After I got back from seeing Mika in Luxembourg I knew I couldn't let the opportunity to see him again pass me by whatever the cost! Before I'd arranged to go to Luxembourg I'd originally been trying to decide whether to go to that show or the one in Utrecht, so I decided I'd go to both - plus attend both of the Mika shows in Utrecht because if I'm travelling that far then I may as well, right?
Towards the end of last year Mika kicked off his Revelation tour in London, and I was so bummed that I missed it because I was in Disneyland Paris! I figured that was that, I'd missed him and would have to miss the tour, it hadn't worked out for me, etc. But then in late December when I was sorting through my journal in preparation for the new year, I came across a paragraph I'd written after I came home from New York about how "I want to be this happy again, I want to make the effort to travel to see my favourite performers instead of wishing they'd come to me. And if that means cutting back in other areas and travelling long distances for just a day or two, then I think it will be worth it. Hopefully I can make the opportunity happen again!" And all of those feelings I had at that time came flooding back to me, and I realised how daft I was being with Mika's tour. I'd travelled all the way to New York just to see Aaron Tveit, and now I only had to hop across the Channel to see Mika!
I've been drawing a lot of portraits lately as I find it fun and it's good to draw things for me, but it's something I always feel a little unsure of sharing as although I'm proud of them I don't want people thinking it's part of my 'brand' as an illustrator. It's a whole side of art business that I struggle with honestly, as it feels nowadays like you have to have your one aesthetic and stick to it but I'd get so bored! And honestly I think it's good to be versatile. But saying that, I don't think I'd want to do portraits as commissions as it'd no doubt lead to drawing people I don't care about which wouldn't be fun for me, so I keep them as just a hobby.
I used to draw portraits quite a lot with pencils, but because I'm a perfectionist I hated them if they weren't super photo realistic and it really sucked the fun out of it. So last year I began drawing them with ballpoint pens, something that scared me silly at the beginning as it's so permanent so there's obviously no way of erasing if you make a mistake, but it's actually really liberating and I feel I've learnt a lot from being forced to work with my mistakes. Because these are just for fun, they're all in my sketchbook. The top is Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, as it's turned out to be my favourite movie of the year and I'm lowkey obsessed. Second is Mika which is my favourite of the three (look at those pinstripes!!), and lastly is Aaron Tveit which whilst I like, I had issues with my pen blobbing while I was drawing it (why do they do this though??)
And here's two other illustrations I've been working on. Above is from the Broadway adaptation of Moulin Rouge, and it's how they end Act 1 with Elephant Love Medley. I'm not keen on how the song has been reworked honestly, but visually it's amazing, and I had fun trying to translate specific people into my art style whilst still making it look like them, as usually I draw fictional characters so likeness isn't so important. And below is from the finale scene of Wicked, and uh, spoiler alert? But Fiyero gets turned into the Scarecrow and I've always felt like he gets vastly overlooked within fan circles when this is a huge thing he goes through and a major sacrifice. I've always felt particularly attached to Fiyero though after reading the novel, his character is a lot more developed in that so I guess if you haven't read it it's easy not to care about what happens to him as he doesn't have a lot of stage time.
