For highly rendered ink drawings I like to start with a detailed graphite line drawing. This piece started life as a proposed book illustration. If you look carefully, you can see the vertical line that marks the edge of the original drawing. When the editor selected another piece in its place, I finished the drawing... Continue Reading →
Manuscript with Crow Skull A crow skull makes a poor paperweight, but casts a nice shadow. This is the manuscript of a novel I am currently working on—already woefully out of date as I’m in the process of a pretty major re-write (thanks to some on-point observations from my literary agent). I revise digitally using... Continue Reading →
A few years ago, I had to give up painting in oil because the paints triggered ocular migraines. Every painting session ended with me lying on the couch feeling like I was on a bad acid trip. Not fun. Then I learned about M. Graham odourless paints. These paints are a game changer for me... Continue Reading →
My Workspace For my first post of 2023 (March, I know) I thought I would show you where I spend most of my time. Since the autumn of 2020 I’ve been working to complete a number of projects that will be announced over the coming weeks or months. I completed 3 large drawings for one... Continue Reading →
A couple of years ago I drew an imaginary plant in silverpoint, which at the time I thought of as a the first in a series of drawings to be called Mysterious Garden. Well, I finally got back to that project last week and drew 2 more pieces in the series. I'm posting all 3... Continue Reading →
Birdseye, 2022, ink on paper, 17" x 14" Tonight, I am sharing a newly completed personal piece called Birdseye. I worked on it, off and on, over the summer, in between some book illustration projects and revisions to my novel in progress. Earlier this week, I turned in the latter to my literary agent, so... Continue Reading →
Under drawing for We Shall be Near You Today I am sharing the graphite under-drawing for a new piece called We Shall be Near You. I borrowed the title from a poem by Yeats. In the context of this piece, the words refer to the idea of friendship and loyalty, the nearness of others. I’m... Continue Reading →
There’s an old T.Rex song called Summer Deep. The first verse goes like this… Summer deep is in the hills againHis lady is a lionessWinds of birds blow through the fields againInvaders from the true worlds Summer ends on September 22, so I suppose we are in Summer Deep now. I spent most of this... Continue Reading →
It's been a busy summer so far working on some commissioned illustration work and revising my next novel. I have managed to squeeze in a few smaller personal works though, some of which have made to to my shop. Here's the link if you are interested in checking them out. One of my recent favourites... Continue Reading →
I love drawing on cards and other scraps of paper. Here are 4 new ones that I quite like. They are all available in my shop. Twilight Hunter, 2022, ink on cardstock, 5" x 7" Woodland Enchantress, 2022, ink on cardstock, 5" x 7" Listener, 2022, ink on cardstock, 5" x 7" Daydreamer, 2022, ink... Continue Reading →
Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author 