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!
2 images
The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the poor robin do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing!
A favourite rhyme from my childhood, brought to life back then by Brian Wildsmith. I was careful only to look back at his illustration after I had done mine. I'll add his soon x
Oil pastels on black card.
From my own photos - various robin photos and a very fluffy baby long tailed tit.
Another childhood favourite was, 'I am a bunny' by Richard Scarry. I have other Richard Scarry books which I also love, but didn't realise until I drew this that this was also his.
I really wanted to be this bunny when I was little. The book shows what the bunny likes to do in all the different seasons, it taught me to enjoy spring flowers, lie in the grass and watch the insects and birds, to chase and be chased by butterflies, all sorts of lovely things; ultimately once snow has come , to curl up in my hollow tree and dream about spring.
'And when winter comes,
I watch the snow falling from the sky.'
Oil pastels on tinted paper
Two images
The subject was easy this week. It is spring and there are newly hatched birds all around us at the moment being fed by their parents. Here is a moorhen chick being fed by a parent.
Inktense pencils on cartridge paper
I also couldn't get the rhyme about the old lady who swallowed a fly out of my head - but how to illustrate it?
Somehow or other I came up with the idea of drawing a horse fly - I would love a wittier caption, but this will do for now.
The rough and ready look belies the may attempts I took to design a horse fly!
Pencil on plain paper
Two images
So this was harder than it seemed, or at least harder than a carefree prompt would suggest - being deliberately and self-consciously whimsical seems as wrong as telling everyone you are quirky. Surely that is for other people to notice for themselves?
My first illustration is based on a picture I remember from my childhood in the 1970's. It was a small picture, quietly filling wallspace in the background of Mindy's apartment in Mork and Mindy. I have always drawn birds based on this shape. I bet no one else even noticed it when Mork was calling Orson.
I drew the outlines of the sun and the bird and the rest just sort of came to me.
Pencils from WHSmith on A4 copier paper.
This one uses little characters who have individually appeared on my greetings cards in the past, but never together. I wasn't sure what their context was going to be, even after I had finished them. I wanted them to jumping around and clouds just didn't seem to be right and a trampoline would have had too severe edges to it - so I plumped on a bed, which felt like a a mixture of the two.
There WERE ten in the bed - what's happened?
Watercolour paint and paper. A3.
The colours aren't quite right as it's A3 and my scanner is A4. I took the picture with my phone and editted in Snapseed.
3 images
I thought I would try a few different materials this week and all three pictures are from photos I have taken.
My first attempt I did over a couple of days and is water colour only (ok, a little bit of fine liner before I had a word with myself). A swallowtail butterfly at Butterfly World in St Albans.
The second was a very quick torn paper collage of a ladybird on a sunflower at Hitchin Lavender.
The third is back to my trusty fine liner. A robin with a beakful to feed its chicks in my garden.
