Hey folks, long time no blog. Truthfully, all of my work that would require a blog post is still very much in progress and I don’t have much to tell you about. However, I wanted to talk about some of the work I create inspired by the world of Empire - LRP, a Live Role Playing game I attend. 

Four times a year, I go to a field with thousands of other people to play make believe. A varied number of other times, I may go to a town hall or scout site to continue playing those stories. For uncountable hours the hobby and world of Empire encapsulates my thoughts, from what I plan to get up at future events, what I have done in the past, and the world that has been created for us to play in. Like, it’s immense. Some people criticise the size of the ‘wiki’ made for us to read about the land we inhabit, however I love a good hyperfixation and have spent many insomnia filled nights reading about different territories and stories created by the inestimable writing team behind Empire. 

In my spare time, I create art inspired by the world of Empire. Heck, sometimes I even get paid to create art of people’s characters. I wanted to share some of my pieces with you, with the insight behind them; and the soul and love that went into them.

Honestly one of my favourite paintings I’ve done, referenced from a photo I took early on Friday when I needed a wee at 5am (I of course, never need to get up to pee at home). Friends of mine loved that image, and I really wanted to recapture the feeling I got looking up the hill and seeing the sunrise, with both the scent of dew on ground and the remnants of campfires. I want to share a description I wrote about this image when putting it forward as a piece for an exhibition on dwellings. Trying to write about what the image was, without going into a general description on what Live Role Playing is, ended up showing me why this image touches so many people in the community:
“Anvil, a temporary dwelling of make believe and reverie for thousands of people. Four times a year, people from all over the country flock to a field in Silverstone and transform it into the fantasy mediaeval town of Anvil; bringing their own tents, decorating their hearths, and living for a weekend as someone new. This is Live Role-Playing, caught in the early morning before the field comes alive with imagined politics and temporary maladies, to be packed away on a Sunday. There is care and love put into these brief canvas homes, which have been captured in the gentle stillness of sunrise.”

This is an image of one of the Nations in The Empire and is one of the most heavily involved pieces of art I’ve ever created. A part of me itches to go back again and fix some perspective mistakes I have learnt from (honestly though, I can say that with every image I have ever created) but a bigger part of me appreciates the charm of it all. I combed through the information given to us about the Nation of Dawn, brimming with Arthurian and High Medieval fantasy imagery, and created little vignettes of stories to add to the image. There are shops and people and narratives that only I will know the detail of and that’s fine, that is the joy of the creation of detailed images such as these. Some people know my tales in this image because they asked for them, others decided on their own based on what they observed and I love that.

After one of the main games, I did a sketch of my character (physically played by me, in case you still don’t know what Live Role Playing is and haven’t Googled it yet, I’m here for you), eagerly delivering a magazine created by other players of the game to someone who featured in it. This is probably one of the most accurate images I’ve done of my character with the overall energy and enthusiasm shown on her face and it shows off some of the costume I wear for her. This also captures the joy of being my generally upbeat character and allowing myself to be unabashedly enthusiastic about things. I frequently get the urge to draw what happened to my character when I come home from an event, however there is usually a fair amount of physical recovery post-game so I don’t always get a chance. There is a certain buzz (often known as ‘froth’) that can channel a lot of creative energy even when completely exhausted; and I am always eager to capture it. 

An image of another Nation, this time ‘The Brass Coast’. Wanting to create this image and the vision I had was what actually inspired a whole world building series of me (which I have currently put on hiatus due to other commitments). Originally I got super inspired by a photo of dancers in a city, which this image grew around, as the theme of dancing and celebration through movement is a huge motif in this nation. I ended up doing a lot of fun research into general architecture for this, as well as finding little nuggets of ideas from reading through the general national brief. Whilst this piece is a lot less obscenely detailed than my previous one, there are still little easter eggs of information for folk who engage in the world of Empire and love The Brass Coast. I probably started this piece before I was ready to take on such a challenge, but if I’d never started it then I never would have been able to build on this further, nor would I have an avenue for my ideas and vision.

Oh it’s me again! Here I am illustrating an event that happened in between games that didn’t physically play out, but I wanted to visualise in a fun storybook manner. In this image I use elements of the world including the Hearth Magic created for it, descriptions of the locations, and the costuming brief to create a new outfit for my character. I haven’t worn this at a game nor have I made it, but it is really nice to create elements for characters that exist purely through imagination. I don’t usually draw what my character gets up to in between games, but I had read a lot about a different nation’s culture and got inspired to combine the two elements into this image. Working with a limited colour palette was a ton of fun as well. 

One day I read the description of a very specific place in The Empire and I had a hankering to draw it. So I did. I let my imagination go wild for this one as this is a predominantly magical nation which cares deeply for its commitment to excellence as part of its culture, so wanted to create exceptional structures that defied belief, but still in a way that they could still be reasonably pieces together. I once again opened dozens of pages to learn more about the nation, the trade industry, and the magic in the world. I already knew much of this from years of playing the game, but rediscovering old information helped me form new ideas. I ended up creating a sketchbook page filled with ideas and concepts, some which wouldn’t fit on this page in the end. Like all the other detailed locational imagery, there are stories and ideas that only exist in my head; but they breathe more life into the world that others create that then becomes my own. 

A very self indulgent one, because yes, it’s me again! Sometimes you look at your character pinterest board and the references all come together to create one heck of an aspirational image for them. So then I realised that it would be a totally normal thing in the world (and in my character’s nation especially) to design your character’s memorial statue, as there is a huge belief system in how you are remembered, which meant I could glorify her as much as I wanted. Of course, in getting into that mindset, I had to view my character through very rose tinted glasses and elevate her in a way that felt weirdly conceited as the person who plays her. This however, was a lot of fun to create. Being able to create her personal motifs that already exist within the world and combine them with more general ones was such a fun challenge. Also, sometimes it’s great fun just to enjoy your character for a while.

This piece was created to celebrate being at the event and one of my favourite experiences there, going to a good festival on a warm summer’s evening. I appear in this image as do other characters from the event who put everything together; and it’s one of the nation camps as it appears in the field, pretty much directly opposite to where I stood for my first image. It’s very different from my usual style, but I really wanted to capture the hazy, dreamlike, warm memory I have from physically being there experiencing it. This is a moment from the event and a reason why I love the hobby so much.

And finally, this old piece which was done back in 2019, before I’d even started formally creating art again… so of course I went for something ridiculously ambitious. It’s rusty, it’s a lot, and I feel the love that went into trying to capture each nation into one small square on a broader piece (people who know Empire will notice I left The Orcs out, listen they’d only recently got their land, leave me be). Looking at this again for the first time in years, I am rediscovering old references that I’d previously forgotten from the research I did way back then. This was when I was first trying masking fluid, I didn’t have a detail brush, and I hadn’t really used watercolour properly in years; what on earth was I thinking? 

I’ll tell you what I was thinking, I was thinking “I love this world so much, that I want to put my vision of it to paper”; and that has not changed even when illustration has become more of my professional practice. I love existing there, I love being inspired by it, I love putting the vision we share down on paper. 

That is the soul of creating art you love for a world you love.

So, on a ridiculously warm September day, my mind wandered to the upcoming cooler season. There was a longing to not be sat sweating in my shorts and camisole and to be sitting comfortably in long sleeve tops and pyjama bottoms. Now, I am not a fan of pumpkin spice, but I do get extremely excited when the leaves start to turn from green to gold, even more so when they get that bronze hue. An idea started to form, in the month of October (very much known as a creative month with all ‘Tober prompts), I would release a landscape based on autumn every other day. Another idea came to me as well, I would start earlier so I would not overwhelm myself during the challenge. In the past, I have tried to participate in October Art Challenges before and I find I just miss everything I love about the month. This little series would not only allow me to immerse myself in everything I love about it, but actively encourage me to go out and experience the changes myself. 

With the help of a friend, I built a playlist of songs that inspire the mood; and I went through my archives and selected images to work from. Whilst I could obviously do some more imagined scenarios, I wanted to look through what had captured me previously and translate them through illustration. Having trained as a photographer, I trusted my composition in the images and was more than happy to work directly from them. The artistic joy for me was always going to be answering the challenge of how to recreate them using my traditional tools; and of course very occasionally tweaking the images to give new meaning, or capture an element I wasn’t initially able to photograph. 

Whilst I wanted to experiment, I still wanted the images to have my voice and look like they’re part of a set. I used the same paper for each one - Khadi Papers, gotta love that texture - and always reached for materials I would commonly use in my illustrative process. I just let myself have fun figuring out how to have each photo be represented through traditional illustration, even if it was a break from my usual process.

And so, allow me to share the process and thoughts behind my Autumnal Landscape Series.

The Lost Village of Dode.
As the title of this one suggests, this was directly inspired by the amazing wedding location The Lost Village of Dode down in Kent. I went there for a handfasting a few years ago and was absolutely enchanted by the autumnal vibes, so I spent much of the day wandering around and capturing several elements of it. In fact, not longer after attending the handfasting I did some little studies of the place in my very own sketchbook. For this piece, I wanted to use more or less just the limited supplies I had for those original studies, which was pretty much just my Daler Rowney Watercolour Set and a white pen. Imagine if you will, this piece was done on one of the warmest days in September (but quite late at night when it was more bearable to work) and I was trialling songs for my eventual autumn playlist. 

The Spire In The Water
This was next for me so I could break my brain out of the idea that the series would only work in a purely landscape formal. I also wanted to introduce lineart into the series as that is my preferred method of working; whilst I do love dreamy impressionism and bold colours that don’t need linework… sometimes I do just love the comfort of a black pen line that clearly tells me when I’m supposed to paint. Anyway, this is very much one of those “aha, I am trained as a photographer” references, where I am very glad that past me was smart enough to get this image. It features one of the gorgeous mills we get in the north but from a different angle than one might expect to see it. Also one of my favourite parts of autumn is leaves carpeting the ground and transforming common elements; whilst the reflection would have been interesting on its own, possibly with a bright summer sky, the leaves just add a whole new dimension to it. This illustration took a while for this one to come together for me, mainly because the other image had been so bright and ostentatiously autumnal, that this one felt way too subdued. I think getting some more subdued colours in early allowed that standard to be set for later images. 

The Portal 

One of my friends described this piece as ‘Cosily Melancholic’ and it fully encapsulates the feeling of late autumn for me. This image was referenced from a photo I got in November, when we are more firmly into the oranges and browns on the leaves, with more greys in the sky and the days getting shorter. With that in mind, I did somewhat boost the colours from the original photo to create a much brighter piece. I did my initial line work with a water resistant red pen, delicately creating the leaves on the hedge to create texture. Then I had a lot of fun doing gorgeous autumnal washes to allow the colours to blend together. And then I went “… ah, you kind of can’t see all the red line work now”. So THEN I went back over the leaves with a brown pen; and let me tell you, khadi paper is textured so can really resist penwork, my hands were aching by the time that hedge was finished. You can see what just the red line work looks like at the front of the image, which worked well for the ground, but the hedge needed that much stronger definition to stand out. Hand pain aside, I think going back over it really aided the image; and I do like that you can still see the original red lines.

The Red Acer
I do love a good acer tree, and the ones at Thorp Perrow Arboretum are particularly spectacular. This is actually the first of four images from this series that are taken from Thorp Perrow Arboretum, as that place truly shines during autumn. This is another image that I’d painted before in a sketchbook spread, which you can see a video of me doing here, and I once again wanted to use the supplies that I’d initially used in that image. This was me going into my M.Graham watercolour paints, pencil crayons, and then very occasionally breaking out the Japanese Watercolours - which ended up being a staple for the series. I went back to doing lineless for this one as I really wanted the colours to stand on their own. Whilst the bold reds were clearly an autumnal feature, it felt very strange reaching more for the cooler greens and blues than the warmer tones, which to me feel way more autumnal. As mentioned, the day itself was incredibly ‘crisp’ and I hope those cooler tones help carry that across. Whilst I was doing this image, it really solidified the “oh heck, I’m really doing this aren’t I?” with regards to the whole series happening. It was the proper turning point for me and I am super grateful. 

The Lamppost
I’m just gonna say it, the word lamppost doesn’t look right. Anyway, this is the standout favourite for a lot of people, my mum even bagsied the original before anyone else could. And yeah I’ve gotta say, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process of this one. From seeing it last year and capturing a video of it, identifying it as one to draw, sketching it out, painting the leaves and lamppost, photographing it, then sharing it. The leaves were created with a really neat angled brush I got from a Scrawlrbox Subscription and the process was a genuine joy. This was also the first image that I primarily used my Japanese Watercolours for; and I’d identified them as the tools I wanted to use way back when I first caught the image. It was a real triumph to have everything come together in the image. Additionally, completing this meant 1/3rd of the series was done; even though the previous one was actually me more acknowledging that the series was actually happening, this was the one with a noticeable number attached to it. 

The Flock

So, I captured this initially when my friends and I went for a walk and we were just hurling abuse at the landscape, “Alright tin chocolate box country, we get it, you’re pretty!” and “Wow do you wanna be anymore twee? Outrageous.” You had to be there. This was where I was able to pleasingly work with some of my limitations when photographing the scene and recompose it slightly when sketching it out to something I preferred. I put down the watercolours for this one and settled into using gouache, I really wanted those bold colours and ability to layer, more than I can get with using watercolour. The sheer amount of tones and colour in this one ended up making it a challenge to complete in the time I had - as by this point I was firmly in October and pretty much catching up to the release schedule - and I needed a proper rest after finishing it. I would go so far to say this piece probably took the longest to complete out of all of them.

The Base of Cadair Idris

After a challenging previous image, this one was very much back to comfortable form. Line art, simple landscape, obviously colours and focal points. Although, adding a lot of green in the image made me a little concerned that it read far too much as summer; but one of the joys of autumn for me is very much when the first signs of it start to peek through a green canopy. Early September is very much a part of the season as the more reddish tones of late October. This was from a hike I did up Cadair Idris, which was utterly stunning and had some breathtaking views from up the slope and can be seen in this video, but this little moment scene really had the spirit of the changing days. Certainly, it is more recognisable as autumn than some of the other images and footage I got from higher up. An unexpected highlight of this image was painting the trunk of the right hand tree, I really enjoyed getting all the tones through.

The Woodpile
Whenever I refer to this image I have to stop what I’m doing and listen to Bellowhead’s version of Roll The Woodpile Down, I unironically adore that cover. And yeah, I just did that; now, back to this blog post. This is by no means my favourite image in the set, but it’s the one that triggers the biggest sensory immersion from looking at it. Maybe piles of wood are just something we commonly expect to see in autumn, or perhaps the specific shade of yellow I used just captured something beyond the visual. It was nice to do an image that was unashamedly bright. I remember back in Primary school we would write poems about how grey and rainy autumn can be, but I have much stronger memories of golds shining in clear blue skies; and I was very glad to be able to show that particular part of autumn in this image. 

The Glowing Leaves
Another one from Thorp Perrow Arboretum - not like you can tell - but I always loved what I captured through the lens and I really wanted to see how moving it to illustration would work. Going back to basics with watercolour to get the lights and shadows to properly work with each other on a botanical image was a huge joy. Whilst I did bring back some colours with my more saturated Japanese Watercolours, pull back some highlights with white pen, and use some cheeky pencil crayon to deepen some tones; it was a very rewarding experience to just pull it all back to my watercolours. Of course I was always going to do an image for an autumnal series that focussed on leaves; and I had plenty of references to work from, but this one still felt like a landscape in its own way. There is a part of me that wants to redo this without the background, there was something very satisfying when it was just the leaves on the white paper. Perhaps I’ll do it next year!

The Bright Trees

In a project with 15 images, there was always gonna be one that really didn’t work for me. It’s this one. Not that I dislike it or anything, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted. This is another reference from Thorp Perrow Arboretum and I’d been so taken with how much red just bloomed across the landscape. I wanted to try something different though, something that focussed far more on pencil crayons with watercolours being more of an accent, a switch from my usual output. I think this was the wrong image to try that on. Then again, the pencil crayons have totally transformed what the image was in the reference and give it far more movement, the image seems to breathe more than others. I think my other slight negative bias is that I really remember feeling the burnout from the project on this one; and I don’t think I gave it the time it needed to tie everything together, or to even restart it to what originally drew me to the photo. However some folk do like it and one person commented that I was veering into Van Gogh which is a compliment I will happily take. I will be curious to see what I think of this illustration a few months from now when the feelings of doing it are far more distant and I’ll barely remember what the reference image looked like. We shall see.

The Lonely Pine

This was a lovely view I stumbled upon back in spring, it’s actually not too far from where I was brought up. I had an urge to return in autumn to see what it looked like and I was far from disappointed. There’s just something about how this one is framed that in its own way makes it feel unreal, but it’s there and it’s awesome. This is another image that favoured the Japanese Watercolours, mainly because it provides a huge palette of greens that allows me to get a huge range of shades. And of course, the colour wheel tells us that adding those contrasting reds will make an image pop; and it really does here. On the day it really felt like that gorgeous apex of the greens hanging on whilst the autumn tones creep across; I loved being able to do those combinations. A challenge with this one was trying to get the layers of tree canopy, especially without linework; however this result was needed after the previous one had been a little disappointing. Also, I really like the sky on this one, it just works. 

The Churchyard

So, given that this series was being released in October, it’s hard not to acknowledge the seasonal spookiness at times; and whilst I didn’t want it to be a focus, I wanted to pay homage to the vibes of the month. This is based off an image I captured whilst the project was ongoing rather than based off an image in my archives, as I was still making sure I was giving myself time to enjoy the season alongside quite a challenging project. Going for walks and looking for inspiration was all a part of it; and seeing this was a perfect opportunity to get some of the melancholic feelings of autumn into the series. We are back to a comfortable process with lineart and watercolour, compared to the previous lineless pieces. Creating the structure of the image with the lineart gave me more freedom to experiment with the more subdued colours, whilst still creating fun blends on the leaves and grave plantlife. It’s interesting to me that this reference image was captured this year - well into October - yet most of the trees are still green, compared to previous years where trees were gold by the end of September. There’s a part of me that wants to see if I can arrange the images by the time in the season they were captured and then see if there’s any obvious signs that they were caught in different years. Anyway, it was nice to go back to a very standard way of working for me with this one, whilst still pushing myself with creating a detailed image.

The Mushrooms
In direct contrast to the previous image, this one goes back to being lineless; and it is carried by its lighter shades rather than the darker tones. This was originally captured when I went for a walk with my friend; and they told me all about mushrooms you can get in the UK and how they’re all safe to touch (not eat though). They had a little app which helped them identify mushrooms and it was utterly delightful watching them get excited by the mushrooms. We kept pressing down on these ones so they bounced and wobbled a little. I loved looking at the different colours on the same types of mushrooms and working to get that same effect with watercolour, the little group in the middle are my favourites. It struck me that despite it being a close up image, this still looked a little like the broader landscapes of the series, almost like the mushrooms were little trees. There was a part of me that was itching to neaten this one up a little, even now I still wish the log and leaves were a little shaper, but I am happy with the wash of softer colours on this one.

The Bridge

Our final one from Thorp Perrow Arboretum and the penultimate image. I was initially unsure on whether to create the image with or without lineart, but I decided to focus a little more on brush strokes for this one, given the way the colours blended into each other and the various shapes of the trees and branches. I had considered doing the good old “lineart on the surface, brush strokes for the water”, but there was a very dreamy look to how the light shone through the trees that added to the aforementioned blending of colours. In the end, it was most important that the little bridge remained sharp and a focus whilst the rest could expand into a more impressionistic style. I do have to admit that this one was rushed a little, the end of the month got very busy and that final hurdle was very steep. I think with a little more time I would have given more definition to the trees and some of the ground, but I am happy with what I have. It certainly feels like an image that just lets autumn be autumn, there’s no additional “ah, this one focuses on the leaves and that’s important” or “this captures some of the melancholy of the season compared to the crispier days of these ones”, it’s just an image that lets the season breathe and shine. For a second to last image, I am happy with that as the feeling it gives me.

The Path
The final image, the one that brings us into the season of winter and round off the series. I knew from the start that I wanted to round off the series with something that was either more openly Halloween themed, or that leant itself into the drearier autumn vibes without being too overtly based on a holiday. This was another image I captured whilst the series was on going and I knew instantly that I wanted it to be the last illustration of the set. Despite it being caught in October, there’s something that feels very late November about it, most likely the very desaturated and muted colours. I was very glad to add an image that showed an element of darkness, especially since by the time this image was released, we were into the clocks going backwards and us being collectively surprised by how dark it gets at 5pm. In terms of creating it, the lineart played a huge role in order to try and get some of the darkness across. Whilst I do love watercolour, it can be a little limiting with its darker tones; at the very least, I was pushing the paper to its limits with the amount of layers I was doing. In the end, using a combination of lineart, watercolour, and pencil crayon allowed me to get the darker tones I wanted.

So that’s the series. It was a lot of work, very occasionally I got burnt out and exhausted, but I truly enjoyed creating the images. Importantly, it helped remind people that autumn can be beautiful, even as the cooler days and darker nights affect their moods. It helped me for sure. I was always excited to tackle a new aspect of the season that I loved and to figure out the puzzle of transferring the photo to illustration. I know I learnt a lot, even from the images that didn’t work out as intended. It reminded me how much I enjoy painting landscapes, reaffirmed my confidence in that I can capture well composed images to draw from, and it was my own love letter to the season.

Hope you enjoyed it too, thank you for reading.