Leo Mitchell: Art & Illustration

I’m a self-taught amateur artist from the North of England; hoping to become a professional illustrator, writer and someday get my graphic novels published. This is my art blog where I post a lot fo my work. Be sure to click on notifications so you’ll never miss a post! (Cis/She/her)

[leomitchellart]

💙 SUPPORT ME ON THESE LINKS🎨

Ko-Fi - https://ko-fi.com/leoillustration0656

Tumblr- https://leomitchellart.tumblr.com

YouTube - https://youtube.com/channel/UC524E0fp157bpolsKwhbncg

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/leomitchellartandillustration

Twitter - https://twitter.com/LeoMitchellArt  @LeoMitchellArt

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/leomitchellart/ @LeoMitchellArt

DeviantArt - https://www.deviantart.com/leomitchell

Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/leom_art

[leomitchellart]

Given how complex my SPARKLE piece was, and balancing my three Bloom paintings alongside it, I was happy to get a simpler prompt for June - VEGETABLES. Sometimes, all we need is a nice, simple, still-life of some bell peppers. 🫑 (Yes, I’m aware they’re, botanically-speaking, a fruit, but is still, culinary, a vegetable)

I can see everyone had a lot of fun with this prompt. When you have something as simple to work with as vegetables, it leaves so much room to get really creative with the subject and technique.

You may also notice I added my onion piece from last year’s Inktober alongside my peppers. Honestly, I’m still really pleased with them. 

Not only was the painting easier this time around, but so was the baking: Hidden-veggie chocolate brownies! Surprisingly healthy, and the softest, moistest brownies I ever had! My art group and the kids on my estate just kept coming back for more! I’m thinking of baking them again in the not-too-distant future.

This is the recipe I used, if you’re curious: 

#vegetable #acrylliconcanvas #bellpepper #stilllife #painting 

[leomitchellart]

‘Did I really do a sparkly painting on canvas, inspired by a certain show whose finale I got to see in the cinema last month? Well, it’s possible! 🦄🎪✨

‘First thing that came to mind when we got Sparkle was this rare unicorn Pomni Animiniz Pendant. She’s just so pretty and I was practically feral in my hunt for her! This was just what I needed; Painting something whimsical, colourful and maybe a little kitsch.

While I promised myself I wouldn’t add actual glitter to the scene itself, I did love adding it around the border. Methinks I’ll play around with this stuff more. The method I used was mostly inspired by Théo Van Rysselberghe’s “Portrait of Irma Sèthe”.

I had a few tries at a glitter egg, before I finally settled on the last one as the best. (From bottom to top) The first two were more failed experiments because after too many layers washed-out the colours and made it opaque. It’s also taught me that I should really start coating my eggs with clear nail varnish after they’re done to stop them getting scuffed.

I’ll admit, it’s such a shame only four of us did something for this prompt, myself included. Apparently the main issue most of the group had was finding ideas. If I’d have known, I would’ve printed off the list of ideas I’d already jotted-down before I settled on Pomni.

As for baking, I knew exactly what I wanted to do - Unicorn Poop Cookies! Dear god they were more complicated to make than I first thought, but I certainly heard no complaints about the finished treats.

Sorry it took to upload this May-themed piece, I had a rather busy couple of months. Also, I wasn’t happy with it after the deadline, so I wanted to dedicate more time until I achieved the desired result. I’d say the extra effort was worth-it.

[leomitchellart]

The celebration for the BLOOM exhibition was an absolute treat! I could smell the fresh scent of flowers before I stepped through the door, and the window displays were choc-a-block with colour! I even felt inspired for future art and new mediums to try. It was exciting to pop-in and see mine among the first you spot when you walk in. Not to mention having something you made officially on display, amongst so many other talented artists. My friend and I also left our marks on the long paper left for visitors to interact with - I did a daisy.

Here are my three pieces in full:

💐Pollinator’s Parade:

My largest piece, at 1m long, acrylic on canvas, done as a celebration of UK wildflowers and the disorganised cacophony of colours that make them differ from a well-curated garden. Along with the life they bring to every hidden corner as pollinators commute from stigma to stamen. I had fun salt and peppering this canvas with as many pollinating species I could think of.

🌺Regional Wreath:

Another acrylic on canvas, this is the one made with location in mind. Consisting of only two flowers:

The blue - a Spring Gentian. The official flower of County Durham. Known for its striking colour and rarity, only growing in select regions in Europe.

The red - a Dalia more commonly known as “The Bishop of Auckland’. One of many that go by a “Bishop of X” moniker.

From there, I saw a perfect opportunity to work with the primary colours; using gold to substitute for yellow.

🪻The Faqqua Iris:

This is the one I felt most strongly compelled to create: For both it’s complex form; and because I couldn’t think of any greater flower to represent the themes of beauty, fragility, renewal and resilience in nature than this flower and the country it represents. 🇵🇸 Growing strong between rivers and seas, still standing even as they are disturbed, displaced or starved.

‘Special thank you to my friend, Brandon, for driving my Nan and I to the event and to everything else that showed-up to support the art. If you missed Saturday, not to worry, you’ll still see our work on display ‘till the end of July.

[leomitchellart]

I was given the honour of setting-up an Easter-themed window display in The Artists Hub, after a conversation with one of the volunteers at the opening of the portrait exhibition. Wherein I mentioned I was in the hobby of painting wooden eggs, so I was offered the chance to exhibit them for the holiday. Of course, I couldn’t resist bringing some of my own seasonal decor and props as well. From there, I was given carte blanche to decorate the space. ‘Didn’t take long before I got to see people’s reactions as they passed by. I suppose you could say it… eggceeded their eggspectations.

I even painted three new eggs for the occasion: The Spanish flag, The Artists Hub logo and the flag of County Durham.

[leomitchellart]

I had no idea I hadn’t uploaded the photos from the ‘100 Portraits of Bishop Auckland’ exhibition. I forgot how busy April was. Still, with the upcoming BLOOM exhibition this week, now’s the perfect time to reflect on my first public gallery showing.

Mine depicted a dear friend and former neighbour who had to move to Switzerland for his health.  I still miss him, which was part of my motivation to paint him. The other being that, despite being a long-lived and well-travelled American, he confided in me that this is where he will always call home. 

The day was incredible! For once, I was the social butterfly, making friends and deep in conversation with other artists. It felt unreal seeing one of my works on public display and to be flooded with so much support from friends and strangers alike.  Many friends, art group members, former and current neighbours, all came to support me and enjoy the day. One, despite his ill health and being in the middle of moving, dropped-in for 5 minutes just to see the portrait of our mutual friend and congratulate me. Even one of the neighbourhood kids, my smallest supporters, convinced their mum to come down. 

My dad and nan were chatting to anyone and everyone who stopped by. Telling people how proud they were, alongside others saying they must be proud of me. Occasionally photographing and filming me as I went about. It was elating! I’m forever grateful to everyone who showed-up to support not only myself, but my fellow local artists. 

It was while chatting to members of staff that I was given the later opportunities to decorate the window display for Easter and have some of my food-themed pieces for the food festival. 

Also present that day, was a film crew.

I got to be amongst the attendance they interviewed. Discussing subjects such as on our community, what art means for us, to me, and the hopes for our community. The fella interviewing me was lovey, asking with surprise why he hadn’t seen me around, even called me a wordsmith because of my answers and said he hopes to see me again.

There’s so much I could say about the day, yet never enough.  It’s one I certainly won’t forget.

[leomitchellart]

‘Just thought I’d give everyone an update. I know everyone’s wonderful why I haven’t uploaded my SPARKLE piece for May. Truth is, I’ve been perfecting it as much as i can before I upload it, along with being generally busy with multiple projects. Along with that, I’ve been on with the theme for June - VEGETABLE, and three other paintings for the local BLOOM exhibition. Now with all other jobs done, I’ll be catching-up on uploads this next week. Including the 100 portraits exhibition from March.

[leomitchellart]

Guess which silly bugger got acrylic paint in her hair after her very large canvas fell on her head?😂

I’m not fretting, welcome to the world of being an artist - it gets messy. But if anyone has any tips about washing the out, then I’m all ears.

[leomitchellart]

Our theme for May is…

✨ SPARKLE✨

I’m so excited we got this. It’s going to make for a very whimsical and colourful month. Which, honestly, I think I’ll need to contrast against current events…

‘Friends in the group immediately joked that I could just submit my diamond piece again 😂

[leomitchellart]

Our first letter prompt, starting with D! As usual I like to something match our prompt to the current occasion, in this case, Easter and my birthday. Not only do I find-out that my birthstone is the diamond, but my birth flower is the Daisy! Two D’s! Just had to make the diamond egg shaped, and voilà! I also contacted one of the local galleries and had this custom canvas shaped made. I’m actually pleased with myself for this. I’ve never painted a gemstone before, let alone a multi-coloured diamond. 

Though, I cant help but find it funny that my most elaborate piece yet is accompanied by my simplest egg - a blue duck egg.  

My first idea was going to be a diptych of the party and bunny dodos from ‘Ark: Survival Ascended’, before I learned about the diamond and daisy connection and ran with it. Maybe I’ll come back to them someday? 

I knew doing simple letter prompts would yield some amazing results from the group, just for the sheer variety it offered. Not only subjects everyone drew, but some even getting creative with the letter itself. Just look at them all!  I cant deny I was tickled-pink by my friend’s demented demon ducktator…

As for my baking, I did some simple Danishes. I’ll admit they’re not the prettiest, but I’ve heard no complaints about the taste. 😋

[leomitchellart]

In all the excitement of the portrait gallery, the Easter display, etc. I’d forgotten to post March’s theme - Mountain! 

I always thought I’d do something based around mountain goats for this piece, but I felt an urge to try something new on canvas again. I discovered this method of creating mountains with a textured and regular acrylic paste! It was liberating to just let my palette knife do the work and not worry about detailed line-art. Especially since my chosen subject, the Rainbow mountain in Peru, complex in terms of structure - just its colours.

I discovered that when you mix acrylic paint with bicarbonate of soda, it creates this perfectly fine sandy/stony texture. Helping make the perfect little mountain egg. 

Everyone in the art group was amazing with this prompt. It’s hardly a surprise why mountains are often such a favoured topic for artists.  I suppose we were all in our element, in a way, even while trying somehting new. 

As seems to be custom I decided to bake something I around the them - ‘Rocky Mountain Cookies’. I doubled the amounts from what the recipe state and somehow ended-up baking 90 Cookies! Not that anyone was complaining: From my art group, neighbours, local kids, relatives and some of their friends - everyone all got some. To the point where they’re almost starting fights to get them before they run out! One friend compared them to Eris’s golden apple, or that I’m the baking equivalent of Walter White because of how addictive they were. Heh… Baking Bad.  

[leomitchellart]

When did you start to enjoy drawing?

I’ve always enjoyed drawing. Started once I was able to grip a crayon and never stopped.

[leomitchellart]

EXCITING NEWS!!!

One of my pieces has been accepted into a local exhibition, opening with a celebration do on Saturday!  🎉 🎨 This is the first time I’ve ever had my work in a public gallery outside my art group. I can’t tell you how elated I feel because of all this!

Especially since I worked hard to get it painted I time to submit and initially being informed they weren’t accepting anymore. For the first time, I feel like taking a chance or determination did pay off.  Even after stressing to the point of headaches while trying to complete this portrait and this month’s themed piece in the same month on and off again. But now, I wish I had the words to describe this relief and joy

[leomitchellart]

Now with Telly done, we have our theme for March….

🏔️ MOUNTAIN ⛰️ 

Nice and simple, but I can already see myself trying something new with this…

[leomitchellart]

I can’t hide my excitement, this might be my best piece yet! Since this was for the month of Valentine’s, I was in the mood for something romantic. This one depicting a kiss scene from the 1955 BBC televised adaptation of ‘Othello’; Between actors Gordon Heath and Rosemary Harris.

With Othello in mind, I looked into television sets that were available in the UK at the time. Settling on a 1955 Bush TV53 14", painted on canvas, with the kiss scene done in pen & ink and glued-on later. I hadn’t presented a piece on canvas since my circles last year, so it was so fun to dive back into this. Especially now I’ve finally gotten my standing easel up and working again. Allowing myself to spend hours lost in the process ‘till my feet got sore. 

Last but not least, I didn’t expect to paint an egg this month. But sure enough, there was indeed a time where some companies made egg-shaped remotes. Usually when you search “egg remote” You get very different results… 

I’ll admit I half expected more pieces from everyone else to be fan-art, based around their favourite shows. Turns out a lot of us wanted to have the box as a main feature. Though, I do love how two of us chose to do on Bill & Ben the Flower Pot Men, of all programmes! You love to see it.  

For context around mine; You know how if you were to ask someone, especially any American, they’d say ‘Star Trek’ had the first interracial kiss on telly in 1968? This isn’t true. I knew the UK hospital drama, ‘Emergency Ward’, had Star Trek beaten by 4 years. However, I was determined to start digging for more examples. Turns out, the UK has even more examples going back further: including, but not limited to ‘You in Your Small Corner (1962)’ and ‘Armchair theatre - Hot Summer Night (1959)’. Down the rabbit hole I kept going ‘till I found Othello, 13 years before Star Trek. Not only that, but it was also the first televised version of the play to have a black actor in the lead, rather than a white actor in blackface. It would be another 40 years before a theatrical release would do the same. For instance, Sir Lawrence Olivier would minstrel-it-up on the silver screen only ten years later. 

Now, with a topic as sensitive as this, there did come some debates on what was truly the first, locally or globally. I’d gone through a few online articles arguing whether or not Lucille Ball kissing her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, a Cuban-American man, in 1951 actually beat Othello. Mostly because there was a lot of debate, even as the time, around whether this counted as mixed-race or mixed nationality. I’ll admit I had a hard time coming to a conclusion myself, but I felt it was important to mention for the sake of transparency. 

Being honest, all this added to my excitement to making this piece because I was getting a history lesson on top trying a new creative process. Not to mention an almost wholesome catharsis to create; romantic for the month and felt right, given certain *tensions* as of late…

[leomitchellart]

How do you like your pancakes? 🥞 I rather enjoy both - digital and traditional.

[leomitchellart]

The theme for February is…

📺 TELLY 🖥️

I’ll admit I was hoping we could get a prompt that I could make with Valentine’s in mind, so I was stumped. Until I managed to find a perfect, obscure source of inspiration…