Colouring Page: Bawang Putih

Any nearby kids who need entertaining? There's a new colouring page up on my website, from part of Bawang Putih. It's heavily simplified, because the trees and things are just too complicated to make a good colouring page, and it's been sitting on my desktop for months. Schools are back in WA this week, which means my mother is back teaching, so I thought I'd better finish it off, and remove a bit of computer clutter. 

It's free for home or school use, just don't use it to make a profit, and don't remove my credit line. 

Click the thumbnail to download:

There are four other colouring pages currently available on my website, so feel free to check them out. 

Illustration: Dragon Dance

I am really quite sick of this picture! I started it in July; I caught a glimpse of a very cute little girl in a kimono as we walked through the Bon Odori festival in Georgetown, Penang, and sketched her down as well as I could remember when we got back to our hotel for dinner. And it stayed like that, a half-finished sketch in my watercolour sketchbook, until the beginning of January, when I figured it was about time to finish her off. 

I changed my original sketch, which had her holding on to her mother's hand, as by necessity I couldn't show the whole mother, as the paper wasn't big enough, and gave her a balloon. And then I added dragons. I'm not quite sure why, maybe the idea of the Chinese year of the Dragon had got into my subconscious (But yes, she's Japanese, not Chinese). But it's never the best idea if I start something without any clear idea of where I'm going.

And I've been trying to finish her for over a week, but everything got very busy, and it got hot. And I mean hot. If you've ever tried to watercolour when it's 42 degrees (that's 108F) you'll know that even if you can get up the inclination, it doesn't tend to work very well at all. >.<

But I've made it, she's finished. Hooray! I'm not quite sure if I like it or not, but she's finished, nonetheless. I hope you like her!

Winsor and Newton watercolours in a Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook 

Quotes: Lord Tony's Wife

This, as Makenzi points out, is rather bleak, but it's also from a book set during the Reign of Terror, so bleak is.... what's needed. And believe me, I could have made it bleaker! =P

I was reading Baroness Orczy's Lord Tony's Wife as a bit of fluff, and thought this quote was a good image to practice black and white photoshop work with:

"….and Yvonne like a trapped bird was bruising her wings against the bars of her cage"

Adobe Photoshop CS4 with a Wacom Intuos 3, about 1 to 1.5 hours, using just a size 8 hard round brush in black and white. 

Illustration: Adele on a Swing

A bit of relaxation for me, which I can slot into my watercolour illustration portfolio. I felt like drawing an historical dress, because they're always such fun.  

I took a reference screenshot from the 1976 movie The Slipper and the Rose (Which is a cute film, but I bought it pretty much solely for costume reference; 18th century gowns are usually seen on mannequins, and having some shots of them in use is always handy) and used that as my starting point, and I went with Adele, because I'm fond of the characters I designed for my Honours project, and like to bring them out now and again. 

Here's Adele (and Katia and Edmund) in the final spread from my Honours project (so long ago! o.O), which I thought it might be fun to show. I designed two costumes each for Katia and Adele, but the second ones were only used for this spread, so I reused this one for my new painting.  

For your amusement, I'm including the original reference in this post, and also an animated progress, since I haven't posted one of those for a watercolour before.

Adele on a Swing in Winsor & Newton watercolours and Artline Drawing System pens in a Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook.

Honours Spread from 2008, Winsor & Newton watercolours, Prismacolor pencils, sepia ink with dip pen on Bristol Board.

Card: Lotus

Here's a card I designed on Friday for my Aunt's 60th birthday.

I chose a lotus theme because I'd wrapped up the parcel with an origami lotus, and the present was a circular pendant with Swarovski crystals, which transferred well into stylised water ripples. There's a bit of confetti glitter softening the edges of the centre of the flowers, and adding a bit of sparkle. 

The design was put together in Adobe Illustrator CS4, and printed on double-sided Epson Matte paper. The floral pattern on the petals is from the pattern set in the font Melany Lane – I didn't have time to come up with my own pattern. 

And tagging along on this post are a few digital gesture sketches from more photos of the dancer, done in Adobe Photoshop CS4 over the course of about 10 minutes. I should do more gesture sketching.

Sketch: Village

First sketch in my new sketchbook for 2012. I managed to neatly finish my last sketchbook right at the end of December. ^.^ This would have been finished earlier, therefore, but I was quite busy, and on top of that I've been in bed with a very nasty migraine for the last two days. I am not impressed! Hopefully I'll be getting plenty done this week!

The starting point for this was a photograph my friend's father took of Rastoke in Croatia. It doesn't look like Rastoke any more, although the central buildings and the large bridge are quite heavily influenced by the photograph. After that I just added lots of buildings over the course of a few days. I was fascinated by the concept of a village built pretty much on top of a waterfall. 

0.5 mechanical pencil with #B lead in a Moleskine Sketchbook

Progress: Wrens on a Wire 4

A bit more progress. Painted Lady butterflies are slow going! So are blue wrens, actually, the brown ones are much easier.

And here's a peek at my current little illustration, again finishing off something I started in July.

Previous Posts:

Progress: Wrens on a Wire

Progress: Wrens on a Wire 2

Progress: Wrens on a Wire 3

Illustration: Nap Time

I started this in July, when we were in Kuala Lumpur. o.O I'd inked half of it, and after that it languished in my watercolour sketchbook, until I decided to finish it off yesterday. There are a couple of unfinished things I started then that need doing, and too many unfinished pictures are depressing in a sketchbook. She's based on a sweet little girl I saw asleep in (and practically sliding out of) a pusher. =)

Originally I was going to put stripes on the cushions, but I think that would have made it too busy, so I left them plain. 

Winsor & Newton watercolours and Artline Drawing System pens in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.