Week 28 Winter

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

Week 27 Style

2 images 

I couldn't get past Audrey Hepburn iconic image in my head this week - but stylish as she is, it's not very innovative to recreate a version of one of her posters is it?

So this is what I did do:

A quick play on words in photoshop and a copy of the picture I did for childhood in week 22 re-imagined in the style of Miro. 

Line drawn on paper with colour and texture added in photoshop.

Week 26 Land**

2 images

The picture I wanted to do, with a little doodle character landing after a parachute jump, I haven't finished. I just haven't been able to achieve the simplicity needed (yet!).  I shall have to return to it at some point.

So here we have a more successful doodle - a little pirate cabin boy up the crow's nest. 

And a view from above of me doing a buddy skydive jump two years ago.
I wanted to keep the colours limited, hence blue for the cloud outline, green for the fields and a contrasting colour for the jumpers - I would have preferred orange, but don't have it, so I settled for pink!

Just looking at the photo I used for this used to make me feel dizzy, but I'm better with it now!
Oh, wow! Both are in this week's picks on the challenge blog!

Week 25 Africa

Two images

I wanted to use Adinkra symbols but didn't really have time or inclination to create printing blocks. This way I was able to use a wide set of symbols, representing qualities relating to the spirit of the challenge:
love, security, safety, perseverance, peace, harmony, endurance, resourcefulness, charisma, persistence, support, cooperation, initiative, enthusiasm, learning from the past, humility, strength, wisdom, lifelong education and - of course - creativity.

Adinkra symbols collage
Made in Photoshop using Adinkra brushes - free download :)  from THIS SITE
and coloured in Picasa





I wanted to draw one of my doodle characters in an African onesie and as I couldn't get a particular song out of my head so the two ideas naturally went together - although  I didn't stick to the simple 'doodle' style this time.
Very, very quick water colour sketch and pencil to outline.

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 23 Rain

Three images

I wasn't too happy with the first two, so at the last minute I added an illustration using one of my doodle characters. I worked hard on paring down the details to achieve the simplicity - this is version 5!

A quick postcard sized watercolour to get me started, followed by a digital illustration in photoshop.
I used a map of Spain, Portugal and North Africa as a base and a rainfall map of Spain as inspiration.
As it turns out, the rain in Spain falls mainly in the North.

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