streets in a speedy taxi, rode a cable car were surprised by the sea lions at Pier 39. Most recent visit was en route to New Zealand with just a 24 hour stopover to enjoy the city and shops on Union Square.

Moscow

The stunning golden domes of the Kremlin and the colourful tiled domes of St Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square were what struck me visually when visiting Moscow. These and the enormous imposing Hotel Ukraine, one of the “Seven Sisters” of Moscow. 

Time in the city was a great experience which bookended our trip heli-skiing in Sochi. 

Sydney – what struck me as we walked towards the Opera House were the brightly coloured birds. The city felt much like a Northern European city, but the birds were striking, tropical, seemingly in stark contrast to the uniformity and familiarity of the buildings. The birds which enchanted me that day were Rainbow Lorikeets.

Sydney Opera House is a stunning feat of architecture, which I hadn’t realised until close observation is constructed in creamy coloured tiles, which appeared white in the bright sun, a little like the surface the space shuttle.

I took the opportunity to attend a dance show at the Opera House, performed by a number of Australian dance companies that was an evening to support Unicef. It was a dream come true to visit this stunning iconic landmark humanmade wonder.

Rock and Rome – featuring my Rome favourites. The Forum, The Colosseum, Vittorio Emanuele II monument, brought together with the tiny Fiat 500 so loved by my Mum.

Visited Rome on three trips last Autumn to help a loved one, and ‘Rock and Rome’ became a catchphrase.

Beijing – the iconic Great Wall, the curious roof adornment that is a man riding a Phoenix, and the Temple of Heaven.

Had a wonderful trip to China with @kuonitravel and met Cherie Blair (Wife of the UK Prime minister at the time) on the Great Wall. Recalling the fascinating acoustic effects at the Temple of Heaven.

Flamborough – Here are my favourite aspects of Flamborough brought together in this composition – Flamborough Head Lighthouse, the awesome gannets at Bempton Cliffs and our biking on the coastal path, all set under that huge sky with the salty breeze.

Here’s a round up collage of these travel illustrations.

Thanks so much for being here. These are my latest posts…

New Book Is A Gift For Families And The Ski Curious

I wrote this article for my new website but didn’t want my subscribers not to see this. Please see the article then come across to my new website, to continue to follow the fun. This website will be disappearing shortly and I don’t want to lose you. New website at http://www.inspirebykim.com New book Ski A…

Best of 2021

Reflecting on 2021 and the favourite work from the year. Best of 2021

Come Across To My New Website

Thank you for your support, come across to my new website. Subscribe to continue to receive notifications and news, and illustration tips as they arise

Enjoy wherever you travel, real, memories or travel dreams.

Kim

Painting on Location – Renishaw Hall

This beautiful view on my visit to Renishaw inspired me to paint.

I wanted to give a sense of the house and garden without being too literal.

I love to paint in the gardens but this is the first time it’s been dry enough to sit since lockdown restrictions lifted and the gardens reopened.

Here’s my watercolour, mostly painted on site and then completed in our garden.

See photos of my visit to beautiful Renishaw Hall Gardens on my Instagram. Blooms, boomerang videos and pollinators.

It’s a stunning place to visit in North-East Derbyshire.

I painted this floral watercolour at Renishaw Hall last summer.

This was the same day but a much softer piece. I like them both.

Which gardens do you love to visit, and why? Please comment, I’d love to know.

Here are my latest posts. Thanks for being here. Please ‘Like’ if you do and share with friends who may enjoy my work.

• New Book Is A Gift For Families And The Ski Curious
• Best of 2021
• Come Across To My New Website
• Ski Themed Home Decor Designs
• Decisions and Time Saving Tips

On the roof at Renishaw Hall

Love After Lockdown – Graphic Novel

I created this graphic novel page for ‘Make Art That Sells’ June Bootcamp Assignment.

As Lockdown restrictions are easing wedding planning can recommence for the couple’s big day. This opening image sets the context for the story.

I painted all of the elements in the story in Kuretaki watercolour paints and brought them together digitally for the A4 piece.

The MATS bootcamp brief gave photo portraits and a selection of items to spark a story. I’ve used these characters and woven the items together in a simple narrative with destination wedding and travel themes.

Here’s the final piece, intended as an A4 page. Zoom in to follow the narrative and see the detail of each of the artworks…

The rose farm poster is a small detail in the finished graphic novel but the A4 painting was one of my favourite pieces from the project, and the painted roses were then used throughout the final page.

These close up profile portraits were challenging but enjoyable to paint. I wanted to capture the joy of the wedding, and the relief and positivity after the uncertainty of lockdown.

MATS course leader Lilla Rogers gave an image of Issa Rae. I looked online for a joyful looking male to be her groom and chose an image which I later determined to be Jay Ellis. When I researched Jay Ellis I couldn’t believe it when I read that he co-stars with Issa Rae in a popular HBO TV programme ‘Insecure’. How bizarre a coincidence is that choosing them, when they are cast together romantically on TV!

This is my padlock inspired by the work of Alphonse Mucha, and also Hector Guimard’s Paris Metro designs. Playing with the idea of lockdown, and being locked together in love.

Catalina Island was prompted by a postcard in the initial brief. I enjoyed exploring the island virtually thanks to YouTube videos, and painted this scene for the location of the wedding.

I then developed the work into an animated video. Follow this link to see an animation of my graphic novel, which is over on my YouTube channel. Watch it here.

Thanks for being here. I’m developing my portfolio but presently have some availability for commercial and editorial illustration, and promotional work.

See my recent posts at these links.

• New Book Is A Gift For Families And The Ski Curious
  I wrote this article for my new website but didn’t want my subscribers not to see this. Please see the article then come across to my new website, to continue to follow the fun. This website will be disappearing shortly and I don’t want to lose you. New website at http://www.inspirebykim.com New book Ski A …
• Best of 2021
  Reflecting on 2021 and the favourite work from the year. Best of 2021
• Come Across To My New Website
  Thank you for your support, come across to my new website. Subscribe to continue to receive notifications and news, and illustration tips as they arise
• Ski Themed Home Decor Designs
  Ski themed home decor surface pattern designs.
• Decisions and Time Saving Tips
  Decisions and time saving hacks for illustrators and artists.

Bye for now.

Kim

Best 9s of 2019

I’ve been reviewing the past 12 months and evaluating my favourite work.

Best 9s are a great way to do this. Here are my Best 9 of the year. Work that I feel pleased with as they broke new ground in terms of skills and technique progress.

It’s been great to apply art to commercial illustration briefs and to monetise my practice, as above.

Here are my painted Best 9. A real break through this year was the workshop that I did in Rotterdam with Helen Dardik. The techniques Helen shared, and the products she’s uses, are a real revelation. With practice and care my painting skills are building.

Fabric and Textiles Best 9 – I enjoy the colours and textures that I create on fabrics. Florals and birds were key themes of my work in these mediums this year.

Here’s to 2020. I’m excited to see what emerges this year. I hope your have a great year.

Error

This video doesn’t exist

Please like my post, if you do. Thank you so much.

Here are related 2019 highlights…

Christmas Commercial Illustrations

Illustration Recommendations

Tennis Club Promotional Work Highlights

Bali Parasol – Instructional Illustration Work

Latest Illustrations

Breakfast Cereal Design Concept

Great days start with great mornings so I wanted to create a positive, inspiring breakfast cereal in response to the brief: Create a fun sized design concept and packaging for a new cereal product.

I wanted to inspire and uplift women through a positive, confident image of a female pilot. She already has three stripes so she’s doing well; metaphorically and literally she is flying high.

Here are my rough drawings whilst brainstorming ideas for the box creative…

My favourite concept from all the ideas (below)

The character was further inspired by the aviation PR work I’ve been busy enjoying in recent weeks, thanks to my client in Florida.

I thought that aeroplane shaped breakfast cereal would be fun and novel. This idea was warmly received in consumer testing, with enthusiastic feedback.

I later added the fruit, and additional cereal aircraft, into the bowl for the final iteration.

Once I had the character idea I felt the breakfast cereal design concept formed around her.

In order to create the entire packaging concept it was necessary to define the target market, and what would appeal to them, to decide the ingredients, flavours, also to create a cereal brand, logo and product name.

I had all this in mind when choosing the colour palette of gold, red wine and cobalt blue. These were colours I could use throughout to represent the morning sun, and the colourful sunrise sky.

I chose ‘Inspired Mornings’ for the cereal company brand, and after painting a sun in watercolours I recreated the round window effect of my ‘Inspire by Kim’ logo and added the new brand name.

Nutrition and natural ingredients are key to wellbeing, which is fuel for a positive frame of mind, so I wanted the flavours and sweetness to be natural, therefore I chose fruit flavours on a Tropical theme, This flavour choice was to evoke the idea that the pilot is flying to a tropical island destination.

Travel, new experiences and the relaxation enjoyed on holiday/ vacation are fundamental to enjoyment of life, so by bringing flavours that are associated with holidays into the cereal concept the consumer would start the day enjoying a breakfast that the brain can associate with positive, pleasant experiences and help the person benefit from the associated holiday feelgood factor.

Watercolour painted pineapple, oranges and coconut

By illustrating the ingredients it was possible to give the consumer quick visual references and these were to denote the fresh, healthy, natural qualities of the product and brand values.

The reverse side of the cereal box was a great fun opportunity to further inspire the consumer and providing positive affirmations to start the day, in the form of a circular word search.

The wordsearch was placed over the watercolour sun using my favourite digital application of present, Procreate.

I created a template to fit the sizes in the brief, 4×3 inches, and arranged the completed panels within this.

The cereal box design before assembly

This was the completed concept.

I was delighted that as I completed the design I saw the Virgin Atlantic campaign to inspire young women with a day of activity using the hasttag #seeherfly Wonderful that this timing coincided with my design.

Have a flying start to a great day. 🛫

Here’s my recent work along similar lines…

Bali Parasol – Instructional Illustration Work

Tennis Club Promotional Work Highlights

Bottle Brand Design

Brand Art – Steel Company

Get in touch for inspiring communications for your project.

Inktober 2019

#Inktober2019 – an ink drawing a day for the month of October. Relieved to have completed the task. Here are my pieces. Copyright Kim.

#inktober #draw #creativechallenge #illustration #illustrator #sheffieldillustrators #lancashireartist #creativesolutions #visualcontent #conceptualillustration

Thanks all. Wanted to record this work here. It was a lot of work but I’m pleased with the progress and learned from process.

For illustrations for your product or service see this page and email me at inspirebykim@outlook.com

Inktober 2019 – Week 1

Inktober – Week 2

Inktober Week 3

Inktober Week 4 Drawings

Illustrated Recipe – Buns

Instagram Post: Prompted by @flow_magazine #50waystodrawyourbeautifulordinarylife using the techniques from @tutorbill ’s course #drawpaintclickillustration

With #inktober in mind, and the instructional illustration prompt for #portfolioclub for August, I drew the elements of the recipe whilst travelling to Wembley Stadium and back by train.

One of my favourite books at the moment is, Flow Magazine’s 50 Ways To Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life, which set a task of an illustrated recipe, as a family heirloom. I thought it would be sweet to use French for this for my neice.

After adding some colour in Inktense pencils I added water to activate the ink pigment.

These pretty buns made with my niece, who so carefully and beautifully decorated them, were the inspiration for this recipe illustration.

I assembled my drawings in Pixelmator app using a vertical flow for the instructions., I wanted the colour to be subtle and to keep the recipe more drawings than words.

Here is the final outcome,

This is a favourite recipe from family baking as a child, if you bake it do enjoy and it would be lovely to see what you’ve made and hear about it,

This work related to these projects,,,

Portfolio Club – Circus Illustration

How to plant a tree – Instructional Illustration

Tennis Club Promotion Part Two

Illustrated Map

Please feel free to have a look at these and the content on my blog and website.

If you’d like an illustration or bespoke artwork please message or email me inspirebykim@outlook.com

You might want to take a look at Flow Magazine, 50 Ways To Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life

I highly recommend Bill Wright’s Draw Paint Click Illustration course and the techniques taught.

Here’s a link to Inktense pencils that I used. You can check out #portfolioclub on Instagram.

May you have a sweet day.

Kim 😊

Creative Apps, Tools and Tips

I thought it may be helpful to share some creative apps, favourite tools and tips for use in visual arts and design.

CamScanner App

A great convenient, ‘on the go’ tool for scanning using your phone and the CamScanner app. You can either take a scan/picture using the app or can import an image to convert that into a scan. The app locates the boundaries of your image and adjusts the light so you can even scan in low light. It’s a huge time saver and has a good memory capacity before it requires any payment. You don’t get bugged by ads. CamScanner is 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 in my opinion.

Screen grab of my CamScanner latest work

iPhone XS

My phone is a key tool in my work, for photographing, drawing, editing. The camera on this phone model takes beautiful images and the ‘portrait’ mode is a useful feature for product shots and photographing work. I like the ‘pano’ feature for creative shots. Couldn’t function without this. Great size, weight and stable when used with a tripod. iPhone XS 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I take a LOT of photos and create new designs on my iPhone

Pixelmator App

How I love Pixelmator. I can’t say how much I use it as it’s seamless in my work. I’m probably across in the app 5 times a day. Layering images, drawing, adding text, creating social media ads, resizing, mocking up ideas, creating repeat patterns. The app is intuitive, making it easy to learn and to use. This is a corker of a creative tool 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Pixelmator App Screen Grab Showing Layers of a Design.

Bernina Sewing Machine

I would never have thought that I could love a sewing machine as much as I do my Bernina. It’s reliable, compact, and with the digital display I know what the machine settings are at a glance. I want to make the marks myself so I’m not interested in sewing machines that take over and do the sewing themselves. Swiss engineering is renowned and my Bernina is a fabulous example of this that runs like clockwork. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Bernina B215 Sewing Machine sewing an ice cream themed fabric that I designed.

YouTube

A learning gateway for everything you might ever want to learn about, where someone always seems to have the answer for using a new product, or technique. I’m going to give YouTube 🌟🌟🌟🌟 as the ads can be annoying, but then again it’s ‘free’. YouTube is about the people who take the time to share their experiences and knowledge. Of course it’s best to watch a few videos for any given subject to be able to gather a few perspectives/ methods.

I’ve always enjoyed making films so I love that I can share my movies and reach people through YouTube. Here’s a link to go to my channel.

Inspire by Kim YouTube Channel screen grab

50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life

This book is like a hug of a drawing course. The creators of Flow magazine have done something magical by bringing together exercises from their illustrators to make this big beautiful collection of inspiring, drawing skills inducing delight. Love it with some good TV and a pencil or fine liner. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Flow Magazine.

Collage of the cover and pages of my drawings in the book.

Instagram

The place to see image based posts, as opposed to more wordy content. A window on creative studios, processes and what everyone is working on, it’s such a creative time that we live in. Instagram makes the world shrink to the size of the app and I love how we can connect with kindred creatives and find people with shared interests. And there’s always someone somewhere on Instagram, even in the middle of my night – when the darkness becomes a blank creative canvas for new idea seeds to germinate in my mind. Hoping the ads, which have increased in frequency, don’t takeover, like they appear to have on sister site Facebook 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Inspire by Kim Instagram Screen Grab

Also I have to mention PicCollage, which now allows a mix of still images and videos in collages, and WordPress for my blog.

I hope this proves helpful. Wanted to share these findings and also this is a way of expressing gratitude for this tremendous tech and fabulous phone based functions which are my fundamental tools.

Please stay and see some more posts here.

If you’d like a street these are my favourite ones.

Fabric Design Doll

Fabric Birds

Workshop – Testimonials

Reflecting on 4 Colour Full Years

Passion for Textile Flowers

Everlasting passionflower lovingly crafted from textiles.

The satin cheese plant I made led to my decision to make a textile passion flower….

I studied the beautiful flowers that I have been growing in garden for 15 years.

Some all-white varieties surprised me in the garden this year.

Passionflower study in coloured pencils

Monochrome study aiming to simplify the forms.

Watercolour study of passiflora.

I then took the designs into stitch. This was the first iteration of the passion flower with a little fused Angelina fibre panel for the centre.

Free motion embroidery and ribbon couching to create the second flower design.

After considering different fabrics I decided to use satin with scrim behind for the third flower experiment.

It was important that I create depth for the flower’s corona filaments, anthers and stigmas. I used felt, a bead and embroidery silks.

My intention whilst working at Chelsea College of Arts at the start of the month was to create screen printed designs that I could later add 3D passionflowers to. 

A passionflower couldn’t exist without its leaves. I created this one using satin that I have designed and printed using Colourcraft products, with felt behind/underside made at Stitched Up and Fleeced in Sheffield.

The final addition was the tendrils shaped with a little love as inspiration. Photographed in the sun, which is what prompts the passionflowers to reveal their striking beauty.

Thanks so much for reading to the end. I’m delighted with this work and will be looking at the display of it. So watch this space by popping your email address in the box at the top of the page to follow my blog. Normally a maximum of one post per week, a little bright creativity into your inbox

Here is the work that led to the passion flower creation.

Bird and Flowers Design

Satin Cheese Plant

Textile Print Design at Chelsea

And finally here are flowers I painted in pomegranate juice (and a little green watercolour). The juice was a stunning pink so I could resist making art with it. The work is inspired by a great book I’m reading The Joy of Watercolour by Emma Block.

Additional inspiration from the Botanica book by Uppercase magazine. A delightful treat of a book.

Illustrated Children’s Book – The Dog Who Wanted To Fly

I have wanted to create a book since I was 7 years old.

The fluffy white Maltese Terrier Dog Sam has featured in each of my paper cut pictures, so I started to feel a story was emerging.

Seaside Village. Copyright Kim

 

‘Sam’s Adventures’ came to mind and I decided to sign up for a Writing Children’s Books workshop with London-based publishers Nosy Crow. I ticked the box for the option for a manuscript review, and then was shocked when I received an email asking for the manuscript a good time ahead of the course. I swung into action and started to build a book from the pictures I had created.

I didn’t enjoy the process and the publisher’s MD didn’t like the outcome, as the character wasn’t prominent enough in the illustrations.

In the time between sending the manuscript and the course I had a burst of courage in my painting ability and I decided to paint the character and hoped to capture his spirit.

Here are some of the watercolour and acrylics paintings I created of Sam.

Meet Sam – Copyright Kim

Detail from the book – Copyright Kim

Book design in progress – Copyright Kim

 

Sam was my brother’s dog, we had great adventures in the Alps and Provence together. I loved him very much and although it would be wonderful to have a dog of our own for the time being creating stories for Sam will have to suffice.

Meet Sam – Copyright Kim

On the theme of Sam the dog wanting to fly I created a range of artworks. I scanned my paintings and created a PDF file which I then uploaded to create an e-book through Kindle Direct Publishing. I’m proud to say that the book is now available online.

Update April 2018 – A hard copy of the book is available at my Folksy Shop

My conclusion:

The first book was about the scenes, the second book/ iteration was about the character. My challenge now is to find ways of putting the more developed character into unique environments and settings. When I achieve that I will share the outcome. Watch this space. You can do that by following the blog, just add your preferred email address in the box at the top sides of the page. I love welcoming new followers to the fold and won’t clog your inbox.

The Dog That Wanted To Fly – Sam’s Adventures on Amazon Kindle

Earlier blog posts that are related to this one are…

Paper-cut Pictures – Art Challenge

Dog Portraits – Maltese – Art Challenge

Animating Paper Pictures – Art Challenge

My Story – Art That Has Come Out Of Injury

Pop along to my Facebook Page to see more or feel free to take a look around, maybe enjoy viewing my portfolio.

In loving memory of Sam Kay