{"id":660,"date":"2010-03-19T08:18:17","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T08:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.london-artcollege.co.uk\/news\/?p=660"},"modified":"2010-03-23T09:29:25","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T09:29:25","slug":"singer-of-starlight-a-students-story-a-guide-to-the-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.london-artcollege.co.uk\/news\/2010\/03\/singer-of-starlight-a-students-story-a-guide-to-the-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"Singer of Starlight – a students story & a guide to the painting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Bowie has been extremely successful in the time she has been completing the Children’s Illustration Diploma course. Sarah’s work is featured in our student gallery and one of her final pieces for the course is depicted below along with a guide of how Sarah created this unique piece of artwork. Sarah has very kindly written a piece for us below and we are thrilled that she has already completed a set of illustrations for a book. We wish Sarah all the best in her future career.<\/p>\n

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\nLike so many people I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school at 17.\u00a0 Rather, perhaps I knew deep down what I wanted to do, but was overwhelmed with what I should be doing.\u00a0 Even though I had spent my childhood drawing and writing stories, I ended up studying marketing, which is a subject I had absolutely no affinity with whatsoever.\u00a0 Of course, the moment I graduated and began working in financial services I realised what a terrible mistake I had made.\u00a0 It was a slow, long journey \u2013 attending life-drawing classes in the evening after a very stressful day in a busy bank.\u00a0 I thought about going back to art college full-time, but not only was it very expensive, I just didn\u2019t feel it was right for me.\u00a0 After several years of experimenting with various painting and drawing techniques I realised what I wanted to do was children\u2019s book illustration and ultimately writing too.\u00a0 I knew that this is what I had been searching for all those years.\u00a0 However I found it incredibly difficult to remain focused and put a portfolio together.\u00a0 I\u2019d get disheartened and give up on pieces before they were finished.\u00a0 That\u2019s where London Art College comes in.\u00a0 I was idly surfing the web one day when I stumbled across this distance-learning course in children\u2019s book illustration.\u00a0 I signed up straight away!\u00a0 The course was well structured and gave sample briefs similar to what one might get in real life.\u00a0 Jan, the tutor, was always friendly and encouraging and really helped me to build confidence in my own ability.\u00a0 At the completion of each brief I felt a great sense of achievement, and had something tangible to put in my portfolio.\u00a0 Just before I finished the course I got a commission to illustrate a picture book for a small publishing company.\u00a0 I\u2019m busy working on that now, and I really feel that Jan and the London Art College were instrumental in helping me to focus and build confidence in my work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Info Regarding \u2018Singer of Starlight\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really wanted to get a \u2018worn\u2019 feel to this picture, like an old print.\u00a0 While I love working digitally, I love the textures you get from prints, paint and pencils that I just don\u2019t think you can fully emulate digitally.\u00a0 There was no plan as I approached this piece, just a lot of playing about.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I did:<\/p>\n