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Children's author, illustrator, screenwriter

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Learning from Mervyn Peake

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I’ve been practising my ink work of late by attempting to draw like my favourite illustrators. Mervyn Peake’s illustrations for the Hunting of the Snark are wonderful, and in many ways quite similar to Tenniel’s style.

Peake’s line work is a little looser, and without the prim Victorian aesthetic, as you’d expect. But it’s quite evident that they both love grotesque characters, and the stretching/squashing of human shape and form.

Any way, here’s my attempt at one of my favourite illustrations of his.

Learning from Tenniel

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I’m forever on a quest for artistic improvement, particularly where ink and drawing is concerned. I’m very much from a fine art background and tidy artwork doesn’t come easy. I don’t necessarily want to be tidy, but it’s nice to know how!

And so, with that in mind, I’ve been doing more ink work of late, looking at some old masters. Last night it was Tenniel’s turn, and I thought I’d have a pop at drawing like him in Alice mode. There’s no rough drawing underneath, it’s just pen straight onto the paper – the best way of learning.

Honestly, the moment I ditched pencils in my sketchbooks and turned to the permanence of pens was the moment I really started to improve and understand line work.

Any way, here’s my five of spades. (I should also add, I’ve now ditched pens and draw with a rigger paintbrush.)