architecture

My commissioned illustration projects for 2019: a review

Illustration project review 2019
| Liz Ackerley Art

I’ve delivered a wide variety of exciting commissioned illustration projects throughout 2019. These include: a number of building-related commercial pieces. A wedding in Cheshire. Several key reportage (visual journalism) illustration projects and a book cover! Although I have shared some of these projects in dedicated blogs, this blog is an overview of some of these illustration projects.

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Sketching Kendal

LizsScribbles_Kendal1 Travel
| Liz Ackerley Art

Its always great to sketch in a new place, especially one with history and character, so when one of the Manchester Urban Sketching Group organized a trip to her home town-Kendal in Cumbria yesterday, I was keen to make the trip. It’s always great to see what you can capture of the place and to see a place with your own eyes after seeing it through other local sketchers eyes.Like a true urban sketcher, I love to travel and visit other places to draw so we set off early to get there in good time for our meet up at the Brewery Arts Centre. Continue reading →

Introducing my #ThisPlace series of original sketches

I thought I’d write this Q and A piece to fully explain what my #ThisPlace Series of sketches is all about before its launch later this month. What is it? Those of you that know my work will know that I am a keen urban sketcher and reportage illustrator. As a landscape designer in a previous life, depiction of a ‘Sense of Place’, capturing in my drawings, what it is that makes that place like it is, is very important to me. Therefore, I wanted to create a series of drawings throughout the year, of the Places around the Northwest that I love, visit and connect with. Hence the name ‘This Place’ Of course I may include the odd drawing in the series that is not the North West of England, but for the main part, they will be of the North West, including Manchester but certainly not exclusively. These pen, ink and watercolour wash/coloured pencil drawings created, on very high quality watercolour paper (or paper suited to the medium) and framed will be available for purchase. They will be either A4 or square (8” format) (ex. Frame). What are those cards and envelopes with handwriting you’ve been sharing? Accompanying each and every original will be a handwritten card from me. The envelope will denote the ‘This Place’ series and the card will contain the title of the piece. Inside will be a short piece about the location and any interesting facts that I come across! I hope it adds to the enjoyment of the artwork. For example, there is a Peter Kay link to my very first in the series called Gated Alleyway! Why do it? In a nutshell, I wanted to be able to sell original drawings/paintings in a way that was accessible to a wider group of people that weren’t commissioning me as such but wanted an original. It will run alongside my commissioned work. What is the launch all about? For anything like this, there has to be start-point! But it is not a usual exhibit all the drawings/paintings in a gallery. It won’t work like that as I am creating the pieces ongoing, each month. Therefore, I will have 3 to start it all off. All 3 are of my very local area in Salford. Its an eclectic mix! I am going to be exhibiting them as part of a wider exhibition of the Art Of Salford, curated by Tony Easom of our local Art Club and available to view and purchase at the Cornerstone Community Centre, Langworthy Road, Salford from 27th March 2017. Where will the pieces be available; how can I see them? For the first pieces, you will be able to see them at the Cornerstone as detailed above. However, for subsequent pieces low resolution images will be posted on my social media pages on-line and you can then contact me directly to secure a purchase. Purchase will be on a first come first served basis. What places will be captured? Anywhere that I’d like to capture; there will be well-known landmarks and less known places. Mostly I will try to capture those that define a sense of place for me; that characterize that place. You will also be able to nominate a place, I won’t necessarily go there but I might well do! And if your recommendation has influenced me to go there, you may get first refusal to buy that drawing! How many are available? Mm, I’m not sure yet. I will be doing at least 2 a month minimum (maybe quite a few more!), and I will carry on for as long as it feels right and I have interest to do it. But remember, I don’t have a room full of them, 3 different scenes for launch, then several per month, so it is an ongoing project with a start of March 2017. How much will they cost? Good question and that depends on size, but for the small square 8” they will initially be £80 framed plus postage and packing. Will there be prints available? I am likely to be selling limited edition high quality giclee prints of the most popular drawings and these may well be towards the end of the year at Arts and Artisan markets or similar. How did I do? I hope this gives more of a flavor for this series of work and I really look forward to sharing them with you as they are developed.
| Liz Ackerley Art

I thought I’d write this Q and A piece to fully explain what my #ThisPlace Series of sketches is all about before its launch later this month.

What is it?

Those of you that know my work will know that I am a keen urban sketcher and reportage illustrator. As a trained landscape designer, depiction of a ‘Sense of Place’, capturing in my drawings, what it is that makes that place like it is, is very important to me. Therefore, I wanted to create a series of drawings throughout the year, of the Places around the Northwest that I love, visit and connect with. Hence the name ‘This Place’   Of course I may include the odd drawing in the series that is not the North West of England, but for the main part, they will be of the North West, including Manchester. These pen, ink and watercolour wash/coloured pencil drawings created on very high quality watercolour paper (or paper suited to the medium) and framed will be available for purchase. They will be either A4 or square (8” format) (excluding the Frame so a little bit larger with the frame and mount).

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What view to sketch?-Welcome to the Neighbourhood

LizAckerley_welcometotheneighbourhood
| Liz Ackerley Art

Last weekend whilst out sketching , one of my fellow sketchers asked: how do you go about choosing your view to sketch?  It’s an interesting question and it got me thinking beyond the theory of composition, at how exactly I choose my view to sketch .   Here in a short summary; mainly illustrated with recent sketches of my local area  are some of the things I take into account when  deciding which view to draw and what to include.  Note that with most of them, there is more than one reason the composition was chosen. Continue reading →

As 2016 Draws to a close…. My Sketching Stories of the year

Lizsscribbles2016compilation
| Liz Ackerley Art

As 2016 draws (get it!) to a close, I thought I’d capture my year in sketches ( some but not all of them!), partly as an aide memoire (those of you that read my blog know how I like to document my drawing adventures!) and partly to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going.  Its been quite a year in many respects and those of you that have followed my #scribblescompilations on social media in my 12 days of Christmas countdown, will be familiar with most of the combinations below.  However, this blog puts a narrative to the visuals and  I have tried to group things so that you can see more of the approaches and types of things that I am interested in recording and the approaches I’ve taken to drawing. Continue reading →

Liz Steel’s Buildings Course: My takeaway messages

lizsscribbleslesson3salfordgallerycoloured-copy
| Liz Ackerley Art

This blog is not really a review of the course as much as a brief summary of my results and key learnings, so it’s something for me that I can return to as an aide memoire. I try to do this for all the drawing courses I take as a way of making the most from them.  The course was, as usual for Liz Steel’s courses, packed full of useful examples and tips about drawing architecture not to mention some excellent demos and incredible handouts so its well worth checking it out when she runs it again. Continue reading →