sanna dyker

knitting so far

2012-01-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

Knitting has become a very enjoyable pastime and also a useful one. I'm glad i've kept with it as it's something i've always known how to do but i've never really finished anything. Thankfully though i managed to finish my first project which was to knit a big cosy scarf. I kept seeing scarves in shops over the winter season but being a bit fussy i could never find the exact colour i wanted. One of the brilliant things about knitting is that there really is an endless range of colours to choose from out there so you can pretty much find the exact shade your after. I found the perfect shade and finished the scarf which is pictured here. It's very cosy I'm now working on another scarf for my mum's birthday and then my next challenge is to make a hat or even just anything else that's not a scarf! I've managed to start knitting quite quickly now and my mum's scarf is looking to be finished in a day which is quite an achievement for me. In other news i've managed to set my sewing machine up and i have my bunting ready to sew but i'm having a few teething problems with the machine so will have to get my head around that before i can complete that project. Onwards and upwards!

reflection

2011-12-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

I guess now is a good time to reflect seeing as it's almost the end of the year. I can't really help but reflect at the moment as it really has been quite a busy twelve months. An awful lot has happened since this time last year and sometimes it's hard to believe it's all managed to squeeze itself into what feels like not very much time at all. As you may or may not have noticed, my website is currently offline while i tweak and transform it into something else which at present i've not quite settled fully on yet but i'm getting there. I've been exploring other avenues to pass my time and i'm currently teaching myself to knit properly. I've been able to do simple knitting in the past but i'm slowly exploring different wool, a variety of needle sizes and i'm seeking out simple patterns to start me on the road to making actual items that could be worn or used. As well as that i have purchased a small sewing machine and was kindly given a beautiful sewing box by my sister for Christmas. Having a small home of my own has inspired me to make things for it. My collection of trinkets and ornaments is slowly growing and my old photographs are on display making it feel very homely. I'm finding it quite refreshing trying out new craft related projects. As you may have noticed i haven't posted many new drawings lately. This year has been an exhausting one and i think i underestimated the extent of which i needed to give myself a break. I have also come to realise that for a while i was, like others probably do, producing work to be seen, to be added to websites here, there and everywhere. The pressure of needing to post new work, update everything and keep on top of producing work led me to lose sight of why i draw. I feel that nowadays so many people that love to draw get caught in a whirlwind of trends and a need for acceptance from peers. Social networking and the internet although helpful at times can sometimes suck the life out of the original reason for producing such work and that is purely for the love of doing so. In the meantime i'm going to continue to work at my own pace and explore more knitting, sewing and whatever else i happen to stumble upon. If i happen to produce something i'm truly pleased with, then that'll be the time for sharing.

I gladly let go of 2011 and look to 2012 for happiness and contentment. Best of wishes to you all for the new year.

Otto has a new home

2011-10-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

It's been really hard coming to terms with having to give Otto and the kitten away a few weeks ago. Things have been odd and it's felt like something is missing which I know is Otto. I feel like a friend has gone away and I keep having to remind myself they are never coming back. Yes situations change in life and we have to get on with things but sometimes it really feels very unfair. Thankfully though my little man has found a new home with a loving family who own other ragdolls so he'll be very happy fitting in and having the right company which he deserves. Gunter who sadly doesn't have that name anymore also has found a new home. I hope Otto gets to keep his name. I don't want him to disappear completely forever. He was a caring friend and i'll always love and miss him.

postal goodies

2011-10-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

I've received some wonderful gifts in the post lately from some lovely friends of mine. The first above is my prize from the lovely Jules Young for winning her competition to design her next tattoo. Amongst all these lovely pieces is my name sewn and framed which I thought was a lovely personal gift to give so thank you very much Jules!

I adore my friend Robert Sae-Heng's work so to receive a lovely bundle in the post including original pieces made my day. He is a darling, thank you Rob!

Last but not least is the lovely Harriet Gray's postal gift of postcards, stickers and her intricate business cards which really cheered me up when they arrived just after I had to give up my two kitties so thank you very much Harriet.

Please do check out their work.

fred bailey

2011-09-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

This is Fred Bailey and he got me drawing again. I'm not sure who he is but he's the first drawing i've finished and been happy enough to post in a long time. Drawing can't happen when there's too much going on in your head and my gosh has there been a hell of a lot going on in mine over the past few months through no fault of my own. Thankfully i've finally settled into my flat and getting into a bit of a routine has meant drawing is returning. For a while now lots of images have been swirling about in my head but i've been unable to get them down on paper. A lot of these images have been people like Fred here so as a sort of little challenge to myself i'm going to try to post a face everyday for a little while.

It's good to be back.

goodbye

2011-09-11T03:28:00.000-07:00

Some sad news i'm afraid. After waiting for such a long time to get my cat Otto back after my break up, along with my new kitten Gunter, i've sadly had to give them back to the breeder who has taken them back with open arms and a great deal of understanding and will look after them so well. Living alone, it has been overhwhelming trying to give the right care and attention for the kitties as i work long hours and i'm therefore leaving them for most of the day. Having just Otto was out of the question too as he would become so lonely on his own throughout the day and all in all it wasn't fair on them, especially with them being fully indoor cats. I didn't feel i had enough time in my day to give them the attention they deserved and although i love them dearly it's just not fair on them. It is of course a strange feeling after waiting on them for so long. It was the light at the end of a tunnel in a year that has been very difficult but i now have to pick myself back up yet again and at least know my beautiful boys are safe and loved elsewhere. Otto had brought me great joy, such a beautiful character and he helped me thtrough some tough times.It breaks my heart to see him go but i'll always remember him. So many events this year have stopped me from finding the time and the energy to draw but i shall be throwing myself headfirst into it now as it's my main prioroty now and my life.

Goodbye my boys xx

home sweet home

2011-08-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

My lack of blogging lately has been because I've been settling into a new life, new surroundings and a new happy time that i'm embracing wholeheartedly. Have you ever lived somewhere that you can truly say feels like home? This feels like my home and I couldn't be happier here. I get feelings about places and I fell in love with this flat instantly. It has a friendly and welcoming atmosphere and one which I feel like I've always known a strange way. I believe all places have a personality and sou and this flat's is beautiful. If it was a human, it would tell stories by the fireplace, bake cakes on Sundays and tell you to remember your scarf on cold Autumn days. I love it and I think it loves me back. My trusty desk is all set up again and my collected photographs are all unpacked and on display. I've set a few more out now that I have room along my fireplace and on my pinboard. I plan to get many more framed and make sure they are displayed and remembered well. My bedroom has become a little haven of warmth and comfort and I quite like the little colour scheme it's sort of formed on its own, especially when the sun comes through the curtains. Now all that's left to fully settle me into my new home is the return of my little kitty Otto (although apparently he's grown a lot) and also my new boy Günter, another Ragdoll kitten. I get them on Sunday the 4th of September and I really can't wait. I feel like I've been separated from my child and I guarantee there will be tears when I see him again. Photos will quite certainly follow. Of the cats, not my tears.

moving in

2011-08-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

I'm in the midst of moving into my new flat. It's a pretty exciting time for me. A fresh new start full of positivity and endless possibilities for the future. At the moment i'm pretty excited about how i'm going to make my flat my own. I have lot's of ideas and i'm looking forward to getting all my belongings moved in, creating a cosy, welcoming humble abode of my very own. The photo is me standing on the nice tiles in my new hallway. Still lots to do. Much packing to be done and such like but almost there!

lately

2011-07-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot happening in my life lately. A lot of change, a lot of sadness, and a tragic loss in my family. It's terrible that it takes a great loss to see the important things in life. Family. Friends. Life itself too, and how beautiful it is, and how important it is. I went to my favourite place recently, a small holiday for some time out to Glencoe camping. The scenery there is stunning and magical.

I'm soon to move into my new flat, get my kitty Otto back and a new member to my household too as i'm getting another kitty. So lots to do, quite a bit of organising to be done, as well as my day job, so if there isn't a lot of creative output up here at the moment, i'm sure you'll understand. I'll be back very soon with more.

my dreams

2011-06-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

I don't really know why i have always dreamt of a world. I don't know why all my dreams have taken place in this world. I don't know why i revisit places, streets, towns, countryside, libraries and shops days, months and years apart in real life. I can't describe the beauty of this world. I can't begin to explain the colours, the sounds, the smells. The atmosphere is like nothing you could ever imagine feeling. From start to finish you feel immense love and sadness at the same time. It takes your breath away. I wish i could show you the forests and the people that live in them. I wish i could show you the sea over the hill that makes you feel a calmness that you never though existed. I want to take you down the paths to the castles and underground passages. There are seals in a loch that follow you as you walk. There are instances of weather that seem to carry some sort of inner personality. The world itself seems alive. It seems like it's breathing. The fields lead you along. The trees take your hands and your head fills with memories and emotions that you can't even understand. It's a beautiful place. I really don't know why it's in my head. I really don't know why i go there when i sleep. I really don't know why i think about it all the time. Sometimes i think the world is a representation of my soul, or perhaps is what my soul actually is or looks like. Sometimes i wonder if it's a mixture of people and places and memories of other lives i've had. Whatever it is, i only have my art to explain it. Everything i draw touches on aspects of my dream world and i hope it hints on even the most minuscule part of the overwhelming feeling i get every time i visit it when i sleep. I hope i go there permanently when i die.

a story

2011-06-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

Lately i've ended up starting this little story. It sort of started itself in the form of an image and it's sort of lead itself. Strangely after working on the image, i seem to automatically know what the next part of the story is that goes with it. I'm not sure where it's going, or how it'll end, but it seems to know so i'll just rely on my subconscious to take me to the next part of the tale. There are two parts so far and they are as follows:

Only jeremy felt they shouldn't follow it. it was too late though. They'd been following it for years in what seemed like an unchanging path. He wanted to leave. He was cold with fear and exhaustion and sadness. He knew it was leading them to their death but they were his brothers and sisters and he knew how much they loved the glow that surrounded it. He'd never leave them.

Jeremy managed to break them away from the path and down to the sea where an old steam boat was picking others up. They weren't wearing red. they were wearing grey. He took this to be a good thing. They climbed on and the boat turned out into the sea. He wasn't sure how long they had been sailing before he saw it. It was there but it wasn't glowing. It was turning from red to grey and it was coming down towards them at a frightening rate. He stood in front of his brothers and sisters, and waited for it to reach him.

I've been on some late shifts at work in the later half of this week so there's not been much time to draw when i get home (long bus journey) but i'll get back to the next part of the story when i'm back to earlier shifts next week. In the meantime, i've been practising a bit of writing again. I used to love writing and i want to get back into it. So keep your eyes peeled for some written word as well as pictures.

very permanent art

2011-06-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

It was such a wonderful feeling to found out one of my little washing lines was going to spend it's days with the lovely Julia Young after winning her competition to design her a wrist tattoo. It is incredibly flattering and such a lovely feeling to have some very permanent art out there, away on it's own little journey. Thank you if you voted for my design! It was a lot of fun to take part in and i'm very glad Julia is happy with the final result. Read more about the great tattoo hunt and resulting adventure on here blog here

my accomplices in art

2011-06-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

There are materials that all people that work in art and design could live without. Some they buy to experiment a little, some they buy because they'd ran out of their favourites. There are however materials, objects and small things that most wouldn't notice but are personally crucial to each individual artist. The things that they are never seen without, the things that they get a bit panicky if they run out of, and those that can always be found on their desk, that help them with their work and spur them on to create more. These are my little artist accomplices.

I'm a watercolour addict. This set by Windsor and Newton are the love of my life. Messy perhaps but each little muddy dried up puddle is a colour i need and i couldn't even think about cleaning them. Even the colours muddying up the different blocks of watercolour are needed.

The tubes are for when i like to use my watercolours a bit thicker and play about with them on the paper. These are just cheap ones from who knows where. They're more used for their bulk rather than their quality. I sometimes also add in a naughty splodge of white acrylic. White is mainly the colour i use for bulk and dab in other colours from there. I don't really use watercolours in the traditional sense but who says there's rules anyway.

All of my work is coloured on paper with paint with added coloured pen and pencil. I really like mixing materials and working on the spur of the moment. If i'm craving some pencil lines in the paint i'll grab the nearest pencil and work into it while it's still wet. I like to work quickly and more recently have turned back to focusing on colour and expressive use of paint in my work.

When it comes to paint brushes i use quite a variety but mainly stick to very small brushes. I use white nylon brushes when working with masking fluid as i tend to find them easier to clean. I don't stick to a specific brand but tend to go for the feel and shape of the brush in my hand. I can sort of tell how it's going to take the paint, if it's going to split easily and how it'll handle on the paper. Most material picking is by instinct rather than going by advertising. The pencil is in there are he's a pencil that likes to get a bit mucky in the paint. I use him in when it's still wet so he lives with the brush family. Also there's a funny little stick in there that is actually a broken cat toy. It has rubber ends and is great for working the paint about.
I love paperclips. I use them a lot in my sketchbooks which i also use as scrapbooks. I keep some on me at all times incase i find something that i want to keep and pop it in my sketchbook.

I've tried many sketchbooks but at the moment these ones are my favourite. I have two, one is for lists though as i do love a good list. The one on top is my current sketchbook. They are from www.katynjune.co.uk who sell other lovely desk items and stationary too. The paper is squared, and i much prefer this for a sketchbook as it takes away the scariness of blank pages and is more relaxing to draw in.

My paper of choice is Daler Rowney Heavy Weight. I like thickness of the paper and it takes watercolour quite well as long as it's not too thick. It mainly works best with my pens and scans nicely too. The other sketchbook there is The Langton Rough Grain Torchon watercolour paper. This is just nice for experimenting in and trying out colours. It's a bit rough for regular use.

My pens are my children. I love them. I'm interested in adopting some different brands soon but these have always been my favourite. In the top right you can see the nibs. My preferred nib size is 0.03mm and 0.05mm. I use Copic Multiliner SP's and Staedtler pigment liner. I don't go above those sizes on any work. I use technical pencils in too, the smaller the size the better. The one shown is a Staedtler Mars micro. I've also included my Pentel water pen which is great for portability. My coloured pens and pencils live in two old boxes my grandad gave me which can be seen in the photo at the beginning of this post. I use Faber-Castell Colour Grip and Staedtler ergosoft. Really lovely smooth colouring pencils to use. My pens are Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen, Staedtler triplus fineliner, Copic sketch and Stabilo point 88. I mainly use both coloured pens and pencil for small details.

Finally my desk wouldn't be complete without my little family. For those of you who don't know, i collect old photographs which i've found on ebay or in charity shops and car boot sales. I do this as i find is utterly heart wrenching that these once loved and cherished photos have been lost and forgotten. I therefore collect them and display as many as i can in order to remember them again as if they were my own family. I get a lot back from this as due to having had them for so long and displaying them for so long, they do feel like family to me and my desk wouldn't be complete without them. In the first photograph i have my group of ladies posing outside a hall and a young woman smoking. These are from a collection of photographs that spanned from the Victorian times all the way into the 1970s. It was such a large collection and such a loss that it means a lot to me to now look after. Part of that collection was also this little dog. Then in the bottom photo we have my sailor, a woman with a baby and my family. They sit and watch me draw and are a great inspiration. I got chatting to a medium at my work once and we got onto the subject of my collection. She told me that all the people in the photos will be so happy and grateful that i was looking after them and that one day i'll meet them all on the other side. I told her that was going to be quite a crowd!

more sketchbook work

2011-05-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some more sketchbook pages. The last image is the detail of the drawing in the first image. It's based on some old Glasgow tenements surrounded by smoke. More sketchbook pages to come.

some sketchbook pages

2011-05-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

I'm back to working in my sketchbook and these are a few pages i've completed recently. These days i've noticed that i seem to be more interested in colour and i have a set of colours in my head which i'm aways noticing. I get very excited if i pass someone in the street wearing one of my favourite colour combinations and always have to stop myself running up to them and saying "you're wearing my colours!". Colour combinations pop up a lot in my sketchbooks at the moment and i love dabbling about with my watercolours, making shapes and patterns. It's been good to work on squared paper as well, making it easier to combat each page instead of being met with the scary white blank page i usually work on. I'll be popping up pages along the way so look out for new ones soon.

the story of the old lady at the bus stop

2011-05-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

I spoke to an old lady at the bus stop today. She said that i'd probably see the bus coming better than she could as she couldn't see well. She started to talk to me and told me all about her life. She had an operation some time ago due to a cataract in her eye and it went wrong. They scratched her eye and now she couldn't read anymore. She told me how she had always loved to read. She'd tried all the new fancy reading machines and things but none helped and audio books weren't the same. She told me how her husband had been watching the racing and there was a crash, but she couldn't read any on the names on the screen. She couldn't work out what was going on. She can't read any text that comes up on the television now. She talked about the television for a bit. She liked programs where "they dig things up"and also soaps. She also talked about the internet and computers. Said she refused to have a computer much to the dismay of her grandchildren who wanted to send her emails. She said how people used to write a lot and they don't now. We talked about handwriting for a bit and how people rarely put pen to paper now. She told me that she'd won a prize at school for her handwriting and seemed still proud of it. She also said she won a prize at school for sewing but could no longer sew or knit. She showed me her hands. Arthritis. She told me of how she thought arthritis was some sort of punishment. How it wasn't a disease. It must be a punishment. She talked of how it steals things for you and you can no longer do anything anymore. She explained that it's why she needs her frame to walk. The bus arrived and she told me one last thing with so much sadness in her voice.

"I'll tell you honestly. I can't do anything anymore. Sew, read, knit, go places. I'm so bored."

She got on the bus and handed over her bank card. She couldn't see her bus pass.

a storm

2011-05-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Today i drew a storm for many reasons, but one of the reasons i can share is that i find storms, or thunder and lightening, to be one of my favourite natural occurrences to witness. I find the sound of thunder quite calming, especially teamed with heavy rain. This scene is based on the Strathmore Valley where i am at the moment. I also did a little organised map of the colours i've played about with today which can be seen below it. I told you i'd get round to doing something other than football related drawings...

drawing help

2011-05-25T01:52:00.000-07:00

Turning to drawing as some form of escape or comfort is something i've always been able to do and right now it's a great help and focus for me. Luckily it's also a great help for my drawing as since i've fully engulfed myself in it, it's meant i've been constantly drawing and therefore in a way practising and stretching my drawing muscles. Apologies again for non football or Celtic fans but i'm being a bit selfish at the moment with what i'm drawing and drawing what i love and what makes me happy. This explains this next drawing of Ki Sung-Yueng's goal celebration at the Scottish Cup Final. More drawings to come and i promise there will be non football related ones too.

silverware for the cabinet

2011-05-22T13:37:00.000-07:00

I'll firstly apologise if you're neither a football fan or a Celtic fan for that matter but i had to have a celebratory post for the recent cup win which i feel was greatly deserved and greatly needed to end the season. For those of you who don't know, i love to follow the team, love to go to the games, and find it to be the best atmosphere and the most amazing feeling and giant family to be part of. It has also been a great support and focus for me recently.

‘For me, this isn’t the end,it’s just the beginning’.

rules and goals

2011-05-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

I like to talk about the struggles of being an illustrator as i feel it's an issue skirted over by universities and sometimes shied away from publicly by other illustrators/creatives. I think however it's best to talk about the ups and downs of the profession to help others whether it be to show that they are not alone in it or to at the very least, make aware the problems which they may face. I think it's highly unrealistic and very rare (and lucky) to think that all those who are creative do it as a main job. To be freelance is the dream but up until that point there is the reality of life, paying the bills, forking out rent, and working our way up the job ladder to fund our future freelancing goal. There is however that horrible constant circle you spin in while doing this. Working all day, having no time to draw, having no time to gain new inspirations, work out new ideas, experiment with materials, literally getting up at 6am for a job, finishing at 5 or after, coming home, having dinner, cleaning, going to bed to do it all again the next day. Exhaustion doesn't help, neither does being stuck in a not very inspired loop of a day job, therefore not much creative work gets done. It becomes a pressure and a frustration to create something. A frustration at that 9-5 job and a frustration yourself at the resultant uninspired doodle coming out of the end of your pen. I'm human and therefore it gets me down at times but the other day i came up with a list for myself to follow and on that list i've given myself some rules. Rules to follow and help me keep creative yet rules which excite, make me want to draw and give me something creative to work to each day.

The rules are very simple and are as follows:

start doing a drawing a day
do a blog post a day
do a piece of research that interests you a day, even if for 10 mins
set aside a minimum of one hour a day to draw
at some point in the day put something in your sketchbook, no matter how small

I'm thinking that by having these small goals to achieve everyday, it will not only be drawing practise but will be a way of keeping creativity going and helping rebuild confidence which can be taken away by the slog of a 9-5 job. I think the resultant buzz from ticking these off as being done everyday could have a profound effect.

The drawing above is of Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge. I was quite taken aback by the Royal Wedding after my initial dislike of the mass media coverage and the financial details, but the whole thing ended up just being a really beautiful occasion and i found the the feeling of tradition it brought to be quite a rare thing to witness in modern times.

and the winner is...

2011-05-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

The number 1 comment which was... Handmade by Emily !! Well done to you! Chosen by the Random Number Generator!

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway :) I will be drawing the winner the beach huts on the Hove/Brighton sea front as she requested. I'll be posting it up on my blog after she has received it. Thank you again for all your entries and support on my blog. More giveaways in the future!

tom woolner for amelia's magazine and some new helpful books

2011-04-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

After my creative slump, i'm back on the road to producing things. First up is this drawing shown above and also just below on the article it was for on Amelia's Magazine website. It's of Tom Woolen performing in 'More Soup and Tart' at the Barbican. You can check out the full article here.

I've also started research for a little book i'm making which i'm very excited about producing and these two helpful books shown below will hopefully guide me on my way.

drawing slumps and how to get out of one

2011-04-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

I'm always talking about drawing slumps on here but there is no point hiding from them. They effect everyone who is creative in whatever form they may be creative in and it's equally as hard hitting for us all. The huge problem is that about 90% of the time, people who work creatively aren't happy with what they are producing. Either that or they are happy but know they can improve and are always looking to the next project, the step up. This can't be changed as that's what makes these people good at what they do. If they weren't constantly hard on themselves then they'd be drawing a circle for example, sticking three dots and a line in it, calling it a face and saying "done".

In a way it's our ability to crit ourselves and push for better results that allows us to do what we do. However that doesn't make it any better when a slump in creativity comes along. It can be for many reasons. Mine happens to be the age old thing of "i don't know what i want to draw". Lacking inspiration is a common cause for a drawing slump. I get very bored of what i draw very quickly. That's probably why i draw rapidly too. I tend to find it difficult to revisit a drawing. Thankfully with each drawing slump though comes a lesson. As you may have seen on previous drawing slump posts i've made, i've talked about buying a new sketchbook to help the flow of activity. This seems to be a common cure that drawing slump victims turn to when needing a bit of inspiration. A new sketchbook and pen always seems to help. I have however learnt one thing not to do in this situation: buy a cool/fancy/untouchable sketchbook. The most important word there is 'untouchable'. When lacking in drawing confidence and ideas, the worst thing to do is buy a beautiful, clean cut, brand new, shiny sketchbook. A glaring crisp white page isn't the best thing for an self conscious drawing hand and trembling pen to face and i've made this mistake before.

I have therefore gone for a slightly different take on this cure. Yes buying a new sketchbook helps but i've gone for graph paper instead of blank paper. Why? Graph paper seems to me anyway as if it's already been drawn on. It's not perfectly bare waiting on that first wobbly touch of the pen you've been dreading. It's already covered in lines. Seems a bit obvious i know but for some reason my brain reacts differently to this paper. It's like sitting reading a book: in a cafe i feel comfortable but a little self conscious reading, but at home on my couch i don't give it a second thought. A graph paper sketchbook is my couch.

Secondly, another way to get out of a drawing slump is to not give a damn. Just get out a bit of paper and draw on it. Simple as that. Who cares if it's not for that project you really need to complete. Who cares if it's not good enough to make into a print to sell. Who cares. When drawing has become more of a scary "can i do this anymore?" task, you need to bring it back to why you originally made artwork, or whatever your creative output is: because you love it, and it makes you happy. Until you get that back, there's no going forward. So kick off your drawing shoes and put your drawing slippers on.

What do you like most? Horses? Draw a horse. Cars? Draw a car. Draw what you feel like. Do what you feel like. Make an origami duck if it makes you happy. Start sewing, painting, making music, and if god forbid you don't feel like doing your creative thing, go do another thing. Read a book, go for a swim, go a walk, whatever you want. Pressure and that much needed but much annoying criticism that comes from being creative sometimes needs to be told to shut up while you have a rest. All those who work creatively get that horrible guilty feeling when they are doing anything else other that their creative output. Concentrating on this while in a slump is the worst thing to do. Take a break and let that inbuilt love of creativity come back when it's ready. Another point is to know that it will. It may be days, weeks, even months but it will come back. Until then, go draw that horse, or have that swim, or catch up on that reading your creative voice has been banishing you from doing and you'll soon get some ideas again. You never know, the ideas may come from your relaxation.

Pictured above is my first drawing out of my slump. One of the 'History of the World in 100 objects' pieces which i drew as i personally find drawing small detailed little pen drawings very satisfying indeed, a good one to get that love of drawing back.

1000 twitter followers giveaway - your favourite place

2011-03-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

I have reached over 1000 twitter followers and to celebrate and say thank you i am doing a custom drawing giveaway. All you have to do is comment on this post with the place you would like me to draw for you. I will pick a random winner on the 30th of April and that winner will get the place they commented about drawn especially for them and i'll be adding in some prints, badges and things too.

What is your favourite place? Is there somewhere you would love to have drawn? At the moment i am drawing my version of places, remembered, imagined fragments of my favourites. Let me know a place you like and you might just get it drawn for you!

Please leave your comment and if you'd like, RT this on twitter or post it if you like and have fun trying to think of your favourite place.

places real and imagined

2011-03-30T04:02:00.000-07:00

I've drawn a little group of places that i love and this is the first of them. I'm busy colouring the other three and i'll pop them up soon. They're real places but with my own view of them which ma have distorted such details as colours, sizes and shapes. Try to think of a place you like or remember a place you once visited. It won't be exact in you head, maybe close but not exact. Perhaps you forgot a few windows, trees, added in a road, a river, changed the colour of a wall, made it seem brighter or darker. Whatever the detail it won't be exactly the same. So these drawings are kind of an ode to the remembered. Slightly different but representing places i know and love. I'll be posting up the rest soon.

society6

2011-03-19T16:17:00.001-07:00

I'm now on Society6! Please do have a look. You can buy prints there in a range of sizes as well as iphone cases, ipad skins, tshirts, canvas' and more, all with my drawings on them. I have new work coming up which is just about to be coloured which i'll be popping up too. I have replaced my other shop with Society6 in the meantime while i work on more limited edition handmade pieces for my other shop. Here are some examples of my iphone 4 cases. Check back for new updates very soon.

http://www.society6.com/studio/sannadyker/store

scottish woman

2011-03-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

I recently did an interview for the magazine Scottish Woman which can be seen in the new February/March issue. The image below shows my interview and the one below that shows a piece of work i did for the magazine for an article about saving time. I was really happy to do this, and enjoyed explaining where my inspiration comes from and how i work. Thank you to all at Scottish Woman magazine for the opportunity. A whole page too, very exciting!

ouch

2011-03-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

It's a pain having your foot bitten by a kitten like my wee rascal Otto here, but it's an even bigger pain not being inspired to draw. I'm in one of those dreaded drawing slumps at the moment. I'm not inspired in the slightest by my surroundings, need a much needed holiday or even trip out of Dundee, and therefore have no ideas as to what to draw. I've been working on some brief driven projects but as far as a personal project goes i'm stumped. Usually times like these call for new sketchbooks, new pens but nope, i've done that before. It works sometimes but this time it needs something a bit more direct. Something a bit more blunt and to the point. What do i like? What do i want to draw? Even as simple as what are my favourite colours? So i've come up with some homework for myself. I'm giving myself this...

Nope it's not an image mistake, it's a big piece of blank space. Completely white, bare, barren, ready for drawing on. Or writing. Or painting. Whatever i want. There's no brief, no expectation, nothing. This space is for me to create in it what i want. What i like. Even if it's just a way a line is drawn, a texture, a colour, a shape, anything. I'm going to get a huge piece of space (in the form of paper) and by the end of this week i'll show what i've done. On that paper i hope to revisit why i love drawing. I hope to have enjoyed making an image, playing with colour, and producing something i find aesthetically pleasing. I'm taking drawing back to basics for myself and hopefully by doing that i'll become inspired again, just by the act of drawing itself. See you in a week...

amelia's magazine - ashley isham article

2011-03-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

I recently had my drawing posted on Amelia's Magazine for the Ashley Isham show at London Fashion Week. The show looked beautiful and it was a lot of fun to draw the piece i chose. The full article can be read here. Below is the original drawing.

a small side project/hobby: give yer face a wash

2011-03-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

i've always loved collecting and trying out new make-up, skin care and other beauty products so i've decided to start up a blog about it. if you are interested in such things too, or know anyone else who is, please point them in this direction...

www.giveyerfaceawash.blogspot.com

the young creatives interview

2011-02-22T06:23:00.000-08:00

I did an interview for 'the young creatives' which can be found http://theyoungcreatives.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/sanna-dyker/. Thanks guys! The blog is a great one for keeping up with new emerging talent. Well worth a look and a bookmark!

norwegian wood design competition

2011-02-22T06:09:00.000-08:00

I recently entered a competition over on 'Don't Panic' to design a poster for the film adaption of Haruki Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood'. I noticed that a lot of people were focusing on the characters themselves but i decided to focus on something i find more important in a story. Something i've been most inspired from in Tenessee Williams plays such as 'A Glass Menagerie': the setting. My description of my poster design on the site is as follows:

"My work tends to focus on the settings of live rather than the situations themselves. Colours, smells, sounds and objects, down to the simplest of items like a cup, flower or chair hold more significance to us than the blurred visions of past moments we try to hold in our memories. So it's the surrounding settings i've focused on here, the backdrop of the story, the constant silent, often forgotten, lingering character but one of great importance."

If you like my poster, please do take a few minutes to vote for my entry which you can find here.

You have to register with the site to vote, but it's well worth it as it's a great site to keep up to date with and registering only takes a few seconds.

Thank you in advance for your support.

a soldier and a drunk

2011-02-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some drawings today of people. I have a little series coming up in the form of WWI and WWII soldiers and this soldier is the first taster of that. A few generations back a relation of mine had a fiance who went off into the war and never came back. She was very young, but never became engaged again. She spent the rest of her life looking after her parents.
This one is for her.
Also this other man here, who started off a nice old man walking down the street when i started drawing him, slowly evolved into a drunk. I see him as the kind that sits at the end of the bar, bothering you with annoying information about his shoe size or caravan that you can't be bothered hearing. The kind whose eyes you avoid as contact will grant him access to be your best ever buddy for the night. I'm adding people drawing to the 'personalities' section on my website. Keep an eye out on it, as i'll be adding new faces regularly.

come on summer, never mind spring

2011-02-04T15:02:00.000-08:00

I really can't wait until summer. I'm looking forward to going on holiday abroad as we've promised ourselves that this year. I'm looking forward to sunshine, and visiting places i've been meaning to for a while such as castles. I'm looking forward to seeing some countryside and going walks without having to spend half an hour layering up thick socks over my jeans. I'm really looking forward to getting out of this city which always seems so grey and dull and saturated to me. Most people's cities probably seem like that to them after a while. May i add that it's a rubbish shade of grey, not any of the really nice shades. What is a bright day like? What is a sunny spot in the garden like? It all seems so foreign. I'm looking forward to re-introducing myself to it all once again. I'm looking forward to creating all my new shop stock and getting out to take some inspiration in for their ideas. When it comes down to it, i'm basically looking forward to winter saying goodbye. My favourite winter day is Christmas Eve and that's about it so come on Spring. Hurry along, pass us by and introduce us to summer once again.

While it is cold and grey, i like to find inspiration and new things to look at on tumblr. Here are some of the images i've gathered recently on mine which i use primarily to gather aesthetically pleasing sights.

You can find my tumblr...here.

sketchbook interview

2011-02-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

I recently answered some questions for a friend's class at Dundee University regarding the use of sketchbooks. Here was my answer.

I’ve generally, more recently, started to use my sketchbook for doing exactly what it says it’s for – sketching. I used to try, and always have done, to make each page either contain a nicely finished drawing, or at least a series of sketches that are pleasing on the eye. It therefore has never been very natural, more forced, and my continued harsh analyzing of my finished work would carry on into my sketchbook work. Lately I’ve tried to stop that and use it more naturally, trying not to purposefully make it aesthetically pleasing because after all it’s only practice, or at least that’s what I want to use it for. I think many people will want to try to make their sketchbooks look perfect, but due to working full time in another job, I now need to use mine to keep up my drawing practice, so I’ve leaned towards using it for this reason and this reason only, aesthetically pleasing pages aside. I try to draw in it as often as I can. I try to not bother if I’m not in the mood for drawing but force myself to anyway. This is a hard barrier to overcome as I know if I’m not in the mood for drawing, I wont draw well, thus mucking up my sketchbook. But as I said, that’s what I’m trying not to bother about these days anyway. I have in the past had sketchbooks that have turned more into scrapbooks. I do like collecting things and pinning things into sketchbooks, but sometimes I get carried away and end up making the sketchbook pages impossible to draw on or find space in. Now I’m trying to stick to just using pen, pencil, and water colour. I don’t tend to look back and reflect on my sketchbook work. What’s done is done. It’s a practice book. Most of the attention on the pieces happen as they are being drawn, afterwards it’s just a collection of past scribbles.
I usually always carry a sketchbook with me. I work on one at a time. I usually haven’t finished them in the past due to one drawing I’ve done that has put me off the whole sketchbook. Bad drawings have made me waste so many sketchbooks. It gives the sketchbook a bad vibe. I don’t find it nice to look at anymore, and can’t produce good work in it. Again, a way of working I’m trying to change at the moment.
I’ve never used a digital sketchbook and couldn’t due to a few factors. I’m quite traditional when it comes to drawing and I only use technology for scanning and tidying up work. I couldn’t use it as I can’t feel what I’m doing, which may sound strange, but I can feel what the pens doing, the texture of the nib and the level of ink in the pen. Using anything artistic digitally is like drawing with a numb pen to me. I can’t feel anything working.
I think I do get emotionally attached to sketchbooks, especially as I carry them around with me everywhere. I fall out with sketchbooks easily though, but I am trying to change that.
I’ve tried all types of sketchbook, so I don’t really stick to a type. After a while I think choice comes down to the paper quality. Can it hold pen? Can it hold water colour? I use both all the time so this is quite an important factor. My pens are very, very delicate at 0.03 mm wide, and the nibs can be damaged easily so I have to watch the paper isn’t too rough.
I can’t undo my mistakes as I work in pen straight onto the paper. I guess that’s why I fall out with sketchbooks so much. Making a mistake in one can’t be undone.
I’ve never used sketchbooks as a place to work out ideas. I’ve tried and it doesn’t come naturally. All that happens in my head. I had to use them to come up with ideas, step by step, for uni work but those sketchbooks were all artificially made in a way. I produced them to look as though they had been my artistic journals full of working, but they were all mainly created after the steps had been made. I think a lot of people at uni do similar as it’s not always the most natural way to work if you’re in the midst of an idea.
My sketchbooks are by no means organized at all. I never refer back to them either. They are just nice to have and nice to have completed when I get round to finishing them!
I share my finished work with others online, and I do post up sketchbook work. I’ve never worked with others in my sketchbook. It’s almost too personal. Not in a sense of it holding work personal to myself that I don’t want to share with others, but more just that it’s not really a sharing kind of thing. It’s my book where I practice my drawing. There isn’t really a place in it for others.
I only ever really have one sketchbook going at a time. I become very attached to it, but can easily put myself off it. I guess most of the time I’m just trying to keep mentally attached to it for as long as I can before it’s cast aside half finished, and a new one is bought. I tend to buy new ones as well if I’ve been stuck for ideas. A new sketchbook is always a good way for a fresh drawing start.

gocco printer has arrived

2011-02-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

My Gocco Printer, a PG-10 Super has arrived from Japan at last! Otto helped me with the unpacking of it... Card and other bits and pieces have been ordered to get it up and running soon so keep an eye out for news of some Gocco prints popping up in my shop soon.

toast, bread, and toppings.

2011-01-30T10:42:00.000-08:00

A new piece for the upcoming Brikolage magazine, the theme being 'squares'. I contributed to the last issue too which was 'old age'. The spread which they added my chickens drawing to can be seen below.

a note for art colleges and universities

2011-01-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

Since leaving university in 2008 i now look back and think, what on earth did i learn? Perhaps courses have changed now but i've learnt a lot since and think that there are some key aspects that should have been brought into our courses. Illustration is a subject where you learn from experience. It's quite scary to begin with, thrown out into the real world after uni, and suddenly having to deal with clients. We were taught how to handle briefs and work to deadlines, but as freelance illustrators, we were never taught how to handle a very important aspect: pricing. Suddenly being asked for prices for your work is quite daunting. You have to watch for loop holes. People trying to make you feel stupid for asking too much. Others making you feel stupid and unprofessional for asking too little. Then there's copyright issues. How to deal with stock. Printing. How to find printers. How to price stock according to what you've paid for the printing. This list is endless. Some of these things i've learnt now from experience. Others i've still not learnt. I think back to the fact that i did a course in the subject for 3 years (4 including general course) and think, how was there no time within all that to learn the most important part of this whole subject: business. We aren't business men and women. We draw, love to draw, and love people to love us to draw enough to pay for it. We don't have backgrounds in business. We've never had experience of business up until now. We need to hear about other people's experiences. We need to know how to handle things that seem quite intimidating to us but to the experienced freelancer are easy to deal with. Again yes this can all be learnt by ourselves, through time and experience, but it just makes me wonder what my student fee debts were all for. If i'd learnt how to sell my work and how handle the business of being a freelancer, i'd have least been comfortable in the knowledge my debt went towards something.

the sketchbook that seems to be working

2011-01-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

I don't really want to look back and count the number of posts on here where i've introduced a new sketchbook and said something along the lines of "this is it, this one is going to be kept until it's finished! Promise!". I'm too used to sitting down, completing a drawing, done. Sketchbooks have always been a problem for me as i love the idea of a sketchbook, i love the idea of what it's meant to look like, and i can complete them to look "that way" but it never comes naturally. Take my uni sketchbooks for instance. They were huge, fat, finished things, full of scraps, ideas, sketches, stuff and they did the job. They contained research and showed working. They looked like they were supposed to. They looked like they'd been my artistic diary throughout uni, but they weren't. All those sketches, ideas, scraps did happen. They just happened in lots of different books, or lived under my bed, in layers on my desk, in a folder i'd forgotten, half way into a bin, and when needed, had all been gathered up, dusted off, and put together into this perfect looking fat sketchbook that looked the part but didn't really follow the right sketchbook path of life. So since then i've continued to love the idea of sketchbooks. I start them. I don't finish them. Each page ends up trying to look it's best and it fails at some point and the sketchbook gets brushed aside. Either that or it ends up transforming into a scrapbook until all my drawings are covered by stuff i've found, which inevitably fall out into my bag making it look like a recycling bin.
Recently though i've revisited the idea of "the sketchbook". I realised that the point is in the name. It's for sketching in. Not producing your best work in. Not for making it look like a perfect idea of a sketchbook, but a place to sketch. A place where you don't draw your best at the start but the more you practice, the more you sketch, the more your drawing gets better and helps your overall work. I needed to revisit this traditional idea of a sketchbook recently as i spend so much time at my monotonous day job that when i come to do finished drawings, i've not quite got the confidence. The practice and build up to it hasn't happened and i'm therefore less pleased with the final result. So action had to be taken, and i had to try and teach myself again and get into the habit of drawing everything, all the time. Enter the sketchbook. So i got one which i'd wanted for ages. the Fabriano Artist's Journal. The coloured pages would, i thought, add a bit of interest and perhaps help with ideas and drawings. So it has been started. The drawings aren't perfect, finished, and some of them shall be indistinguishable but it's not forced or trying to be something it's not. It's just a sketchbook to practice drawing as it should be, and knowing that is making it much more enjoyable to use, creating a pressure free zone. It's a learning curve for me, but an enjoyable one.

I'll be posting the pages of my sketchbook here but you can also find them on my website.

more found negatives

2011-01-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

found negatives

2011-01-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

For Christmas i got a brand new scanner and it has the ability to scan negatives and slides. A great function for scanning in Lomo photos, but i thought it would also be brilliant for scanning in found negatives. I had a little browse about and got a pack of random negatives for under £5 on ebay. It was quite exciting to scan them and see what they held. Here are three of my favourites. I'll pop up any nice finds i come across in the future. I'm also going to try to find some slides to scan too.

happy 2011 to you all

2011-01-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

A very happy 2011 to everyone. Thank you to all who have followed my blog, viewed my website and bought my art work over the past year. All your support in my work is much appreciated.
Onwards now to another year of drawing, and this year i have many plans and many projects which i plan to get right into. To start with, i bought a much wanted piece of equipment for future work, a Gocco P10 Super Printer. It'll be lovely to get some printmaking done this year and will be a nice new addition to my shop. Speaking of which, my shop and website are to be given a bit of spring clean for the new year so please bear with me. My website won't be down at all, but it may keep changing a bit over the new month while i vacuum out all the dust and give it a polish. I will still be available for commissions and collaborations, both of which can reach me through my usual contact details which will stay on the same place on my website (i'll just dust around them). You can also find me on twitter, flickr and facebook.

trying to draw a mountain

2010-12-29T01:31:00.001-08:00

I sat the other night in a dream and tried to draw a mountain. My dreams have the most wonderful backdrops of idillic countryside, mountain ranges and sea shores. This particular view was beautiful and i was well aware of being in my dream and very adamant i'd let everyone see this view when i woke up. For some reason, while dreaming, it seemed to make sense that i could draw or photograph the view to show everyone. It was a large waterfall flowing out of an odd shaped mountain, shadowed by other mountains by its side. They were covered in forest green foliage. The water shone blue and sparkled. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to capture this scene on paper. I remember feeling very pleased with myself that i had thought of the idea and had time to sit down in my dream and draw. I couldn't wait to show everyone. I thought that if i just held onto the paper, i'd be able to wake up with it. It was a simple idea.

It wasn't so simple when i woke up sans drawings.

christmas has come quickly and so has the snow

2010-12-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

Snow, Christmas, snowed in, present buying, and it's all happened so fast this year! I've been caught unawares a bit, and therefore never got any Christmas cards made, and have just about managed to get everything present wise. The snow has kind of mesmerized everyone a bit i think, and while our backs have been turned, Christmas has sneaked up and tapped us on the shoulder. I've had a miniature pre Christmas holiday though which has been great, and although my good pens have run out and i've been short of paper, i've updated my website a bit and made plans for the new year as to what direction i want to take my illustration work. Watch this space!
In the meantime, here is Otto enjoying seeing snow for the first time and also a little drawing of Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey, a period drama i've very much enjoyed lately.

fishing and boats

2010-11-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more images along the fishing theme. I quite enjoyed drawing the salmon. Not something i'd usually think to draw. I'd planned to get Christmas cards ready to sell this year but with the addition of Otto to the family i've been more preoccupied with buying cat litter bins and cat water fountains. I intend to design Christmas cards this year for my own use though, for family and friends, so i'll pop up the designs on here. I would sell them but by the time they arrive, i think it'll be a little too close to Christmas for everyone to still be buying cards. After all it's a month today until Christmas Eve! It's also not too long until my birthday too and i got a wonderful surprise yesterday when i got an early birthday present from Stephen. He got me a Windsor and Newton set of 45 watercolours. A dream come true! They are wonderful and the case has so much room for mixing too. I'm going to be doing some more drawing tomorrow so i'll post some more images up here very soon.

the fisherman

2010-11-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

One of the drawings i've been working on lately. More to come.

introducing otto

2010-11-20T10:25:00.001-08:00

Much has happened in the past few weeks which has mainly involved getting ready for the kitten arriving, working a lot and i also had a lovely trip up to Aviemore. Sadly the kitten we were going to be getting tragically died. Such a sad turn of events but as the breeder said, these things can happen, especially when they are of such a young and delicate age.
Almost by fate though, while looking through many a breeder, starting from scratch again to find our kitty, i found a wonderful breeders in nearby Falkirk who had a beautiful blue mitted tabby Ragdoll kitten who needed a good home. Not long after, the trip was made to go and meet and pick up our beautiful new member of the household. His name is Otto and he is 17 weeks old. He has settled into his new home very well and is usually under our feet, not to far away from us. He enjoys cuddles all the time, and can be carried around on your shoulder or in your arms like a baby. He has the most beautiful soft fur that is like rabbit fur. We can't stop looking at him, and i'm sure i'll be doing some drawings of him in the not so distant future.

chickens

2010-10-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

Back to drawing after settling into the new flat. These chickens are for a magazine piece that i'll link to once it's all completed. I really enjoyed drawing an animal. I enjoyed getting back to my watercolours and pencils.

new arrival of a kitty cat

2010-10-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

When i was young i had a huge book called 'The Encyclopedia of Cats'. It was a pretty good book, listing every cat breed, and then how to care for them. I used to make lists of what i wanted to get for one, and have always loved looking in pet shops at all the bits and bobs you need. I really wanted a cat back then, and ever since i've always loved the thought that one day i'd be able to get one. Now that we are settled in our new flat, that day has come! Now i'm sitting working out real lists of what is needed, and got incredibly excited when the litter tray arrived in the post this morning. We have a bed ready too and i've worked out where i'm getting most of the other bits and pieces from as i've pretty much been glued to the internet, window shopping for it all. Who'd have thought great excitement could come from browsing cat grooming brushes and litter tray liners.

But now to introduce the little fellow himself. He's a Ragdoll cat, a fairly new breed from around the 1960s if i'm not mistaken. This breed is known for their incredibly docile nature, their floppy body, and they have been described as being a bit like a dog as they like to follow you around and enjoy cuddles. They're one of the largest pet cats, and having a boy means he'll be around 12 to 20 pounds. At the moment he is just over 3 weeks old, and we can get him on the 17th of December. We're getting updated photos regularly from the breeder so we get to see him grow up. I've included a photo of him at 2 weeks old. His name is Klaus by the way and i can't seem to say it without putting on a German accent.

my new workspace

2010-10-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

The lack of posts lately has been due to me moving flats but we are now settled in well and enjoying our new cosy home. We had the much needed trip to Ikea, which although i love old furniture and objects, is still a winner in my eyes when it comes to the essentials. After much deliberation, i came to the decision to get this new desk. I've always wanted a proper place to work at and have usually had to either use very small desks, kitchen tables or even just my knees to balance a sketchbook on. I've never had a permanent desk holding all my materials and giving me an excellent surface space to work on, but now i have one! It's from the Expedit range in Ikea, and it has a very handy set of shelves at the side and below to keep everything on. I've tidied my materials away into some old boxes my grandad gave me, and can now have some of my old objects on display again along with my books. I also have a lovely little pin board which i've popped some of my favourite scraps on. So now it's back to drawing and this time it's at a desk which i'm sure will be the perfect place for lots of new ideas.

influence map

2010-09-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

I've seen this influence map popping up on a few blogs here and there and thought it would be a nice thing to do while sitting being a bit ill. My throat feels like a razor. This map however kept me occupied while i ate many a throat sweet. I've listed below what each of the squares are. They're listed from left to right across the rows.

row 1:
Colin Thompson was my favourite illustrator when i was young. His books contained great detail and i would spend hours looking through the pages. The stories were dreamlike and full of adventure, yet tended to take place in normal surroundings such as ordinary rooms in a house. Small cafes could be seen peeking out of the bottom of sofas, and tiny alley ways disappeared in between chair legs. I loved the extreme detail and still find it inspiring today.

I grew up reading Beatrix Potter books and would watch the videos of the stories at my granny's. As i grew older i was also interested in her flora and fauna studies. Her delicate lines and use of water colour have influenced me greatly and i would regard her as one of my main idols.

Collections enthrall me, whether they be ones i keep myself or others that have been photographed. I find them aesthetically pleasing and also satisfying to add to. I like to work in groups, series and themes, which probably comes from my love of organisation of similar objects and ideas.

Eugene Atget's photography is my favourite. He somehow managed to capture life, buildings and moments in time with such a raw haunting atmosphere. I've never seen images that look so beautifully ghostly and nostalgic.

I've always been very interested in the paranormal. I have looked closely at residual energy and much of my work involves some aspect of lingering life and souls left behind.

row 2:
'Opera for a small room' is my favourite installation piece by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller. I found this to be a very haunting piece to listen to and watch, and carrying on from my previous influence, this piece of work was right up my street :
"There are twenty-four antique loudspeakers out of which come songs, sounds, arias, and occasional pop tunes. There are almost two thousand records stacked around the room and eight record players, which turn on and off robotically syncing with the soundtrack. The sound of someone moving and sorting albums is heard. The audience cannot enter the room. To see and hear his world, they have to look through windows, holes in the walls, and cracks in the doorways and watch his shadow move around the room." - www.cardiffmiller.com

George Orwell's work is perfect reading if like me, you are interested in social history. His work is personal, detailed, and he doesn't leave out the dirt and the grime of life. Most of my inspiration come from reading more that it does from other illustrators or artists and Orwell is one of my main inspirations.

As i said previously, I don't tend to follow many illustrators, but i do love Nigel Peake 's work. His subjects, colours and detail are deliciously good for the eyes. If i was to be asked who my favourite illustrator at present is, it'd have to be this guy.

I get a lot of inspiration from everyday routine, people's domestic life and day to day tasks. Small details that we disregard and don't take much notice of turn up often in my work. I therefore find any art connected to such a subject, very interesting. This piece is Woman Ironing, 1931 by David McCosh.

I love libraries. I love the way they look. I love their relationship with the public. I love how they house books in a manner that makes them seem precious. I gain most of my inspiration from reading, so they are therefore the hub for most of my ideas.

row 3:
Derelict buildings have appeared in a great deal of my work. Their emptiness is full of life for me, of those who once lived there. The connection of derelict buildings with residual energy is of great interest to me.

Mountains, especially those in Glencoe that tower above you, give me great delight to be around. The detail and texture that spans across them is almost impossible to take in, like millions of tiny pen marks.

Conservation and preservation has been quite important in my work over time. I like the idea of capturing something, containing it, whilst protecting it, for the future.

Washing lines. A very simple thing, but one i love to draw. If i'm ever unsure of what to draw, i always love to draw washing lines. Sometimes i draw bundles of washing. It's very enjoyable to do. I love the lumpy layers of fabric and the strange stretched out shapes on the line.

Dylan Thomas is my favourite poet. I also love the short stories of his childhood. He was very good at capturing memories and emotions down on paper. Always an inspiring read.

row 4:

Sometimes films inspire me more due to the colour scheme in them through the clothes and sets rather than the storyline. The Edge of Love is full of beautiful colours, textures and lighting.

Constructivism. Although i love detail, the bold shapes and minimal palette of this movement has brought me a lot of ideas over time. I love the angles. The simplicity is beautiful.

Norman Collin's book 'London Belongs To Me' is like sitting watching numerous families through what feels like the transparent wall of their tenement in pre WW2, London. For anyone that loves stories of everyday lives, relationships, the ups and the downs, this is the perfect book for you.

I'm a big fan of Tennessee Williams, but especially of his play 'The Glass Menagerie'. The whole set and script is like a transparent memory. It's beautifully delicate, and haunting to watch.

Marcel Proust can describe dreams and memories and everyday occurrences in a way no other can. The detail he goes into is incredible, and i find myself rereading the lines of his wonderful words.

row 5:

It's not the detail in Chris Van Allsburg's work that catches my eye. Instead it's the dreamlike, shadowy, and slightly sinister mood about his images. I think nostalgia is a very hard thing to get on paper, but his images are heavy with it, and i find that very inspiring.

I adore windows. It sounds a bit boring but i love to look at windows (not in them, i'm no creep). Aesthetically, i think they're beautiful in all their shapes, sizes and types. I always imagine drawing them whenever i see them. I also think they are interesting in the way that they are like small holes into which we can see glimpses of other peoples lives. They're like still film sets. At night, i always find windows with lights on to look so staged. You hardly ever see movement within the lit up room, and it's like a snapshot of a domestic life that's been paused for a second for you to see. What i find even creepier are dark rooms with the curtains left open at night. There's something very eerie about that.

This image is just an example of the watered down, dreamy colour palette that i love. I've even found that picking the images on this wall, i've come up yet again with a similar colour palette.

I think many will agree, looking at peoples work spaces is always inspiring. I love the clutter, the neatness, the organisation, the mess, what they have pinned on their noticeboards, and the general cosiness of the place that the person loves to get to work in.

I loved helping people look through census records at my old library job. There's something both exciting and relaxing about it. The old handwriting is always hard to read, but it looks like a beautiful pattern in the neat rows it's organised in. Lists of this sort, especially connected to the subject of family history are lovely to look at.

row 6:
Old photographs, especially those of my own family, are great to look at for ideas, colours, and memories. Memories feature a lot in my work, so these photographs are very helpful.

My pens tend to determine how my drawing is going to go. My style settled around the same time as finding the right pens for me to draw with. Copic pens became my babies, and they did exactly what i wanted them to do. It's hard to describe just how important the relationship with a good pen is, but all i can say is it's the most important of all influences here.

I love the grandeur of old paintings. I love the way they stare at you, and i love the tradition that they ooze. I have a lot of respect for the artists who produced them.

Roald Dahl is a hero from my childhood. Teamed with Quentin Blake's illustrations, his imaginative tales were very much to my liking, and i still love his work, especially 'Tales of The Unexpected': Dreamlike stories with strange twists which capture the imagination.

Paris is like a drawing that's come to life. I loved it so much when i was there. Not many days go by without me thinking of it.

autumn sale

2010-09-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

I'm having an autumn sale in my shop at the moment with prices reduced and shipping costs removed. There are tote bags, prints and badges up for grabs. Pop down to my shop for a looky.

finished falkirk high street drawing

2010-09-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my Falkirk High Street drawing the other night. Sadly i couldn't scan it in due to its size, so here is the best photograph i could take of it. I also included another shot of the detail, this time finished with added coloured pencil over the watercolour. It's going to be flying to Australia soon as it's for my boyfriend's cousin who has recently moved there from Falkirk. Now i'm about to get stuck into my sketchbook again, as most of my time is about to be taken up by moving house. I'm also planning some greetings card designs for Christmas. Lot's to be getting on with and i'll make sure to post up the progress along the way.

Colouring

2010-09-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

In between working and planning what's to be done for moving to the new flat, i've been making more progress on the street drawing i've been working on. I've started to add the colour and will be adding some pencil detail soon.

progress so far

2010-09-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

The drawing i'm working on is almost completed. I've been sprawled over my desk for quite a few days now, with pen nibs needing changed regularly but i'm nearly there. Hopefully it will soon be finished as i need to start getting organised for moving flats and starting a new job. Its all go just now!

looking for a new home

2010-09-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

The time has come to say goodbye to my Kader doll. I found her in a junk shop in Glasgow and have looked after her ever since. I'm sorting out my collection though, and although she is a lovely doll, i think she'd be suited to a new home. I look to collect older dolls in the future, and this girl is still a young thing really, made around about the 1950s. if you are interested in giving her that new home, i have listed her here on ebay. If you need to ask me any questions about her, feel free to. There are more pictures of her on ebay. She comes with her beautiful knitted green outfit which her previous owner must have given her. Here's hoping she finds a nice new owner.

EDIT: She's been won now, and is off to a new home.

drawing progress

2010-09-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

I've managed to pull myself away from baking for a little while to start the larger drawings i've had planned. They kept getting put back due to waiting on purchasing a desk big enough to draw them on. I did trying drawing on the floor. That didn't last long. My back is still suffering from attempting it. The desk has been pushed back until October but thankfully a bargain popped up on ebay in the shape of a cheap A1 cutting mat, which i purchased and managed to fit on my kitchen table. Drawing is therefore underway, and baking has been put on the back burner (mainly due to the fact i'm now taking up the surface of the kitchen table). The middle part which i'm working on just now, will probably take the least amount of time due to it being concentrated detail on a small area, but as i come out to the edges, the detail with become more intense and take a little longer to do. I'm really enjoying it, and it's nice to be working on a bigger scale. Before i set up studio in the kitchen, i did fit in a few other baked goods, which are shown here. Some homemade bread which was surprisingly easy to make, and some cakes which i must admit don't include my own buttercream icing. It is instead Betty Crocker's buttercream icing in a tub. What a buy though. A cheat, but the best thing to have in your fridge if you have a bit of a sweet tooth.

baking

2010-09-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

I've been doing more baking recently and decided to get myself a moleskine recipe journal to note down all the recipes i've been given by both my grandparents and my parents. I made shortbread the other day, and today successfully made dumpling and rich tea cake. It's a very fun pastime and incredibly rewarding. If i can manage to get good at it i've decided it'll make up for the fact that i can't knit. Therefore, if i ever want to pass some sort of knowledge to future generations, then this could be it. I'm quite interested in old recipes, so i'm trying to hunt some down. My great grandad was a brilliant baker who won prizes in London. I'm no where near his standard i'm sure, but i'm glad to be taking up a pastime that he once made as his living. Hopefully i'll find some more good recipes. If any turn out extra good, i'll put some recipes up on here.

recipes and postcards

2010-09-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a little swap the other day with a lovely twitter friend Timea Bradley. I sent some drawings, a totebag and some badges and in return i got these lovely postcards! A brilliant little collection, and great examples of beautiful handwriting. A nice bundle to add to the collection.
I've been baking a lot recently, and asked my granny if she had any recipes. Pictured here is her recipe book and i was able to write down some great treats for the coming weeks. These treats will be great snacks to get me through the group of big drawings i have planned. Paper supplies are on their way, and i'm hoping to pick up a new desk very soon so it can all get underway.

another new sketchbook

2010-08-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yes it's that time again when i've felt the need for a new sketchbook. The old ones are still on the go but i wanted a new one for no real reason at all. Sometimes a fresh new sketchbook just helps new ideas. I finally, after two days, managed to get past the first pages stage. Here they are.

drawings i've been working on recently

2010-08-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

I've been mainly working on some commission pieces recently. The first here is a design for a 12" vinyl. The drawing will fold around the sleeve and all that's left to do is add the text. The second drawing is going to be in the next Popshot Magazine issue so keep a little look out for it when it's released. Both very enjoyable pieces to do. I have some larger A1 projects lined up to be getting on with, but firstly i've been window shopping for desks as such big images will need a good working surface to draw on and a lot of space. In between that i'll be adding up some more drawings and hopefully getting some new items in my shop.

a family from York

2010-08-22T04:55:00.000-07:00

I usually have a little look on Ebay from time to time for photograph albums, old toys, letters and generally things that look like they've been completely lost and forgotten. Lately i came across this bundle of photographs which were found at a car boot sale in York. I was quite pleased when i won the auction for around £10, especially due to the great amount of photographs i would be receiving. I wasn't quite ready though for the sheer amount that did come through the post, and the link they all had to each other. Unlike a lot of photograph sets being sold online, these weren't merely a mixture, added to along the way from different sources, but instead they were quite simply someone's family album. On looking through the envelopes they had been originally kept in, i found a whole family history.

Written on the back of most of the photographs was a description of who the people in them were, the year, and where the photo was taken. Not only that, but i found small cut out pieces that had been kept from newspapers listing family births, marriages and wedding anniversaries. I could sort of tell that someone in the family, quite possibly the lady whom the photos once belonged to (she always wrote 'self' next to the photos of her), was a primary school teacher, as there were newer photos of her with her class, teaching them recorder and being given a medal. These photographs reach all the way back to the 1900s, mapping out a whole family history ahead of them. A whole album is dedicated to a trip to Italy, the photographs being taken with a great deal of thought regarding the architecture, views and lighting. There are photographs of wedding cakes, children, formal and informal groups, Christmas celebrations, nativity plays, maypole dancing, friends young and old, fashionable fur coats, soldiers, fathers, mothers, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, and even family pets.

There's a lot of happy faces staring out from these photos. It makes me quite sad to think they ended up in a car boot sale. This is a whole family's history, the physical evidence of their lives, experiences, and time together over generations spanning a whole century, lying on a table waiting to be picked up by a stranger. It could have quite easily been that the lady who owned them had no one else to take them once she had passed. It could even been that whoever had been left them had no real interest in them. Whatever the reason, i'm glad i found them eventually. They'll be added to my collection of other forgotten family albums including my Victorian family who are kept safe within their original leather bound album, my soldier who's photo sits alone, and my local Victorian family who sit within their frame, found in a second hand shop. It's quite scary to think of how much we rely on computers to keep our memories now, photographs hardly ever being printed out and put in an album. In someways the amount of information we put on computers and the internet especially, may mean more information will be available for future generations to find out about us. There will be no need to search through vast amounts of microfiche and census records to find out basic information about ancestors. I personally think that would all be too easy though. I wouldn't be at all surprised if something happens to shake us all up a bit, making us revert back to the physical instead of digital. I think unless something can be touched and held in your hand, you can't trust it to be there forever.

Shown here is just a small collection of the many photographs from this family collection.

Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary

2010-08-17T00:12:00.001-07:00

I just want to take a moment to wish my parents a very Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary! I had a meal with them and the family at the weekend but today is the official day so my best wishes go to them! I had a look at their wedding album at the weekend, which i also loved looking at when i was little. Such a lovely collection of photographs. The celebrations at the weekend were very nice indeed and i'm very glad they liked the drawing i did for them.

time

2010-08-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

I was thinking how strange it is that time sort of warps as you get older. The more we have to clog up our day, the more we plan things in bigger chunks. Time seems to go by so much more quickly these days. It sort of rocks back and forth from Christmas to Summer and everything in between sort of rolls along effortlessly without us hardly noticing it. I remember having my first insight into viewing time in larger chunks when i had my first job. As a library assistant, stamping the due date on customers books, I got used to viewing time in sets of 4 weeks which flew past very quickly. Jobs in general make you view time in monthly doses as you await the next pay day. They also make you wish large chunks of precious time away waiting on holidays arriving. It's strange to think of the length of time things took when you were of school age. School age itself seemed like a lifetime. A whole other era. Birthdays and Christmas took what seemed like months to arrive. The Argos catalogue would have been circled to pieces, lists would have been rewritten numerous times, and the days would have been crossed off at a painfully slow rate. Weekends even took ages to arrive, and you'd cherish them after a boring slow week at school. Weekends now pass without notice. I work weekends. The magic of the weekend, and more importantly the magic of waiting for a weekend was lost for me with my first job. Days of getting up early to eat coco pops and watch Saturday morning tv are a distant memory now. What's even stranger is the speed that birthdays and Christmas creep up on you. If there wasn't others there to remind you of it, it's a wonder that most of us remember. Time strides along in chunks now, and when a day does go slowly, i can't help but kind of cherish it.

25th wedding anniversary present

2010-08-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

An early Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary! to my parents who celebrate it on the 17th of August. As a present for them, i drew our dog Keira. It's been a while since i've been very aware of trying to capture a good likeness in a drawing, and i think i managed it. It has the big puppy dog eyes of Keira, and the "butter wouldn't melt in my mouth" look to the face, so i think that's her look caught. I hope they like it, and now it's on to some editorial commissions that need finished quite soon. My new pens arrived so i can get cracking on the new pieces.

pen preferences

2010-08-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

I think everyone that draws has pen and paper preferences that become more and more perfected over the years. I've had some really pretty terrible pens that have scratched their way over my paper and died soon after, and paper that has bled ink, smudged easily and warped with the tiniest bit of water. I've been through a lot of pen brands, and tried a lot of papers. As far as pens go, i still think i have a lot more to try out, but i do have my favourites and reasons for them being my pens of choice. I therefore thought i'd write a little bit about them.

Copic Multiliner SP - When i first found out about these pens it was like my drawing dream had some true. I've always liked to draw in very small detail, and at last i had found a pen brand that went down to 0.03mm. I've also had the larger sizes, but i tend to stick to 0.05mm and 0.03mm. They were the first pens that i felt could be controlled comfortably, and the line kept a nice quality even at the smallest size. I've stuck with these pens for quite some time now. The only fault i could give them would be the speed at which they need new nibs and refills, but i can't be sure if it's just the way i use them, or the amount i draw. It could differ for others. Even so, i've spent the money on the (slightly) expensive refills and nibs as i've always felt they were worth it. They're the kind of pens that you have in your pocket everywhere you go. I've always refered to them as 'my babies', and even though i've tried other pens since i still stick to that. They are my favourites, and until i find a more magnificant pen, they'll stay that way.

Staedtler Pigment Liner - One day i fell out with my Copics. I think i was low on money and got frustrated at the fact that to buy bulk amounts of refills and nibs online was a bit too costly. I also got annoyed that my local art shop didn't stock them, so if i was in need of a pen, i'd have to wait for refills in the post. That's when i turned back to 0.05mm Staedtler Pigment Liners. I'd cursed these pens in the past, and turned my nose up at them, as compared to my Copics they seemed like clumsy bears trawling over my paper. I can't go any thicker than 0.05mm with them, but i grew to love them again, especially due to my work becoming a little more simplified. They seemed perfect for this. I'm not keen on their control when it comes to detail though, and it's due to this that they stay as a second choice.

Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens - These pens are hard to fault. As far as brilliant coverage, quality, and colour go, the range is brilliant. Nothing more to say really. I always carry these with me.

Stablio Point 88 File 0,4 - I was in need of coloured pens that could give me a bit more detail and on trying these out i found them to be perfect. The line quality is excellent and the colours are bright and crisp. They come in a brilliant carry case and quite a lot of art shops sell the pens separately so when they do eventually run out, they are easy to replace.

So these are my pen preferences. I'd love to know if anyone has any pen recommendations as i'm always on the look out for better and better pens. A good pen really does make a drawing. If it's comfortable, easily controllable and gives an excellent quality then it's much more of a joy to draw with.

culture vixen feature

2010-08-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

I've been given a very nice feature by those at Culture Vixen which can be seen here.

trinity college commission and some scones

2010-08-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

I've been working away on some commissions lately and finished this one of Trinity College in Dublin. The commission is off to London now to be given as a wedding present to a couple who met at the college and are soon to be married there. It was a lovely piece to draw and brought my drawing mojo back as it had drifted off a bit lately. I've also ordered some new pen refills, and bought some new paper so i'm ready to work through the drawings i have lined up for various projects in the next few weeks.

In between drawing, i've been making some treats. Today i made mini scones. I surprised myself a bit as they were actually tasty, and usually i'm a bit of a disaster in the kitchen. Other things i'm going to be working on soon is future shop stock, a sale for my shop to make room for it all, and some little personal projects after finishing my commissions.

sketchbook/scrapbook

2010-08-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

a small holiday

2010-07-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

I spent some time back home with my family over the weekend and enjoyed it a lot. I've been needing a holiday, and although they are only twenty minutes up the road it was a perfect holiday for me. We had lovely day trips to Dunkeld, Pitlochry and St. Andrews, and i got to spend some time with my lovely dog Keira who can be seen in the photo. I bought a brand new sketchbook which i have strictly told myself to only include drawings in, as my other sketchbook, although i still love it, turned into a fat scrapbook and became very hard to draw in. I also purchased a great book about the lost architecture of Dundee. I was surprised to read of how much of its original identity has been lost to moderisation. A very interesting read. I've had to write up quite a list of drawing projects i've to work on over the next little while. It's going to be a busy time, but i'll post up progress along the way, and i intend to post up some sketchbook pages very soon as well.

tumblr inspirations

2010-07-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

I like when you see something and you get an instant feeling of "wow, that's great, i love it". I love when inspiration comes like that and it gives you a little kick, opens your eyes, and makes you think. Even just seeing something for a second can give enough inspiration to last a week. This is why i love to keep a Tumblr account. It's constantly being updated with inspiring images, and by reblogging these i get to keep a little online scrapbook of the things i love, meaning i can look back upon it for reference. I love how, by reblogging on the spur of the moment of liking something, it gathers together my tastes in colour, theme, style, and imagery. I find it really useful. Lately i've been working on a few images, drawing up some sketchbook work, and scribbling away at a few commissions. I'll post these up soon. In the meantime though, here is a few of the latest images i have gathered on my tumblr account. Feel free to join me on it at www. sannadyker.tumblr.com.

the sad case of stolen work

2010-07-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

It seems all to often lately that i've been hearing news of work belonging to illustrators being stolen. It's probably been happening for quite a while, but because of blogs, twitter, facebook and the like, people are being caught out more easily. Illustrators from all over are keeping an eye out for such things happening, and alerting friends and fellow illustrators of concerns they may have. It's just sad that it has to happen in the first place. Placing your work on the internet can be a curse, but is also a strong way to promote yourself. The negatives that come along with it can be incredibly dire which is a real shame for such a great platform. Lately it has been the case of the well known and talented illustrator Julia Pott being ripped off by a 3rd year art student known as 'cowgirlmax'. You can see an example of the stolen work posted by Natlaie Jost here.
We are all inspired by what we see around us, influenced by those we admire, but direct stealing is just quite obviously not acceptable and those who do it will be eventually caught out. People should try to remember the effort and hard work that has gone into creating styles, drawings and portfolios, and think of how hurtful and angry they would be if their work was taken in such a way. We all have moments of losing inspiration sometimes, it's annoying, frustrating and sometimes you aren't sure if you'll ever manage to pop out an idea. When that happens though, we should turn to other things for inspiration, look back at art from centuries ago, see where it all started or look at subjects that aren't even related to art, read about something you don't know anything about, go on a trip, learn a new craft. Inspiration can come in more forms than just what we see others producing around us, and when that great idea comes, it's bound to be so much more rewarding than cheating by using another's idea. I feel sorry for the girl who stole the work, and any others who think of doing the same. It destroys a reputation, and if you're just starting out, that's the last thing you want to bring upon yourself. Let's hope news like this doesn't crop up too often in the future.

squashed faces

2010-07-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

Squashing your face. Twisting it. Turning it into a grotesque shape. Sticking your tongue out, pulling at your eyes, and pinching your cheeks. Making faces doesn't make us look particularly attractive, but it's always done in jest, and any photos taken of it remind us of some daft time we had, drunken, hyper or just being plain silly. Being at our least attractive, can bring back funny memories. Photo moments don't always have to be photoshopped pouts. Where's the fun in that after all? Another piece for the 'nitty gritty' series. More to come...

where have you been?

2010-07-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

Well i've been mainly moving lately. I'm on the middle move. This has been the move out of my old flat, into the flat i'll be in for a bit, before the main move to Edinburgh. Yes Edinburgh, i'm coming to get you. As you can imagine, time has been mainly made up of applying for jobs, fiddling with CVs, whilst packing boxes, throwing out things, organising, cleaning, settling etc. In between all that i have drawing plans and ideas and projects and sketchbook work and etc to be getting on with. It's all very busy. When i've had the chance, i've enjoyed some sunshine, although i am still the colour of a milk bottle. So that's the news. I'll be posting up some more 'nitty gritty' drawings soon for the series. If you'd like to be drawn for this series, please do let me know. You may end up as a print, or even a bag. You could end up giving your mum a bag to carry her shopping in, with your face on it. She'd love that. So get invloved! More details on my website of the series.

inspiring edinburgh

2010-06-25T04:59:00.000-07:00

The other day, Stephen and I visited Edinburgh for some meetings and interviews and also for a much needed break from work and Dundee. I've always loved Edinburgh, and although it's quite close to home I always feel as though i'm on holiday there, having gone there as a child to see the castle, and walk down the Royal Mile. I instantly felt part of something, as though i was at the forefront of things happening. Edinburgh, for me, seems to have that sort of buzz about it, similar to London but with a more homely feel. Everywhere there's something to look at, the buildings, stonework, alley ways, paths, steps, quaint windows, grand staircases and beautifully kept flower boxes. It's a feast for the eyes and has given me much to think about in terms of drawing.

the list feature

2010-06-24T02:02:00.000-07:00

I was very pleased to pick up a copy of The List magazine yesterday which had a feature of my work in it. Thank you to them for including me in this issue.

calton hill for the edinburgh festivals magazine

2010-06-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here is my final piece for the next issue of the Edinburgh Festivals Magazine, going live online next week. It was a nice sunny, happy image to draw of the beautiful view from Calton Hill. I'll set up a link when it's live online.

more nitty gritty

2010-06-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

I finished a few more pieces today for my nitty gritty series which is explained here. This time i focused on freckles, and food stuck to a mouth. Two little details that can be found on many people. I bet you've been chatting to someone and were in two minds whether or not to say they had a bit of their sandwich stuck to their mouth. Freckles are pretty great. Some have one or two, some have many, and some have a great amount! I think they're very beautiful.

"What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist."
- Pablo Picasso

a present of collected things

2010-06-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

I received the best present today from Stephen. I love collecting bits and pieces from here and there, and have a folder full of found pieces of throwaway things. When Stephen was clearing out his old flat's room today, he found a collection of things he'd found over time and gave them to me as a gift! They are the best pieces of found stuff i've ever seen, from a train drawn on a tissue to an angry note placed on a car in Edinburgh. Amazing collection and present.

recent inspirations

2010-06-18T04:25:00.000-07:00

I've recently been greatly inspired by artists such as Thomas Scheibitz, Theo Van Doesburg and Elizer Lissitzky. Their clean lines, shapes, and colours make my eyes melt with delight. I'm trying to save up for some books about their work that i've spotted so i can find out a little more. My work has become slightly cleaner lined lately and i've moved away from watercolours to the solid clean colours of pens. The artists i have mentioned apply similar aesthetics to their work and i am keen to find out more about them.

Other than artists and designers, i've been influenced by the work of Norman Collins. His book 'London Belongs to Me' throws you in amongst a collection of personalities, living in a block of flats in London, just before the second world war. You are standing watching their lives, interactions and choices. A perfect example of everyday life, and a chance to see behind closed doors. A great read for anyone who's interested in social history or even if you just like being nosey. It's also that time of year for reading some summery poetry. If you're finding it a bit hard to draw, or write, reading some poetry certainly helps. Get yourself a little poetry collection book and read one here and there throughout the day. You'll find they really stick in your head, make you think, and the beautiful way they are written throws up so many fresh exciting images in your head that you can't help feeling revitalised and ready to get back to your own creative work. I've been reading ' 100 Favourite Scottish Poems' recently. I think this one by Tessa Ransford is beautiful.

A Scented Garden - Tessa Ransford

Peebles has a scented garden

'for the blind,' planted beside the river

opposite the modern swimming pool.

Unblind, I close my eyes to breathe

and listen: a linnet is singing

in lemon-scented leaves.

I imagine orange blossom with roses,

Frangipani and Hyacinth.

East and west are met in the scented garden.

Blindly I acquiesce. My east and west,

synthetic, abolish the dualities

that sight imposes on our world.

The river chants its plainsong.

I open my eyes. You are watching me, smiling.

I take your hand and lead you down the street.

nitty gritty

2010-06-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

It really has been a while, but it's been a busy old month. I firstly started off with helping out the exhibitions department at the University of Dundee, which has been very helpful, enjoyable and a great insight into the workings of the department. I'm also planning to move to Edinburgh with my boyfriend, so much flat browsing and job hunting has been taking place, but it's all very exciting. I've also been working on a new project, which involves people more. I've been wanting to get back to drawing people, so i've decided to focus on what i find the most interesting about them - the nitty gritty details.

Have you ever been looking at someone and thought "their eye is twitching" or "their front tooth is a bit squint". When you pass people in the street they all smell. Not all necessarily bad but everyone has their own smell. Everyone has their own spots, spilt ends in their hair, chipped teeth or freckles in the shape of a duck's head (all just examples of course).
The thing is, these details you notice, especially the temporary ones (like the eye twitching), isn't the sort of thing they'll be remembered for. It's not the information that will be passed down through the generations. The "nitty gritty" details are what we are made of though. They aren't always very attractive, or important, or shape our lives but they're there and they are the things i notice most about people.

This spot covered teenager is the first in the 'nitty gritty' series.

some photographs

2010-05-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

I've been getting to grips with my new camera today, taking some pictures outside since it's been a lovely sunny day. Back to drawing in the coming days though, as i have a few little ideas i want to work on. I'll be posting up new work soon. By the way, i seem to be managing to keep my bonsai alive! As you can see in the picture below, there are signs of life in all three pots! A bit of a triumph for me, as i'm not too good at keeping plants alive. I have a long way to go with these little guys though.

sketchbook/scrapbook

2010-05-30T04:58:00.001-07:00

I finally had enough money recently for a lovely shiny new camera which has been a great relief as it means i can get back to taking snapshots for research, and can now capture little things i see here and there that catch my eye. All things i really missed after getting my last camera stolen. This one is getting kept under lock and key with a barbed wire fence and miniature guard dogs around it. Here are the sketchbook pages i've been meaning to put up for a while now. I say sketchbook, but it's also a scrapbook too. Most of the sketches are tucked underneath all the nice things i've gathered recently. It' getting a bit fat already with all the collecting, so i might need to calm down a bit and stop picking things up so often. If you look closely you may see your business card, postcard, or something connected to your work. If it's been a big thumbs up from me, it'll be hidden away in there somewhere.

shop now online and website updated

2010-05-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

my shop is now online with items for sale such as prints, tote bags and badges. This can be accessed through my site at www.sannadyker.com which has also been updated since its move and spring clean with some added pages and bits and bobs fixed here and there.

degree show and jamboree success

2010-05-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy busy week since the Jamboree. I've been a very proud girlfriend as i attended my boyfriend Stephen's degree show. It was a brilliant night and everyone has done so well. I'm going to pop in during the week to see everything properly, but if you are in town visit the Dundee Degree Show 2010. Stephen's work can be found down in Time Based Art and his website has recently launched at www.researchlaboratoryofelectronicprogress.com so go have a looky.

Thank you to the organisers of The Big Top Jamboree and everyone who came along. It was great to meet all those real human being faces i have spoken to online for so long, and it was lovely to see the wide collection of work on show. This was an excellent opportunity for local artists to show their work alongside those from further afield and i think the mixture worked perfectly. It was a a busy busy night, an amazing turnout. Thank you to anyone who picked up a business card, pocketed a free zine, popped on a badge or took a print home for their wall. It was much appreciated. Although i was lacking in funds due to the end of the month approaching (the worst thing when surrounded by all that lovely work) i managed to buy a zine and two badges from David Galletly who's work is excellent so i was pleased with my purchases. I hope such an event can happen in Dundee again, and i'm sure it will. It's the start of a really great thing and i think it has the ways and means to get bigger and bigger each time. I look forward to the next one!

Photos by Joanna Montgomery

not long now until the jamboree!

2010-05-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

I've spent the past few days wrapping up my prints and making sure everything for The Big Top Jamboree is in order. Here is a little taster of what i'll be selling, along with my free zines. I'm really looking forward to what is looking to be a lovely night, and i'm looking forward to meeting fellow artists, illustrators, craft makers and more.

a selection of prints including:

all will come out in the washing
the allotments
the king of the allotments
one does not wash one's dirty linen in public
sore back but the carrots are coming on well

allotment zine which is free to pick up

dirty linen badge series

totes bags with two designs

all will come out in the washing
the king of the allotments

If you can make it down, a little reminder is that it is at Drouthy's basement on the Perth Road at Dundee, and the stalls will run from 7pm until 12 midnight. Not to be missed, and it would be lovely to see you there. Give me a wee wave if you see me!

the big top jamboree is coming...

2010-05-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

This is a terribly late blog update, but i do have good reasons to have been awol for the past little while. Firstly if you pop over to my website at the moment, you will find a little message explaining that www.sannadyker.com has moved house. It has indeed, and is busy being nipped and tucked right now, ready to come back after some complicated domain name moving, website building and enough html fixing to make your head spin. Thankfully it's almost completed and should be up and running by the end of this week.
Secondly i've been busy drawing lots of new work, and getting it all ready for The Big Top Jamboree. The event will be taking place in Dundee on the 17th of May in Drouthy's Basement on the Perth Road. To start off there will be workshops between 2 and 5 which will involve some badge, zine and corsage making. A nice chance to meet some fellow artists, sit and chat and learn something new!
Then from 7 until 12 at night, come along to meet 33 artists, illustrators, crafters, film makers, jewelers and more with a chance to purchase a variety of their work at the stalls. A great chance for some unique buys.

Head over to the Dundee Jamboree blog for more info.

I'll have work for sale including prints, badges, original drawings and tote bags. I'll also be giving away some free zines! Here is a sneak preview of some new work i've been making which will be up for sale.

fabriano

2010-04-19T14:57:00.001-07:00

I've been looking for a new sketchbook for a little while now, and have been browsing many websites and shops trying to find the right one. I started looking during my drawing blip as a new sketchbook or pen seems to get me out of such slumps. I didn't want to just buy one i've had before though, and i've been looking for one which has a better kind of paper, nothing too cheap, something with a little more heaviness and quality to it. I wanted this sketchbook to be "the one", not something i'd easily discard and one which i'd feel the need to never be without. It doesn't happen too often for me with sketchbooks, but for those it has happened with, you can see in their frayed edges and grubbiness just how much they were loved.
A couple of years ago i went to London with my friends for the D&AD awards, and we wandered around in our free time, finding little shops here and there. One that has really stuck in my mind was a beautiful art shop, still with it's original wooden cupboards, and old Victorian decor. They had some wonderful stock, including some of my favourite Fabriano papers and sketchbooks. Fabriano paper since then has always reminded me of this shop, so for my next sketchbook, i wanted to purchase one of theirs. I've included a picture of it. I'm so far a little wary of it, as the paper is so beautiful, and it's just wonderful to look at. Hopefully i'll manage to get past that dreaded first page stage. I'll be posting my new sketchbook pages up soon.

that one dream you'll never forget

2010-04-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

I was about seven years old. A time where memories have a cloudy haze about them when they are recalled. This one memory though is as clear as the day it happened. It's a dream rather than a memory. A very short dream. Usually when i dream i am the age i am whilst dreaming. Sometimes nowadays i'm a little bit younger. In this dream however, i was a lot older. I was a woman. I felt like a woman. I felt older. I also felt the most gut wrenching loss. This was the first sort of lucid dream i'd ever had, and within it i was experiencing some sort of grief. It all felt incredibly real. I was standing in a burnt out building, and from where i was standing, i could see the shells of other blackened burnt out buildings. It felt so familiar, every last inch of it. I could see people searching the rubble of other homes through the gaping hole in my own. I was frantically looking at the debris too, but also trying to keep myself steady from the shock. I had lost a lot, things i loved, people i loved. I wasn't of this time either. I wore a corset and long dress. The time felt different. The atmosphere felt different. There was something running though my head, a whole other set of memories and thoughts separate from my own and well beyond my years. But i was really only seven. The dream has never left me, especially it's detail and the weight of familiar yet unknown emotion and loss that came with it. Sometimes when i think back to it i feel a lump in my throat, and those same feelings come back and i miss the things and the people that never existed to me. I don't even know what it was i actually lost.

allotment zine

2010-04-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

A little zine full of allotment workers going about their business. I'm hoping to get these printed in colour at some point as well. Look out around Dundee for them, i'll be leaving them here and there. I can also send you one if you wish.
I'm not any good at gardening myself, although i don't have a garden so that probably doesn't help much. I do have my orchid though which i'm trying to bring back from the dead. I also picked some daffodils and put them in a jar. That's the extent of my gardening skills. I think i should leave it to the professionals.

i won't tell

2010-04-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

i recently had a lovely Sunday day trip to Errol car boot sale, then off to Steptoe's Yard near Montrose. Rummaging through a great deal of junk, i found these lovely bits and bobs. The Wade Whimsies have become a new little favourite of mine after seeing them in an antique store. My mum said that you used to get them in boxes of crackers, and my gran had many. You can still collect them in boxes of Red Rose tea. I also got a silver jubilee mug for Queen Mary and King George V and a strange little mug. As you can see, it won't tell what it's seen...

some new images

2010-04-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

a few little images i've drawn here and there.

garden graveyards

2010-04-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

"They say it's better to bury your sadness in a graveyard or garden that waits for the spring to wake from its sleep and burst into green." -
Conor Oberst

end of blip

2010-04-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

The small blip i was having has gone, and i now seem to have got my drawing mojo back. I'm happy to say as well that my work appears in the Edinburgh Festivals Spring magazine which you can look at here. i'm on page 9. I'm currently working on some more images for their next issue. I've also been taking part in an art exchange so i'm making up little packs of drawing to send in the post to some fellow artists. A lovely project to take part in, and i've already received a lovely pack of goodies from Jo Cheung.
I'm working on some drawings at the moment to get prints made of for my shop, and i think my website is in need of a new look. So lots to be getting on with now that the drawing blip is over.

the unwanted

2010-03-14T10:00:00.001-07:00

I read recently in the newsletter for the area about an old abandoned house that is being turned into something else. The rumour is that it may be being made into some kind of restaurant. I can't help feeling a little bit sad about it though. Abandoned places seem to be hated by the general public, seen as being magnets for vandalism and unruly behavior. Places such as these are seen as a menace, complained about to the council. They give the area a bad feeling, and seem to cause much upset among the locals. They are used in horror films to set the scene of an evil story, are always haunted, or generally thought of as being unsafe either physically or due to the characters who may be lurking in their shadows. But for one moment take a second to remember what they once were. Remember the families who lived within them. The lives that took place behind their walls and the rows of ornaments that decorated their carefully kept mantelpieces. Think of the sadness in the hearts of those who lived there and had to move on wishing to stay, or to those who did stay due to their spouse dying there, they then not able to move away from the memories it still kept. The children born in its small rooms, the conversations had about recent events, the laughter and the jokes, the hugs and the kisses, the fighting, the making up. Just think for one second how much these places once meant to someone. They aren't scary, horrible eye sores. They are our past crumbling before our eyes and we should stop to take it in even for one second. Things have to move on, new places have to be built, but we are so caught up in that sometimes that we forget where we actually came from. Next time you're in a charity shop, buy that old photograph of a couple that's been handed in. It's only 20p. Buy that old train set that was once cherished by a happy child and is now forgotten and wrecked in the back of a junk shop. Take one second to remember. Bring back a memory that over time has been forgotten and given to a second hand shop. Because one day, it might be your face sitting in a dusty box for 20p.

small blip

2010-03-10T06:58:00.000-08:00

Everyone who draws, likes to make things, prints, paints, sculpts, gets creative slumps at some point. I've talked about having them before on here, and have given myself a break from drawing to then go back to it when i feel ready to again. The annoying thing is that i'm having a small blip of creativity block right in the middle of a schedule i've made to make things. This is always a bit of a pain, as the more stressed you become about not meeting your schedule, the more you can't draw, and here we find ourselves in a vicious circle. Not to panic though. It just means shop stock batch number two won't be completed until next week, slightly sooner if possible. I just need to have the ability to draw again which at the moment i can't do too well. A good time for research and sketchbook work though and time to think about my next project too.
In the meantime i've also joined a lovely little website called blipfoto, where you post a photo a day. I thought it was a really nice idea, and it's been fun to find something to take a photo of every day.

breath of fresh air

2010-03-04T11:46:00.000-08:00

I keep using the above phrase a lot this week. It's something i experienced at KYTN, and it's something that has made me want to move my work on. We've all been there, at moments where we feel a bit stuck in our own drawings, our own subjects, our own projects, but it's a positive thing in some ways because it means it's time to start afresh with something new. It's not the nicest thing to get frustrated and bored with your own work, but at least it's a sign that something new and different is on the horizon. I'm not quite sure what it is yet, but i'm quite excited. I have a new sketchbook ready and raring to go, and i plan to start some new research. My final farewell to my previous subjects/projects will be my recollection shop, to which more stock is to be added to next week.

Please do visit it, and check back next week for the next stock of memories.

KYTN

2010-03-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

I'm currently suffering from withdrawal symptoms from Kill Your Timid Notion. What an eventful week it has been, and pretty inspiring too. Things are far too quiet now in Dundee, after being lucky enough to speak to some excellent artists who just happen to be lovely lovely people too. Thank you to all of them for adding quite a bit of excitement and intrigue to Dundee over the past week. Sad to see you at them all go, but i'll hopefully see them again at some future events and my sights are now set on attending Instal.

recollection shop now open!

2010-03-02T07:07:00.000-08:00

SHOP NOW OPEN AT WWW.SANNADYKER.COM

This shop is created from stories, memories, and thoughts. As time goes on and more is remembered, items will be added. These items, like a person's recollection, are all originals, have not been reproduced, and are a rare chance to own a memory created by a person in a single moment, never to be recreated in the same exact way again.
Each series is a limited edition, revolving around stories of a remembered place, person, or situation.
When purchasing the piece, you will also be sent the story that accompanies the memory.

Items shall be added every week, as like memories, not everything is remembered clearly in the first thought. I therefore wanted to stagger the amount in the shop, to fit in with this concept.
The first memory is of 'the allotment'.
Owned by the woman from four doors down but recently left to no one after her death. A widowed friendly neighbour, many knew her. Many at least had seen her before. Many came to know her allotment well. A view of it could be seen from their windows and now it was left unoccupied with only memories of the times she had spent there. Some people had helped her on cold days when the soil was particularly hard to work with and her frail hands couldn't handle the strain of the spade. Some had helped carry her tools up the gentle slope for her. Others had just watched from their windows as she potted plants on fresh spring days and sat making recollections of her own.

When she died, ten people were asked to remember the allotment. These are the first images that sprung to their minds. Their initial thoughts, and with them their stories.

Each piece is 10x7 inches, drawn on extra smooth water colour paper and as memories are, each piece is completely original. An original recollected story is included with each drawing.

Enjoy reminiscing.

can't help singing

2010-02-20T15:23:00.001-08:00