Illustration Tools the Old and the New

Water Colour How I Love You.

A monthly deadline keeps me close to you when I work on preparing an image to promote the Bendigo Family Nature Club's monthly outing.

 

I was amazed when reflecting back on the process to put this illustration together I was amazed at all the different illustration tools I used.  Perhaps I should be writing; Water colour - how I love to manipulate you!

Here is my list of tools I used to make this finished illustration

1. Flickr
 I draw from photo & inspiration, my little brain just doesn't generate this stuff from scratch!

2. Water Colour Paints & Paper & Pencil
This is the joy bit, so old school!

3. Scanner
Make my sketch into pixels

4. Darling Google
To find my background image (really letting all my secrets out now)

5. Iphoto
To save the background image to my iphone

6. Waterlogue
This app should be banned - turns your images into watercolour drawings!

7.  Photoshop
For snipping cropping and masking and placing

8. You Tube
I am a photoshop hack!

Daily Commitment

I have a commitment to write and draw most days.  Writing each day, for me, is as little as five sentences of what I am grateful for that day.  If energy is good I will write until 3 pages are full - sometimes with rather large font coming out of my biro.  It is called a consciousness stream of writing.

Although challenging I also try and draw - just a line sketch referring to an image that I have cut and pasted from a National Geographic magazine.  It takes maybe 2 to 5 minutes - just to keep my hand in drawing, right before I fall asleep.

Writing and drawing are precious to me.  Evidence of this life time love is in my shed - boxes of journals - of art work to be made and novels to be written!

Lost Drawings

My Nan is transitioning to a new phase in her life. From living alone in her own home, to moving to a residential care room.  It is extraordinary to hear her voice now - I didn't realise how much I missed her laugh, until she moved out of her home.  It is a relief that she is now settled and happy.

Her children have been fantastic cleaning up her home ready to go on the market.  In the clean up this book of drawings was found and returned to me - I completely forgot about this book!  What a joy to view again.

Please click to view a little video.  The pencil drawings are layered between tracing paper!

These were drawn on our honeymoon in Berlin back in 2005.

What joys have you re-discovered lately?

Recent works on paper

Tired last night and couldn't think what to do with myself (as completed trashy novel the night before) and then I remembered DRAWING!!!

Here is what arrived:




On the peak



Camping in Balance

Observation of Design Elements

I have to admit making jewellery is a new adventure for me and Places and Pieces is just the push I needed to try out this addictive form of making.

This post is a tutorial about using observation of design in landscape to create a body of work. It is aimed at year 11 students and is to be delivered as a hand out to complement class discussion.

In future posts I will provide tutorials on making paper jewllery using two techniques!

Selecting line, colour, tone, texture, shape, sound and form to create new jewellery that reflects place in a geographic, cultural and personal sense.



This is a native ground cover I discovered one day on my regular walk. I have been walking along this industrial path next to a factory and train line for nearly a year and never spotted this brave hardy plant before. It was a joy to discover in an area so dominated by industrial activity.
I was taken by the sweet, round petite shape of the leaves, the bending, yet reaching form of the braches and the mono, flat and blending tones of the bush. Picking a stork I popped it in some water and took some sketches. My drawing is dominated by line and shape.



As I worked drawing I reflected upon another artist’s work that I recently viewed, by David Neale. As I drew I thought about ways I could replicate these elements in 3D



I thought about using:
- small stones
- clay
- paper
- fabric and leather


I thought about these materials because they are familiar to me and I have a great deal of confidence and pleasure in using them.


The resulting works from my drawing and playing I will post in the coming days.

Recent Drawing

Guache on water colour paper
Flags and castle

Stitching is apart of the stuff we do

Kd is into his second week of school as a Grade One boy & also a new school. One of our "start-of-a-new-year" ritual is sewing key tags together. Here is 2008 and then 2009
This is the orginal image - I nearly passed out when Kd handed it over - as it is so detailed - but I think we did an Ok job! Kd stitched the black line around the outside of the design.

Below is an image my darling brother in law sent through of my sister soon to have her baby in April with her birthday scarf on. Her birthday was in Novemer, and I sent her gift to London via the ocean - I think she got it mid Jan! It includes french lace left over from my wedding gown, placed over some lovely velvet I found.
I have also fallen in love with this amazing paper sculpture that Kd created a few weeks back - completely brilliant

Oh when will I ever be brilliant? Speaking of embroidery brilliance check out these embroidered chairs.

Making for posting gifts

Gee I finished up Uni in 1996!!! So that officially makes me OLD. And keeping me in check and order is my good friends from those days. We are scattered all over Victoria and maybe see each other once or twice a year. (I must admit they are heaps better at getting together than me - I always have some silly art project on).

I am missing them at the moment. My family and I are going through a major transition at the moment physically and I am having lots of inner questions about art and also all those years I worked on art that doesn't seem to have given me much of a professional foundation at all - other than my own shear joy and pleasure.

These girls have known me much longer than my husband and have witnessed me go through all sorts of phases and silly decision making and they just know how to make me feel good about myself. Thanks girls.

So writing a letter will have to do for the moment. Also it is Kel's birthday next week and made her a little pouch to pop Mum's new book inside. (pattern from Bend the Rules Sewing)




This bit of floppy sewing is a cover for all our letters to go in - the pattern adapted from a design from Meet Me at Mikes - but I must admit that the pattern and design in this book is missing a few instructions - and have adapted a few times.




This time instead of writing I drew - Oh I had forgotten you black ink and paint brush. I am glad you didn't forget me. xxx





Hope they make for special posty love surprises.

Only time at the moment for quick pencil sketches

Inspired by a friends art competition I started a drawing piece as a design for an embroidery work -but haven't got very far. This moving house thing seems to take up a lot of time. Thankfully our weekends aren't taken up by open house days any more.

Bulls are appearing all of their own accord in my work. What joy.

floating joy

Pencil drawing while Hj painting. Joyxxx

Sunday afternoon

Had this drawing in mind for a while - another girl at the piano. These piano drawings started with my soon to be sister in law inviting me to do some drawing and stitching work for her first album.

But thanks also to that wonderful online drawing community out there - you keep me sane. The shot of my studio was inspired by Paper Crane.

But also I must admit the pressure I am feeling with a solo show I have coming up at Ararat - really having trouble balancing all my responsibilities and meeting creative deadlines. A deep inner trouble....

quick texta drawing

Inspired by the flickr's Lady Bionika I have found a set of lovely textas and pitched the pencil

Sketches for Croome

The darling and soon to be very famous (and perhaps a sister in law - gee can I write that in a blog?) Helen Croome invited me to do some embroidery images for her up and coming album.

Below are the first sketches. Looking forward to hearing what she thinks.

Pencil Drawings & Utopia

Have been enjoying myself this week doing some pencil drawings - I haven't really done much of this since the birth of my second child. I have been enjoying my new ipod while drawing and listening to a lot of podcasts from Radio National, Classical ABC and also RRR. This week I listend to

Breakfast with John Gray who talked about how our society is hooked on Utopia (I think it is a law to always write Utopia with a capital U) and thinking about my recent drawings and be they about child birth and children I got reflecting (in that special quiet time during the drive home from the supermarket) that my drawings arent really capturing my emotion of the process of birth - especially my extreme fear and that I am really holding tight onto my Utopian view of childbirth - hmmm think I might need an evening with a philospher to sort me out on this one.

The Friday Archives

Lead along by the blogger who introduced me to the world of blogging - Looblu I am posting art works on Friday from YEEAARRRSS ago.

My first post about this was last weekend - but it went up onto my flickr site.

This work above is a pencil drawing from a photo - usually sketch from a photo or magazine image - never from real life (doesn't sit still long enough) from this sketch I did a oil painting which I gave to a friend.

I think I did this back in 2001 - way before children were invented.

Here is someone else doing some tripping down creative memory lane.

online show at TROCADERO

I have a little solo show online at a Melbourne Artist Run Space called TROCADERO.

It are three drawing works that I love and I hope you enjoy too.

You can visit the works here

Please leave a comment on my blog if you visit - feedback and thoughts are so important for an artist and also independent art activities.

National Works on Paper Prize

Received a lovely email informing me that my work above has been selected MPRG's The Tallis Foundation 2008 National Works on Paper.

The exhibition is coming up in May.

drawing for words

Have done a little bit of drawing - it is for a gift for someone very special and inspiring in my life.

This one is called Name Pinching Crows

The one below Stars


These works have been made in response to Children's poems - wrapping up tomorrow morning in a little book - to be truthful I really ran out of time and didnt quite make the pieces I hoped for - but it all counts! It is like that with drawing - just need to do a little each day to build your skills to really get close to the images you have in your head.

Speaking of inspiring people - my second sister has just started a blog - so many exciting things happened online while I was away!

Gee it was nice to be away from the internet.

Scraps

some drawing

It has been busy here - painting rooms and a trip a way for a while - so only a little time in the studio. Catch you in a week or two. (don't worry I am traveling with my patchwork and also sketch book)

New Art Work for our walls

My Hj loves to draw - she loves working with textas or biro the best and her favorite thing to draw in is my personal journal, daily planner, library books or the walls!