Sal McD
A lecturer at Glasgow Art School once saw some of her pictures and insisted she apply. Despite assurances of a place, family obligations meant she had to decline and instead she continued to draw as a hobby. As more people saw her work she started taking commissions while continuing to draw for enjoyment and to improve her artistic skills in the hopes of attending art school when commitments allowed. Sadly it wasn’t possible but after years of drawing animals, landscapes, fantasy based pictures and several unusual requests (e.g. a sheep, a chimney and a gate) a publisher recently saw some of her work and offered her a contract to illustrate a children’s book to be published in October this year.
After realising how much she enjoys creating the illustrations for the book, she is eager to find more work in this field. She is currently completing a relevant body of work and will soon be adding to her portfolio. The first 3 pictures are pen and ink commissions (the door knocker is used in the Dunhelm Veterinary Group business logo and is shown here with their kind permission). The works to be added are done digitally or as a combination of digital and traditional media. She hopes the progression from conventional pen and ink commissions, through children’s illustrations, adding humour and an endearing twist to the style then on to the graphic novel artwork is indicative of her style and strengths. She also has several commissions ongoing and once completed these will be put on her website.
It is her creative ideal to combine drawing and writing and she hopes to publish her first graphic novel later this year. (It began life as in interesting way to practise figure drawing.) She is also working on another graphic novel which she describes as ‘dark folklore, approaching horror’, taking inspiration from folklore and legend along with the harshness and humour in life.
Until now she has only taken commissions via word of mouth but her website will soon be up and running and more of her work will be found there.
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Sal McDDurham Cathedral KnockerFine line pen and ink on paper View Folio
Sal McDLead mine in The DalesFine line pen and ink on cream paper View Folio