Exploring

Here's a new piece for my Middle Grade Illustration portfolio:

This started out as a quick pose study I posted on social media. When there are good full-body photos of kids doing stuff in the newspaper, I often like to use them as pose studies, to kickstart some sketches in poses I might have trouble with, or not have done before.

Here is that original sketch: 

The girl I used as a reference did not look like that, she wasn't wearing that, she wasn't even climbing through vines - but she was useful as a starting point!

I asked what people thought she'd found, and was given the suggestion of 'a tree kangaroo'. I liked that idea, especially as I'd been thinking more along the lines of 'hidden civilisation' (always nice to get a fresh perspective with fresh ideas!), so I ran with it, and just generally had fun making everything really lush and jungly. 

Adobe Photoshop CC on a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2, using Kyle T Webster's brushes - specifically the 'Perfect Pencil' and the 'Watercolour Broad Wash Grainy'.

Koala Love

For Colour Collective's 'Plaster Pink' prompt, which fell on the 11th of February, I thought I'd do something for Valentines day. Such a pale pink reminded me of dusky skies and salmon gum trees, so I drew some loved-up koalas:

I think, if I was a koala, the offer of food would be a definite sign of true love. 

Adobe Photoshop CC on a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2

Fish and Flamingos!

For Colour Collective's 'Aureolin' prompt (the first CC of 2017!), I was originally going to do a field of buttercups because it's such a nice bright yellow. I know, it kinda got away from me.... 

I was discussing buttercups with a friend, and trying to think of something a bit incongruous to have sitting in them - I had originally thought of a black bull, but that seemed a bit too 'Ferdinand' to me – and she suggested a flamingo. Well, we got the flamingo, but not the buttercups. Oops. 

Adobe Photoshop CC on a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2

Portrait: Kim Novak

Here's a new movie star portrait. I don't do many of these now, although they were the mainstay of my work when I was a teenager.

I'll be honest, I didn't like working on this, for reasons I won't go into here. But I never let that stop me from creating work as best I can, and I think the end result is pretty good.

See some of my process below the cut:

More Cards!

Here are some more hand painted cards from last year. First up, a baby card. You may remember the baby cards I've already blogged, one of which was for a cousin's second baby girl. That cousin's sister had her second baby girl shortly afterwards, so I did another card in the same style:



Here's a video of me painting that card:

#painting up this #baby #card. You may have seen the sketch for this in my story yesterday. I think this is it for #babycards this year. There's been a bit of a #babyboom! 💖 #paint #painting #smallpainting #babycard #originalartwork #cute #sweet #yellow #floral #watercolour #watercolor #artistatwork #artistoninstagram

A post shared by Alison Mutton (@alene.art) on Nov 15, 2016 at 12:34am PST

Around the same time I also needed to make a nice sympathy card for a family friend who had had a short battle with cancer:



And here's a video of me working on that. Towards the end you can see me adding Perfect Pearls for a bit of a shimmer - they're a fine pearlescent powder, and I use an embossing pen (actually, a proper Perfect Medium pen - often I don't have the 'proper' tools =P) to get them to stick.

Painting a sympathy card this afternoon. This is in memory of 'aunty' Margaret, who died last week. #workinprogress #wip #timelapse #rose #sympathy #flower #smallart #watercolour #painting #inking #ink #pentelbrushpen #copicmultiliner #watercolor #perfectmedium #draw #paint #artistatwork #greetingcards #sympathy #originalartwork #video #artistoninstagram #inktober #inktober2016

A post shared by Alison Mutton (@alene.art) on Oct 27, 2016 at 3:59am PDT

Both of these cards were done with watercolour and a water pen, over ink (both Copic Multiliners and a Pentel Brush Pen), and the drawing behind the watercolour images is tinted with prismacolour pencils.

CC Moroccan Blue

Heavens, I'm a bit behind on my blogging! The beginning of the year is always flat-out for me, and writing for blog posts was way down on my to-do list!

Here's a little piece I did for Colour Collective's 'Moroccan Blue' prompt. I went with The Little Mermaid:

I was inspired by a sweet photo by The Burleigh Princesses on Instagram, which popped into my feed that week:

Watch carefully the magic that occurs when you give a person just enough comfort to be themselves- Atticus @atticuspoetry Wednesday arvo dinner date with my favourite princess ❤#candid #portrait #treeclimbingtoo

A post shared by Fiona & Alexandra (@theburleighprincesses) on Oct 26, 2016 at 4:31am PDT

I wish I'd had more time, I didn't really do justice to my reference, but on the whole I think it works quite well. The fireworks were a lot of fun!

Adobe Photoshop CC on a Cintiq Companion 2.