As much as I love the smell of turps and the mess of gooey paint, I also spend time doing digital mock ups and reinterpretations of my real world work when I can find the time.

I produced a drawing tutorial for the Australasian website of Wacom (makers of digital drawing tablets) some time ago and was contacted by them recently and invited to submit a painting for an upcoming book titled “The Art of Making Marks”. The deadline was pretty tight at the time (2 days) so I dusted off my trusty Intuos 3 tablet, picked up my pen and set to work overnight. I finished up at 2:30 am but was quite pleased with the result.

It’s so weird how some image editing and painting programs really do feel like I’m pushing and dragging paint around.. a normal painting like this in traditional media (oils) could take me a few weeks to complete!

However, six hours straight left me pretty tired by the end of it but it was nice to play around in a painting arena I haven’t visited for a while.

A lot of people have difficulty accepting computer generated work as real art but it doesn’t bother me and has its place. I love my jars of smelly turps, soiled rags, pots of brushes, broken charcoal, oil sticks, pastels and large primed canvas just like the next crazy painter.

I also love that solitary buzz of a late night in the studio with good music, red wine for company and a half finished painting on the go. But this was something different… and with a finished result just as satisfying for me.

So, I introduce to you “The Girl who loved Prose”, a fiery red haired Irish woman with a passion for the literary arts and like her caffeine girl friends, an ambiguous stare.

It took several long hours to complete but I convinced myself to stop eventually. You just don’t mess with Irish girls..

- Leith