Week 17 - Collector

Like a butterfly collector but more animal friendly,
influenced by The Sound Collector (Roger McGough),
and turning out more like a smaller version of the BFG
My collector is making the world a happier place by collecting positive things and getting ready to share them

Drawn in ink and colour added digitally

Week 14 Camping

Firstly, I have used a sketch I made at the Port Eliot festival last year and added a digital collage to it.
I'd like a funky tent of my own - perhaps the sunflower one.

Week 10 Animal*

Sometimes the categories are so broad it's hard to know where to start - it's a little less broad than last week though!
So we have two smiling animals and one that makes me smile:
a quokka that my son took a photo of when he visited Rotness Island near Perth - they can't stop smiling
a goat and 
an elephant

Quokka

A5 Sketchbook, colour pencils

Goat
fine liner, A5 sketchbook, cartridge paper

Elephant
fine liner, A5 sketchbook, cartridge paper

Week 40 Carnival

3 images

I really didn't want to do feather clad women in teensy bikinis - it seemed to obvious. So I wracked my brains and one day Saint Saens', 'Carnival of the animals' popped into my head.

When I was feeling very keen, and hadn't realised what a busy week I had in store, I thought I would do all the animals...

Well, the swan was all I managed. I did a lot of research and learned lots in the process. The only thing to show for all that learning, in this blog post, is that Anna Pavlova's 'Dying Swan' in 'Swan Lake' was choreographed to the Swan movement in 'The Carnival of the animals'.

I watched her on youtube and looked a lot of her photos. I then drew five, five minute sketches with a brush pen. I used ink as a nod to #inktober.

The large one is the one I posted, but I have included the others because I wanted to share all of them.

 

Week 39 Melbourne

I asked a facebook friend, who lives in Melbourne, to send me some photos which she thought summed up her home city.

I chose her picture of Flinders Street Station. She told me it was an iconic building and it's where many people meet. So this has a sub-title of, 'I'll meet you by the clocks'.

Fine liner, cartridge paper, A4

Week 38 Fauna*

1 image

I had so much fun last week with paper cutting, here's some more.
I asked my daughter for animals which started with the letters from my name. So, in case you can't work them out they are:
Kangaroo, antelope, T-Rex, hyena puppy, arthropod, rooster, iguana, narwhal, electric eel.

I cut them freehand, with no sketches or drawings.
Each was stuck onto an A4 sheet and stitched together in photoshop.
*edit: this was picked for the picks! Amazed again! There were so many completely awesome animal illos this week too!

Week 35 Botany*

Week 35 Botany

3 images

I started this week late because I was totally in awe of the beautiful and technically amazing artwork which was popping up in the #illo52weeks challenge feed.

So I started with something simple, in order to build up to what I wanted to paint, which was one of my photos of nigella from my garden. My watercolours were calling, so I did a third piece - a quick sketch of Lapsana Communis.

Here is my marigold, from a photo I took against a black bin - a very handy prop as it turns out. This took about 20 minutes in all - literally to break the artist's equivalent of stage fright.

It was received very well by the illustration group members and was chosen as one of the picks!

Nigella

This is also from a photo in my garden, taken after the rain. This didn't work out quite how I expected - a tad darked and more spontaneous than I intended. I will have to work on taking my time with details!

When my water colours were calling I thought it was time to use a more traditional 'botany' composition. So, here it is in all its simplicity.

Week 34 - Japan*

For this 'Japan challenge', I am tempted to draw a doodle character in a kimono, but for now it is something new.
I don't know much about Japan but I wanted to avoid being too obvious. So I have combined two very obvious Japanese symbols with a Japanese art form.
It is called Notan. It represents light and dark, ying and yang.

Now, I am not very adept at paper cutting AND I couldn't find my best scissors, but here is my best efforts with the time and resources I had this week.
*Whoohooo! In the picks :)

Week 33 Mythology

One image

I chose the Mermaid of Zennor
Here is my interpretation of what she looked like based on a carving in the parish church in Zennor.
Photos of the carving and her story can be found on this link.

Week 24 - Calendar*

Two images

When a tree is cut you can see the years of its life, each ring representing what the tree experienced in a sort of radial calendar.

This is my life as a tree. My birthday falls in this week's challenge and so I am able to complete 47 rings. It is by no means a comprehensive autobiography, but represents the things that came to me first about each year as I wrote and drew.

I started as a twinkle in my mother's eye and my last ring includes the 52 week illustration challenge.

To read it you would have to zoom in pretty close, but I wonder if you need to? (I don't mind if you do - it's not quite the 'no holds barred' that Tracey Emin might have given you!)

I have been asked to do some as commissions. 

We would need to discuss the words, this could take about an hour. I would then need to create the art and have it printed, a two week turn around time is needed. Please contact me by email if you have an enquiry.

 I'm posting the pictures for this week's prompt in reverse order. The one above caused quite a stir so I thought I'd get that one out of the way first.

edit - this was one of Tanya's picks for the calendar prompt on #illo52weeks!

Over the last couple of weeks the prompt of 'calendar' was looming and I wasn't looking forward to it. All I could think of were the stock clip art images and I really wanted to do something different. I quickly dismissed Stonehenge as I knew it would be popular idea. I went  round in circles in my head. As it turns out that is quite a good metaphor as both images I made are circular.
The idea of using tree rings came to me after hours of investigating the Chinese zodiac animals. I was all ready to make 12 red tangrams until I found out how the cat had been cheated out of its place. 
Now I want to make an illustration to depict this but need more mulling it over time. 
Somehow in all this I was thinking about all the ways years are depicted tree rings popped into my head - and in the process of how to put my spin on it I came up with what you have seen above. 

The first illustration I did is posted below. I wanted to show the year through the seasons through plants and flowers but chickened out of that through lack of skill and decided to simplify and show the seasons in colour adding significant natural occurrences such as the sun's solstice and equinox. This led me to the Mayan and Pagan calenders - and I wanted to do something new, so back to simple!
Simple is harder than it looks. 
Ideally it would have been created digitally, but again, I don't actually know how to do that!
So here is my year in months and seasons in colour. 
Watercolour, pencil and a bit of tweaking in Photoshop.

Week 22 Childhood

Only one picture this week.
I have started an acrylic on canvas but just didn't have time to finish it, so I have done a quicker drawing in blended colour pencil.
If I could bottle a time and revisit it, this would be it. This is my children at the sea pool in Bude, Cornwall in about 2004

Week 21 Stripes**

Two images

This week started off with a 'does what it says on the tin' illustration. I needed something bright and colourful after last week's sombre theme.
Simply stripes of watercolour on watercolour paper. The paper is white, but I had trouble brightening the white without losing the colour of the paint.
I haven't given it a title, but I was thinking about the sun rising behind trees in a wood.

The second offering is taken from a photo I took a couple of years ago at Whipsnade Zoo of a group of lemurs. I love how their very stripy tails are fanned out. I always intended to paint the photo at some point but at least this sketch is step in the right direction.
Pencil and fine liner on plain, copier paper.

I have also noticed a great white, untouched patch on the foremost lemur, oops!

I can hardly believe it, both my illustrations were picked this week! 

Feeling a little emotional tbh.

Week 20 Melancholy*

Two images

Brace yourselves - it's very sad looking week!

I always intended to do a portrait for this challenge.  I didn't think it would be a self portrait, but as luck would have it I had a little bit of bad news this week and it was enough to enable me to pose for a selfie and then paint it. 

For my first picture this week I started with one of my little round doodle people hiding under a table with a teddy. I used oil pastels -  I have no idea how most people use these, but I am learning they don't layer well and certainly don't cope with lighter colours on top of darker ones.

Oh yes - this week I mostly had trouble with noses.

Up date: my self portrait was chosen to be in this weeks picks. My heart skipped a beat when I saw it was included. See the whole list:
Melancholy Picks on 52 week illustration blog

Week 18 Art Deco*

Oh my goodness, what a lot of time I spent thinking about what to do for this challenge!
Art Deco is all about planning, form, structure and clean lines. Although I am still finding my way with different media and subjects, one thing is clear. My images tend to develop organically and often the final outcome is done pretty swiftly.
I needed a twist. I settled on turning one of my doodled characters into an aspiring Art Deco lady. She isn't all tall and thin and willowy, but she tries.

* Update! This is one of the picks on the challenge blog :)
Art Deco picks #illo52weeks blog

Drawn with pencil and colour added using Pixlr

The original line drawing

I then wanted to play with patterns a bit more and was taken with how the structure of an iris is like Art Deco. I'm afraid my concentration lapsed by the time I got to the eye lashes, and perhaps the patterns in the iris could have been large for more impact.

Inktense pencils on cartridge paper.

(I had trouble lightening this one)

Week 16 Structure

Two images

Chemical structures re-conceived as constellations - digital - pixlr

 A ruined abbey - acrylic sketch