Oh great, you are back. I was hoping to see you again. I wanted to show you some of the stuff I like to draw. Iv been digging through my old sketchbooks and thought that as you are my new best friend you would probably want to see some of the things I used to draw. I’ll show you some of the things I do now too for comparison. You can tell me what you think. It’ll be fun!!
Own work 1990's
So here is some classic early Steve art. I have pages and pages filled with this weird stuff. Just a random mess of incoherent doodles. No plan. No structure. Just a big brain barf all over the page. Monsters and boobs. Being a teenager was a strange time.
own work 2000's
As I left my hormone fuelled teen years behind my artwork became a bit more refined. I started to actually think about what I wanted to draw before I started drawing. This was a big revelation. Instead of just doodling I was actually making art stuff now. Still drawing monsters and boobs but just not as many of them.
own work 2010's
Up to this point I hadn’t really been brave enough to use any colour in my work as I had no idea about colour theory. And as you can see by the pictures above. when I did start using it, I was a bit of a chicken and only used it a little bit. Or even just using shades of my trusty black ink to add a little value to my work. but never going full force with it.
own work 2010's
I went through a bit of a Banksy stage at one point. In truth I thought this was a bit of a cheat at the time. I may have borrowed a lot of my imagery from the interwebs and after fiddling with it on photoshop I made some stencils. I would bang these on cheap canvas and I sold quite a few of them. It was good fun but to be honest my heart was never really in it and I was only doing it for the easy money. I was also aware that my ‘borrowing’ probably wasn’t a very nice thing to do. And I like being nice, really I do. So I stopped doing this. Making these however introduced me to a few new things. Using colour in my work and the joys of photoshop.
own work 2017
Raaaaahhhh I’ll eat you!!! Just kidding Buddy. Wanted to show you this though. Its the first digital painting I ever did. Pretty rubbish I know. It took me all day to make too but I was only using a mouse to paint with so what would you expect. I knew I wanted to get better at digital art and I could totally see the potential so I emptied the piggy bank and purchased a tablet. Not one of those fancy Cintiq ones. I just got a cheap one called a Ugee which does the job just fine for me. With my new toy all set up I was able to produce some much better stuff. Here, I’ll show you.
own work 2017
See. Yeah its ok but I was still only learning how to use the software at this point. So this is where I was at when I decided I needed to take my work a bit more seriously. I was producing work and learning new skills but I wasn’t really doing much with any of it. So I enrolled on my illustration degree. I’ll show you what Iv been working on since I started.
own work 2018
This is some of the first year stuff I made. I was introduced to some new ways of thinking about how my art was produced. Trying out new methods and styles. We worked with flash sheets and collage’s as well as my trusty digital painting. Building narrative into illustrations was another new line for me to follow. I always enjoyed hiding Easter eggs within my drawings but telling a whole story with just one image has new to me and something I find challenging in a fun and fresh way.
own work 2018
This thing too which is called a tryptic. Three images which tell a story. This one is about how a statue is used for different purposes throughout time. As the statue erodes, so does the morality and outlook of the era it is in. Pretty heavy stuff eh! This was a great project though as I learnt to merge traditional elements with digital. I think this new way of working has had one of the biggest effects on the way I now produce my art.
own work 2018
You are probably wondering what I look like. Well here are some self portraits I did for a bit of fun. Nothing to do with my studies but thought you might like to see them. I used photo-bashing to make them and I still use this technique here and there in lots of my projects. I had these framed and gave them to my family for Christmas. You should have seen their faces. I know you have a good sense of humour. You would have laughed.
own work 2019
I’m quite proud of this one. This was my entry into the Cheltenham illustration award in 2019. It depicts the cycle of renewal within ecosystems. I used coloured pencil, watercolour and digital to create this. I got a ton of positive feedback at the time and I also won the competition… just kidding. I didn’t win, but I did come out of it with a great pieces of art.
own work 2019
This project was a character design task. I had a lot of fun with this and I dreamed up a whole world and backstory for my illustrations. My Main Guy is Artemis Alpha, an interplanetary delivery driver who crashes on a strange alien planet. I’ll totally come back to this one day and have lots of ideas for how to develop it further into a children’s book. You might say I have an alien planets worth of ideas… get it? hahahahahahaha…
sorry… moving on.
own work 2019
This was an interesting project. We were offered the chance to work on a real live brief for a Newcastle based company who makes jam, called Fat Lass Preserves. The client wanted an.. em .. big boned lady character superhero that wouldn’t brake any copyright. The character had to be strong and embody female power. The client would pick one student to work further with and the character would be used within the brand. The best thing about this project though was that I won…… nah only kidding again… but wait, I’m not really kidding this time, as I really DID WIN!! yeah that’s right, the client picked my character and iv been working with the brand ever since. This was a big confidence boost for me I can tell you.
own work 2019
These are some more works that I’m really proud of. I consider myself to be getting pretty good at using Adobe photoshop but Adobe Illustrator is another matter all together. Its hard to believe these two programs are made by the same company sometime. Anyway I powered through and used illustrator to make these isometric city’s. What’s that you say? Oh, thank you very much. I think they look awesome too. I liked them so much that Iv got one framed on my wall. Just let me know if you want one too and we can sort something out. We are besties after all.
own work 2020
Have a quick look at these. remember the dinosaur I digitally painted? Well my photoshop skills have come along way in the last 3 years. I just did these for fun but I use them on my portfolio too.
Had enough yet buddy?
Ok but just a few more.
own work 2020
These are some traditional paintings I did in acrylics. I was starting to worry that I was getting too dependant on digital techniques so I spent a few weeks learning to paint. They are not perfect but I got what I wanted out of the experience and I’m reasonably happy with the results. Apart form those clouds. yikes!! Don’t look at them.
So I think that will do for now. Iv really enjoyed showing all this to you. There’s other stuff I’m into but I’ll show you that another time.
Thanks for hanging around until the end.
Catch you next time friend!
Who is? stephencarrart 