Etching workshop

I have been taking part in a 6 week etching workshop to learn the basics of etching and aquatinting. I have really enjoyed seeing my print develop and I love the depth created by the aquatinting, especially my spit bite in the background. However, after this workshop i'm not sure I'll be doing it again as I find it too technical and time-consuming and prefer the freedom of quicker and more flexible techniques that are kinder to the errors I frequently battle in my work!

Black and white etching with aquatint

Black and brown etching with aquatint

UEA collaboration

We are currently working on a collaboration with first year UEA English students. My collaborator, Ellie Pringle sent me text about a character called Kea, born of Jamaican roots but brought up as an English child. She develops OCD about locks and keys in later life, working as a caretaker in a church.

Couture drawing

I have been trying to improve my drawing skills for my current fashion illustration project, so here are some of sketches from my sketchbook. I can feel my hand loosening up but it's still going to take a lot go practice to improve those hands and faces.

"Armani was a revolutionary"

"Shimmer wig"

"Butterfly dress"

Hardware workshop

I haven't posted in ages so sorry for the delay! I have been posting to my uni reflective blog but I hope to now split my work between the two so my illustration can be seen here and reflection on my specific projects on there. Today I had a workshop called 'Hardware', focusing on the practicalities and options available when using the typical penguin double page measurements and how to work within those and break out of them. I am currently working in collaboration with a student studying English at UEA and illustrated her character text. These images show my exploration in response to her text within the confines of the physical space without illustration.

'Raise her as a British child'.

'Lock OCD'.

'Isolated'

'Isolated 2'

'Unlocked'

"Tea Anyone?" Final book illustrations

This is my final book inside illustrations complete! I am really happy with how the pages have laid out and the mixture of reportage and narrative illustration. 

(centre page with 3 way folding tea cup stack on left)

With thanks to all those who responded to my Tea Appreciation Society post especially Jo Maynard and Misty Hunter, Biddy's Tearooms Norwich and the fantastic Norwich Castle Museum teapot collection.

Tea obsessed

I'm trying to think of how I can represent the obsession and passion people have for tea, and from some of my email responses and interviews I have comments of people collecting teapots and drinking huge amounts of tea. These illustrations are in response to the text beneath them. I like the idea of having the teacup stack as a fold out page in my book. 

"I particularly love creepy owl teapots"

"I can drink up to 20 cups a day!"

Tea infusion

These are my illustrations in response to the infusion photographs I previously posted. I wanted to play around with how to represent the tea infusing in the water using ink and watercolour. I am happy with the shapes and different strengths of colour, these could potentially be finals for one of my book pages.

The process of tea

For my project on tea I wanted to find a way of representing the ritual of making tea and the difference in how people make their cuppa in my illustrations. Therefore I decided to photograph the process of infusing a cup of tea to look at the different colours and shapes that would appear and I think I can get some good illustrations from these photographs.

Photographs produced by Ashleigh Berryman

http://www.ashleighberryman.co.uk/

Tea cozies

In response to my Tea Appreciation Society post, Misty Hunter sent me photographs of the rude and funny tea cozies she makes at her home in America for her friends and family. I wanted to recreate the unique, homemade quality of her cozies so I used hand stitching on top of my drawings.

"It's Tea Time Bitches"

"This is Some Fancy Shit"

The ritual of tea

These are some initial drawings in response to people's emails to my post on The Tea Appreciation Society. I'm trying to play around with layering and composition. These drawings are created using watercolour, ink and pencil crayon.