Week 19 food

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

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 17 fluffy

One image

Fluffy dandelion seeds
from a macro photo in my garden, I should weed more often.
oil pastel, enhanced with pixlr

Week 16 Structure

Two images

Chemical structures re-conceived as constellations - digital - pixlr

 A ruined abbey - acrylic sketch 

Week 15 Vietnam*

Two images

When I was thinking about what to do for this theme I heard references to 'Good Morning Vietnam' on the radio, so I researched some war images. I wanted to include the peace protests and anti war feeling going on in America at the time too.
This is a sort of mash up of three photos, with a pink pop of peace flowers in the guns.
I know the execution is not amazing - I spent longer thinking about it than actually doing it!
Pencil on copier paper and digital flowers added in pixlr.

So excited again to have been included in this week's picks!
Vietnam picks of the week on the 52 Week Illustration blog


There were so many beautiful images of Vietnam as it is now, so I thought I would redress the balance with this aerial view of picturesque islands.
Watercolour.

Week 14 Whimsy

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.

Week 13 Transport*

Two images 

I started with lots of ideas this week but it's the end of term and Easter, so I have had little energy for anything and even less time.

Here's the first: a dandelion seed transported by its own little parachute.
Fine liner on plain paper

*update and cue happy dance* this picture is one of the picks for the challenge blog!

Transport picks #illo52weeks blog



Sticking with the nature theme, here are a family of geese - the parents are transporting their goslings from the bushes along the path and to the lake for a swim.