52-Week Illustration Challenge, bonus round

Bonus: Advent (Days #1-24 compile)

Flickr Slideshow:

Click HERE!

Opening Night: 52-Week Illustration Challenge Exhibition!

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.

Flickr slideshow of Opening Night.

"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:

Challenging creativity: Illustration challenge unites artists around the world

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.

So the cello bags of feathers I bought months ago (just before "Feather" week) were also on hand for "Black + White" and "Bird" weeks. The papier mâché koala mask I bought on a whim went with me to the USA so I could be prepared to paint it up at my penpal's house in Michigan for "Sydney" week. I knew that the cupcake patty pan cases in my pantry were destined to make it into "Under the Sea" week the moment I saw some child craft creations in a Kindergarten classroom months earlier.

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.

Week 35: Paris - Abbesses, le Métro

THE QUEST TO FIND ONE'S STYLE

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!

THE VIRTUAL TOUR

And here's the whole thing! The virtual tour of the 52-week Illustration Challenge Exhibition Opening Night​, as blogged by Tania McCartney​ and Nicky Johnston​!

Tania and Nicky have also compiled a report on the exhibition, with more photos and the text of Tania's Opening Night speech: HERE!

Flickr slideshows of my work can be found here: 2014 artworks and 2015 artworks.

Captain's Log: Supplemental: The exhibition has now been extended to Friday 27th March!

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 1

Week 1: Eggs

Facebook Friend Tania McCartney has declared 2014 to be a 52-Week Illustration Challenge. This will keep me on the ball! Here's my first effort (above). A two-ended waterproof Sharpie - and no pencil lines or erasing! Of course, after I moved the egg to pose it with the drawing and photograph it, all the shadows changed!

I shall be adding the artworks to this Flickr slideshow each week. Enjoy!

I did the 365 Photos Challenge a few years ago and it definitely improved my photography. I would highly recommend it; start any time and add your pics to a daily blog or Flickr. Not long after I started that Challenge, Aussie TV celebrity Andrew G (aka Osher Günsberg) started a 365 Self-Portrait Challenge. He did some amazing work! I visited his exhibition that he held when it was all over, bought my favourite pics - and it was fun chatting to him photographer-to-photographer. It made me feel legitimate. I never felt like I understood photography, although I had a Polaroid as a teen, then a 3D Nimslo camera as a young adult. More recently, I did an online 30-Day Photo Challenge with a group of teacher colleagues. Similarly to this art challenge, a daily theme was suggested, but hardly any of the participants made to to the end of the month! So I'm looking forward to seeing who's still here, and how artistic we all feel, in a year's time!

New Year's Eve at the Field Museum, Chicago

Today, it was off to the Field Museum, via Union Station, Chicago, with Cousin Lynn!

Click HERE for a slideshow of the exhibits.

The Andorian sock monkey checks out his simian competition.!

All Black Day

Mike Riversdale, via @BarristaMatt who got it from iphonewzealand.co.nz

Schools across Australia are participating in ALL BLACK DAY today, a fundraiser for the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, which was rocked by a large earthquake exactly one month ago. All images are Creative Commons, credited as requested, and found on Flickr.


gobeirne


NZ Defence Force, Crown Copyright 2011, NZ Defence Force – Some Rights Reserved.


Mark Lincoln, www.nzraw.co.nz


gobeirne


Mark Lincoln, www.nzraw.co.nz


gobeirne


NZ Defence Force, Crown Copyright 2011, NZ Defence Force – Some Rights Reserved.


Will you lend Christchurch a hand and help it to bloom again?

The above frieze was created by students in Class SCHM at Penrith Public School, in western Sydney. Teacher Mrs Mead and the teachers' aides helped the students to paint their hands, then they photographed them in the shape of colourful tulips.


UPDATE: Okay, here's our PhotoPeach slideshow

All Black Day: Christchurch earthquake appeal, 2011

Entering the literary garden of delights!

Student comment: "I saw the Frog Prince and his golden ball in a bowl,
but I think that is the same bowl Chook used last year when
he was being an astronaut!"

Today, the students at my school had their first experiences in our newly built school library. I've spent three weeks unpacking the book stock (from long-term storage) and decorating with new and nostalgic elements. The students were full of questions, but I used Circle Time to maximise and equalise all the the talking and listening. It was a great day. The looks on their faces, as they explored (hands free) all the new nooks and crannies made all the planning and hard work worth while.


Our historic school milk bottles are now enshrined in a shadow box.

The quote from a framing store, to have the bottles placed into a customised shadow box was $200 but I did it for about $40, thanks to parts bought from Spotlight. The inside text reads: Penrith Public School’s library stands on the site of a portable library building, and before that a previous portable building. In 2010, workmen excavating the foundations found these "school milk" bottles buried deep in the rubble. One is embossed "1/3 PINT PASTEURISED MILK". See the original blog entry of our archeological find HERE.

48 more photos of display elements ready for today's opening are HERE!

365: The runners-up

Inspired by TV celebrity Andrew Günsberg's 365 self portraits exhibition, I've been printing out my favourite shots from my own 365 Photos project. I started with my 13 of the Best but, remembering how hard it was to choose those thirteen in the first place, I've now picked out thirteen more, the "runners-up":


Day 20, MAY 2009


Day 31, JUNE 2009


Day 68, JULY 2009


Day 111, AUGUST 2009


Day 125, SEPTEMBER 2009


Day 158, OCTOBER 2009


Day 185, NOVEMBER 2009


Day 228, DECEMBER 2009


Day 265, JANUARY 2010


Day 293, FEBRUARY 2010


Day 311, MARCH 2010


Day 336, APRIL 2010


Day 361, MAY 2010

Clicking on each photo will take you to its Flickr page and a caption or, if you'd like to live through a year of my life in 365 rapid fire images, try this Flickr slideshow.

Ian and Andrew - Gee!

Some days it really is like I've stumbled into the Twilight Zone, and an alternate universe Ian is lucky enough to have an whirlwind adventure or celebrity encounter that seems totally surreal when compared to my usual life.

I was heading into the city today, simply because I'd had to forfeit my usual comic-buying jaunt on Thursday night to attend Night #2 the annual Year 6 musical. Suddenly, a Twitter message came through, reminding me that TV celebrity Andrew Günsberg's "365: A Year of Self Portraits" exhibition was coming to a close... today! I had intended trying to get to this, not really realising that I'd totally run out of days! Had I not already been on a train, I probably would have just admitted defeat.

My trusty iPhone helped me triangulate on the location of MART Gallery in Surry Hills - and off I went. A cheery Andrew G greeted us warmly as each browser entered the gallery. Many new arrivals seemed to be old acquaintances. Typically, Andrew was setting up his beloved, overworked camera to take a new self portrait!

Although he and I have a mutual friend (in Andrew Mercado), I'd never had the chance to meet Andrew G before. His long-running hosting stint on "Australian Idol" makes it seem like he's a part of everyone's furniture (esp. that flickering, rectangular piece in the corner!) I'd been closely following his progress on his "365 Days" photographic project on Flickr, as I'd started my own version (not self portraits, though) just a few weeks before his.

The exhibition was great! Compared to the demanding work involved in Andrew's year of self-portraits (lugging a huge camera, lenses and two lights all over the world), my own "365 Photos" project now feels like a bit of a cheat. I simply snapped off a pic a day on my trusty iPhone. (I was thrilled with the result, and it's fun looking back at a year of memories. Good self discipline, too.) But it was great meeting Andrew at the exhibition today.



I was excited that the very first photo I'd seen of his on the Internet - Day 91, of Andrew encountering an ancient television camera at the ABC studios - was still available for sale. Yeeha! I ended up selecting two smaller prints as well: Day 29 (a casually-dressed Andrew leaping into the air) and Day 120, working with musician James Morrison on an episode of "Australian Idol".

Saying my farewells to Andrew, Mel and little Pippet (the Gallery's resident canine, who loved the smell of Jack on my trouser hems), I wandered off to have a late lunch, and to wait until the exhibition closed and I could collect my purchases straight off the wall. While munching on my sandwich, I began to wonder if I should have asked to take my own photo of Andrew, or with Andrew - or whether taking pictures in a gallery of photos was simply not the done thing. Just then, I happened to notice that Andrew had sent an image to his Twitter account, via his Blackberry, and when I opened the shot... I was right in the middle of it!


Click on this thumbnail to see the larger Twitpic.

Certainly not my most flattering angle. Had I known the photo was being taken, I'd have surely sucked in my gut!

But the fun was not over! As I was preparing to upload this blog entry, Andrew posted to his own blog the self-portrait that he was taking as I entered the gallery today. Lo and behold, I'm in that one, too, just over gallery owner Mel's shoulder!


Pippet, Andrew Günsberg and Mel (and I!) at the Mart Gallery.

FLASHBACK:


Day 125 of my own "365 Photos" project - 12 September 2009.

Omigosh! I only just found out that Andrew G's wife, Israeli model/actress Noa Tishby, was MACO Corporal Amanda Cole in "Star Trek: Enterprise"!

#365 of 365

I contemplated what to photograph all day today, it being the final day of my 365 Photos project. With the natural light of the day rapidly failing, I posted about my desperation on Facebook. Suddenly, while crossing the overpass at Penrith railway station, I realised the last pic could be a self-portrait. (Channeling TV celebrity Andrew G, I guess, who is finishing up the same project, only 365 self portraits. And, I guess, if I was as good looking maaaaybe I could understand attempting that.) As I went to snap the pic, a message came through on the iPhone, from a Facebook Friend who'd read my panicked FB message, and suggesting... why not a self-portrait?

If you'd like to live through a year of my life in 365 rapid fire images, try this Flickr slideshow.

Or here's a "twelve (no, thirteen) of the best":


Day 18, MAY 2009


Day 36, JUNE 2009


Day 64, JULY 2009


Day 90, AUGUST 2009


Day 136, SEPTEMBER 2009


Day 153, OCTOBER 2009


Day 184, NOVEMBER 2009


Day 234, DECEMBER 2009


Day 248, JANUARY 2010


Day 282, FEBRUARY 2010


Day 300, MARCH 2010


Day 331, APRIL 2010


Day 356, MAY 2010

Clicking on each photo will take you to its Flickr page and a caption.