Hello, I'm Bonny Snowdon, ex-corporate person and mother 10 successful artist entrepreneur. It wasn't that long ago though that I lacked the confidence, vision, and support network to focus on growing my dream business. Fast forward past many life curve balls, waves of self-doubt, and so many lessons learned. And you'll see ignite my thriving online coloured pencil artist community, a community that changes members' lives for the better,
and gives me freedom to live abundantly whilst doing what I love and spending quality time with my beloved family and dogs, all whilst creating my best artwork with coloured pencils and mentoring others to do the same. But this life wasn't always how it was for me. It used to only exist in my imagination. I've created the, It's A Bonny Old Life podcast to help increase people's confidence,
share mine and my community's experience, and hope through fascinating personal stories, champion the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community, and create another channel through which I can support others to realize their dreams. If you're a passionate coloured pencil artist or an aspiring one who's looking to create their best work and a joyful life you love, you are in the right place. Grab a cuppa and a custard cream, let's get cracking.
I'm delighted this week to be chatting to the amazing Justine. Her work is just gorgeous and I've loved chatting to her about coloured pencils and about how she got into it and her thought processes, which funnily enough are very, very similar to mine. I could have just sat there chatting all day,
to be honest. So enjoy probably just over an hour of, of Justine and I just talking about, about coloured pencils and drawing a little bit about zoos, but mostly just about the joy of, of coloured pencils, really. So yeah. Enjoy.
Hello. Hi, Bonnie, can you Oh, excited. Yeah, this is the time I've ever done anything like this,
so I was kind of like, okay, so I think I do this and yeah, here I am. Oh, it's so nice to finally meet You. You too. Gosh. Calling from the UK and here I am sitting in little old New Zealand. Oh God. Oh, I'm so glad you, I'm so glad you agreed to come and have a chat with me,
cuz I, you know, I, I Admire Your artwork and we've had sort of like a little bit of, I guess, chatting across Facebook and everything, And It's just so nice to get to speak to sort of other, other artists and yeah, it's just amazing. So I'm really, really, really, really happy that you've come to chat with me.
We we're, we're just going diving straight in. This is It. Sure, sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. We, we don't have any airs and graces. We just dive straight in and start chatting. So you are in New Zealand? Yeah, I'm in the south island of New Zealand, just outta Christchurch. I've been here for probably a good 20 years now,
and I just, I absolutely love it here. I love the natural beauty and the fact that, you know, there's mountains and just spectacular scenery. I try and get out in amongst it as much as possible. Yeah. In, in and around life. Yeah. I mean, you are, I have to thank you for reigniting my passion for Coloured pencils.
You know, I, I've been using them for quite a while, but I kind of reached a, I don't know, sort of stagnant place with them. And then I came across you and the Facebook groups and joined your Facebook group and have watched many of your free tutorials, and it just reignited my passion. And ever since probably Covid is when it's sort of really kicked off for me,
the first lockdown. And I, I've just honed my skills and I've just watched and learnt, and Yes, I've got you, I've got you to thank for, for that. Well, I mean, I look at your work and I'm just like, Ugh, I'm not sure that it can get much better that your work is absolutely gorgeous. You've just finished a little fox now.
I was looking at it, I was looking at it this morning, and I, I think I do what every single other Coloured pencil artist does, you know, when they come across me, I'm zooming in. I, how's she done that? How's she done that? Zooming in? Oh my God, look at that. Look at that. Oh,
Bonnie, I cannot believe that you're saying that to me, because that's exactly how I feel about your work too. Well, we're all the same. We're all the same, you know? Yeah, Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I've kind of worked my way up and I've put myself into a position where I, I have got a lot of followers and I,
you know, that's something I've wanted to do, and it's, you know, teaching and everything, and that's great. But I, I'm still exactly the same as everybody else, you know? Yeah. I still have exactly the same feeling when I go onto, when I go onto Facebook or Instagram or whatever, and I see something that's like, wow,
that is really good. And, and yeah, you know, we, I think we're in that age of zooming, aren't we? Not zooming like this, but zooming in, I wonder we do that. You know, if you've got like a picture in front of you, you, you wouldn't zoom in. You just, oh, that's lovely.
But we're like zooming in and we're like, oh, look, It comes from such a place for me, it comes from such a place of passion and just love for animals. And, you know, I've, I actually have to say outside out loud to myself, follow your heart. Follow your heart. Follow your heart, because you won't go wrong.
And I've really, really tried to stick to that. And even though, you know, I've had other people sort of come into my life and, and not have been very supportive around my art, I've just now cleared all of those people out and gone, you know what? I'm just gonna keep following my heart because for the first time, it's probably taken me,
you know, a good sort of three, four years to get to this stage in my life. And I'm now 52 where I just love, I just love drawing so much, Bonnie, I, you know, I sit there at my drawing desk and I think to myself, I can't believe I get to sit here and do this. I know,
I Know. I just can't, Honestly, I feel, I feel, and I'm, I'm 52 as well, and I feel exactly the same way. And I don't know whether, I dunno whether it's, we get to a, we get to a certain age, it's just like, you know what? I can follow my heart. I can do what I want and I'm gonna do it.
And I do think that the, the, those sort of couple of of terrible years, and I think you had it far worse in particularly the lockdown and everything in New Zealand. I think you had it a little bit worse than we had in the, in the uk, but I think it is taught us that, you know, life's for living and I am just gonna do whatever I need to do to make sure that I'm happy.
Yeah. I totally, yeah, totally, totally agree. And yeah, like you say, I think it is probably an age thing too, where you've sort of gone through other careers and, and relationships or, and whatever, and everything just starts to become sort of crystal clear and you just get a really clear vision in your, in your head as to what really well and truly makes you happy.
And I think that's for me, you know, I mean, I was a zookeeper for sort of 10 years, and I loved, loved the animals, and I, I just couldn't get over their beauty. And I, you know, I just have always had that in me, even since I was a child. I have been not just love animals,
but obsessed, you know, obsessed with them. For me, an awesome Saturday night is sitting down watching a documentary about animals, normally a, b, b bbc. And I, and I just think to myself, gosh, it's a Saturday night, and here I am sitting watching animal documentary, but I don't care. That's, that's who I am.
And it's taken this, this amount of time for me to really acknowledge that and appreciate that in myself. Oh, that's, so have you always lived in New Zealand? I was born in the north island of New Zealand, and then my family moved to Australia when I was 10. And then I lived in Australia for 20 years, so I was a graphic artist when I was in Australia.
I sort of, you know, went down that path, but I just found sitting in front of a computer eight hours a day, five days a week, just destroyed my soul. Yeah. Just, I don't know, I think one day I just, I just made this decision. I, I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna do this anymore.
Life is too short. And that's when I packed up everything and moved to the south island of New Zealand when I was 30 and yeah. Became restudied and became a zookeeper. And that, I mean, I guess that just kind of kickstarted who I really am. Was it, was the zookeeper, was that something that you, you know, ob obviously you need to retrain,
you need to kind of learn about it. And going from a gra graphic design to Zookeeping is a very, a very big jump and very, very different. Was it something that you were like, right, this is what I want to do? Or was it just, I just want to work with animals and this kind of, you know, study course,
whatever sort of suits me? Or did you have a real, I just wanna be a zookeeper? Well, it's really interesting because to be a zookeeper in Australasia now, you, you do have to have a certificate in captive wild animals. And so for me to work in that industry in New Zealand or Australia, I had to gain that. And once I gained that and I,
I started meeting other people, I, I sort of finally had this feeling of, oh my God, all these people, these people are my tribe. You know, you just go through life and you, and you connect with other like-minded people who just have that same love of animals. And that's kind of what happened. But what I also found when I was a zookeeper was that my graphic design skills were also able to be utilized because I painted a mural,
I painted signage, I designed, you know, information boards and, and that sort of thing. And I also had an exhibition of my artwork to raise money for conservation and raise $5,000. So I kind of, for a while there, I, god knows how I'm, I managed to sort of fit both in. But working full-time as a zookeeper is exhausting.
It's just such hard work. And so I just reached a point where I thought, right, I want to actually have more time to do my artwork. And that's when I decided I was gonna leave the zoo industry. So, although it was incredibly hard, but what I've found is that I have now an amazing network of friends who I've met through that incredible industry.
That's brilliant. You say that it was really hard work, you know, doing the, the zookeeper and everything. But somebody like me, and I'm sure loads of people listening, you know, you'd be thinking, oh gosh, you know, what a lovely job do. You just sort of, you go and you feed the animals and blah, blah,
but it it, it won't be like that, will it? I mean, there'll be so much more. Yeah, yeah. There's, there's a lot of cleaning. There's, you know, a lot of really dirty work, you know, water blasting and, and you know, like an otters pool or, or raking up leaves or spreading bark.
I mean, you're in, you're in charge of the, the animals enclosures as well. So, you know, they need constant maintenance and care. And so probably those best parts of your job, probably about 10 minutes a day, where you're actually getting to spend some quality time with your animals. Yeah. So when I say exhausting, it's, it's just incredibly physically,
physically demanding lots of lifting heavy things, and as I said, raking and water blasting and hosing and, you know, on and on picking up manure and yeah. Yeah, there's not a lot of glamorous, there's not a huge amount of glamorous sides to it. But then there's the other side is that you form these incredible bonds with these amazing, amazing animals.
Yeah. And so that just makes up for all the hard work. Yeah. And, oh, so when you left, did you just go straight into full-time with your art? When I left, I had my own, I was in a relationship and I bought my own property, and then I had a little menagerie of, of my own, so horses and sheep and chickens and cats and dogs.
But unfortunately, that relationship didn't last. And so I had to sell my property. And while I was on that property, I was just working part-time and doing my artwork part-time as well. But now that my relationship has ended and I've been on my own for sort of the last five years, I have just found that I have even more energy and more and more time for doing my artwork,
because I'm sure, as you know, having a lot of animals is a lot of work, you know, and if you don't have anybody around to support you to look after them, then they take a lot of your time. And so, once again, I just feel that I've cleared, I've cleared the path now I work, I do my art three or four days a week,
and I work the other time. I've got like a little part-time job that I also work at too, just to get me out, because it quite easily turn into a coloured pencil hermit Bonnie. Oh, yeah. I hear, I definitely hear you on, that's done. I'm Sure you can relate. Oh gosh. Honestly, I, I really,
really can relate. I was talking to my youngest sister, and she's actually quite similar to me in that we really need our alone time, you know? Yeah. Talking to people. I love being around the people I want to be around. I love doing the, that I love, I love nothing better than doing the live streams and drawing live and teaching and everything.
I absolutely love it. But I have to have a period of time where it is just me and I, I don't know, just aimlessly going through social media or sitting in front of my drawing board and, and if I don't get that time, I really suffer. I'm exactly the same. Yeah. I get, I get, you know, the nervous sort of twitch,
you know, my eyes Really scratchy and, and irritable. I've found that about myself as well. And I think that's also come with age and just know, getting to know yourself. Mm. And yeah, I'm exactly the same. Bonnie, I have now reached a point where if I have any sort of social things happening on the weekends, I can only do one at a time because I just,
I just find that I need, I need at least sort of two days to, to regroup. And I find drawing incredibly therapeutic. I think that it has helped me through some incredibly hard times because it's, it's mindfulness really, when you stop and think about it, you know, drawing is such a slow process. And, and I have other artists friends who are like,
oh my God, you know, it's so slow. I said, yeah, but that's what I love about it. Yeah. Cause I love, I love the slowness. I love being able to develop all those layers and, and getting all those tiny little nuances of all the different little details that you, you can't really, I mean, I guess you can with a really,
really fine paintbrush, but it's, you know how there's nothing beats a sharp Polychromos. No. Or if you're, or if you're in my studio, a non sharp Polychromos, because I have a sharpen my pencils. I'm so lazy. I'm, yeah. I'm completely, completely, and, you know, and I get, I, I have to kind of reign myself in sometimes because I,
I really don't like using medium with, you know, like o m s and all of that kind of stuff. It is just not something that, and I'm like, why, why would you use that on a brilliant medium, like coloured pencils? Well, because I want to speed it up. Why would you want to speed it up? The whole beauty of drawing with coloured pencils is that it's slow,
that it is meditative that it is, you slip into this sort of, almost like a stupor, I don't know whether you're the same. I, I get, oh, I'm completely love it when I talk to someone else who gets into that same it. I can't describe it to anybody. It's really hard to explain. You, you kind of go,
I call it, I call it my zone. Yeah. I'm just in a, I'm just in a, my happy place. Yeah. Yeah. I have very regularly almost come out of something. I've obviously been somewhere in my head. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, oh heck, it's three o'clock in the morning, I better go to bed.
But that's, and, and that, that is the reason why I picked up coloured pencils in the first place. So I picked them up as a form of therapy. I guess it was, it was when coloring books were very, very in, you know, coloring for mindfulness and all of that kind of thing. And I'd never, I, I don't think I'd ever really used coloured pencils,
but I'm sure I had them as a child and everything. But it was completely new to me. And I was like, oh my God, this is ama. And just having that feeling of just coloring, bringing something to life and all of my worries just disappeared. That was the most incredible thing for me, you know? And it was something that I needed,
that they came a, they came along at exactly the right time. And you, it's funny, and I don't whether you have people saying this as well, because you do do commission work and you, you know, you, you clearly work a, a, a big chunk of your week is drawing. Yeah. And so I've been doing this for 70,
I've been drawing full-time for six years, and, and I get people who say, you know, do you not, you, you know, do you not have burnout? Do you not sort of, you know, have almost like artist block and all of this kind of stuff. And I honestly, I sit here and I think there are some pieces that I haven't really loved to draw.
And it's those pieces that maybe have come from a, an incredibly poor photograph. You know, I don't mind a, a bad photo, but a really, really bad one where it's like, oh, this is, this is a bit of a, you know, but I've never, I've never once got up in the morning and thought, oh,
I don't wanna draw. Oh no. Never once, never. I'm always like, oh my God, I cannot wait. I've, I've got a piece on my drawing board at the moment of Trevor the dog.
Yes. I love that.
Oh, do you know it? It's, so, it's really funny because I took the photos of him.
I met the guy, so it was, oh, I love it. Where you can take your own photos. Yeah, yeah. Well, I, so I take my, one of my dogs, Nellie, she goes swimming every Wednesday cuz she has hip dysplasia. So I take her to a, you know, for therapy hydrotherapy. Yes. And one of the ladies there was like,
oh my goodness, I've got this friend of mine and he really wants his dog drawing, and can you draw him? And anyway, I've got in touch with this guy we met in my village in the park. I took photos of Trevor and he's, he's a really lovely dog, but he's not the most aesthetically beautiful dog. You know, he's got sort of like markings that make his face look a little bit strange.
And he's got quite a flat sort of muzzle. He's a lovely dog. And I took the photos and the one that he chose, I was like, oh, really sure about this. But that's the one that he chose. It was clearly the one that he thought, this is, this kind of is my Trevor. Anyway, I started drawing it.
I was like, I'm really enjoying this, really, really enjoying it. And I've changed the photo slightly on my drawing. I've kind of missed, actually missing out the body that's at the side has really helped. Right. Kind of bring it to life. Sitting there last night, and I was thinking I could call this finished if I wanted, but I am really enjoying this,
so I'm just gonna give it another day. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna leave it. I'm gonna go back in. I'm just gonna, yes. I don't normally tweak. I'm not a tweaker, but there's some, a lot of white fur on one side. And I'm like, I just wanna go back in and I wanna have a clear mind and a fresh,
fresh eyes when I come back to this tomorrow. So I've got him on my drawing board for another day. And honestly, Yes, I, I do exactly the same thing, Bonny. And, and, and what I also find really, really interesting, and I've, I do it with, well, particularly drawings that I feel a little overwhelmed by.
So for example, I did that, I did a drawing of a big kudo, big kudo bull antelope, and he's got those magnificent spiral horns. And, you know, here I am looking at these spiral horns thinking, what, what have you done? How do I even begin to to draw those? And so what I did is I, I turned it up upside down,
and then I just did section by section. And then they all just became squiggly little lines and light and dark areas. And so, you know, I've, I've kind of learnt that for myself now, as soon as I feel myself be becoming a bit overwhelmed, I'll be like, hang on a minute, let's just break it down into small chunks and turn it upside down.
And that has really helped me. And I actually turned the fox upside down today. And I couldn't believe actually how many things I'd missed by looking at it upside down, if you know what I mean. I looked at it and went, oh, how did I miss that? Well, I think our brains just, we become blind, don't we?
We become, yeah. Yeah. Something, something that really, really interests me. And it's something that I bring into my teaching an awful lot because our brains are so incredible. You know, when you look at those things on Facebook and it's like somebody writes in what appears to be goggle, gobbledy, goop at first sight, but then it's an actual sentence and you can read it cuz they're just Yeah.
And our brains are so incredible that we can, we can fill in the missing bits. But what happens when, when we start to draw is that we go, oh, I'm gonna draw an eye or I'm gonna draw a dog. And our brain goes, oh, I know what a dog looks like. Mm. And then we just draw it and it,
and it looks like, you know, our brain things and all. But we've almost gotta try and work at switching that side of our brain off the brain that tries to be the, the, the part that tries to be really, really helpful. You know? And we actually then draw what's in front of us. Yeah. And turning your, your,
your picture upside down or looking at, at a, in a mirror or something like that is so helpful because we, we miss stuff. Yes. Like, And like you were saying, how did I miss that? It's in front of me.
Yeah. And, and I'll be, i'll, you know, talking about the needing the fresh eyes is, is I will leave. I'm the same as you. I'll leave something on my drawing board and then I'll walk away and I won't touch it. I won't look at it for a few days and then I'll come back and once again, I'll look at it and go, how did I miss that? Yeah. Yeah. It just surprises me.
Yeah. How, how has your work developed then? There's something else that I talk about an awful lot. I do a lot of critiques in, in the, in, in for my members. And I tend to find that I'm kind of saying the same thing to all of the different people. So when I first started drawing detail, it was all about the detail,
you know, and it was, detail was key. Yeah. That was what I was concentrating on. Yeah. And as I've progressed, and I can see that you do it in your work as well, I've kind of sort of lost the, the, the detail, detail what people would, would class as detail. I've kind of just sort of softened that a little bit and really pushed things like the values Yeah.
And, and, and actually built details around value shifts and those little tiny, subtle changes. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I don't know whether there's, there's all these little techniques that you sort of develop over, over the years and I blur my eyes a lot. Yes. So I'll stand back and I'll, and I'll blur cuz I,
I find that that's brilliant for, for values and you know, you go, you're going backwards and forwards all the time. That's a bit darker, that's a bit lighter, that's a bit darker, that's a bit lighter. And then you walk away and you come back and go, hang on, that's actually darker. Yeah. And so I'm constantly working on,
on the values and the tones and, and blurring my eyes and, and so you're looking yeah. You're looking at it slightly sort of out of focus. And then once again, your brain just sees it as light and dark. Yeah. I do that a lot. So Yeah. And stand back a lot as well. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
So I, you're right. It, it definitely has developed over time and, and like you say with, with commission, sometimes the photos aren't particularly great and all you've got is, is values and tones and not a huge amount of detail anyways. So once again, that's kind of, can be like a good thing because it does, it, it it trains your eye.
To go back to that again, like I had a beautiful horse that I, that I did not all that long ago. And it was from, you know, a photo that had been cropped, cropped in really close. And so there wasn't a huge amount of detail, but I really, I really loved it cuz it was, it was such a beautiful horse and it was holding its neck really lovely.
And, and that was all just tones and values. There was hardly any detail in it. So it really kind of just sort of took it all back to, once you get that right, then you can go and just add those little, those little fine details if you need to. But really it's all about the tones and the values. Yeah,
yeah. No, I, I agree. You know, and I don't know what it was that I think the more we look and the more we do and the more we see and the more we're like, oh, oh, oh. You know, and the more that's how we develop or, you know, and I know for absolute certainty when I first started drawing that,
that it was very much about, I had to get every single tiny detail in, you know, and, and the eyes would maybe take, you know, if I was drawing a portrait like Trevor now the eyes would maybe take me about four hours to do. And you know, it was all very had to get every single tiny bit in now.
And now I've kind of, I have almost like a recipe, a recipe of colors, a recipe of techniques that, you know, and, and I can come together really quite quickly because I've almost got that muscle memory, you know, I get the, yeah. I get the shape around the outside. I then maybe put a little bit the pupil in and,
and you know, the colors that I use and how I kind of blend them and everything. And that now comes, comes a lot. So I can get an item maybe in 40 minutes now rather than taking me four hours. Yeah. I think we do in a way some parts. Cause I've heard a lot of people say, oh, the,
you know, the better you get or the more developed you get, the quicker you get. I've actually found the opposite. I found I've, it takes me, it probably takes me about 30 hours I think to do a, to do a portrait. People think I work really quickly because I, I actually put lots of hours in, so, you know,
I might get a portrait done in three days if I've had three days and I've done 10 hours a day, which I can very easily do because, because I'm so happy sitting in my chair drawing. Yeah. You Know. Yeah. I, I definitely, what's kind of coming to mind, you know, that's great to that that memory, that muscle memory.
And also just knowing what combination of colors works. And I will sit there and I will, you know, I'll be drawing and I'll be thinking, oh, hang on a minute. I need that color. And I won't, I'll visualize the color, I won't even know what it's called. And I'll even visualize the size of the pencil that I'm looking for.
I just know exactly the one that I need and I'll just go straight to it. I'll rummage because I, I don't have my pencils very well organized. They're just sort of in a pile. We sound so similar. Yeah. I see all these really neatly organized art rooms. I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna show mine. We sound so similar.
And I'm guessing you don't, you do you swatch at all? No, no. Don't talk a Non spot. Yeah, yeah. No. And it, and it has just taken, I reckon it's just years and years and years and years of using the same colors and the same color combinations over and over and over again to know now what works and what color you're looking for.
I think that's just practice. Definitely. Definitely. I must say I get a little bit twitchy when I see people watching. And I, and I guess I'm kind of reflecting my own thoughts onto, onto somebody else, which I shouldn't do. But I do find that a lot of the time, so many people say they don't have time to draw,
and yet they have these beautiful swatches. And I'm like, well, if you've got time to swatch, then you've got time to draw. Just don't swatch and draw, but e each to their own. But I'm very similar when it comes to color picking. And I've tried to explain this to, to people. And when I teach, what happens is I'll be talking and I'll be drawing and I'll be telling people what to do and then I'll go,
oh, right, okay. So I've now had this thought process as I've been drawing and telling you what I'm doing in my brain. It, I'm now working on, I'm now looking at this little bit over here, which is the next bit we're gonna go on to. And I'm already thinking about the technique and the colors and all of that kind of stuff.
So, and then I kinda talk through my, my thought process in, in picking the colors for me, I almost get, like, if I'm trying to sort of think of a, a colour that I'm gonna use, the colours will kind of swoop in. So I'll visualize the colours, I can visualize how they're going to look when they're, when they're together,
when they're layered over each other. So if I've got say, an orange dog, you know, and somebody says, oh, you know what, what colour combinations would you use for this? I've then got those colors kind of coming in, Kind Of pointing to my head here. But, you know, and, and I visualize those colors coming in,
what they're gonna look like when you put one colour over the top of another. Yeah. I think that just takes from practice, doesn't it? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Because you know, you know, you might look at it and go, well that colour there is a, is a walnut brown, which is fine if you were just using one colour,
but actually if you were using a, a layering and lots of different colours, you're gonna have a multitude of colours in there. So how are you gonna get that color from all of your, you know? And definitely, definitely is around practice. I do think that certain people have a knack with colour. It's almost like they're a bit of genius.
Yeah. I I also about, you know, sort of, this is one thing that I really was quite interested to talk to you about is what is happening in the art industry world as far as coloured pencils being recognized as a, I don't know what the word is, because I have come up against quite a few sort of, oh, what you,
you use Coloured pencil, you know, that sort of attitude. And I'm, I'm, I'm about to try and take a brave step into going in an exhibition in Christchurch where it's, it's a big art show and it's quite a big outlay to have the panels to display your work and everything. And, and it scares the bejesus outta me because you have to actually submit work and you have to actually say,
you know, well this is what I do and these are coloured pencils and I'm wondering whether I'm gonna get rejected because it's not oils or it's not watercolors or it's not pastel. Have you had any of that? Yeah, So I, so my, yes, I completely get where you are coming from. And I think there is definitely, when it comes to sort of galleries and stuff like that,
I think there has always been, or up until now, I think there has been that sort of, I don't really wanna call it snobbery because I don't think it is snobbery. I think it is just tradition. Yeah. I think Traditionally in art galleries and stuff like that, you have your oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolors that tend tends, has tended to be over the years,
artist quality, traditional art, coloured pencils have come a long way in the fact that they are, you know, highly pigmented. The art quality ones are Lightfast, so they are going to last, you know, a long time. And people are coming now forwards with their coloured pencil drawings that are, you know, are exceptional. They're, they're,
they're amazing. Yeah. I think there was a, I can't remember the name of the guy, but he, I did that, I think he might have won Portrait Artist of the Year on the BBC. Was it BBC or Channel four? I can't remember. And he was colour pencil artist. Ah, is he the one Who's, whose Drawings are on the Derwent?
No, no. Now that, that's another guy. That's Jesse Lane. Amazing. So that's Jesse Lane. So he's in the, in the US and he has won a, a lot of exhibitions and he's been in lots of magazines and everything. His work is huge. It's, it's an and he, he has a, you know, you can, you can tell his work he has got it's realism,
but he has a very specific style and he has this whole process beforehand of taking photographs, building up, you know, what it's gonna, so his, rather than just sort of picking a photo and, and drawing it like, like I do, I guess. Mm. Amazing. He's got this whole kinda artistic process in the background as well, which is incredible.
He's an amazing, an amazing artist. Yeah. You know, and he, I guess he has taken those steps into coloured Pencils, you know, is actually a really incredible medium. Nos another guy, I dunno where he is from, but he, he won the Portrait Artist of the Year. And h his pencil work is not realism. He kind of creates these portraits and everything from lines and scribbles and stuff like that.
It's, I mean, it's beautiful work. Wow. But again, kinda taking a little bit of a sideways step from a realistic portrait. And, and I think that was probably helped him. Mm. You know, if you had some, I i, I don't know. And everybody has their different opinions and everything like that, but if you'd had somebody come along and do like this incredibly beautiful,
realistic portrait in coloured pencils, actually, what's different about that? That's why I feel these big exhibitions, like the Dohan art, the, is it the Dohan Art Prize, one of the, one of the art prize. It, it's like all of the ones that get the prizes are a little bit off the wall. They're a little bit, yeah.
Yeah. They're a little bit weird. They're a little bit, well I wouldn't want that in my house. But there's been that, that big thought process behind it, there's a, an incredible story behind it rather than just a beautiful picture. Okay. And I think real for me, I think it's really picking where you want your work to go.
Because if you go to an art gallery where it's got a lot of contemporary stuff, a lot of things that are slightly sort of left field, you are very likely to be sent away. Yeah. Cause but you would be, if you'd brought a traditional watercolour in, they'd be like, well, you know, it doesn't really fit with our style.
So I think you've gotta be really careful about where, who you pick. Yes. But I do, I do think that that coloured pencil is becoming more and more and more of a, of a medium that people do respect. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm about to go into an exhibition in July, the beginning of July.
It's just a little, it's a local exhibition and I've been in it a few times already and I'm, and I'm, I'm comfortable about going into that one. Just that the other one is a is a lot bigger. And I, and it's, it's heading into, it's heading into a whole other realm. Yeah. And we, I, for me,
for things like that, I think confidence is really key. Yes. Having that self-belief. Yeah. You know, really, really, and and it's weird, you know, people will be sitting there listening and thinking, well, how can you not have self-belief when you, but it's very, very easy, you know, when you are kind of out of your depth a little bit and you're going out of your comfort zone,
you're trying something new to go. Yeah. Oh gosh. Mine's not, not that it's not good enough, but Oh, it's not the right medium. Oh, it's not this, oh, it's not that. Oh, it's not what they typically accept. And actually having that belief and go, well, do you know what I'm, I'm really happy with what I've done.
This should be, they should be accepting pieces like this because there's a lot of people who, you know, could get their work into exhibitions like this and we should be changing things. Yeah. I think it's important to be, to always be sort of like knocking on the door pushing and, and trying to change stuff. So I think just having the belief that your work should be there.
Yes. It, it's going to fit beautifully with all of the other pieces. Yeah. I'm, I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. Yeah, You should. You definitely should. Yeah, I am. I'm, I'm totally just gonna, I'm gonna go for it. The application's open tomorrow, so it's quite, quite valid that we're talking about it now.
Yeah. Yes. Cause I was like, well, I'm just, I'm just gonna do it. And like I said to you before, I would say out, out loud to myself, you know, do this, do this, do this. And I don't know about you, but do you ever get too, I know that you do, but drawing for yourself,
drawing for myself is so important as well. I find that that really, really helps my mental health is is finding an image, a photograph that just sort of lights you up inside and you just can't wait Yeah. To get in front of your drawing desk and, and get started. Yeah. I, I have to have that too. Yes. Just absolutely.
When I first started doing my commission, so I went full-time in 2017 and I literally was, I mean, I was, I was just drawing all day every day. That's all I was doing. I was doing a bit of social media in the morning and then I was just drawing and I would do probably nine commissions a month. Wow. Which is too many and an awful lot.
Yeah. But because I was very new to it and I absolutely loved it. I I, I was doing it and it was fine and it worked. So consequently I didn't have time to do my own stuff that I kind, was probably a couple of years that I did that. And then it really, I think in the last two years it's really,
really sunk home that I have to do stuff for me. I love drawing anyway. And that's why. Yeah. So, you know, I, I have a mixture of tutorials, which were recorded and commissions. I love doing the recordings. However, if you are, if you are recording something and it takes 30 hours, I'm speaking for 30 hours.
Whoa. So I can't, I can't listen to Harry Potter. That's all I listen to. And I draw, but I can't listen to Harry Potter. I can't just kind of, you know, so I'm talking for 30 hours cause I record, I speak as I draw on and record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that, that, I still love it.
But that takes outta me an awful lot. So I need to fit in commission pieces between times. And then I now make sure that sort of every couple of months I do a piece just for me. Yeah. Where there's no, you know, nobody's gonna go, oh, well no, I don't, I don't, I've only had one person that hasn't liked their piece and that was when I first started and I redid it.
But there's no sort of, I, I can just do whatever I want. And like you said, sometimes there's a, a, a photograph that pops up or you've taken a photograph or whatever and it's just like, oh my God, I've just gotta draw it. Yes. I've just gotta draw that. I just got like, you know, and I've got,
I've got a couple, I, I'm itching to start, I did the horses. Oh yeah. That was beautiful. Oh gosh. Well I'm doing a, I've got this exciting thing happening in the south of France next year and I had to practice it cause I've never done water before. And I was like, I've gotta practice it. Yeah, yeah.
And that was just like, oh my goodness, this is, this is amazing. It wasn't a brilliant photograph, it was very grainy. So that was very much a case of, you know, values and stuff. But the orange girl that I did. Yeah. I loved that. I absolutely loved that. That's beautiful. I love all the different textures that you've been been able to,
to capture in, in that portrait. That's beautiful. And the man with the old, the old man with the hat. I loved the hat. Yeah. Yeah. You see, I really, really enjoy drawing people. And I never thought that I would, I never thought I'd enjoy drawing people. But it, but it's, it's, it's fascinating.
Particularly when they've got like fabricy stuff on. Yep, yep. I've, I have drawn a few people, but not, not many. I, I went through this real phase of wanting to draw Native American Indians. And I think it was all about, it was all about trying to capture their, their expressions in their face and just the, the beautiful headdresses and,
and what they were wearing and, and just really, really capturing how beautiful they are. And I've got, I really would love to draw, you know, those, you see those photographs of those women who, you know, from Tibet or somewhere like that, where they've got in incredibly wrinkled faces, but so much character and then they've got all this really amazing jewelry and stuff.
I would, I would like probably if I was gonna draw a person, I would like to draw someone like that. Yeah. I do get asked quite often. You know, do you do, do you draw people? And I just say, no, no, I don't. No. I just, yeah. I think it would just be so much pressure to make them look like them.
That's exactly it. So I would never take on a human commission. Yeah. You know, unless it was, unless it was a really good photograph and there was probably like an animal in it or something like that. If I'm gonna draw a human, it will be from a, from a, either a photograph I've taken or one that I've seen that like really sings to me.
But the where there's no pressure, like you were saying about getting exactly right. Cause with an animal, you have to get an animal exact you have to get an animal, right. Yeah. But it doesn't matter if a bit of fur is a bit different or something like that. But with a person, you have to Absolutely Expression you have to get everything.
Right. And that's not something that I, I don't want that pressure. Yeah. I'm ex I'm exactly the same. Bonny, I'm exactly the same. And then, and then people are even like, oh, what about drawing cars and motorbikes? I'm like, no. Do you Know? Yeah. And I think I, I, I also wonder if I've kept my passion over the seven years.
I mean, I've, I've never, I've had a break to go on holiday or whatever, but I've never had, I've never had sort of like burnout. I've never had to take a break from it. I've never been sort of like, oh, I'm sick of this, you know, whatever. I've always been what's next? What's next? But then I've always,
apart from the commission stuff, which is mostly dogs, cats, horses. Yeah. I've never drawn something really that I'm not passionate about. So I'm passionate about animals. Yes. And, and then I pick the pieces that I'm passionate about. People keep saying, oh, could, can you draw a snake or can you draw spider? And I'm like,
no. Yeah. Cause I'm just not, I don't, yeah. I don't particularly like them. I'm not, I, it's just not something that does anything for me. And I think Absolutely. That's, that's probably one of the boundaries that I've put in place. If I'm gonna draw something, I have to enjoy drawing it. Yeah. It's,
and I think that that, you know, drawing for your soul really. And I have also found that over the years, when I do take the time to find the, the photo, you know, that really speaks to me, that's changed as well. I'm so much more aware now of the lighting and of all those, just all of those beautiful subtle colours that come into it.
Like with that fox, you know, there was so much blue reflecting in through the white and, and I and with black dogs or black horses, you know, you get all the, those beautiful violets and blues and Yeah. I, I think now, I mean, I can take hours to find a a, a good photo. I'll get onto that wildlife reference,
wildlife reference photos for artists. And I could spend hours on there. I have to actually stop myself. Stop enough. And I know that you'd spoke to, what was, what was her name? Tassie TAs Brown, I mean Yeah. Her work. Oh, I know, I know. Yeah. I have two of her. I've got a trio of lioness and I've got a,
a male lion that I've bought the, the licenses for. Wow. I need to draw those at some point. Yes. I, I don't know when, but yeah, her work is just beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. I did one of her leopards, so young leopard. And I just fell in love with its eyes. I just, soon as I saw it,
I was like, I've got to draw that. I've just got to Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's, it's just so wonderful that we have artists who can provide us with these reference photos that, that enables us to capture. Not only are they capturing that moment in time and that beauty of that animal, but then we are able to come along and recapture it in a way.
Yeah. Yeah. I just, yeah. It just fills me with joy. And it's so nice talking to other art and other artists, especially another colour pencil artist who gets it. Yeah. Cause you know, you Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's a gift. Oh. Do you know? Do you know? It really is. It really is.
And we work, we work hard and we develop it. Yeah. And we practice and all of that kind of thing. But there is definitely something inside me that, that kind of channels what I do. Definitely. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not a religious person or anything like that. I, I, I kind, I kind of, I don't know.
I'm very open-minded to, to everything very, I'm very much a believer in the law of attraction and Me too. What I put out comes back and, you know, it, that's something that I'm, I'm, I, I really like to think that. Mm. You know, and it, and it, that, that's important for reflecting on who I am.
And I've done a, I've done a massive amount of work on, on me. I purely because of, you know, the stuff that's, that's happened in the past. And it's, you know, it, it, it, I think it makes you not a better person, but it, it makes you really look at things and look at situations and,
you know, sometimes things happen and you're just like, oh. And then, you know, you might fall out with somebody or somebody might do something and it's not particularly, and then you kind of reflect on it and you, you know, it's, it's not, it, it's not about blaming or anything like that. It's just about kind of accepting and,
and what I do is what I do and what somebody else does is what somebody else does. And that I can't change that. And that, that's really, really helped me. But I, I, I really think that the, the art side of stuff, the, the pencil side of there is it, there's something that channels that and that's wonderful.
Yeah. I, I, I agree. I agree. And it, and you can't, I don't think you can even put words to, to it. What, what whatever it is, it just provides us with, with so much joy and so much pure joy. And that I find, I feel so for people who don't have that, who haven't found their creative spark or haven't haven't worked out where they are,
you know, creative and, and being able to Yeah. Get, get the pleasure because yeah, I'm the same as you. I'm completely addicted to drawing. And, and I draw, I draw on the weekends, you know, it, it's, Oh, I draw all the time. It's not a problem if it's a cold, raining day outside,
everybody's whinging about the weather. And I'm like, yes. I get to be inside drawing. Do You know, I think, I think a lot of people, and, and again, this is very much a because of, of the, the, the world we live in a lot of people. And I think, you know, that definitely something that,
that I was as well. We put other people first, you know, so I'll have a lot of people who are, who are members who are, you know, or, or who say, oh, I can't, can't join cause I don't have enough time. All of that kind of thing. And, and we almost feel selfish for putting ourselves first and you know,
being, being creative. Yeah. And It was really interesting when I was in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago, and we, we went to see Esther Hicks and Abraham, which was just amazing. Mm. And there was one lady that came on and she said, you know, I feel so selfish. Every time I try, I try and do something for me.
I feel really selfish that I'm not, that I'm putting myself first and not, and, you know, doing stuff for me and not for other people. And the, the answer was just so wonderful. And it was basically the more we do for ourselves, the more our heart, our how we have capacity and absolutely what we do for ourselves. The more joy we fill our hearts with,
the more amazingness we fill our hearts with, the more love we fill our hearts with. And then we have a huge capacity to be able to then fill other people's hearts with, with our love. Because we are then at peace. We are doing something that is really fulfilling us. You know, we are joyous. Can you imagine live? Well,
I can imagine living with somebody who's a grumpy old git. You know, It's me too, unfortunately. I know what that's like. Yeah. Horrible. It's, it just absolutely completely destroys you. Yeah. But, but then, you know, I mean, I've, I've got my three children living at home, children. My youngest is 18,
my eldest is 23, but they all live at home. We have the most fantastic life. Yeah. Because I have a, a life that's full of bliss. Yeah. Yeah. The stuff that, the stuff that's happened in the past, the stuff that hap that hap that's, that's not great. But the majority of the time I ensure that I am doing things that make,
makes me happy. Yeah. And, and even, I mean, you come across this sort of similar to me in that you, because I, you, you know, see your Facebook posts and, and Instagram and, and you take the time to appreciate all the small things in life. You know, like if there's a beautiful sunset, I I will,
I will go and stand and I'll go and watch it. If, if there's a gorgeous little bird who's, you know, like a little Fantail who's flying around, I'll say, hello, hello. And how are you today? And I'll have a little conversation with it. Or if there's a spider in my house or something, I'll, oh, so oh,
what are you doing in here? I'll pick him up and put him at, you know, put him outside, be, and I, and I just have so much joy from the simple things in life and what nature provides us on a daily basis that is just there for free. And it's just, it's just such a, such a gift. And I think I just fill myself up with,
with that. And like you say, then I have enough to give to, to others. Yeah. If I don't, and it's, and it's also about spending that time alone if I, you know, like as we've discussed before, having that time alone, watching sunsets, talking to birds, all of those things. Yeah, no, absolutely.
Because, you know, you could, so I, I go swimming probably about three times a week. And the journey that I take to where I go swimming is about half an hour, 25 minutes. And the route is so lovely. I've got a portion of the way that's on a, there's, there's like about half a mile that's on a motorway,
and then it's into the countryside and then, and I come out over the tops, and then there's the North Yorkshire moors in front of me. And then I go down into this lovely little market town and then onto where I go swimming. And every time I come over those tops, even if it's raining, I'm like, oh my goodness, look at that.
And it's just like, I'm so glad I'm alive because look at all of this gorgeousness. Yeah. You know, driving up, we, we live in a village and at the moment the hedges are full. They, they'll come and trim them in a bit, which makes me really sad. But they're just green lush. There's cow parsley, there's dandelions,
there's, and it is just, there's just so much greenness. It's gorgeous. And I drive up and I'm like, oh my goodness. This is just, isn't this just absolutely lovely? And this is what I think when we have, and we do have busy lives, but this is what we miss. We miss being in the present. We'll,
we'll set off in a car and we'll like, oh God, I've got this to do today. Oh, bloody hell. I've fallen out with so-and-so. Or, oh, so-and-so's been, oh, I've gotta do this. Oh, I must do the washing. Oh, I've gotta go. And we miss everything, Everything, Everything. And then we get to swimming and we've got a head full of what I should or shouldn't have done and all of that kind of stuff.
And he's just like, no, just, just appreciate everything. And then when I go, I, when I swim, I go in the, they've got a gorgeous cold natural pool. So I go in there and it's so funny watching people cuz you, you'll, you'll see somebody get in and they get in and they're like, and then they'll be like,
and they do a couple of lengths really cold, get out. And I get in and I'm just like, oh. And then I swim really slowly and I just love it. And my little fingers are doing this and my little toes are doing this as the water's coming through and I'm looking bit, and I it, and it's just, and it,
it's almost like it's that sort of, all of that gorgeousness just sort of gets sucked in. Yeah. Yeah. And then I come out and I go home and I'm just like, oh my God, this is just, you know, what a, what a lovely life I've got. Just Looking at all of this. Gorgeous. And I think if people can just take the time not to get into that worry,
worry, worry, worry, worry, worry. And just appreciate what we've got right now. Yeah. And, and, and I think that for, for me, that's all part of my, of my drawing is, is trying to capture those moments of, of joy and beauty in, in nature around us. And, and you know, in,
in animals. I mean, when I worked at Auckland Zoo, I worked with Tigers, and every single day I just would say to these tigers, you are so beautiful. You know how beautiful you are. You know, because, and I never ever got sick of looking at them. I mean, they're just stunning. Just stunning. And so for me to be able to put that down on paper is a privilege.
It's a privilege. Oh gosh. What a lovely way to start the morning. Well, I'm guessing it's late at night for you, is it? Yeah. Yes. It's not, it's nine o'clock at night, but that, that's ok. Morning. I'm just starting my day. But what a lovely, what a lovely, lovely way to start my morning.
We're gonna have to, we've been going, we've been chatting over an hour think as we've been talking. I was thinking, do you know, wouldn't, it would be really, really nice actually to have like a bit of an accountability group thing. You, you know, where, where every now and again, maybe we get a couple of select artists,
you, Me And somebody else that you know, but, and just, just have a bit of a zoom and just chat about what we're doing. Be really nice. Yeah. Yeah. I love that idea. I love that idea. Yeah. Because it is so nice talking to like-minded souls, isn't it? You know, you're in the UK and here I am in New Zealand and we're doing the same thing.
Yeah. We're, and we're living our lives and we're, and coloured pencils give us so much joy. And it is. And that's why your Facebook group has been so important to me as well. You know, I've, I just thank you so much for opening up this, this world to me and, and all of your lovely members, they're,
they're just still wonderful. Yeah, yeah. No, they, they, they really, they really are. It is a, there's a fantastic community around, you know, the Coloured pencil and everything, and it's, and it's just so, And that's a reflection of you. Oh, well, well that's very kind of you. Thank you. Thank you.
I've got, I've got my lovely Vicki, who's my, my right hand woman. She's, she's an amazing admin. She's, she's just fantastic. Yeah. But I, I, but I think, you know, also all credit to the members because, you know, they, they behave in a wonderfully compassionate way. Yeah. Helping Others, You know,
all of that kind of stuff. And that's what it's all about, isn't it? You Know? Absolutely. Absolutely. Just Seeing, seeing people being creative and, and, and just really loving it. And that's, that's just amazing. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I, I, yeah, as, as you know, I just absolutely love it and I love sharing what I've learned.
And so, you know what, if people ask me things I'm more than happy to, to pass on however I've, you know, created something or, and then I'm always asking questions about how others have done other things too. And that's what it's about. And it's not, it's no sort of secret. No, I'm not telling you how I did that.
You know, it's like, yeah, sure. I'll tell you how I did that. And, you know, and, and I just, I I love that. It's just so, it's just so open and honest and a, a real pleasure to belong to a community of, of like-minded people. Yeah. No, I, I completely agree.
I completely agree. It's, it's wonderful. And, and having, you know, artists like you around as well, you know, when your, when your pieces pop up and Yeah. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Thank you so much. It's been lovely talking to you. Really lovely. Come to New Zealand, come for a visit. I'd love to show you around.
Oh, No, I would really like to, and it's, and it's getting to the point now where I am thinking of doing, of traveling a little bit more. So, you know, it, it is definitely something that I would like to do. Definitely On your, on your bucket list. On my bucket list. Yeah. Alright, well I'll let you,
I'll let you go. Thank you so much for, for, for joining me this, this evening, this morning. And yeah, we'll catch up again really, really soon. Sounds brilliant. Thank you, Bonny. Thanks Justine. Okay. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye. Have a lovely day. You too. Bye.
I really hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of my, It's A Bonny Old Life podcast. If you did, I'd be so grateful to you for emailing me or texting a link to the show or sharing it on social media with those you know, who might like it to. My mission with this podcast is all about sharing mine and my community's experience and hope by telling your fascinating personal stories, championing the other amazing humans in my personal,
professional, and membership community. And to create another channel through which I can support you to realize your coloured pencil and life dreams. If you haven't done so yet, please help me on my mission to spread positivity and joy throughout the Coloured pencil world by following me on my socials at Bonny Snowdon Academy or by getting on my list at BonnySnowdonacademy.com. And remember, I truly believe if I can live the life of my dreams doing what I love, then you can too. We just need to keep championing and supporting each other along the way in order to make it happen. Till next time,
