About the artist
– About me –
-
"The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can"
-
I can’t even count how many times stories have saved me.
............From when I was 6 and my favourite song was about a dwarf who lived in an enchanted garden, to being a lonely reader of Lord of the Rings at 15 – from which my first “serious” attempts at writing and creating characters bloomed – the magic of storytelling has been there for me.
............These magical realms were there to offer shelter when reality seemed too harsh and barren to my young introverted self, and by and by they inspired me to create my own. In school I was the strange kid who came to class carrying an A3 transport case full of anime fan art and would spend recess doodling and writing down ideas for my fantasy novel, The World of Zyathlis (very complex story, it had elves, holistic elementals, space ships, the works).
............Life can get in the way though, and the place where I lived back then wasn't exactly friendly towards "grown ups" who liked fantasy literature and painting dragons...
I can’t even count how many times stories have saved me.
............From when I was 6 and my favourite song was about a dwarf who lived in an enchanted garden, to being a lonely reader of Lord of the Rings at 15 – from which my first “serious” attempts at writing and creating characters bloomed – the magic of storytelling has been there for me.
............These magical realms were there to offer shelter when reality seemed too harsh and barren to my young introverted self, and by and by they inspired me to create my own. In school I was the strange kid who came to class carrying an A3 transport case full of anime fan art and would spend recess doodling and writing down ideas for my fantasy novel, The World of Zyathlis (very complex story, it had elves, holistic elementals, space ships, the works).
............Life can get in the way though, and the place where I lived back then wasn't exactly friendly towards "grown ups" who liked fantasy literature and painting dragons...
............I clearly didn't mean to keep that first drawing from 2016, but luckily it was just the first step of a much longer journey. Since then I decided to shift my entire life – I moved away from home (I ended up in Germany without meaning to, but that's another story), started learning the fundamentals all over again and focused on illustration.
As I grow in my practice I hope to illustrate many stories old and new, as well as create my own, and share with you a little bit of that magic that did me so much good over the years.
The Journey Back
............It took me many years of drifting from one activity to another after graduating fine art school – ceramics, mosaic, fashion design (don't ask, I don't even know), event planning and business management – to finally get round back to illustration. And what brought me back if not Role playing games - pure, spontaneous, inventive, collective storytelling.
............ It reminded me the magic was real, I had only lost it in some sad, dark corner of adult life. It's like I had forgotten what happiness felt like and was morosely treading on without it, and didn't even realise.
............When I first started bringing our characters to life I had pretty much lost most of the technique I had acquired from art school and teenage years drawing classes (not drawing for 6 straight years will do that to you), but I was so ridiculously happy to do it that it slowly became a more frequent habit.
In the two years that followed I went from
The Journey Back
............It took me many years of drifting from one activity to another after graduating fine art school – ceramics, mosaic, fashion design (don't ask, I don't even know), event planning and business management – to finally get round back to illustration, and through what? Role playing games. Pure, spontaneous, inventive, collective storytelling.
............ It reminded me the magic was real, I only had lost it in some sad, dark corner of adult life. It's like I had forgotten what happiness felt like and was morosely treading on without it, and didn't even realise.
............When I first started bringing our characters to life I had pretty much lost most of the technique I had acquired from art school and teenage years drawing classes (not drawing for 6 straight years will do that to you), but I was so ridiculously happy to do it that it slowly became a more frequent habit.
In the two years that followed I went from
…………I clearly didn’t mean to keep that first drawing from 2016, but luckily it was just the first step of a much longer journey. Since then I decided to shift my entire life – I moved away from home (I ended up in Germany without meaning to, but that’s another story), started learning the fundamentals all over again and focused on illustration.
As I grow in my practice I hope to illustrate many stories old and new, as well as create my own, and share with you a little bit of that magic that did me so much good over the years.
To follow along find me on Instagram, get some art inspiration in my Pinterest boards or through the songs in this Spotify playlist.
why Pinwydd
I'm always collecting things I found on the floor around nature. One thing that I particularly love to find and bring back home are different types of pinecone (or things that look like pinecones, like dried Alder cones). Besides that I started following OBOD and found out my birthday falls under the pine in the celtic tree calendar.
Seemed like too much coincidence to ignore. That plus my love for celtic languages (one day I hope to be fluent in at least one 🤞) led me to Pinwydd – pine tree in welsh.
My bibliography
I'm not going to pretend I could possibly list all my favourite books here, but these are just that really helped me to...
Art study
- Picture this: How pictures work – by Molly Bang
- Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design – by Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield
- Canon of Design: Mastering Artistic Composition – by Tavis Leaf Glover
- Anatomy for the Artist – by Sarah Simblet
- Color Choices: Making Color Sense Out of Color Theory – by Stephen Quiller
- Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter – James Gurney
- Character Design Quartely – by 3D Total
Get inspired
- The Lost Spells – by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
- Botanicum – by Kathy Willes and Katie Scott
- Atlas de Botanique Poetique – Francis Hallé
- Arbres et Forêts de Bretagne – Éditions Ouest France
- The Encyclopedia of Fernal Affairs – by Dreams and Divinities
- Any book with the works of Sergio Toppi
Where I've been studying illustration
Self taught courses by Viktor Kalvachev, Nathan Fowkes
and Djamila Knopf
Self taught courses by Will Terry
I am part of
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