Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 46

Week 46: Endangered

Freehand composite sketch in waterproof black laundry marker on watercolour paper, with painted watercolour highlights. References were photographs found in Google Image searches.

Update:

Week 46: Endangered II

"New Zealand Kakapo." Sketch from a photo, found in a Google Image search. Drawn freehand (no pencil lines!) with a black laundry marker on green card. Background is watercolour spatters (around a temporary paper mask). Highlights in watercolours.

Week 46: Endangered III

"Count them while you can." Lions in gold Quill Metallique card, cut "paper doll" style, initially with two tails each, then elements removed and added to break up the symmetry. Details in black Sharpie and white Puffy paint. Count them while you can, 'cos they are disappearing!

Week 46: Endangered IV

"Mr Minotaur thinks about organising a snack." Drawing in finepoint black Sharpie. Highlights in watercolour on white Quill linenbond, collaged onto cream "marbletone" card.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 51

The Minotaur in his labyrinth. Collage of black card over red "bricks", textured with sponged watercolour.

Week 51: Silhouette

Update:

"Lions of Taronga, 1960s". Based on a friend's photograph and my own childhood memories. Background in watercolour and double-ended black Sharpie; lion and lioness silhouettes cut freehand from textured, handmade paper. So many times in the 60s, 70s and 80s did I lean on the fence staring into the lion pit. The pit is still there at Taronga Zoo, but totally remodeled so that it is viewed from the side at the lions' level. The wall depicted at the back is now glass and the public can't access the rim of the pit. This particular enclosure, which used to have a large map of Australia painted on its concrete floor(?) in the 50s and early 60s, now houses a tiger family.

Week 51: Silhouette II

There is a version of this b/w background sketched in pencil onto a canvas frame for "Black + White" week but, at the last minute, I realised the canvas was treated to repel water! I then tried to replicate it onto white watercolour paper, but totally ran out of time to finish the detailing (not to mention the lions). Then I realised I should just save it for "Silhouette" week, so I completed it tonight... after many weeks mulling it over in my head.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 31

Still in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, inspired this week by Winnie-the-Pooh and the poetry of AA Milne.

Inspired by AA Milne's poem, "Lines and Squares" which, as a child, I thought was called "Lions and Squares". During a poetry show at teachers' college, we reinterpreted this poem as a game of Hopscotch. So here is my collage of lions and bears - using paper, oil pastel, crayon, white Tulip "puffy dimensional fabric paint" and Scotch Expressions patterned "washi tape". Also featuring chalk lines, parallel lines and written punishment lines. The shapes were all cut freehand.

Week 31: Lines

LINES AND SQUARES
"Whenever I walk in a London street,
I'm ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, 'Bears,
Just look how I'm walking in all the squares!'" (AA Milne.)

Happy New Year in Chicago!

Having already done the train trip into Union Station, with Lynn yesterday, my confidence was boosted about replicating the trip to catch up with penpal and Facebook Friend, actor James Dauphin, on New Year's Day of 2013. We had a wonderful lunch, talked at each other about a million words per hour, and took a wander around the sights of Chicago's CBD. James had recently done some acting work on the then-forthcoming "Superman" movie, Man of Steel, and he pointed out several street angles that might appear on film. (Sadly, James' scenes were cut, but yes, lots of buildings were recognisable.

James is the master of the Facebook selfie, and as we bid each other farewell, we indulged in the above duo-selfie before I headed off for my train. He was deep into rehearsals for a stage production of Deathtrap, playing the role made famous by Christopher Reeve on screen. I understand the play ended up having a sell-out season, although I was already due to move on to my next destinations before opening night.

My first challenge for the day had been finding a while-you-wait photo lab that was open on January 1, to have my cousins' photographs scanned and printed. Although the shop I encountered had several self-serve devices, the guy took pity on the helpless tourist with the fascinating pictures and did an expert job on them, using the "special" printer behind the counter to get the best results.

While I was there, I remembered to ask for directions to "The Bean" (above). I knew nothing about it, except that its official name was Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, and that a Facebook Friend had urged me to add it to my bucket list. I wasn't that far away from it, and Millennium Park was certainly a great place to fill in time before the rest of Chicago's shopkeepers awoke for their late-morning January 1 openings.

Day 10's other photos:

Virtual waterfall, Millennium Park

The Bean!

Macy's Christmas windows for 2012 celebrated the history of Macy's

Art Gallery festive lions

Lion around

Lion Island, as seen from Paul Landa Park, Pearl Beach (2011).

And a recent trip with the school choir, into the recently-revamped Sydney Town Hall in the CBD, had me noticing these stone "lion head" gargoyles (below). I guess I'd always known they were there but I hadn't really examined them closely before, nor noticed that each one had a different expression!







Then, of course, there are two lions in the school library:


Alex from "Madagascar" and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa"


Alex and friends

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Library lion

And, it's almost Chinese New Year!

The lion and the mouse

More playground hijinks as the students and I do a
photoshoot for the fable of "The lion and the mouse".