Author: ArtyMissK

Hello my friends!! I'm Katie… a nature loving, butterfly obsessed, artist & amateur photographer with a love for illustration, needlework & conservation. If you fancy it checkout my website www.artymissk.com

The Grim Squeaker

On By ArtyMissKIn Art

Hello friends, I hope the past week has treated you well. 

This week I thought I’d post a new illustration and I thought I’d share this one with you. Reaper Man is the 11th Discworld book by the comic and literary genius that was Sir Terry Pratchett, and is one of the best books out there (actually all the Discworld book are fantastic) Its main character is Death and later in the Death related books the Death of Rats arrives, the first of which is Reaper Man.

The Grim Squeaker is essentially a ‘living’ skeleton of a rat, that wears a black hood and carries a tiny scythe. If you haven’t read the books I totally recommend them! I don’t want to give away any spoilers (even though the book was released in 1991!) because they’re such wonderful books and once you’ve read one or two before you know it you’ve read them all!!!!!

Continue reading “The Grim Squeaker” →

Swans in black and white

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello my friends,

I hope you had a safe and joyful new year! 

Lots has been happening here – I’ve changed my url to artymissk.com (it feels so cool to be .com) and I thought that I’d kick off my first real post of the year with some photo editing. I really love black and white images – they feel timeless so I thought I’d have a go at editing the swan photos that I took last year.

I really love black and white images – they feel timeless so I thought I’d have a go at editing the swan photos that I took last year.

These pictures are beautiful in colour of course but the elegant tones of black and white really highlight the shape of the birds.

Mute Swans really are magical birds. The local ones although being totally wild, are really rather domesticated and friendly! They get incredibly close – the adults are enormous and will actually take food form your hands.

Continue reading “Swans in black and white” →

New Look {artymissk.com}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art

Hello my friends, I hope you’re having a prosperous start to 2022!

I know the Friday’s are normally post days but this is an extra little one as I finally made the decision to change my domain and blog name.

My former name of kareynolds .net has been a dear friend since way back in March 2013 (I can’t believe that’s basically a decade!) but I decided that artymissk.com was a good step forward in my blogging life as it relates to my Twitter/DeviantArt/Tumblr/YouTube accounts. It was so easy to do and yet I’ve been putting it off for ages.

What do you think of the new name and artwork?

I hope you continue to follow my blog and join me on my artistic and photographic journey.

K

x

The Grim Squeaker At Hogswatch

On By ArtyMissKIn Art

Happy Christmas!

On this beautiful Christmas Eve I’d like to wish everyone a truly Merry Christmas and a Happy Hogswatch, this is a little illustration of the Grim Squeaker (AKA The Death of Rats) from Terry Pratchett’s who appears throughout the Discworld series from Reaper Man onwards. I’ve drawn him as the Hogfather to celebrate 50 years of Terry.

I hope all of your dreams come true.

Mind how you go!

Terry Pratchett

Wild Mushrooms

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, Photography

In a bid to hold onto the last of this years sunshine (before winter completely sets in) I decided to see if I could find anything magical to photograph and while out in the wilderness I found a very lovely little patch of grassland fungi! These beautiful mushrooms were tiny and their colours seemed so vivid against the green of the grass. I love fungi there are so many species and colours and they grow in the most unlikely places.

So, enjoy some wild foraging photography…and a few doodles…

This is one of my favorites from the shoot. I love how simple and stock-photography-like it looks. The way the light hits the mushroom and the sunlight through the grass just feels so natural…

Now I know never to eat mushrooms I find, I don’t even like to touch them – unless I’m with someone who genuinely knows what they’re doing! Let’s be honest I just like to photograph and draw them so I thought I’d try and put together a little collection of photographs to show off the beauty of these amazing little fungi.

Continue reading “Wild Mushrooms” →

Autumn Swans

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

I truly believe Mute Swans to be the most magical and gentle of wild birds. These beautiful birds are one of the heaviest British birds and can grow as heavy as 14kg and have a wingspan of 2.4 metres (over 7ft), it’s the largest of our British wildfowl species. I love swans they have so many myths and stories and float about all gracefully on the water.

So, enjoy some calming nature photography…

Remember when you were told not to feed the stray cats…well I started feeding the birds by the river – not bread, because that’s bad for them, I feed them Wildthings Swan and Duck Food because it floats. now they assume I have food all the time and will follow me!

I thought I’d try and put together a little collection of things to these amazing birds.

This adult and almost fully grown cygnet very nearly made a heart shape, I got so super excited when I realised that I had taken an okay picture! The adult swans are enormous but will literally stand right next to you and while they are genuinely wild birds, they seem so domesticated.

Continue reading “Autumn Swans” →

Autumn tree

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

I genuinely think autumn is my favourite season the colours and textures are just so amazing. This beautiful tree is an old friend standing in the autumn sun…aren’t trees just magical, being all leafy and sucking carbon from the atmosphere. This is one of my favourites, although the colours of summer lingered a lot later than normal.

Enjoy some warm and calming autumn colours…

I thought I’d try and put together a little collection of things relating to this old tree.

Continue reading “Autumn tree” →

The White Rabbit

On By ArtyMissKIn Art

The White Rabbit was illustrated by Sir John Tenniel for ‘Alice’s adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll in 1866. I absolutely love his illustrations, so this is my attempt at Sir John’s White rabbit of Hearts. I’m quite pleased with it! Drawn with Winsor & Newton Indian ink.

“Near the King was the White Rabbit with a trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other.“

Continue reading “The White Rabbit” →

A World of My Own

On By ArtyMissKIn Art

Alice in wonderland has long been one of my favourite things in the world so continuing my experimenting with water colours to try and bring more green and nature inside in the winter and combining my love of all things green with my love of calligraphy and quotes, they don’t take long to do, but look really effective against a white wall – my funny little brain likes to pretend its alchemy!