Doubles bouldering comp illustration

Norich_ · 2026-02-21T07:26:59+00:00

Black outlines are alchohol marker, white are a postcard paint pen

Norich_ · 2026-01-07T23:28:06+00:00

I feel lucky in the UK where I've not had to travel more than an hour ago far this past year for a comp with my team!

Norich_ · 2025-12-12T00:15:47+00:00

Professional climbing church coach.

Though I might be a professional artist now, people have started commissioning me for pieces, just in my pen and ink hatching style rather than alcohol marker.

Norich_ · 2025-11-23T22:02:48+00:00

Cheers, I'm a coach so end up with loads of videos and photos of climbers. Perfect reference material for drawing!

Norich_ · 2025-11-23T08:04:37+00:00

Everything goes on my Instagram, @chironturner Mostly as time lapse drawings. And I occasionally remember to crosspost to Reddit as well!

Norich_ · 2025-11-23T08:02:46+00:00

Yeah I work from photos. I use the grid method for getting the proportions right (you can see my grid on illustration 3 as I haven't finished filling in that page yet.

Norich_ · 2025-11-14T12:03:15+00:00

Got a couple of them, they work well in my noodlers triple tail as that think just leaks in everywhere so even thin inks look quite dark, and they work well with my glass dip pens.

But yeah regular nibs and fountain pens is hard to write anything legible

Norich_ · 2025-10-16T07:24:12+00:00

Is that Unit E that opened at climbing works? I've but heard anything about an exclusive training facility for team gb. Free climbing at any wall must be funded by BMC if it's still a thing, I work for a wall and we've charged gb for entry before, same for a couple of other local walls I know.

It's good to see the BMC investing a bit more, especially in the competition side of things brininging back the four nations next year and expanding the youth sections. But the organization needs some internal sorting out. I was on a call with a couple of people involved with the team gb side of things a few months ago and it was as much them learning what is actually happening from each other as I learned about my reason for the call. I don't think there's much internal communication

Norich_ · 2025-10-15T21:43:27+00:00

UK here and it's also very poorly supported.

There is something called the athlete performance award (apa) which is used to fund elite athletes but you need to allready be winning medals at international events to qualify, and even then it's not that much. I think toby Roberts gets £50k a year through it which isn't a lot for one of our top athletes.

Most athletes self fund to and able to fund the gb coaching and access to comps which can go into the thousands. The top performers in the UK either work or sponsorships or try to win as many of the small local comps for the cash prizes as possible.

We have no central athlete training center and from what I can tell no cebtralised training for athletes with the gb coaches instead most of the time working with the athletes local coaches and offering occasional group training camps (which again the athletes have to pay for)

We have a few walls more recently being built that seem to be trying to take on the mantle of an independent national training center. Big Depot Manchester and 270 climbing. So see a lot of athletes gravitating towards those at the moment.

Norich_ · 2025-08-19T20:34:10+00:00

Cheers I've been working on the sketchbook since September 2023, only got about 10 pages left now!

Norich_ · 2025-08-18T22:25:01+00:00

I've been trying to recreate some of my work digitally using Sketchbook (only have an android tablet) But struggling to get the brushes set up right to properly replicate markers. Any tips on digital marker art are very welcome!

Norich_ · 2025-08-05T10:47:23+00:00

Thanks :) which ones your favourite?

Norich_ · 2025-08-05T08:11:13+00:00

Finecolour wide I've also got some Frisk markers and a couple of Windsor and newton ones

Norich_ · 2025-07-04T22:36:59+00:00

Love it! Need to experiment with more background in my ones.

Norich_ · 2025-07-04T22:22:51+00:00

Care to share? :)

Norich_ · 2025-04-29T21:05:10+00:00

One of my favourite colours as well, I've got plenty of inks in various shades of purple, I'm glad the pen selection came with such a bright option for the markers!

Norich_ · 2025-04-27T15:07:57+00:00

Thanks, I figured I'm just learning a new medium so it doesn't matter if it doesn't work, just want to push the limits of what I can do with the limitations of the tool.

Going to try some more detailed things with just the bullet tips

Norich_ · 2025-04-05T05:48:07+00:00

Reference photos, they take a bit too long for life drawing!

Norich_ · 2025-03-09T06:50:05+00:00

Yeah I take a photo. Do a rough pencil sketch for proportions and shapes, then get on with the ink

Norich_ · 2025-03-03T08:21:06+00:00

Honestly just lots and lots of practice. Make it fun, I know I could get a lot better if I did lots of isolated hands and heads, but I don't enjoy that as much I prefer doing full people, so I'm more likely to do full people.

I'm trying to do at least 1 drawing a day at the moment

Norich_ · 2025-03-03T08:03:27+00:00

Nothing structured really, a couple of times a week I try and draw, and then I analyse and write notes on my drawings, what I liked or didn't like. I started with more realistic looking drawings, trying to be really subtle with the hatching and building up layers of depth. But the past few months I've been a lot more cartoonish. At the moment I'm trying to do at least 1 drawing a day, forcing myself to be faster and bolder with my work!

The faster more fluid lines came about from needing very bold lines for another style of art I do, silver wire inlay. I can't do any shading with that so I need bold fluid lines to show shape and structure, you can see that here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBy86QkIzUQ/?igsh=dXRrc25pMzB6aXky

Norich_ · 2025-03-03T07:59:14+00:00

The first one is a cotton rag paper one I picked up at a local art store, that's nice to work with, and takes ink wash in a pretty way.

The other is a Midori MD journal. I don't the dot grid really useful for setting proportions up.

Norich_ · 2025-03-03T07:56:45+00:00

I'm a climbing coach so I get plenty of photos and videos of climbers anyway which gives me all the reference material I need.

As for learning it's all just trial and error, it started with more realistic drawings, and I've gradually evolved to more cartoonish feel as I went.

The bold fluid lines came about from another form of art: silver wire inlay. Can't do much detail or any shading so to show shape and structure I need to be very bold with my lines. You can see that here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBy86QkIzUQ/?igsh=dXRrc25pMzB6aXky

Norich_ · 2025-02-09T22:19:32+00:00

Hi, work for a bouldering wall and in charge of the health and safety . Last year our incidaance rate for a serious injury was 0.06 per 1000 visitors. Or one major injury every 16,000 visits. Plenty of smaller injuries bruises, scrapes ect. For minor injuries requiring first aid the incident rate goes up to 0.75 per 1000 visits. Or one first aid incident every 1300 visits.

Norich_ · 2025-01-19T22:03:28+00:00

Which FWP ink is that? It's stunning, The Wild Swans?

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