Rambunctious - Illustration Friday topic

Rambunctious! what a word! I definitely had to look up the meaning this week! Well I had weddings on my mind as i went to one last weekend, but it wasn't quite as rambunctious as this! It was at an aquarium, very nice venue. 

I have been pretty busy lately, but good busy, I have over 140 illustrations to get working on for school workbooks, so today i have cheerfully being working on fruits and vegies, next week I will move onto insects and so on. It feels like a dream to be getting this sort of work and I am so grateful. I bought myself some gouache today which I am enjoying using. It is nice having a break from the computer sometimes.

Balloon-Illusration Friday topic

This is the 1st time I have ever used an older illustration for Illustration Friday, but this fits the theme so why not? This was an original design done earlier this year for a baby clothes company I was doing freelance work for. Lovely people to work for but the industry is very different than what I had expected. Not doing this work anymore (out of my own choice) and for my own artistic integrity!

Tagged by Katie

I've been tagged by Katie

I have to come up with 7 interesting or random facts about myself and then tag 7 people to do the same.

1. I hope to illustrate children's books through publishing houses one day, but I want it to happen now!

2. I like stomping on crunchy leaves

3. One of the reasons I work from home is so I can pat and cuddle my 2 dogs more often

4. I am vegetarian and recently bought some awesome cookbooks by Valerie Ferguson

5. I found out last week I am allergic to dust, dust mites and cockroaches

6. Creating art makes me happy (it's like my soul is singing) and I can lose sense of time

7. I don't kill spiders (I put them in a jar and take them outside), I do kill mosquitos

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post the rules

2. Post 7 random facts about yourself

3. Tag 7 friends at the end of your post and link to them

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

I am tagging:

Samantha Hughes

James Foley

Julie Knoblock

Mayy Chan

Meredith Myers

Kathy Hare

Bee's Blog

Opinion-Illustration Friday topic

'Opinion', I wasn't really looking forward to illustrating this topic because it seemed quite hard to portray my beliefs and ideas about something in a picture. I have to be honest and say I don't share my opinions that often because I am not a very argumentative person. One of my strong opinions though is that those who are cruel to animals or those who take pleasure in seeing animals get hurt should receive the same sentence as if they were hurting or killing a person. I don't see how there should be any difference, lock them up for life I say! It is just beyond my comprehension how anyone could bring harm upon an animal that often shows so much love, affection, gratitude and unconditional love. There is probably not much point in explaining my obvious feelings about these people.  

Zoo photo references

These are photos I took at the zoo a few Thursdays ago. I got a new camera so I had to try it out on the animals :) I did some sketching aswell, but haven't scanned / photographed any of them yet. I was pleased to take about 600 photos they will be great for drawing references :) Don't you just love this little turtle? I thought he / she was so cute and I can't wait to sketch it. 

Pretend-Illustration Friday topic

Pretend, just a simple sketch this week. Sometimes I feel a bit of pressure that I have to create a masterpiece every week, but I know that's not what Illustration Friday is about anyway. It's meant to be fun and an opportunity to practice your skills more and be challenged with different topics. Plus I have to get going on designing / uploading art onto my illustration website :)

Wise - Illustration Friday topic

Wise: my illustration for the topic a couple of weeks ago. I know owls were the obvious choice for this topic, but to be honest even before the topic was posted I had been collecting owl photo references to draw from. I am thinking about having this on my illustration business card. I had a bit of a business enlightenment a few weeks ago after going to a web design seminar. I am going to create an illustration website separate from my graphic design / illustration one. I found that publishers only want to see illustrations on their own, not graphics work too. I have registered my new website domain name (just using my name but I have found that is what most illustrators do), so I have to get cracking on it!

I've had a lot of graphic design work lately which is great but I want to be illustrating more. I am also really inspired to start up an etsy shop one day and actually try selling some of my work. There have been some awesome Arts / Crafts markets lately in Perth including Made on the Left in Mt Lawley and there will also be Bazaar and Perth Upmarket coming up in December. One day i would like to try having a stall. So many ideas, sometimes i don't know what to start on first! If anyone has any suggestions on my owl at all, with colouring or anything feel free to comment :)

Vacant-Illustration Friday topic

My interpretation of this week's Illustration Friday topic. This is my Red-tan Australian Kelpie Banjo. Sometimes I think he is a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock! E.g. a little loopy and not all there, so therefore vacant! I enjoyed using simple fine liners for this sketch.

Repair - Illustration Friday topic

A bit last minute but I have been working on this little by little over the past few days. This is probably the latest thing I got repaired my blue carebear from the early 198os! I had it since I was 5 and then my puppy Banjo decides he will take it as his own toy! was quite upsetting but fortunately we found the heart nose and the cloud tummy outside and my mum sewed it back up for me :) Bless her

Sugary - Illustration Friday topic

'Sugary' an Illustration Friday topic from a few weeks ago that i missed out on. I hand drew the word, scanned it in, then searched for lolly imagery and placed them within the letters. 2 more to catch up on now 'Island' and 'Clique' and then i will be up to date.

Late - Illustration Friday topic

'Henry's bed was so comfy and cosy and he was having such happy dreams that he slept through his alarm and was late for school'.

When hearing this week's topic i thought of the obvious: running late for an appointment /meeting, staying up late, someone dying etc. None of these ideas inspired me so I decided to do a brainstorm and came up with a reason for being late. I am very happy with how this one turned out this week, I really love the 70s wallpaper and the whole piece makes me feel happy :)

Strings - Illustration Friday Topic

Just in time this week for Strings. I haven't drawn many instruments before so this gave me a good opportunity. I didn't do any preliminary sketches for this, I used ink and a nib and drew straight on paper, I then scanned the drawings in and manipulated the images in Illustrator (the first 2) and then Photoshop. I found these lovely wood grains on the morguefile.com a free photo site, comes in handy! :) I could have done many more variations of these and I may do some more later. I was originally thinking of overlapping all of the instruments but for now just wanted to show them in full.

Packed - Illustration Friday topic

It is a great feeling to be submitting an Illustration Friday topic again :) I have had a few weeks break, went on holidays to Melbourne and then Clare Valley for a wedding. I was thinking of ideas for topics just didn't have time to get them done. So now it is catch up time, I hope to get all of the topics done that I missed. Below is 'Clutter' which was the topic about 4 weeks ago, I saw a collection of rusty tractor parts, wheels and poles on the vineyard we were staying at, so I had to take a photo of this lovely rustic clutter and illustrate it!

Memories - Illustration Friday Topic

So many different memories could have been illustrated but I decided to sketch some memories of my grandparents. I was going to do a collage of 3 of my granparents that have passed away but that would have been too much. So this one if of my Grandma and the memories that I have of her. Probably the main one is how she used to grab my nose as a kid and then put her thumb in between her fingers and say "got your nose!" 

Routine - Illustration Friday topic

Just a quick sketch this week. When I first thought of the word routine I was thinking of diaries, calendars, to do lists, timetables things that help you have a routine. I also thought of Mums with babies and the routines they have to go through, but not being a mum myself I wouldn't know what to illustrate. Then I thought of routines that dogs have. Dogs are often creatures of habit. Every morning my red tan kelpie Banjo waits for me at my feet while I am eating a banana, he always gets the end bit! I know a bit strange that a dog would eat fruit but he likes anything apples, pears, nuts! So this is a morning scene of me in my PJs with my messy bed hair and my doggie! It is just from my imagination so some proportions are not exactly right, I think I look more like a kid, I am not that short! but I like the concept :) 

I have an editorial illustration to get onto, I have to do it with clay like on my blog banner, so I am keen to get going on that :)

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Detach - Illustration Friday topic

I got my illustration done a bit earlier this week :) I wanted to do something more simple this week. A piece of the puzzle is detached from the rest of the puzzle. I enjoy working on brown paper, I think it is because it is a mid tone, therefore you can just add shading and highlights. I sometimes use it at Life Drawing classes too I find it less daunting than plain white. I should photograph some of my model sketches one day and put them on my blog. 

Sail - Illustration Friday topic

I really wanted to illustrate a scene of children sailing their boats for this topic. Suprisingly it was quite hard to find photo references on the net. I eventually found one on this site the photo was taken from a lake in New York.

Lily Butterfly painting

I just finished this painting for my aunty yesterday. It features Singapore lilies. 

Poof! Illustration Friday Topic

Zelda had always wanted to fly like a bird, so she visited the Magic Bliss machine and her wish came true, well for the day anyway, she liked to snuggle back into her cosy shell at night.

Clay is FUN :)

Howdy all, as you can see I have been having fun with air-dry clay, paint and beads :) I have been making my new banner / blog title over the past couple of weeks when I have had a spare moment. I wanted to make it a bit more exciting than what I had before, which was a quick job. I really enjoyed working with some clay again, getting all my nice sharp clay tools out that I bought about 7 months ago, and have only just used them now! It is past midnight here, but I had to put this up before I go to bed, it is my birthday today :), so a good reason to put a new post up. I know the photography is pretty average, but I will try taking some photos again in daylight and see if they are better. Plus I am getting a better desk lamp later today :) Yay!

Illustration Friday - Canned

For this week's topic I felt liked doing a pattern with the recycle symbol and a photo of the top of some cans. This was done in Adobe Illustrator.

Enough

Delilah had more than enough party treats on her plate!

I did this with my new Derwent Inktense pencils my friend Iliana gave me, thanks Iliana :) This illustration makes me smile :D

Kids and Babies

I haven't drawn many babies or kids before, so I thought I would give it a go. Thanks to my friends who allowed me to draw their gorgeous children :)

Foggy

I felt like illustrating a landscape this week. The one with the windmill is an Australian landscape and the one above is drawn from a photo I got on a free photo site : http://www. morguefile.com

Sour Warheads

Remember sucking on a sour warhead? Well this is what this is based on! I didn't have a lot of time to do this one, so i didn't do any preliminary sketches, going to be tired at work tomorrow now :( but I had to get this done and I can always drink coffee! I was also trialling out some new pastel pencils. I would like to draw some of these expressions in more detail. I am excited because I got some face expression and body gesture books in the mail today :) I think they will be a great reference tool.

More Christmas Card doggies

The grayscale dogs above were all illustrated for some fundraising Christmas cards in 2007, I used Corel Painter and my Wacom tablet. The above coloured one was illustrated for a family member whose dog passed away last year :( I used some lovely vibrant Rembrandt pastels for it. It was very relaxing drawing this outside in the summery weather :)

Fierce

The first thing that came to mind when thinking of the word 'Fierce' was ferocious creatures, baring their teeth/fangs. Rather than illustrating such a literal interpretation I decided to think of other ways one could be fierce. My illustration is based on the fierceness of competitive athletes. I have been doing a fair bit of swimming lately so maybe water sports were on my mind. I used to play a bit of water polo when i was younger too. 

Hoard

Hoard: It wasn't long before I came up with my idea for this week's topic. Fortunately my hoarding skills have come into good use! the items i have illustrated in this still life/collage are all hoarded items! I have a drawyer in my study with some of the things I have collected over the years. Some items have been in there for 15 years or more without being thrown out! I think hoarding is part of being an artist, you never know when you may need certain items or materials. Even today whilst walking my dogs I saw at least 4 items I felt like taking home although I resisted, however I had to pick up a lovely  Chinese bookmark with canoes on a river! I was aiming to be a bit looser with my technique in this illustration, I did no preliminary pencil sketches or roughs, just straight onto the paper. 

Punchline

I found the IF topic this week to be a tricky one. Today I resorted to looking up some punchlines on the net. It's probably one you have all heard before "6 was scared because 7 8 9". Anyway I thought it was a good one to illustrate :) don't usually go with the violent themes, but this is an exception! I am really loving using waterproof ink to do the outlines, I then fill in with Ecoline ink for the coloured areas. 

Here's another doggy I did last year for some fundraising Christmas cards

Kobi and Asher

This is a illustration I did for a friend whose family dog recently passed away (the golden one called Kobi). RIP Kobi.

Forgotten

My first submission for Illustration Friday :)

Welcome, I have finally got around to creating my own blog!!! Yay :)

My plan is to try and use this for displaying illustrations and maybe photos.

I intend to also showcase a illustration on here for the weekly Illustration Friday topic. Have many ideas stored up so looking forward to getting them out there. Shannon :)