Thought Guardian in ink

Hi all,

Todays rambling is about my latest ink drawing for the calendar I am working on. It is an illustration of a thought guardian and its taken from the second half of the book, The Land of Lost Thoughts where Emily has entered the tower and is being led by the thought guardians to the mountain of Confusion. The idea behind this illustration is to represent the thought guardian spinning his web of intrigue as he collects up her thoughts. My previous colour version shows emily half asleep and the proportion of the thought guardian, as described in the book, is that he is able to get tangled up in her hair and in fact uses it at some points as a safety rope. The ink drawing shows more detail of his wings folded and the surrounding clouds of thoughts when Emily first encounters him. I decided to show the clouds reflecting off his clothes which I think works quite well. I actually use a fineliner not an ink pen and this one was quite a wide nib, but still with fine strokes I manage to get a variation of thickness with one nib.

My style has always been influenced by the pre-raphaelites and I recently discovered Austin Osman Spare at the Cuming Museum in Southwark. His dreamlike drawings of magical creatures and real people with spirit drawings are fabulous. Not that I would try to emulate his work, I have my own style and way of drawing but it is interesting to see another artist relatively unknown, draw in a similar fashion to myself.

Do please comment on the newest addition, it will be in the 2011 calendar. You can also now subscribe to my podcast which contains exclusive insights into the audio book which is in production, click here then click ARCHIVE to see and hear the latest entries.

S.Hill