Exploring The Wind in the Willows...

Another famous set of characters I explored were those from Kenneth Graham's book, The Wind in the Willows, also illustrated by E.H. Shepard.

These were quick, 10 minute sketches to get to know the characters.

I started experimenting with collage on these paintings, breaking down the form of Mole; using individual pieces of paper to give texture to Ratty's fur and recolouring Mr Toad with bright, garish colours  in different kinds of papers.

Experimenting with making silhouettes and how different papers react to this. I mostly used wall paper, but also tried embossing silver paper and drawing on a page of a book.

Exploring form, I used different colours of pen to sketch the same image about a dozen times on the same double page spread, I also drew without looking at the paper.

I tried redesigning the characters, sketching them as they might look in real life. They look quite a bit different!

 I tried drawing the same image (the one below) in different ways on four different pages. The one above is a close up view of Mole's mouth and arm, which I drew with masking tape and then covered with acrylic paint which I manipulated with a palette knife before peeling away the tape. I later used this tape to draw another close up image.

This was drawn in the style of W.W. Denslow, who illustrated L.Frank Baum's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I used thick black lines harsh shading, and only coloured the background, a trait which I had noticed in his drawings. 

I tried to loosen up a bit more in this picture. It only took 5 minutes and I didn't look at the page, except when adding the shading.

I got the inspiration for this image from the Bodleian Liabrary's online exhibition, The Original Wind in the Willows. Check it out if you're interested.