Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 44

Week 44: Spain.

Sketch in red and black Sharpie on white card, based on several Google Image photo references.

Update:

Week 44: Spain II.

"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." Cartridge papers of various colours, mesh baking sheet and photocopied flowers, collaged onto pink card. Some brown Sharpie shading. Inspiration from a Google Image search of publicity stills of Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady).

Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 3

Week 3: Retro

Retro robot. Black ink Sharpie (both Stained and finepoint) and acrylic sketch on pre-cut blank jigsaw. Revealed retro television test pattern has been sepia-toned in iPhoto before printing out.

Update:

Pattern created on black "scratch paper", which comes in a pack of five sheets (plus tool) for $4.00 from a toy shop.

Week 3: Retro II

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 21

Week 21: Boxes

Coinciding with the 2014 National Simultaneous Storytime, this box of elephants from the picture book, "Too many elephants in this house" (by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner) was created with masking tape, red acrylic paint with sponged shading, blue corrugated cardboard, black ink permanent marker and pink and silver waterbomb balloons. Trunks were cut from matching pink and silver plastic partyware bowls. This prop will be part of my school's celebrations of this annual ALIA event.

Back of Elephant house

This back panel was left unpainted deliberately. Note the yellow plastic ladder emerging from the chimney hole.

One more elephant squeezes in!

Udates:
Inspiration struck tonight whist walking home in the dark from the train station. Here's the Minotaur in his labyrinth on Crete, created in just ten minutes with a cardboard box and a kitchen knife to make some slots.

Week 21: Boxes II.

Black Unipin fine line pigment ink cartoon on cartridge paper. Seemed like a good week for a soapbox.

Week 21: Boxes III.

An idea flashed into my head during breakfast and I simply had to do it immediately. Before this Challenge, ideas like this probably would be fleeting - and never made permanent. Corrugated craft board, with colour highlight from an ancient Faber-Castell Metallic Silky Pastel.

Week 21: Boxes IV.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 5

Week 5: Flower.

Gardenia from my garden, oil pastels on black paper.

Chameleon roses!

But this plant didn't always look like this!

Pretty!

DAY 17

These purple flowers photograph like butterflies!

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day to all those Internet savvy Mums, and to all the mothers - including mine - who are perhaps more technophobic and thus will never see this message. (Gosh, I hope she remembered to switch her mobile on for today.)

Saturday to Saturday: a week in pictures

As my 365 Photos project heads to its culmination, there are nights where I'm really scratching for subjects. Makes me wish I'd gone vacationing away from home more often this past twelve months. Mind you, I did find my old, expired passport last week, so at least I can apply for a new one more easily.


Johnny jump-ups begin to bloom. 17 April 2010.


Not a toilet for three men, but an elevator. Annoying signage for people
desperately seeking a restroom. Penrith Railway Station. 18 April 2010.


Truck on the building site. 19 April 2010.


Neon dog-walking lead. 20 April 2010.


Vases and cookie jar. 21 April, 2010


An artistic busker left this chalk painting behind in Sydney's CBD tonight.
That loaded trolley was wheeled across the artwork several times
while I waited to get a good shot. 22 April, 2010


Fruit before bedtime? 23 April, 2010


Storm clouds gather over Springwood. 24 April, 2010

Night blooms

Still flourishing after at least two years, and never a day
without a flower! Supposedly a "winter blooming" azalea.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers at the Bowlo, Penrith.

Extended season

Trio of gardenias.

Three in a row

A busy weekend, dodging raindrops!


Coming home rather late after a day of heavy rainfall. 13 February 2010.


A lone portulaca has sprouted and flourished on the edge of the gutter
in the front yard. They've been self-seeding in the back yard
for several years but none emerged this year. Somehow this tiny,
lone seed made it into the front. 14 February 2010.


It seems appropriate that a prehistoric Wollemi pine's pot
should harbour a very prehistoric-looking toadstool! 15 February 2010.

Sweltering

Happy blooms in my garden despite a day of 37 degree Celsius heat.

For the US readers of this blog, that's a Fahrenheit temperature of 98.6 degrees.

Whew.

Vacation photo roundup, Part I

I'm back from vacation: a restful time spent with friends Maria, Peter and little Ben, as their house guest over Christmas and the New Year.

The Macbook Pro came with me, although there weren't too many opportunities to go online, although the last three days gave me several long sessions using a McDonald's free Wi-Fi connection, and it was a good way to wean myself back into the virtual world.

Part I of my special holiday subset of the 365 Photos project:


Jack begins to suspect I'm packing for a vacation without him. 20 December 2009.


Leaving on a Virgin Blue jetplane. Taken at Sydney's domestic terminal, Mascot. I actually had to restage this shot at the end of my holiday because it was lost in a computer program malfunction. Image representing 21 December 2009.



Golden, foil-wrapped balls, supposedly Fererro Rocher chocolates, are all individually suspended from the Myer Centre ceiling. Brisbane CBD. I lost this shot in a computer program malfunction, but luckily had already forwarded the image to my Facebook page, via my iPhone. 22 December 2009.


My Brisbane hosts' new Christmas tree, a bargain eBay purchase. I also had to restage this shot because the original was lost in the computer program malfunction. 23 December 2009.


My Brisbane hosts' three year old son, Ben, who had a ball dressed as a Santa's helper elf to ride the Christmas Express miniature railway at David Jones, Brisbane CBD. 24 December 2009.


Christmas Day canine visitor: Meg, the dog with a hole in her head. "Thar she blows!" (All her other spots are grey.) 25 December 2009.


Christmas fruit mince pies on Boxing Day. The chef complained they weren't "Women's Weekly Cookbook" enough, but I told her they were "rustic". And delicious. 26 December 2009.


Gorgeous blooms in suburban Brisbane. 27 December 2009.


I told people this was from a preview of "The Enemy Within" remake scenes of the next "Star Trek" movie. Twin transporting Kirks in the doorway of JB Hi-Fi, Brisbane CBD. 28 December 2009.


A rather self-conscious usher completes this art deco shot at a Hawthorne cinema, screening "Avatar" in 3D, Brisbane. 29 December 2009.


Frolicking polar bear at Sea World, Southport, Queensland. 30 December 2009.


Dreadlocked dog in the doorway of an art gallery, Bulimba, Brisbane. 31 December 2009.

To be continued...

That was the week that was

Stunning flowers fill the gardens around the base of old palm trees in the war memorial park halfway along the shopping centre on High Street, in Penrith. 16 November 2009.



Jack takes "Tiger" to bed. Yes, the current "tiger" is actually a sheepskin platypus. Poor confused dog. 17 November 2009.



These hardy flowers are in numerous commercial stores' flower beds in Penrith. 18 November 2009.



Christmas decorations at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) in the Sydney CBD. 19 November 2009.



Home customised "Bear and Chook" Christmas ornament. 20 November 2009.



Alien invasion of my bedroom. These little guys are from the "Toy Story" series of Pixar animated films, of course. The one on the mauve base is a very annoying talking night light. The other foreground alien is a bootleg battery operated toy from a bargain importer. The alien teddy is one of those collectible Japanese bears. 21 November 2009.



Jack finally meets Wishbone at Mash cafe in Glenbrook. They were surprisingly well behaved while we ate breakfast. 22 November 2009.