See you in 2015....

This is my last post as Amanda in a Teacup...admittedly I haven't blogged that much for a long time on here but I have enjoyed writing this blog and I'd like to thank those of you that follow me...


BUT it's time for a change and I've got some very exciting things up my sleeve which I will be sharing with you in the New Year and I can't wait!!! 

Hope to see you in 2015 x

Inktober...

As you might have seen I did not blog for the whole of September and this was due to my work life (I don't yet work in a creative role full time) becoming very very busy and stressful. I find as an illustrator that I can usually maintain a generally constant state of being creative until I get run down or mega stressed...then it becomes a case of me feeling like WHAT! I'VE FORGOTTEN HOW TO DRAW, WHY ARE MY HANDS NOT WORKING, I'M SHIT WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH... 

You get the idea...

Anyway that's what happened in September...and it took until I was ill this week with a really bad cold for me to realise just how burnt out I was with everything and how off track I had gotten with my illustration. SO I was mega pleased when I stumbled across Inktober!!! 

Inktober is a challenge where you have to complete an inked drawing every day for the month of October, it's a good way of being disciplined and getting into good habits of regular drawing. It was exactly what I was looking for and needed!! 

I will be posting my illustrations on my Instagram and Facebook ...here are my drawings for days 1, 2 and 3...

Amanda x

Friday...

So this has been a pretty trying week in some ways, the upside seems to be that I can't stop drawing which is a good thing...if you follow me on Instagram you will have seen that I was inspired to draw a print based on a necklace that my nan gave me in the 90s...it's something I wear everyday and is affectionately known as the 'amulet of the 90s' (don't ask)...

The Amulet of the 90s

This is the print that I came up with tonight, as you can see I've stayed pretty true to the necklace. I used a Copic Multi Liner 0.1 , Faber and Castell PITT pen in S and a Uni Pin Fine Line in 0.05 to draw this on Windsor and Newton Heavy Weight Medium Surface Cartridge Pad. 

I was mostly listening to Katy Perry when I was drawing this...bit of a curve ball music wise for you there. Don't worry I'll be back to the heavy stuff tomorrow.

Hope you all have a good weekend...
Amanda x 

Anchor Flash Tattoo Illustration...

I was messing around with my Promarkers tonight and decided to draw this traditional style flash tattoo illustration, I haven't drawn anything like this for a while and I'm a bit rusty with my Promarker blending but I had a lot of fun drawing it. 

I used the following promarkers to create this:

Forest Green , Green Shoot, Marsh Green, Lipstick Red, Red, Heatwave,Ginger, Starfish, Ice Grey 4, Ice Grey 1, Cool Grey 5, Cool Grey 4....

I was mostly listening to Pup 'Reservoir' whilst working on this drawing and eating a lot of white chocolate...

Amanda x

Wolf v Shark

I keep setting myself challenges with my drawing, with this piece it was all about working on a larger scale....I also wanted to draw something a bit different to my usual style. So I went for this shark and wolf fighting, both pretty significant animals to me...random but hey that's ok  

I drew this on Bristol Board, which is a really smooth high quality drawing paper using a Staedtler pigment liner in 0.1.

This took a really long time to finish and it utilises a lot of different line and dot work techniques, you can see in the following pictures some of the detail...

I mostly listened to Bring Me the Horizon's Sempiternal whilst I was working on this drawing...

Amanda x

God Damn week so far...

On Tuesday night I was very lucky as Jimi took me to see one of my favourite bands Pulled Apart by Horses who were playing at the Bodega in Nottingham. To say I was excited was a bit of an understatement! I WAS THIS EXCITED!!!

If you are not familiar with PABH this is what they sound like...

Needless to say they were amazing and I really enjoyed the set, the upstairs room in the Bodega is not massive but the crowd managed to get an impressive pit going.

BUT in my opinion the show stealer's that night were the second support God Damn...who just blew me away, their sound is so spot on for me...and they are my new favourite drawing accompaniment. Check them out...

'Bird Skull'

So on Sunday I started a new print, I was really hungover after an all day session in Sheffield but for some reason I always seem to be in a creative mindset when hungover...go figure. I love drawing skulls and so wanted a little project which I knew I'd be able to complete in a day (unlike this beauty which is taking FOREVER....)

I drew this on a grey cheap watercolour paper using the Staedtler Pigment Liner in 0.1, at first I was concerned that the paper would be too absorbent but I liked the way this turned out and feel that the grey lends itself well to the vintage feel. Basically expect a lot more illustrations on this paper in the future...

Anyway, I am pretty pleased with my bird skull...here's what I was listening to when I was drawing it....give your ear drums a treat...
A x