"The Trouble With Tribbles". Sketched in black Sharpie, with metallic gold highlights, on watercolour paper. Based on the famous publicity still from "Star Trek". Coloured in watercolours.
Update:
Week 17: Fluffy II
"Gossamer". Character from the Warner Bros' "Looney Tunes" cartoons. Finepoint black Sharpie and watercolour, mounted on flint paper background.
Week 17: Fluffy III
Based on two photos, taken by me, of a poodle being readied for Best in Show. White UniPaint marker on black card, with black, blue and red finepoint Sharpies and white Signo pigment ink.
Each time I did a Google Image search on this week's theme, there were always a few sets of robotic diagrams. Collage of the most structured materials in my grab bag of remnants: corrugated, metallic cardboard, recycled US Post envelope (complete with cancellation marks and automated zipcode markings), toothpicks, random robot instructions and labels in Pages, plus mini-headphones.
Update:
Great Court of the British Museum. Sketched (from a personal photograph) in green and black Sharpie inks on watercolour paper, with watercolour highlights.
Sketch in black Sharpie on art canvas sheet, coloured with crayons. Original photo found via Google Images.
Update:
Thanh the moonbear. Paper collage, watercolour and black Sharpie on "calm" blue flint paper. Photo located on Google images.
Week 15: Vietnam II
Originally, the moonbear looked like this, but the image was deemed too 3D for the Challenge:
Week 15: Vietnam IIa
Thanh the moonbear has calmly caught her lunch. Assemblage art using chopsticks, long grain rice, sultana pieces, cashews and plastic "fish" soy sauce dispensers placed upon "calm" blue flint paper. (Of course, with further research, I discovered that the only fish moonbears might eat are ones they find dead and spent after spawning season.)
"Only ten hares left on his head." Green handmade paper rabbits collaged onto a watercolour, mounted onto red flint paper. Tails added in white, three-dimensional, Tulip "Puffy" paint. Shading on the rabbits in graphite pencil. (I've been dying to make use of the little freehand-cut rabbits - from Week 9's Texture - and yesterday I suddenly realised how whimsical they might be, especially being green.)
Update:
Freehand-cut, whimsical giraffe collage using handmade papers, plus a chenille stick mane and a necklace of "Jila" mints.
"Taxee! Er, taxi!" Sketch in pencil over a light wash of pink and blue. Inked in black Sharpie and coloured with watercolours. What I enjoyed about doing this is that I splashed the diluted pink and blue paint onto the wet paper first, as a wash (then accidentally left it in the rain), so the dried background ended up being rather like a Mr Squiggle "squiggle" that I allowed to inform me just where the various elements would fall: ie. the placement of the box, the wheels, the girl's feet, the signpost, and even the teddy. It felt like the paper was telling me where to put everything.
Update:
"Transporter Room to Landing Party, one to beam down." A four-part piece of an Andorian from "Star Trek" beaming down to a planet. Drawn in black Sharpie onto watercolour paper, coloured with watercolours, two collaged paper templates, and silver glitter.
Tickle the Imagination magazine is running a bonus challenge this week, on the theme of "Cocoon". The upcoming winter issue will have a home focus, and 20 of the editor's favourite illustrations will be included in the issue.
Bonus Challenge: Cocoon
Cartoon sketched in black Sharpie, painted in watercolours. Brown paper and watercolour paper collaged onto handmade paper.
"Science fiction media convention costume parade". All of these entrants are me - Tellarites, Andorians and Robin the Boy Wonder - based on photos from several decades of costume parades, drawn and painted in a Perth hotel room. Sketch inked in black Sharpie on watercolour paper, coloured in watercolours and metallic Signo.
Update:
"The Not-So-Happy Dragon." Based on an actual event - when I walked into a dressing room at a charity fundraiser, to put on my superhero costume, and met half a naked dragon! No one is supposed to see who's inside the St George Bank's Happy Dragon mascot. But I did - and now... so have you! Black and green Sharpie markers with watercolour on watercolour paper, collaged onto purple handmade paper.
"It's not easy being green!" A green frog desperately attempts to be environmentally green. Cartoon in black Sharpie ink and watercolour on watercolour paper.
Update:
Week 11: Green II
Here's a green gremlin. I caught him sneaking into my hotel room looking for lollies. Luckily for me, I'd eaten all the evidence. Assemblage art with a green supermarket "green bag" as background. Hey, I'm working with limited materials here, you know!
Week 11: Green III
My paternal grandmother was born on St Patrick's Day. She always wore green on that day, and carried a small leprechaun charm on a green ribbon. This watercolour of a leprechaun, with black Sharpie details, is based on that charm's pose.
Watercolours on white watercolour paper. Permanent black Sharpie inked outline, with silver Sharpie highlights.
Update:
"Mr Minotaur prepares for bed after a hard day's night in the Labyrinth." Freehand sketch in black permanent Sharpie, with watercolours on watercolour paper. Live from my hotel room!
Exhibition pre-publicity poster of Tania McCartney by Penny Fisher
Opening Night for the "52-Week Illustration Challenge" exhibition at Arts Brookfield Gallery, Perth, Australia, was on Monday night, so the embargo is finally lifted. My shortlisted entry for "Week 11: Architecture" (for which I did an architectural caricature watercolour of the infamous Number 96 building) is on the wall! Number 96, of course, was the popular/naughty TV soap opera in Australia in the 70s, and a major part of this blog's origins.
"When children's author Tania McCartney challenged herself to produce an image per week for 52 weeks, to reconnect with her long-lost love of illustration (and hopefully illustrate her own books), she never imagined her tiny seed of an idea would become a mighty oak. Now in its second year, and with over 3000 members from around the globe, the weekly Facebook group has spawned connections and reconnections with decades of lost creativity. Friendships have been formed, collaborations forged, contracts signed, books produced, careers redirected, lives changed. And yes, Tania has realised her dream of illustrating her own books. Dare to dream.
"The exhibition features one carefully selected piece from each of the 52 themes in 2014." [From the entry poster.]
A great introduction to the 52-Week Illustration Challenge Exhibition is this video clip by The West Australian newspaper:
Towards the conclusion of the 2014 Challenge, we were asked to submit our thoughts, perhaps to be compiled as testimonials:
MOTIVATION AND DISCIPLINE
What I immediately latched onto with the Challenge was an opportunity to, once again, accept a series of external hard and fast dates (this time 52 of them!). The deadlines to complete something were invaluable. This seems to be how I get the best out of myself. In my daily life, I will happily postpone and ignore self-imposed deadlines, and rarely get things done as getting through the days just swamps me and keeps me distracted. I do seem to be able to meet externally applied deadlines, though, and I happily achieved the individual 365 Photos Challenge a few years ago (which lasted a whole year), and I was then bemused/disappointed when a group of enthusiastic teacher colleagues starting dropping like flies during a month-long 30 Photos Challenge a few years later.
So Tania's initial list of 52 weekly art deadlines, the already-assigned topics, was just the Challenge I'd been waiting for. I remembered back to an adult evening college art collective I joined in 1980, and had continued with until moving house in late 1984. The weekly two-hour art-making sessions made me quite productive. In that focused time, amid the happy banter of people relaxing and being creative, I could often achieve a finished piece - so very satisfying! Upon reexamining it the next morning, there would sometimes be a few finishing touches (a schedule that has become a great yardstick for the 2014 Challenge, too, actually). But the enforced discipline to complete something was invaluable.
Week 25: Dots - Fairy Fatality Bread
THEMES AND MEDIA
Knowing the 52 topics ahead of time, and being exposed to the daily uploads from all the other group members, helps to get ideas percolating in my head. Without the Challenge, these ideas might often flash through my head, but I don't usually act upon them. Or I simply never put aside the time and another once-great idea fades away. With the Challenge sitting in a corner of my brain, a mere stroll through a $2 bargain store, a new art supply store, the local Bunnings, the dog park, a cloud formation, or a classroom at school (I'm a primary school teacher-librarian), ideas for possible ways to marry certain themes and art media can merge - and emerge - resulting in singularly clever and innovative artworks. Without a doubt, some of my favourite pieces I've shared in the Challenge have been physically created in just minutes - sometimes seconds! - but the thought processes may have evolved in my head over many days, or weeks, and sometimes months.
Week 11: Architecture - Number 96 Lindsay Street, Paddington
SHARING IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES
I have been deliberately eclectic when approaching the theme each week and have been inspired by the many ideas and techniques displayed (and sometimes explained) on the Facebook page and the blog that Tania set up. It has been rewarding to share my own little tricks I've picked up over the years, and then to see what people do with them! Squinting to see the negative shapes, the "rules" for painting authentic skies, clouds and horizons, paper weaving, "drawing on the right side of the brain", long-forgotten kids' art from people's own childhoods, such as crayon resist... So much fun to share!
Because of this Challenge, I tried watercolour for the first time (beyond those frustrating Boxing Day memories of childhood, trying to use a giant Christmas gift tin of watercolour paint cakes and totally messing up a colouring book, and then going back to one's reliable, predictable pencils and Textas). Due to my success with that first watercolour scene, I've now done many more. with a long row of recently framed watercolours in my lounge room.
I think I've found new respect for collage. Several artworks created by me for this Challenge have surprised me by evolving into 3D collages just before the deadline. A few times it has been to repair an accidental splodge. A few times the artwork begged for some signage, or a naturally-cast shadow. And sometimes the 2D artwork simply refused to remain two-dimensional.
I've tried to be quite spontaneous. Several of my artworks have been created without pencil guidelines! Sometimes I amaze myself with such bravery (and dumb luck) and, again, those are the pieces that often seem to receive the most praise, which encourages me to be brave (or lucky) more often.
I know it's been mentioned on the Challenge page often. So many of us have an obvious "style", but so many of us seem to be searching for one. I know I've now found a few ways to make my own works quirkily unique to me, but have I yet found my style? I think the quest may be ongoing.
I know it's important to embrace serendipity, and of that there has been no shortage in this Challenge. In "Boxes" week, I had to create a display in a box for my school library. I travelled in a plane approaching "Plane" week, and then there was that terrible air disaster that (at first) threatened to shadow our efforts with doom and gloom, but we were triumphant and respectful. I had to create both "Sydney" and "Snow" in Michigan, USA, where I usually see so much snow - but it was the middle of their summer. I loved how "Bird" week happened to fall in National Bird Week, catching Tania by surprise. Serendipity is alive and well and we embrace it!
POST SCRIPT
Speaking of serendipity and wild coincidences:
Above: This is Bettina Dodson, my frame buddy. Her work for "Week 12: Numbers" and mine are right next to one another. Bettina was named after actress Bettina Welch, who (as Maggie Cameron) once blew up the Number 96 deli in my painting with a bomb!
To top off an amazing week, my image Fairy Fatality Bread, created for a different week of the 2014 Challenge, was requested for publication in a new romance fanzine, Trousseau, launched last weekend at the annual Australian Romance Readers' Convention!
Freehand-cut rabbits as negative spaces, using handmade, textured paper with splotches of watercolour. Shapes are backed with fake fur fabric scraps and white nylon wadding, plus tiny pompon tails and black paper burrows.
Update:
Collage using contrasting textured art materials found in a bargain store. Squirrels were torn freehand (no pencil lines!). Forgot to bring glue to Perth, so I will have to reassemble it when I get home.
43 beings in every cup! Coffee zombies painted in coffee on watercolour paper, with detail in watercolour, black Stained and green Sharpies.
Update:
"Would the last bug to leave the coffee jar please turn off the lights?" Watercolour paper, collaged onto black handmade paper. Details in watercolour and black Stained Sharpie.
Folded and freehand-cut collage pieces in watercolour paper and black card, with watercolour shading. Elements are glued to a backing of yellow card, layered with red and yellow sheets of glitter mesh fabric. One bird is sandwiched between the layers of mesh.
Update:
Watercolour cartoon on damp watercolour paper with a black Stained Sharpie outline.
Cutlery collage of watercolour and "La Carta Weave" textured papers. My "Kitchen" entry might trouble OCD types. I originally had no intention of putting some cutlery in backwards. (I did refrain from putting a knife in the fork drawer.)
Update:
Freehand-cut silhouette of a pie and fork, collaged onto a paper kitchen towel, mounted on a brown paper bag.
Mixed media collage, with potato printing and sponging in acrylic paints on brown paper bag and black card, decorated with white Signo pigment ink and black, green, silver and gold Sharpies.
Update:
Watercolour cartoon on damp watercolour paper with mixed media and black Sharpie.
Week 4: Insects II
Black "Stained" Sharpie ink on dampened watercolour paper, painted in watercolours with white pigment Signo highlights.
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.
Fashion vs Football. Mixed media collage, using coloured card, gift wrap, pre-printed paper kitchen towel, brown paper bag, a chenille stick and laserprinted Italian emblem and soccer ticket graphics. Highlights in watercolour and Sharpie inks.
Update:
All You Can Eat at The Leaning Tower of Pizza. Cartoon in black Sharpie (no pencil lines!) on watercolour paper, cut out and glued onto card. Painted in watercolour. Signage in "Pages" word processing and then laserprinted.
Facebook Friend Tania McCartney is running the 52-Week Illustration Challenge again in 2015. My first effort (above) is Little Red Riding Hood: a watercoloured artwork on dampened watercolour paper. Outlined in black Sharpie - freehand with no pencil lines.
I shall be adding the artworks to this Flickr slideshow each week. Enjoy!
I did the Challenge in its inaugural year, which saw its membership surpass 2500 members! (2728 at last count!) Last year, I got into a fairly good routine of painting on a Sunday afternoon (and perhaps a little tinkering the next night), then creating the scan or digital photo so I'd be ready to post to the Challenge's Facebook page at midnight on the Tuesday. Of course, originally, I had no intention of doing a second artwork each week. I started getting intensely jealous of people putting up multiple works of a theme... so now, if inspiration strikes, I'll alway do more. I'm looking forward to seeing who's still here - and how artistic we all feel - in another year's time!
Update:
Week 1: Fairy Tale II
Peter Pan. Charcoal sketch of my Chicago actor pal, James Edward Dauphin, from a publicity shot of his featured stage role. In a costume he designed himself. Highlights in green oil pastel.
Week 1: Fairy Tale III
The Witch - of numerous fairy tales - as portrayed by Meryl Streep in 'Into the Woods'. Charcoal over watercolour wash on A3 watercolour paper. Based on a publicity photo.
I saw the movie, Into the Woods, on Sunday night and that particular image of Meryl Streep as The Witch has been haunting me ever since. I did exaggerate her nose because she was looking too pretty. I was excited by the randomness of the watercolour wash. Just as it was close to drying, I patted off excess green in the centre, with a scrunched paper towel, guessing where the face needed to be. Then I kept reorienting the paper, trying to decide which way was "up". Working with charcoal takes me back to the late 70s/early 80s. Nostalgia plus!
Otherwise known as "Therin of Andor", Ian McLean has had an active association with "Star Trek" and science fiction media fandom in Australia since 1980. Before then he was an avid fan of the "Batman" TV series (60s) and the Australian TV classic, "Number 96" (70s).
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