Niki has recently explored the world of painting in greater depth, currently undertaking a degree in the 'Practice of Painting' with the open College of the Arts she is enjoying the discipline of painting and exploring what painting can offer. Working mainly in a wide range of medium including oils, acrylic, pen and ink and collage she has produced a substantial body of work over the years.

Animation is such a  different medium to work in as far a painting is concerned. With animation you are recreating a similar version of the same frame for every image that makes up the moving sequence of a particular scene. For this reason you have to approach the scene as a whole, painting for instance, all of an area of the background on every frame throughout the scene before moving on to another colour or aspect of the scene and painting that through from front to end of the scene. You are usually dealing with 12 frames a second (shot on doubles as there are 24 frames in a second) and often on many levels; background, middle ground(s) and foregorund(s). Animation is a very time consuming, comparitavely expensive and laborious process, but the results of this stlye of painterly illustrative work can be stunning and illuminating and worth the extra effort and expense.

All this experience makes Niki a very versatile illustrator and painter. Originals are available through Blue Sunflower Store, If you wish to discuss painting or illustration commissions, please contact admin@bluesunflower.com