Author: Kat

Within the first few months that I moved to Belfast last year, I found this old biology textbook at a local charity shop and I knew that it would make for a fantastic sketchbook someday. Little did I know that it’ll be March of this year when I finally start using it, as all of my art paraphernalia becomes locked away within Ulster University due to lockdown. The Coronavirus pandemic isn’t over yet, but I have been steadily weaning myself off from using this book since early September. 

This document of my personal experiences lends itself to an intimate record, of our new reality, that is universal in scope. There’s trepidations about food shortages, as still life observations. Private portraits of loved ones, whom I have still mostly only seen via video chat. And ordinary materials, like the red sharpie from my pencil case, became my tools. I drew a line at the top of every page for a new day when I heard sirens. For the day that I started recording the sirens, there are four red lines. The most red lines that I’ve drawn in a day were 20. Not a single day passed when I drew less than three lines.

The time has come to move on though, and continue making forever new impressions of our ever changing world. As part of this new exploration, in my professional studio work I have created my first video performance piece and will be sharing some outtakes and bloopers with you all very soon. I hope that my work will retain the ability to ignite a smile, no matter how unprecedented things might become yet again.

It’s getting cold out there, and this months postcards are set to bring a chill down your spine too. Boo! 

Based on chickens preserved in formaldehyde, these four designs were created in watercolour for an art fundraiser which will happen at a later date. They are A5 in size and I have four prints in original colour, and four of the inverted versions. 

Comment below which one you’d prefer to receive in the mail from me and I’ll do my best to fulfill your spooky desires. The full version of these postcards can be viewed individually on my website as part of the 2020 spring/summer collection.

👻 👻 👻 👻 👻 👻 👻 👻 👻 👻

Artist and friend Lorna McCarthy returns as a muse for this months exclusive digital painting! I thoroughly enjoyed creating this piece, though of course it remains a part of my learning journey with Procreate. I can’t stress enough how valuable it is for me to have this creators space with your support. Retaining the ability to keep trying new things and evolving my skills as an artist is super important to me. Thank you for being here!

While making this piece I set myself a number of challenges. I made the decision to use only the Oil Paint default brush, with no Smudge tool (which is usually what helps to blend those skin tones so effectively). And I severely limited my use of the Eraser tool. I think I used it less than a handful of times in the end. I also somehow managed to use the same Oil Paint brush for the hair as well as the body, though I usually use two separate tools. Hair can be so tricky to do, especially when trying to capture the brightness, shape, and texture of Lorna’s beautiful locks!

In any case, I hope this artwork brings you some bright pink positive energy as we settle in to the darkest couple of weeks in the year. And rest assured that I have a lot of lovely rewards lined up for you during December and January! 

PS – all uncensored fully nude illustrations are revealed starting from the mid level on my Patreon. This is to best protect the privacy of those who submit their images to me, as well as my own. But I hope that you can still appreciate how creative I’m gonna have to get with these censored versions, to keep it interesting for you folks. I do love a good challenge!

Artist and friend Lorna McCarthy returns as a muse for this months exclusive digital painting! I thoroughly enjoyed creating this piece, though of course it remains a part of my learning journey with Procreate. I can’t stress enough how valuable it is for me to have this creators space with your support. Retaining the ability to keep trying new things and evolving my skills as an artist is super important to me. Thank you for being here!

While making this piece I set myself a number of challenges. I made the decision to use only the Oil Paint default brush, with no Smudge tool (which is usually what helps to blend those skin tones so effectively). And I severely limited my use of the Eraser tool. I think I used it less than a handful of times in the end. I also somehow managed to use the same Oil Paint brush for the hair as well as the body, though I usually use two separate tools. Hair can be so tricky to do, especially when trying to capture the brightness, shape, and texture of Lorna’s beautiful locks!

In any case, I hope this artwork brings you some bright pink positive energy as we settle in to the darkest couple of weeks in the year. And rest assured that I have a lot of lovely rewards lined up for you during December and January! Starting with Novembers postcards actually, which have been posted out today and I didn’t mention them on here this month at all as I wanted it to be a complete surprise. So look forward to opening those mailboxes! 📮💌📬

This itty bitty sketchbook has been with me since July 2019 through to the end of August 2020. It accompanied me to the monthly meetings with the Artlink artists for the Drawn From Borders Project. And then I took it with me to my only flight of 2020, on a weekend trip to London (for business AND pleasure). 

It did a great job in holding on to my ideas, musings and quick sketches. I am looking forward to returning to a larger scale however, as I finally gain access to my studio this week and resume my work on the MFA course at Belfast School fo Art, UU. Which means that there’s so much more that is going to be revealed exclusively on this Patreon page, and I can’t wait for you to see it.

Thank you so much for your time and patience while I got over a cold AND a period attack all at the same time earlier this month. I love You!

Hi folks! Today I’m showing you the original illustrations for my newest zine. They emerged as a response to the topic of borders, for the Artlink project Drawn From Borders in collaboration with the Partition of Ireland exhibition at the Tower Museum in Derry/Londonderry.

When contemplating the border between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland, I was most interested in the ways that this separation affects nonhuman animals. Drawn from conversations that were had among all of the artists involved with the project, the symbols of cow lovers, immigrant cats and farmer riddles emerged.

 Though the Drawn From Borders exhibition is already live online, it’ll be coming to Saldanha Gallery at Artlink sometime in 2021 for real. And the exhibition on the Partition of Ireland at the Tower Museum is also happening sometime next year. Of course you’ll be the first to receive an invitation!

The start of another academic year is upon some of us, including myself. So this months goodies are a collection of some work I made last year – as I embarked on my 1st year of studies on the MFA course at Belfast School of Art, UU.

Postcards sent out this September will feature landscape paintings. Originally made using gouache, based on photos that I took while on a hill walk at Cave Hill near Belfast castle. There’s four different scenes, all made into a limited edition of eight prints on toned paper. These will be accompanied by an A3 inverted photocopy of another gouache painting – a dinosaur skull from the Ulster Museum. I invite you to use this piece as a form of street art. Paste it somewhere on a wall, bin or lamp post. Preferably near something trashy, as this gouache study was prompted by my research into fossil fuels, which are used for transportation, heating, and excessive production of single use plastics.

As always, I hope you enjoy the art and thank you for supporting my work!

Lucky you if you have a companion canine to celebrate today. Dogs are our best friends on another level! But if you don’t, here’s a look at my monkey pumpkin pooh throughout the years of me drawing him. 

Creating this book was truly a joy, and it’s definitely an art form that I’d like to revisit in the future. Though my approach is very handmade and basic (hello Microsoft Word editing and formatting), I believe it still holds true to my aesthetic.

What other books do you think I could make?

Hi folks, I decided to share with you my latest dilemma – picking which background would go best with my little raccoon friend that I brought to life to announce the existence of my Kofi page. Though I set it up years ago, I never utilised it, as I didn’t think it would garner any interest. This was dumb of me, and guided by similar doubts that accompanied the creation of this Patreon page.

Finally though, I am starting to believe in the value of my work more and more. Especially thanks to all of you here, supporting my work so directly. My little raccoon lives on! Alas, I am now somewhat faced with another dilemma – one of CONSISTENT ART STYLE. You see, some even doubted that this raccoon was of my own flesh and blood; but it is! It is my creation, one among so many others. And if you were indeed to look back at the many artworks that I’ve created, you’d notice that I consistently like heightening the values of darkest and lightest parts within a composition. That is an unwavering decision, no matter what medium I choose to use. But to notice such things one must look more intently at my work. So I totally understand how this little rascal might appear not of my own doing to the untrained eye.

And as for that CONSISTENT ART STLYLE syndrome struggle at large, I think that is a much longer conversation for a future time. Perhaps in the form of a whole separate video?

Hello all you lovely people! Here is the release of this months digital skin painting, featuring another brave model and fellow artist Eamon Carey.

I was actually really inspired by Eamons own figurative paintings when rendering the skin texture this time. It’s not as smooth as in previous pieces, but this more gestural expression is not something that comes so naturally to me as I am a big fan of the smudge tool on Procreate. So I know, I know – it’s not that much of a radical difference – but if you were to compare this piece with my previous works in the series, you’d see a slight evolution. It’s small steps, but progress nonetheless.

As myself and Eamon both attended CIT Crawford College of Art and Design together for our BA Fine Art degree, I know that we inhabit similar queer spaces. So I was inspired to somehow tie this aspect into the work, via my signature use of flora and fauna symbolism. Thus, I naturally gravitated towards the depiction of some octopus like element, as often evident in Japanese erotic art called Shunga. Translated literally, the Japanese word shunga means picture of spring, and ‘spring’ is a common euphemism for sex. The texture of the background wall is also very reminiscent of the song Norwegian Wood by the Beatles, which is featured in a movie of the same name, adapted from a 1987 novel by Japanese Author Haruki Murakami. The novel is a nostalgic story of loss and burgeoning sexuality, told from the first-person perspective of Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a college student living in Tokyo.

The yellow bedsheets add a juicy pop of colour, which continues to be present within all the works of this series so far. And there’s many more to come!

Love you all ❤️