AD33: ED Org

The above is Ed Org’s ‘Lady of the Lake’. Ed Org is an artist who has stubbornly stuck to pencil and made it work for him. He sells his work at medieval re-enactments, exhibitions and fairs and such like. I think his work is very appealing to the general public; the subject matter is often fairies and knights – who doesn’t like that!? His work it is subtle and full of intricate details. My family between us own 4 of his drawings. His website is here: http://www.edorg.co.uk/home/

In terms of a commercial illustrative career however, it is limited; his most famous work is the label on the hobgoblin beer from the Wychwood brewery. It is tempting to write to him to ask how much pressure has he come under to move into colour. However, looking through his portfolio, even I’ll have to admit his colour work is weaker than his pencil. He says in "Draw and Paint The Realm of Faerie", a book of his that I own, “...the graphic force of black and white is more powerful than colour. You only have to look at black and white photography to see what I mean. I also think that my muses appear more mysterious when rendered in pencil. They have a moody, pale and interesting quality...”.

Here is where I'd like to compare myself to him. I love pencil too and like him, I think my earlier attempts at colour illustrations were weaker than just straight pencil. I just couldn't get the "feel" in the pictures that I wanted. Doing a drawing and then adding colour often doesn't look very moody or contemplative; it just looks washed out, and lacklustre. If I am to go into colour I feel it must be a full painting that doesn't let the paper show through. For the moment I am content with Gouache as it is a quick and easy full bodied medium but I would like to try oils.

As good as I think his work is on a personal level and draw influence from it, I do worry that the pencil medium is simply not commercially viable as a style choice. I think that what he has done is turn his hobby art into a business by selling prints of his work. It should be noted though that the cost of his prints are not that high (around the £50 to £80 mark).

Whenever I see his work I want to reach for my pencil sets and the above Lady of the Lake is one my favourites of his work. Although I do wish to add that another of the reasons I love pencil is that I also take inspiration from a lot of renaissance art; I think pencil allows me to achieve the subtleties in the artwork of that time, where my painting skills cannot.