EJ Draws

3 years later…

I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since my last post here. Back then I created a website and, from what I can remember, I don’t think I continued on with blogging, so there are probably a few drawings missing. But there won’t be many.

I stopped drawing mid 2021. I had been working all through Covid, with little time to draw, then I was suddenly made redundant. No one was hiring so I put all my energy in building my own business. That meant ALL my hobbies went to the wayside for several years.

Then as we approached Christmas 2023, I got some enquiries on drawings, and after deliberating for several weeks, I agreed to do these couple for Christmas. Just these 2… but I actually LOVED drawing again! So, here we are, and I am BACK!

Keep following as I fill you in an anyway drawings that never made it to the blog in 2021, and then keep your eyes peeled for everything I have done since 2024 began!

If you are interested, you can find my latest updates on Facebook and Instagram, and over on YouTube I share my timelapses, which I am now remembering to do each time I draw 😀

THANKS FOR STICKING AROUND 🙂 EJ x

First pet portrait of 2021!

PLEASE NOTE: MY SITE IS NOW HOSTED AT http://www.ejdraws.uk. PLEASE FOLLOW MY BLOG THERE – I will only update this site until March 2021 🙂

This weekend saw me start my first pet portrait!

Sadly last year our neighbour had to say goodbye to one of his beloved French Bulldogs. It’s always tough loosing a pet but hopefully this drawing will help his spirit live on!

When I got the photo I thought it would look perfect on a darker paper, since there were lots of highlighted areas around the outside, where fur was reflecting the sunlight. Other than my fling with black paper recently, I haven’t done any drawings on any thing but white paper, so I invested in some grey bristol board (oh thank you Amazon haha! )

I have started doing time lapses of my drawings. I have often enjoyed watching time lapses, seeing hours of work condensed into a short time, and witnessing the progress of something being created is fascinating! If you enjoy it too, please check out my YouTube channel here (and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on future videos!) You can see over 10 hours work in just 4.5 minutes! I only started the channel last week so there are only a couple of videos so far, and drawings are done around my full time job so I won’t be filling it with hundreds of videos anytime soon, but I do plan on continuing on one per week, as secretly I have found it quite fun editing all the clips together 😀

Next week I will be back to cars, so watch this space! (And YouTube, please watch that too hehe!) Alternatively you can catch me on Facebook and Instagram too 🙂

Who loves to colour?

PLEASE NOTE: MY SITE IS NOW HOSTED AT http://www.ejdraws.uk. PLEASE FOLLOW MY BLOG THERE – I will only update this site until March 2021 🙂

Who loves to colour?

My kids apparently! Even more than me (and I LOVE it!!!)

So I thought it would be fun from now on to make sure I remember to do a photograph of each drawing I do before I add the colours, and make each line drawing available to download for a small fee for everyone to enjoy!

You can find these here! And I would love to see the final pieces of work once they are done, share them on my Facebook page!!

A Classic Cadillac! (And check out my new YouTube channel!)

PLEASE NOTE: MY SITE IS NOW HOSTED AT http://www.ejdraws.uk. PLEASE FOLLOW MY BLOG THERE 🙂

Looking to build up a portfolio of images for our own walls and to keep up my practice, and I came across a wonderful photo of a Classic Cadillac. I do love this style of American Muscle, low, beefy and full of chrome! It looked menacing I thought…

It already looks cool!! Pencilled out then final lines put in with a fineliner, the drawing is ready for colour…

I thought I would trial something this time – during the drawing process I decided to do a time lapse! Easier said than done for many reasons…the first of these being because my drawings are done around my full time job, and being a Mum to my two small boys – and currently also the home schooling! So it usually takes several sittings to complete each drawing over the course of maaaany days! The second reason is I am a real fidget! The paper never stays at one angle for too long – is a paper fidget a real thing?!

Well aside from the above, I gave it a try anyway! Several mini time lapses later I was sat in front of a computer screen scratching my head over how to put the videos altogether in one place, but I did it! So I am proud to announce my crudely thrown together video edit of this entire drawing – from the beginning sketch to the final completed piece – you can see my first ever video on my new shiny YouTube channel – I do hope you will subscribe for more updates – I do plan on making more even if I am a terrible film maker :p

YOUTUBE!!

And here is the final drawing! We are really fond of this one, if you are too, grab it quick from the Original Drawings sales page before my husband buys it :p

And if you do miss out on the original drawing, I will be making this available for prints too!

Happy Birthday Letitia of Xclusively Jaguar!

PLEASE NOTE: MY SITE IS NOW HOSTED AT http://www.ejdraws.uk. PLEASE FOLLOW MY BLOG THERE 🙂

Coinciding with a special anniversary of the Jaguar E-Type, is the birthday of another special lady – my Mum! A birthday of this calibre required a very special gift, so it seemed to fitting to choose her longest owned Jaguar as the subject of this gift…

Now which Jaguar is this going to be?

I am sure that anyone who reads the Xclusively Jaguar magazine knows full well who this beautiful XJ is!

If you don’t know, this is the one and only “Brucie”, aptly named after his “Spruce” [Bruce!] green paintwork! An X300 (or X330 if we are being really technical!)

It was a nightmare capturing the colours in the sky on the camera, it looks ever so blocky, but is much smoother in real life! I do hope she loves her gift!

Make sure you check out Xclusively Jaguar for all the latest Jaguar news, stories and more!

Exciting News

PLEASE NOTE: MY SITE IS NOW HOSTED AT http://www.ejdraws.uk. PLEASE FOLLOW MY BLOG THERE 🙂

Some incredibly exciting news to share with you all today!

I was kindly put forward to the panel of the Guild of Motoring Artists by Letitia of Xclusively Jaguar, and I am so proud to report that I was accepted to become a member

This is really massive and gives me the opportunity to join a group of incredibly talented motoring artists and get to exhibit at some fabulous places (once we are allowed out again!!) I am so excited! Thank you so much to @motoringartists and #xclusivelyjaguar and everyone who has supported me along the way!!

80s retro!

Please note, my new blog can now be found at www.blog.ejdraws.uk. I couldn’t work out how to link this to it (apologies!) please follow me at my new home (it is a WordPress one too!)

I was asked to draw a Lotus for possible submission into an upcoming book on the brand. I didn’t have to spend any time thinking which Lotus I was going to draw – it had to be the Esprit! A firm favourite of mine since I was a child, it ticks all the boxes for me – wedge shaped, pop up headlights, hell yeah! :p

It was another cold weekend, so with the fire stocked, and my Copics refilled, I settled down to make a start. I work full time, and right now I also have two small children constantly at home needing home schooling, so drawings are done on evenings and weekends. It is certainly a much needed way for me to wind down after a hectic, busy week as Mum/Teacher/Employee! Eventually, by Sunday afternoon, I had this beautiful car completed!

This drawing is now surplus to requirements, so if you think it would look great on your wall, you can buy this Original, unframed, one off Drawing from the shop!

You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram, search for ejdrawsuk

First try: drawing on black paper

It’s something that I’ve wanted to try for a while now – drawing on black paper. I finally invested in some good quality black paper and pulled out my selection of white pens…

I picked a photo I took of my step-Dads Maserati – a night photo, light painting, with fun swishes of white light and a full sky of stars. It seemed the perfect choice: a simple image, clean contrasting white lines and bold!

And this was the final result! I was so pleased with the result, its something so different! It certainly found a use for some of the white pens I hadn’t enjoyed using on top of markers and colour pencil. The paper was pretty toothy, unlike that which I use for my markers, so I didn’t find it much fun when I used pencil, but I would still like to give a full colour pencil drawing a go and see how it turns out. Let me know what you think 🙂

WIN A DRAWING, Oh and I’m moving… Please follow the new blog…

Well first of all massive apologies! I have some exciting news coming up soon and to go along with that I needed to have a proper working website… I’m not tech savvy and the plug ins etc WP offer confused me, so I built something on a platform I was slightly more familiar with… Then came working out how to synch with my blog… Yup I couldnt work it out, so ended up being assigned a fresh new blog. 🙈

It is however a WordPress account (so technically I haven’t moved out, only to a different home!), so I hope you lovely followers will come across to this new blog (I’m sorry for this!)

FIND ME HERE!

As a sweetener, I am also running a competition to win a drawing so come and give me a visit and follow me in my new home in a different part of WordPressVille 😀

And thank you for your support all this time! ❤️🙏

240sx

Another of my drawings from the past couple of months. I love the older Nissans, and red? Nom!

It was nice to pick up my pens again!

The final piece!

This is available to buy now, framed or unframed, pop over to my Facebook to purchase!

You can also commission your own pieces by dropping me a message!

Green with Envy!

One of my drawings over the Christmas period has had quite the following!

Porsche GT2RS — Outlines and ink all done and ready for some colour!

Everyone I know seems to be mad for Porsches – honestly it seems everyone is trading in their cars and buying them left, right and centre. Personally they aren’t up there with cars I want to own (I think some of my friends have disowned me for this haha). They are nice cars but don’t float my boat (OK, that said, I did almost buy a 924 not long after passing my test because anything with pop up headlights calls to me…)

Adding the colour…this particular photo was taken so I could talk about whites in my drawings – I will share the Instagram post about this in more detail in a couple of weeks. Very helpful for those starting out I hope!

Anyway, that said, when I saw the photo of this particular Porsche. a GT2RS in a stunning bright green, I kinda almost swallowed my words – this is a Porsche I actually wouldn’t mind owning!

I think you will agree, whatever your view on Porsche’s, that this is a pretty mean looking machine, and looks superb with its showroom shine! I do love receiving images of cars covered in reflections, especially when they are well taken in a well lit environment, it really makes the drawing pop!

If you want to commission your own pieces please Contact Me.

And you can even follow me on here, Facebook or Instagram for my latest offers, drawing updates and more (@ejdrawsuk)

Eleanor, a real life Unicorn

Those that know, know.

For everyone else, Eleanor, the 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 from the film Gone in Sixty Seconds, is one of the most well known “film cars”, and appreciated by car enthusiasts all over the world!

So, it only seemed right, whilst I had some free time to draw this mythical beast!

Base sketch done, now time to put the outline down in ink!

I used to rush into drawings and start putting down the colour as soon as I had a panel to work with, so its fun now to sit back and see a finished line drawing!

And there she is! I hope I did her proud!

You can view all my work in my Portfolio.
You can commission your own pieces by messaging me here!
And you can even follow me on Facebook or Instagram for my latest offers, drawing updates and more!
Or you can just follow me on my WordPress blog for “along the way” progress updates on all my drawings! =)

Another wonderful pooch :)

First of all, may I wish you all a very happy new year! I hope it is a good one for everyone, I know 2020 has been a very trying one for most of us!

Anyway, I shall move on to another of my Christmas Commissions to finally be revealed…

A beautiful dog, I think you will all agree!

Just drop me a message to Commission your drawing 🙂

Skyline R33 Drawing

I apologise, I really am useless at remembering to update my website – this year I am going to make a huge effort to NOT forget – to make it as important as posting to my Instagram! As I started organising updates for this site, I suddenly realised one of my favourite drawings from last year wasn’t even showing – shocking! So lets look at this today…

The lady who commissioned this one, did so as a Christmas gift for her boyfriend. She has already in the past had drawings from me waaaaay back when I first started out (check out Percy, Reggie & the BMW), so it was lovely for her to come back now that her chap had a new car…. and what a new car it was! I love my Japanese 90s cars, and I was so excited to be doing this drawing!

It always amazes me how flat images look at first – and how a bit of shading really transforms it!

It’s really taking shape now! The shading has totally transformed it! Just the wheels to go…

And there we have it, the final image! Something about red cars, they always truly pop on the paper!!

If you want to commission your own pieces please Contact Me.

And you can even follow me on here, Facebook or Instagram for my latest offers, drawing updates and more (@ejdrawsuk)

New year, new look!

Well first off happy new year everyone! Let’s see if this one ends up as being as crazy as the last…

On a happier note, I’m excited to share my new logo. In fact, it’s my first proper logo! I’m usually pretty good with ideas for logos but for some reason nothing ever clicked for EJ DRAWS, so for over 4 years I’ve been logo-less…

Then just before Christmas I had an idea! And my brother in law kindly took that idea and put it into a proper format, so here I proudly share his hard work…

I’d love to hear your feedback on it! As I specialise in automotive drawings, I’ve gone with a clearly car related style!

Please visit http://vivid-creative.uk/ for more info or to contact my brother in law for any website/graphic design/printing work!

Another quirky Maserati

Before the mad rush for Christmas I had this lovely birthday commission to work on!

It was a pretty unique shade of blue, so of course another copic order was placed 😉

The car was sat at a funny angle on the photo but I liked it, it was an unusual overhead view, and it really showed off the quirky shape at its best!

And we are done! This beautiful Quattroporte was ready to ship off to its new owner!

I had a wonderful message back from the person who received the commission – just look at the beautiful frame he had made!!

There’s something fishy about this one…

One of my Christmas Commissions came from a lovely lady after a drawing of her fella with one of his best catches! Although I know nothing about carp fishing, I was pretty impressed by the size of the fish in the photographs! I’ve tried fishing in the past, just in a river and once or twice at the beach, and I’ve never caught anything much bigger than my hand (and I’ve got pretty small hands haha!)

Always willing to try new things, I told her I would give it a go and so I made a start….

The head gave me a false sense of security, I was really pleased with the outcome and thought the scales would be just as easy…

Boy were the scales anything but easy! I love things to be even and online, of course nature is anything but, but despite following the scales as per the drawing, I wasn’t entirely happy with them. I spent hours shading and erasing and modifying until I was happy… The photo doesn’t do it justice sadly it looks rather contrasty here!

Making a start on the clothing. I often find textiles difficult but I was so pleased with the wrinkles in the fabric, one of my most lifelike pieces of clothing!

Almost there! Hands and upper body in place… The beanie was tricky but like the scales, I spent a bit of extra time on it and eventually it became much more lifelike!

Eventually I had a finished drawing, and before going further, got some feedback from the lady who commissioned it… I was given the go ahead to continue! Phew! *wipes brow*

Here is said drawing. Next to tackle was the background! The original photo was just long grass in the background, it was good in that as a photo, it didn’t detract from the subject, but as a drawing I felt it was rather bland. I suggested a background from another of the photos she had sent me, so with some artists licence, I set about the final stage…

And here we go! The finished article! I rarely do backgrounds so it was a nice little change!

Let me know what you think!

Merry Christmas and here’s to 2021…

It’s been a crazy year hasn’t it!!

I had a few Commissions come in before Christmas so I couldn’t share anything for a while, but with the giving all out the way now, I’m looking forward to sharing some of these over the next few weeks.

In the mean time though, I have to share this one… Commissioned by my 6 year old last week, after reminding me that I had promised him a Lamborghini since the summer… Whoops, bad Mum!!

How was your Christmas anyway?

My drawings died a death(star)….

Well my last update was back in March, when I was busy drawing The Deathstar, of all things! I am not a huge Star Wars fan (it’s just not my genre), so I was pretty nervous taking on this drawing – if there is one thing I do know about Star Wars, it’s that the fans like everything to be spot on!

No pressure then!!!

However, all things said, after many hours of nervousness, looking at the drawing and thinking Oh my gosh, it looks awful, it all came together! The amount of blue and black ink I used was insane (thank goodness Copics are refillable!) Everything looked a little flat when I had finished The Deathstar, perhaps a little fake. After much deliberation, I decided what was missing was stars! And finally, it had gone from a good drawing, to something much more out of this world!

A frame was required for this piece, and I have recently moved, so I took my drawing to a local framers in town. Having previously had frames made for me online, at a very reasonable price, I was nervous of the quote, but amazed at the choice of frames, glass and mount colours! I think you will agree from the image below, what a beautiful job the framers did! Turns out, the High Street can be competitive – the price wasn’t much more than the ones online, so I am pleased to say that frames are available again but only for collections (sorry, still no faith in couriers!)

Anyway, since March, I have been confined to the house, for reasons we ALL know about! However, I have been lucky in that I can do my full time job from home – but I have been rushed off my feet not only doing my job, but covering all those who were furloughed, coupled with being a full time care giver, as nurseries and schools closed, so actually finding time for drawing was well and truly off the cards! Then we were blessed with a gorgeous summer, so on my annual leave days and weekends I was outside with the family – so my Copics and papers were all tidied away… However, the rain, wind and dark evenings are coming back in, school is back on (albeit just the 9-3 in our area) – so I am delighted to say that my order books are now open again! Please book in early if you are planning a Christmas gift though, to avoid disappointment!

I’m sure you can guess it with these photos…

Did you struggle with yesterdays Guess the Drawing? Don’t worry, everyone over on Social media did too! So, here are some further updates, which may give you a little bit more of a clue…

So, let me know your guesses below! And I will post the final drawings up over the next couple of days! I can assure you, the final looks Out of this World!