Further Fey Adventures

Latest collection of A3 and A4 high quality Fey at Play prints available at the shop. Pen and ink.

These latest images are something of a development on the previous Four Fairies collection. In this series are depicted four seelie (‘seelie’ means happy or blessed in Lowland Scottish Folklore) fairy characters, welcoming the imminent arrival of Spring, the most auspicious time of year.

The collection of four Fey musicians will be available in a limited run of 20 in A3 Natural Soft Texture White 315gsm Signature Paper, and a limited run of 50 in A4 Matt Ultra 275gsm Photo Matt. Each one is signed and numbered by myself and available now from the shop.

In this collection they are safely at play with their spell casting and enchanting musical performance quite possibly welcoming the imminent arrival of Spring, surely the most auspicious time of year!

Violin Playing Fey

Dorian the Fiddle Player

The leading solo instrumentalist of the group Dorian is as mean a fiddler as they come though by no means of spirit. Upon his leaf he can be seen and heard practicing his scales in preparation for his next performance.

Though not the first designed or even attempted, this was the first of the four completed drawings, inked, scanned and first printed as a greeting card.

What I found most interesting about drawing this particular illustration is how challenging capturing a convincing violin was.

Being a guitar fan for many years and subsequently have drawn the instrument countless times I had no problem drawing the bouzouki players which I had rendered in a conspicuously guitar like manner with their humbucker pickups and Kramer-esque head stocks. However with the violin I literally found myself thinking that I didn't quite know how the instrument looked.

The violin used for modelling was gifted to me as a leaving present by the Luton Music Service in 2017 when I left Hertfordshire to return home to Norn Iron.

I have since started taking violin lessons.

First Bouzouki Playing Fey

Locrian first Electric Lute Player

One of the traditional twin lute players in this strictly roots and roll ensemble, rather like the twin guitars in our own classic rock bands. Locrian prefers light gauge strings and a slightly scalloped neck increasing incrementally up the neck. And, of course, Di'Marzio X2Ns for both neck and bridge settings.

This was the second attempt at illustrating one of the little folk musicians and was not without its challenges.

Initially I felt unhappy with some of the rendering and dense stippling. Further to this I had accidentally dropped the tiniest droplet of water on the picture (I shan't of course tell you where) and, justifiably, felt the whole picture was lost.

Naturally I did my best at damage control, however the experience left me so disheartened at the expenditure of effort that I retreated from this image for a while and started a new illustration instead.

However after several weeks I reconsidered the picture and realised that, firstly, the damage was not as bad as I had originally thought - or, more importantly, detectable as I had originally thought - and secondly, for some reason I no longer disliked the stippled rendering.

I suspect it was a combination of taking time away from a drawing, which can be an intense undertaking, and seeing it in a different light, as well as deciding that just because it wasn't quite the face I had in mind didn't mean it was a bad face at all.

Subsequently I managed to salvage the illustration and in a relatively short time too. Now I'm rather pleased with it.