Gully Grove Studio

DAY 11: (sour)   I chose the inspiration of John Steinbeck's famous book-cover - The Grapes of Wrath. Only drawn as a poster with a bit of Urban sketching. Also featuring the inspiration of the carapace of wrath, instead.

  DAY 10: (pick) I chose a plectrum with a simplified turtle emblem. Black, Teal and Magenta Inks, with a gold, gel-pen for embellishments. I was starting to see in black and white, with all these monochrome illustrations. So just wanted to a add more colour and variety, for a change.  

DAY 9 (pressure)   Out came my Inktense pencils for this gigantic face-off, between prehistoric monsters! My translation of pressure, was to coerce. For whatever reason, these particular turtles wanted to use strong-arm tactics on each another. Despite having these enormous shells for protection, I was impressed by their ability to still intimidate. Also used, white and black ink.

DAY 8 (watch) This was a bit of an experiment with a dry-brushing technique. Applied in the darkest area, behind the turtle shell, as well as the smokey area, immediately near it. I had to save it's patchy inconsistency with a light-grey wash in the sky, and some cross hatching over the blotchy brush-strokes. Ink is permanent, so mistakes have to be improvised! 

  DAY 7 (fan) I really loved the simplicity of this illustration. It was the first treatment of my subject, involving symbolism rather than physiology. It also involved another favourite subject of mine - Geisha! The overall design was the most straight forward I've done in the challenge yet. It came together really quickly. However, the actual turtle on the fan, was a different story.

 DAY 6 (spirit) This was a fusion of Asian brushes and technical pens. When I think of Spirit and turtle, I'm reminded what I was told a lot as a youngster - to come out of my shell! Like the real critters though, it's not something you can force. It only happens when good and ready, then whole new world opens up to explore.