Illustration: Dancer

I saw this girl busking in town today, and wrested my father's phone from him so I could snap a few reference photos (my own phone is so old that it doesn't even have colour, let alone a camera =P) and used one of them to do this tonight.

I'm not at all sure what type of dancing she was doing, certainly something Asian, but it was pretty, and she was so gorgeously happy while she was doing it. This is based heavily on one of my photos, but naturally not completely. I wanted a little illustration in my usual watercolour style, not a realistic piece. 

It's quite heavy on the gold paint, so here's a photo as well, to show off the shininess:

Winsor and Newton watercolours, Artline Drawing System Pens, Reeves Gouache in Moleskine Sketchbook, about 2.5/3 hours.

Progress: Wrens on a wire 3

A bit more progress. I've also been pencilling in some texture on the background around the wrens already done, so progress isn't quite as slow as it looks. Two and a half wrens and a butterfly to go, and hopefully I'll get more done in the next few days, when it isn't 40-odd degrees. Weather like this is not only flattening, it also isn't at all good for attempting to use the watercolours until the cooler evenings. >.<

And as a bonus, here is my warm-up painting from tonight. My friend's parents are holidaying in Slovenia, and we're enjoying seeing the photos they upload (and being jealous of all the snow =P). John takes some of the most gorgeous pictures, and I based this on one of them. I did it no justice at all, of course, but I quite like it for what it is; Winsor and Newton watercolours in a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, 30 minutes. 

Previous Posts:

Progress: Wrens on a Wire

Progress: Wrens on a Wire 2

Illustration: Trouble

A quick little spot illustration from a small sketch I did on the one morning I spent lazing around in our hotel room and by the pool when we were on holiday in Penang. I like the original sketch, which was tucked into the corner of a page full of gesture sketches of the hotel cat, so spent an hour or so tonight transferring it to my watercolour sketchbook and painting it.

Here's the original sketch:

"Trouble" in Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook with Winsor & Newton watercolours and Artline Drawing System pens. 

Sketch in Jasart 'My Memoirs' sketchbook with #B 0.5 mechanical pencil.

Illustration: Reindeer

Merry Christmas to everyone in a Christmassy frame of mind! And for anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas, just have a generally merry day anyway. =) 

Here's a Christmas picture in a Christmas post. I forget where the idea for this came from, but it popped into my head the other day, and I reprehensibly ran with it, instead of working on wrens. It's the holidays, after all! And I've naughtily stayed up to finish it, when I should be in bed.... but I like the result. I haven't drawn a reindeer for years... probably not since primary school. o.O 

I may go back and touch up a few areas, but for now I'm calling it done.

Winsor and Newton watercolour and Artline Drawing System 0.1 & 0.4 in Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook; about 4 hours, including initial sketch.

Portrait: Tilly & Ashby

A smallish coloured pencil portrait done for my friend's parents as a joint Christmas and 25th Wedding Anniversary present. It's from a truly beautiful photograph my friend Tilly's father took of her and her brother on her wedding day. It wasn't quite as sunny, Tilly was in shadow, and there was very harsh light on Ashby's cheek, so I improvised with the lighting, and I think it came out rather nicely. It's nice to be able to alter what's in the photograph (beautiful though it may be) so that the portrait is different. Some things you can't do with Photoshop. =P 

They opened it before they went on holiday, and seemed to really like it, which always makes me happy. =)

It's a bit looser than some of my other portraits, mainly because although I started several months ago, I didn't have enough time to spend 40+ hours on it. =( It probably took somewhere around 20 hours, perhaps a bit less. 

Prismacolour pencils on bristol board, 18cm diameter. 

Related: Portrait: Murray & Lintilla

Sketches: Princess & Christmas

A couple of quick digital sketches, just for purposes of fun and relaxation. Playing around with different styles, as well.

I read an article while waiting for my allergy jabs at the doctor's today, in which the writer bemoaned the fact that after starting daycare her daughter relegated Thomas the Tank Engine to the back of the cupboard, and started being obsessed with princesses, which her mother had been trying to avoid. I said to my mother that she could have tried explaining that it's okay to like trains and princesses (I know I certainly did =P) rather than getting upset that a chance remark from a small boy had changed her daughter's tastes so much. 

So then naturally I had to draw a princess driving a train. And lots of pink, to see how I could manage with a limited palette. Pink is not a colour I use a lot of.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 with a custom brush, Wacom Intuos 3

And here's a very rough sketch I did on my father's iPad while watching tv this evening. I don't have a stylus, so this was done with my finger in Sketchbook Pro, which I'm still learning my way around.

This started with no plan at all, I think I've ended up with a character who looks like she belongs in the film White Christmas. =P

Progress: Wrens on a Wire 2

No, I'm not as slow as it looks, truly! 

In addition to these wrens, I'm working on two posters, a bunch of BLM illustrations due the 20th, and a portrait that should be done by Friday if I can manage it. And somewhere in there I need to put up the Christmas tree and actually get to some shops. o.O 

But I'm busy, and that's a good thing!

So to prevent blog stagnation from lots of private work, here's some progress on the wrens – I am now halfway through; three wrens and one butterfly to go. Plus I want to work some pencil and stuff into the background and make it look a bit more leafy and lush.  

Winsor & Newton watercolours, Reeves Gouache, Chromacryl acrylic and Prismacolour Pencils on watercolour paper. 

Oh! And hello to new watchers! =)

Progress: Wrens on a Wire

Here's some progress shots from a current commission from someone who likes the little wrens I do. These wrens are watercoloured, not digital, which is a bit trickier, and the painting is pretty huge (26" across) but I think it's coming along pretty well:

This is the original concept sketch:

Which was then, after approval, developed into this refined layout. 

I drew all the wrens separately, and compiled the image in Photoshop. (Yes, an extra wren was added, as originally the image was not supposed to be so large =P)

And a fresh colour study:

After that had been approved, and I'd waited a couple of days for the weather to cool down sufficiently to make watercolour washing not a completely idiotic idea, I could start. I'd purchased a large sheet of watercolour paper, and trimmed it to size, and I printed out the layout on several sheets of paper and stuck them together so I could trace it:

And I then did the watercolour wash. Which for some reason, like every wash I ever attempt, did not work. I always end up with blotchy areas that just don't cover properly, no matter what paint, brushes or paper I use. Arrg!

I soaked the whole thing in the bath and then did a new wash over the top, which fixed it up a bit (I did stretch it out on my desk and tape it down, but the darn thing escaped bondage while I was out of the room, so it's a bit wrinkled, too >.<)

And then, since my mother had brought a spatter tool home from school so I could practice before helping with her art, I did some extra salvage work by spattering gouache over the whole thing:

After which the background was much better. Phew!

And now I'm just down to painting wrens and butterflies. Even with a painting this size, most of the work is done with a #1 brush, along with a #00 and even occasional touches with a #000 (for the butterflies), so it's not the fastest of work. Extra work is done with coloured pencils and a touch of gouache.

The wren pictured above is 9cm from beak to wingtip. 

Tomorrow I start on the cuddling wrens. =) 

Covering Books

Yesterday I went into my mother's Year 3 class to help with art. Every now and then she does a fabulous activity day called 'round-and-round-the-classroom' where the kids go from table to table doing subjects in the order of their choice. It gives them some autonomy, and they love it – every two conventional subjects they do (like literacy and number) they can go to a 'fun' activity. It being almost the end of the school year here she wanted some nice covers made for the Memory Books they've been constructing. The kids hear all about me over the course of the year, and wanted me to come in for a day, so I joined them to make sure the art table stayed under control. 

The original activity was to spatter the covers, but we had a small crisis – possibly due to the staticy weather, the acrylic paint (however much watered down or not) refused to spatter, and just dropped on the paper in huge blobs. >.< However, I haven't spent years having various artistic accidents for nothing, and instantly changed the activity to make stars out of the blobs using a matchstick to drag the paint around. 

Later on I found some different paint in the art cupboard, that allowed us to spatter and then add blobs of acrylic to make stars. 

I think they came out fabulously, don't you?

There were six paint colours for the kids to choose from, and I let them do almost everything by themselves, except for putting on the blobs of paint – because year threes, however well behaved they are (and they were gorgeous) can get quite silly with really wet paintbrushes and blobs. =P

After school my friend Tilly (who has been helping out at various schools since finishing her teacher training) and I covered all the books, and we were done! =)