Colquhoun the Baboon/Illustration Friday

Well this week I managed to finish illustrating the poem 'Colquhoun the Baboon'. It's a fun little poem written by Melinda Smith and you can read it here: http://melindasmith.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/colquhoun-the-baboon/

I was able to kill two birds with one stone this week and I also used part of the illustration for the poem as my attempt at this weeks 'Illustration Friday' which was 'Poise'. After sketching the first page of the poem I realised that Colquhoun the baboon was looking full of poise as he sat in his couch on the phone to his friend.

Firemen

This is another project I'm working on of my own and I'm really happy with how this turned out. I used watercolours and went over some parts with acrylic ink which I think makes it really pop out. I really like the acrylic inks.

Illustration Friday 'Subtract'

This week's theme is 'Subtract' which I must admit didn't fill me with creativity when I first thought about it but I decided to give it a go (which, of course, is the whole point of Illustration Friday!). I'm really glad I did as I feel like I came up with something fresh and new, for me. I decided to 'subtract' my pen/line work from this and resist the urge to outline it in ink as I normally would. That seems to be what I lean towards doing lately. It was hard work not outlining it as I was dying to do it but I'm really glad I didn't now. I painted this in water colour and also acrylic inks. I discovered a new art store just down the road from me and was really happy to see that they have heaps down there, I will probably be a regular customer of theirs from now on!!!

Happy Birthday Tony

Well tomorrow it is my step father Tony's birthday. I decided to make him a card this year as I'm really enjoying being creative and used to make birthday cards all the time. Tony is a wonderful Grandfather to my two boys and they adore him. They both, especially Riley, want to be like him and fix things as he's very handy. Riley often gets his little tool box out and pretends to be Tony. So far he's managed to put a massive hole in our fly screen whilst pretending to be Tony and put lots of dents in things. Bless him!

So here is my card to Tony. I hope he likes it when he comes to tea tomorrow.

Riley's Fairy

My two year old little boy Riley can be a right little boy at times, playing rough, loving motorbikes and getting dirty playing in the garden. But then there are these moments that surprise me where he's very gentle and sweet and I realise that he's got a very vivid imagination. One of these moments came the other day when he started talking to some 'fairies' he's done it before and it's very cute. This time I asked him to tell me what his fairy looked like and this is how it came out, he was very please with my quick painting.
It was done in my diary in water colour which probably isn't the best for that type of paper but I enjoyed doing it. I think that soon I should try drawing some 'baddies' as I have alot of sweet characters going on. My five year old Rhys is very much into Vampires and things at the moment (not too scary of course) so perhaps I'll try one of them soon.....

'Legendary' Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday theme was 'Legendary'. My husband suggested John Lennon and I agreed straight away. I've always loved John Lennon and The Beatles but he is legendary for so many other things, so this is my little tribute to him.
I painted it in water colours and used ink on top. I managed to control myself and only out line most things as I think it didn't needed too much ink.

Baboon and the balloon

This is just something that I have been working on and is my first draft/attempt at illustrating a poem. I really love the idea of a baboon as a character as they are so colourful and interesting creatures.

'My lucky charms'

This weeks theme for Daily Art stop 'Challenge Wednesday' was 'My lucky Charm'. Well I guess my lucky charms are my two boys, they are completely crazy and into everything at times and they can drive me mad but I wouldn't have it any other way. They inspire me every day to push myself further and they have both reintroduced me to the world of childrens books and have reminded me just how much fun it is to be a child. Seeing life through their eyes puts a completely different spin on things. I'm very lucky to have them.

Mermaid, Illustration Friday

The theme for Illustration Friday this week was 'Intricate'. I finally got round to doing the mermaid picture in water colour and ink. I felt that I wanted her tail and her hair quite detailed. I think I prefer to paint in acrylic as it is much brighter and more vibrant. But I still like how this turned out.

I didn't get to do much art this week as we have been away camping which I'm still recovering from it's hard work camping with kids but we had fun. I now have lots to do and heaps of things to work on which I'm going to get stuck into as much as possible. (As long as Riley lets me)

Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday is another site that challenges artists to come up with something from a theme. This week's topic was 'Breezy'.
This was what I came up with.

Autumn leaves seem to keep creeping into my pictures I just love them, I love the colours. When I thought Breezy this was what came to my mind. I had fun with this and look forward to next week's topic.

Portrait of Rhys

Today I thought I'd add a portait I sketched a while ago in pencil of my eldest son Rhys. I did it from a photograph and it was of a picture taken when he was about two.

I'm quite proud of it. He's growing up fast so it's nice to have little things like this.

Mermaid

This is a quick pencil drawing I did of a mermaid. I seem to have found my feet with drawing my characters that are 'people'. I struggled for a while with them as they seemed to come out looking a bit posessed. But I realised that that I needed to simplify it a little and found it alot easier.
I think I'll try to do a painting of her this week as I can see her with a beautiful blue green tail........

Spring time in Paris

Hi everyone, today I decided to post my attempt at a 'Daily art stop challenge Wednesday'. Daily art stop is a website by a brilliant illustrator Diana Evans. Every week there will be a theme to inspire you to create something. This theme was from a couple of weeks ago now but I've only just jumped on board so I thought for my first attempt I would have a go at 'Spring time in Paris'. I just started doodling in my diary and ended up with this. Which I really like and really enjoyed doing. It's a great way to get your creative juices flowing as sometimes I need a little inspiration to get started. So thanks Diana hope you like it.
(oh and I'm aware that I spelt 'February' wrong on my picture I just got so excited that I actually finished it so fast, heheheh)
I did it in acrylic paint with black ink which seems to be my favourite choice at the moment.

'Ned'

This is Ned, he's a character that I came up with this week. He's a bit of a mixture between my son and his friends. Ned is going to have lots of adventures which I'm looking forward to creating. I just drew a couple of different pictures of Ned doing some actions just to get the feel of how he'll look and to get into practice of drawing him doing all sorts of things. I'm still working on my story board but now I have a bit more direction.

Cave man and cave woman.....

Well today I thought I would post these two characters that I came up with a little while ago. This was done with acrylic on acrylic paper. I just love how bright they came up and when I added all that hair they really popped out!!!

This week I plan on finishing a story board of mine and working on a new character. It's going to be a little boy and I have someone from real life that I want to base him on as he's so full of character himself. I also want to do some sketching of the boys playing. I've tried doing that from real life but they both move so fast I can barely get any lines down. So I thought I'd take my two year old out this morning for a play in the back yard and take some action shots and do some sketches from that!!!!

He should stay still enough for a photo, I hope!!!

A doodle.....perhaps a Cyclops?

Well the last couple of days I haven't been able to get as stuck into my art as I would have liked. Some days the kids just won't play along. Yesterday I took my youngest (who is 2) for a picnic in the morning which was lovely and hoped he would let me have a bit of a drawing session at rest time in the afternoon.

I managed to do a bit of a doodle but it was hard going with many interruptions, it messes with your creative flow. But I guess I'm going to have to get used to doing things 'under pressure' as I would never get anything done. So yesterday I just decided to do a 'doodle' I started in pencil then went over it in pen and ink. I was thinking of adding water colour later but I got interrupted and this is how it finished up.

I can't seem to stop drawing dragonflies now. I like the texture in her hair but her eye seems a little odd. I've decided that I have created a beautiful cyclops from a mythical land (not that I couldn't get the eye right). It's not my most favourite picture but I wanted to post it anyway as I think every exercise or doodle is important. The purpose of this one was to loosen me up and just let my imagination run........I quite enjoyed it!

Autumn

I'm really looking forward to Autumn. It's my most favourite time of the year. I love the change in the colours in the trees.

Here is a doodle that I did in anticipation of Autumn.

I started in just pencil and ink then painted it in watercolour. I was trying to get some movement and energy into this picture.....

Acrylic on canvas

For my final painting I used acrylic paint on canvas and added in a different back ground, I'm very pleased with myself as this is the first painting on canvas that I've completed in a very very very long time.

I don't have a decent scanner at the moment but I was very keen to add to my blog today so I had to take pictures of these 3 pieces so unfortunetly they loose a little in the photograph they are much brighter in real life, but you get the idea.

Water colour

My next attempt I used the same pose but changed the colours and used water colours with an outline to finish.

Dragonflies

Today I started and actually finished my painting of a dragonfly. Over the last week or so I have been sketching and drawing dragonflies to get a feel for how they look. I've always loved them. They seem so unreal when you see them flying around, almost prehistoric. I think they are beautiful creatures and come in so many amazing colours. So I decided to concentrate on them for an exercise with colour, sketching and painting.

The first drawing it did used coloured pencils then finished it with a black outline.....I looked for pictures on the internet of different dragonflies and decided on this particular one.