Looking to the future....

After a long strange and stressful past month, I felt like painting something positive to put me into a new frame of mind. This started out like a bit of a doodle on canvas but I'm quite pleased with it. I tried mixing some oil pastels in there too with the acrylics and it was quite enjoyable.

Anyway here it is.......

Illustration Friday - Idle

This was a bit of an experiment for me today. I decided to do a bit of mixed media and collage. I bought some textured paper and gave it a go!

The image that came into my head when I thought of 'Idle' was of this little old tortoise. In his early years he was a bit of a goer racing around from one thing to another but as time ticked on he became a bit idle. But that's not a bad thing he now gets to read the classics in his comfy chair!

Mixed Media Monday - 'Charming Junk'/Gift

This is a piece that I have done for a friend that has just had a baby. She lives in Queensland on the coast so I decided to create a picture that shows how I imagine her little girl will be as she gets older growing up in such a lovely place. Her little girl is called Cameron so I included the name in the piece. I am going to frame it then post it, I hope they like it.

I also thought I could submit it for this weeks mixed media Monday. It's not quite junk but I have recycled some news paper which would other wise have ended up in the bottom of our bird cage. Now it's a gift!!

Illustration Friday - Tango

When I saw the theme this week, the image that came into my head straight away was frogs, don't ask me why. I just love them and think that they have a lot of character. Yesterday we took the boys to the zoo and there in the reptile section were some green tree frogs. They are so beautiful we took a picture. The frogs that I used in my illustration are green tree frogs from Costa Rica that I found on the net, the markings/colouring is pretty much what I painted my frogs like. Stunning bright colours. So the scene that I ended up painting is a family of frogs, with the parents having a nice tango on a lily pad on a summers evening. With the kids watching. I really enjoyed doing this one, it was fun! I've posted up the pic we took of the frog at the zoo yesterday which gave me the inspiration.

Angel

This is something I've been working on for a week now, and I just can't seem to get it right......I feel like it's finished now but something isn't quite right with it. Does anyone else have this happen sometimes? Perhaps it's just because it doesn't match what was in my head. I don't know...anyway I still like it and i'll just keep it with my collection that I'm building up. I used acrylic paints but also tried coloured pencil over the top to give the face a bit more depth as it felt flat to me and the back ground was too flat so I went over it with light colours....anyway here it is!

Illustration Friday - Hollow

"Thus much for thy assurance know; a hollow friend is but a hellish foe". - Nicholas Breton

When I saw this week's word the picture that formed in my head quickly was one of sadness. 'Hollow' makes me think of someone that is mourning something, or someone.....missing something.....feeling empty. So I painted this lady. Then I decided to see if I could find a quote that I could put along with it. I came across this one by an old English poet, Nicholas Breton. I loved the quote straight away. I think it goes with my picture very well. Perhaps this lady is feeling hollow because a friend that she relied on and thought was true to her, turned out to be the opposite?

Mixed Media Monday - Play

This piece seemed to fit the theme for Mixed Media Monday. This character is based on my wonderful cousin Clare! It doesn't matter how old we are I'll always see her as the 17 year old, who used to have her own distinct style, and would wear tie dyed shorts with her doc martins, she was obsessed with the 60's especially The Beatles and John Lennon and would play their records over and over, she introduced me to that wonderful music. I always wanted to be like her but somehow when I wore the tie dyed pants and doc martins I just looked ridiculous heheh. Nowadays Clarey is a very talented hand bag designer and Mother to a 1 year old daughter and 4 year old step son. Lucky for me she is just living in the same town and emigrated like myself to Australia!!! Hooray!!!

'Little girl' - Me?

I guess I'm going through the family now....I've been working more on creating some characters just so I can practice drawing people and you could say that this little girl is me. I was quite an awkward little girl, not girly girl, and not a tom boy but somewhere in between. I was all arms and legs and I suppose I was trying to draw myself in this picture looking a little awkward.

Nanny

Well I just couldn't draw my Bampi without drawing my Nanny!! She was a lovely nanny who used to fill me up with cups of tea, bread and jam and cakes after school everyday....much to my mother's dismay when I wouldn't eat dinner!!!

I just used the same mediums for this one, I'm not as happy with it as Bampi's picture but I think that's because she needs to be a bit plumper, but I thought I'd post it anyway as I enjoyed doing it!!

Illustration Friday - Shaky

This picture is inspired by a true story, only a moustache has been added to proctect the innocent.

My Bampi (Grandad) used to love to help us around the house if something needed fixing. Much to my mothers dismay when he decided he wanted to fix our washing line and we found him shimmying (not sure how to spell that) up the top trying to fix it. He was in his late 60s possibly 70 at the time, and looked very shaky at the top. Luckily he made it down safely and fixed the washing line.

I love my Bampi he was such a character.

This was painted in acrylic paint with coloured pencil on the top, I love this combination of materials as it seems to make the picture really pop!

Gift

This is a canvas that I have painted for a couple of friends of ours who have recently had a baby girl. I thought it might be nice for her bedroom. I'm quite pleased with it. I actually used textural acrylics for the coral. It is called 'sand stones'. I smoothed it onto the canvas with a palatte knife and then when it was dry I painted parts of it. It also sparkles in the light so I think was a good material to use for the coral. Anyway I hope that they like it!!!

Something different

I felt like doing something a little different today, most of my work is very bright and up beat so today I decided to do a sad picture, just to see if I could......

'Layla, 1950's style'

Here is another little drawing of 'Layla' this time, as a 1950's beauty!

Illustration Friday - Worn

'Bella was a very unconventional ballerina, the crowd would watch in awe as she seemed to float effortlessly around the stage but they just couldn't understand why she would always wear those old green worn out sneakers. Bella only felt confident enough to dance in front of an audience when she wore her trusty old sneakers, with holes in the toes and faded green laces....she danced like an angel though'

This was painted in watercolour paint with coloured pencil over the top.

Mixed Media Monday 'Paper Doll'

This week's theme for mixed media Monday is dolls. I decided to follow the path of paper dolls and ended up googling some images. I found this lovely old book of an Esther Williams paper doll and decided to make my own version of the front cover with one of my girls. I used to love paper dolls as a child and I really love the old 1950's women. They were so curvy and real. Which is a lovely breath of fresh air compared to the women of today who are 'perfect'.

I have put the picture in that I found which inspired me so you can see where I'm coming from. I created a new lady who I have name 'Lily' I think I'll be seeing more of her too! The materials used for this one were acrylic paint, coloured pencils and pen. I painted the background and stamped some bubble shapes on with some jelly molds I found in the kitchen, then I painted and coloured the ladies separately and stuck them on. I'm quite pleased with how she turned out!

Coasters

Well I finally finished my coasters. I think they turned out ok. They aren't as bright in the scan as real life but I think they look nice together. Now I have to find something to cover them with to protect them, next time I'm at the craft shop I'll see what they recommend......I'd like to do more of these with different designs and perhaps find a way to print some of my work onto paper/card and somehow stick them on the coaster...hmmmm...lots to do!

'Layla'

Well this picture started off as a doodle in front of the tele, I find it very relaxing just drawing on the couch sometimes. I decided to colour it with coloured pencil and it was quite a nice change to use a different medium.

I called her 'Layla' as I think that is a pretty name and it suited her. When I was pregnant with my second, 'Riley' he was going to end up being 'Layla' had he been a girl........ I think I'll be doing more with this character!

Illustration Friday - Drifting

Miss Lila the lady bird loved nothing more on a sunny afternoon than to hop into her leaf boat and drift down the stream with her picnic and a good book!

Mixed media Monday 'Tell us a Story'

Well I really love the theme for this coming Monday's 'Mixed Media Monday'. 'Tell us a Story' gave me so much room to play this week. I ended up doing a mixed media piece on canvas and I really enjoyed it. I also made up a little snippet of a story to go along with it. My hubby said 'it's a bit girly isn't it?' when he looked at it, and I have to agree yes it's a bit on the romantic side but I think that I'm compensating for living with two young boys, 3 if you count my husband and our dog is even a male. (not really sure about our bird....) so I guess I just felt like doing something a bit girly!!!

It's painted in acrylic, her shawl is material and I printed the text off and pasted that on top of the canvas. The main problem I had though was scanning it in at the end because it is bigger than A4 I couldn't get everything on the scanner plus it didn't scan very well as it wouldn't sit flat so I ended up taking some photos instead and it came up much brighter, plus you can see that I painted the sides too as it was quite a thick canvas....anyway here it is.....I might try and scan it in a bit better tomorrow I'm a little tired now....

Book marks/Mixed Media Monday-Beads

This was posted a few weeks ago but I realised it fitted this week's theme at Mixed Media Monday very well. So here is my entry for 'Beads'.

I just thought I would take a picture of some of the bookmarks I ended up making out of a couple of my paintings. I like how they've turned out and am giving them away as gifts, keeping one for myself of course. I really enjoyed making something out of these pictures and being able to use them for something. I'm also in the process of painting some coasters. Just thought I've have a go and seeing how they would work. I've got 4 in a theme which is the seasons. The first one looks great and I can't wait to finish them but I'm now posed with the problem of finding something to cover them so that they don't get damaged when someone puts a cup of tea on them etc......does anyone know what sort of protector I could use?