ABOUT
My name is Paul Stratton and I'm a self taught artist and illustrator...
I was born in Slough, Berkshire, but managed to escape to Ashburton in Devon which is a beautiful part of the world and somewhere I feel very privileged to live. I work from home and also rent a studio located at Seale Hayne, near Newton Abbot in Devon.
My passions and interests have always been centered around fantasy, science fiction and nature and I often feel there isn't a great deal of difference between them. I grow Carnivorous plants, play role-playing games and table-top Wargames when I can and go for walks in the countryside, all of which give me inspiration and ideas for my work. I'm very passionate about cats and couldn't imagine my life without them. My cat Artemis ( aka Arty Puss) has taken it upon herself to become my manager but I'm not sure exactly what it is she does...
I'm self taught so it's taken me a while to get where I am. When I was at school we had 4 different art teachers in 4 years, all covering exactly the same thing, but despite that I was still confident that I would pass my O-level and then go onto college. However I never passed and was so upset that I dropped the whole idea of doing art. Then, when I was 30 and on holiday with my parents in Brittany I saw an architect who used technical pens to do some amazing pictures of old buildings. The techniques seemed so simple yet when they were all put together it was amazing. So I went home, bought some technical pens and got practicing. I'm still practicing now and probably always will be but at least I know that art, illustration or creativity is what I want to do. I believe that it's through my art that I am able to covey the wonders and complexity of nature.
To me, doing what you love and working for yourself
is far more rewarding than having loads of money or an important position in a company.
I'm never likely to retire like most folks
but as long as I can still work I'll be happy. After all, if you enjoy something why stop?
Having said that, more money would be nice...
What do I do?
I draw very detailed, hand drawn, Black and White, Pencil and Colour illustrations. These are either commissions or speculative work sold via my studio, my website or through various shops.
My services include Pet Portraits, Building Portraits, Invitations, Family Trees, Coats of Arms, Greetings Cards, Maps, Colour It In and Treasure Hunt pictures, the occasional Logo as well as pictures of nature, wildlife and folklore.
I also make and paint model scenery and paint miniature figures but this has taken a back seat in recent years as I concentrate on the illustration. I still take commissions but have since stopped selling via Ebay or local shops.
Which subjects do I
prefer to draw?
I like all subects within nature but there are some that I especially enjoy such as Birds of Prey and Owls, Kingfishers, Foxes, Wolves and Otters .Cats, big and small, are my favorite animals with Tigers at the top.
When I get the chance I enjoy drawing fantasy characters or creatures. I also love Celtic Knotwork and similar designs from other cultures and mythologies.
Something that has developed over the years is a passion for drawing maps, either from real places or made up ones. I like to take a well known place and draw it in a fantasy style such as my maps of Dartmoor or come up with something totally new. Figuring out where settlements would go and cities would be built is, to me, both interesting and helps in understanding geography and human survival.
I've also started doing large poster sized Colour It In pictures and Treasure Hunts which allow people to interact with the picture.
Which media and materials do
I prefer to use?
Technical Pens
I mainly use Mars Steadler and Rotring Technical Pens because they give a very fine, straight line and exceptional detail. They use indian ink which is very concentrated and gives a very solid black. The nibs themselves are hollow tubes containing a very fine hair and not the same as a Dip pen whose nib is very flat with a tiny well that holds a small quantity of ink. Technical Pens are expensive but well worth it.
Dip Pens
This is the old fashioned kind of pen that you dip into ink. Not as fine as a technical pen but it's nib is flexible and is great for writng. They can be very cheap, as little as 99p in some cases as the pen itself can be made of plastic and the nibs are a few pounds. They slot in the top and are easily changed. If you have some italic nibs then they are good for calligraphy.
Coloured Ink Pens
I use a couple of types of coloured pens. The first one is a Faber-Castell 'big brush' artist pen which sadly I believe has been discontinued, however, a smaller version is still available. They use warer based coloured Indian ink and the tip is a large rounded one similar to a felt tip pen.. The other one I use is a Windsor and Newton Promarker which has two tips - one a fine rounded tip and the other is a larger chisel tip. These use Alcohol based ink. I mainly use both these pens for shading and smaller detail and larger areas I use a brush. Both types of pen give an extremely vibrant colour
Gel Ink Pens
I sometimes use a white gel ink pen for highlighting really bright bits that I can't do any other way. Wet fur, the glint of light in an eye (specular)or anything similar. They are a little tempremental and the ink is quite transluscent which means you may need to go over the same line or dot more than once but they are incredibly cheap, often as little as 99p. There are other colours but I mainly stick to the white.
Pencils
There are many makes of pencil and I don't stick to any particular one brand. I just find ones I like and add it to the tray. Different brands can sometimes have differences in hardness and softness or tones so it probaby does pay to stay faithfull to one brand but really it's whatever works. There are two types that I use - your standard drawing pencil and Graphite pencils which are mostly softer, darker and have a metalic sheen. Each type has it's uses.
For greater detail and sharpness I use mechanical and clutch pencils. These are perfect for making details look cleaner and smaller areas darker without smudging as the pencil size can be as small as 3mm, much smaller than a regular pencil. These days you can get sets which contain different sizes, erasers, extra leads and even very tiny sharpeners.
Inks
There are three kinds of inks that I use and while each one has it's more specific uses they can all be used for washes and colouring. The first is Calligraphy Ink and this is very concentrated ink used normally for letter writing or filling in areas of solid colour. The colours are normally quite basic - black, blue, green, red and brown - but writing can look great, especially if you use an ittalic nib or dip pen. The second ink I use is Daler Rowney System --- Artists Acrylic Ink and this is what I use for the majority of my colour work. A small amount goes along way, it blends and mixes well with other colours and it's very easy to use. You can use a dip pen with it though I've found it doesn't hold quite as much on the pen as Calligraphy ink. Lastly I use Windsor and Newton Acrylic Ink which is a lot more watery than the previous two so has much more in common with watercolours and their effects. I tend to use these more for painting miniature figures as they make a great ink wash. The colours are good but the bottles are a little on the small side and you have to use distilled water (and not tap) if you can otherwise you'll find bits forming which can get onto your brush or in your water jar. Not the end of the world as you can fish them out.
Paper
I generally use three types of paper depending on whether I'm using colour, black / white or pencil. For the non colour stuff I go for the standard Smooth Cartridge paper which is about 80 gm- 100gm and has a smooth surface but still enough of a grain to it which is helpfull if you're using pencil as it adds to the texture.
If I want something very smooth, cleaner and brighter I'll go for Bristol Board which is almost card and has no texture at all. It's great for getting clean staright lines and blending pencil but can be very unforgiving as it shows every mark you make.
If I'm adding colour or planning on doing a wash then I like the paper to be more absorbant and give you enough time between applications, whether it's a pen or a brush, to still be wet when you add the next bit and thus avoid getting those edges between two areas that have dried. This is quite common with inks which are more concentrated than water colours. So for this purpose I use Hot Pressed Watercolour paper as it's a lot smoother than other watercolour paper. You can buy this by the sheet and it's a little expensive but well worth it.
Miscellaneous bits and bobs
You can find books and blogs that will tell you about all the basic tools you can get for drawing and painting and how to use them. Here are a few of the non standard items that I would recommend as a result of personal experience.
Ultrasonic Cleaner
Firstly, if you are going to use a Rotring Technical Pen or any other type of technical or cartridge loading pen, then I would urge you to invest in an Ultrasonic Cleaner such as the one opposite. The one I have is from a company called James.
These use continuous vibrations which create tiny bubbles and when these burst the energy created dislodges dirt and other particles that you can't get to yourself or that other cleaning stuff wont shift. The shellac in the ink the technical pens use (the same stuff they use in Nail Varnish) goes rock solid and once dry it's very difficult to dislodge usually meaning that you have to stump up another £15 - £30 or so for another nib. It can save you a lot of money in the long run. Plus, it's great for cleaning other things as well such as tools and jewellery.
Tiny white mechanical pencil rubbers
What I mean by these is the small tubular rubbers you get to fit in the end of a mechanical pencil or one of those battery powered gizmos that vibrates the eraser (which can come in really handy). You get a lot of them in a pack for the money and you can shape the tip with a knife or scissors to for a wedge or point. The tubular shape means that they're easy to hold aswell. Great for doing hairs, dots or highlights when you're using pencil. I recommend a Putty Rubber as well which can be molded into points or edges.
Roll up paint brush bag for your pencils
Daler Rowney (and I think other art companies) do a canvas bag that rolls up and has slots to take your paint brushes when you're working in the field. I read a book by a pencil artist and he had made something very similar but for pencils rather than brushes. The slots were labled from B to H and contained one or more pencils of that grade in each slot so he knew exactly where to find the right grade of pencil when he needed it. There was also room for erasers and sharpeners and blending sticks. When it's rolled ip it's small enough to stuff in a bag or carry with you. Really useful. You can use a brush bag or maybe make something specifically for your pencils.