Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 40

Week 40: Blue.

"Portrait of the artist as an Andorian from 'Star Trek'." Oil pastels on watercolour paper, from a photo from my album.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 22

Week 22: Science.

Ida Lupino as the evil alchemist, Dr Cassandra Spellcraft, in the "Batman" TV series of the 1960s. Oil pastels on A3 paper, with watercolour wash.

Update:

Week 22: Science II.

"Periodic Table of the Elephants." White pigment Signo ink and collaged black finepoint sketch on black card.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 20

Week 20: Still life.

It's all I had in the fruit bowl. Bananas with lime and garlic. Oil pastels on black card.

Update:

Week 20: Still life II.

Black finepoint marker, graphite pencil and coloured pencils.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 7

Week 7: Kindergarten

"Kinder kid and glove puppet". Watercolour pencils on cream Ingres paper, based on a photograph from my own collection.

Update:

Week 7: Kindergarten II

Oil pastels and watercolour collage on black card.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 2

Week 2: Outdoors

Collage and silhouette using Ingres papers, flocked cardboard, oil pastels and nylon cord on grey Ingres background.

Update:

Week 2: Outdoors II

"N-n-n-n-next!" Cartoon in finepoint black Sharpie, oil pastels and watercolour wash, collaged onto Ingres paper.

Week 2: Outdoors III

"Corellas' annual visit." Watercolour miniature. Masking fluid and black and white Sharpie highlights on watercolour paper. Based on my own photograph. This piece utilised an old offcut; it's only 85mm x 95mm.

Week 2: Outdoors IV

"Vasquez Rocks, Los Angeles." Watercolours with black and white Sharpie highlights on remnants of watercolour paper, mounted onto Ingres paper. Based on a photograph from my 2013 vacation album.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 40

This week is "Abstract". I found a grab bag of handmade paper offcuts in a discount art store, sorted them into colours and sizes, chose colours that would complement the new paint scheme in my lounge room, and then laid out an appealing design. I glued the strips and three circles onto a sheet of corrugated cardboard. The indigo sheets have gold glitter impregnated into the paper, and the yellowish sheets have swirls of a darker colour.

Week 40: Abstract

What was interesting about gluing down handmade paper: it was very obedient about butting up against its neighbours. I really enjoyed the experience. Therapeutic! When it was finished, the white wood glue had seemingly stained three of the pale cream rectangles. Perhaps the original sheet was much thinner than the rest? Luckily there were three similar pieces still in the bag, so I eventually peeled back two of the circles, inserted new rectangles over the top of the old ones with a regular glue-stick, and refastened the circles. All rather compliant and organic. Only five pieces (and the three circles) actually needed any trimming. Otherwise I simply accepted the lengths as they came out of the bag. You can play forever before committing to glue the pieces down.

Update:

Four and twenty abstract blackbirds escape from a pie. Black "Stained" Sharpie (brush tip), watercolours and collaged blackbird silhouette templates. I cut several of each at a time, then trimmed a few to make them a little more individual.

Week 40: Abstract II

And I think I shall call this next one... Blue Piles. Oil pastels on watercolour paper. Background created by squirting watercolour-tinted water from a syringe. (I did one background on wet paper and one on dry paper, but the dry worked much better.)

Week 40: Abstract III

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 32

Now in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, and supposedly on my way home tomorrow - two hurricanes (Iselle and Julio) permitting!

I'm working with very limited materials here, holed up in my hotel room in Honolulu as two hurricanes bear down their fury, probably delaying my return to Australia tomorrow. Not too sure what I've made. More a repressed fear breaking through for my travel buddy and me. Oil pastels and metallic ink Sharpies on Ingres paper.

Week 32: Psychedelic

Probably needs a wash, but all I have is decaf coffee and green tea.

Update:

Back from my overseas travels! While trawling through some online examples of "psychedelic" this week, I came across a reference to the villain Louie the Lilac, who appeared in the 60s TV series, "Batman". Here is my miniature psychedelic wooden fairy door, which will be located to the base of a tree in my garden in the morning. Decorated with Tamiya acrylic paint lilacs, and details in puffy fabric paint, Signo pen white opaque paint and black Sharpie.

Week 32: Psychedelic II

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 27

Live from Michigan, USA! I've only ever been here in the snow before, but it's summer, of course! The snowman on the right with the "Star Trek" phaser is based on the one made by my penpal, Olivia, and I during out first meeting in January 1984. The little one is based on the one outside our restaurant window in December 2012. The squirrel victim is depicted because - squirrel! Drawn with oil pastels on two backgrounds.

Week 26: Snow

I was thrilled to unite these two long-gone snowpeople, separated by decades, but definitely kindred spirits. Just noticing that the photo of this piece loses some subtlety in the hand phaser, and yet improves the tones on the squirrel. I'm fascinated how oil pastels work, and how they scan/photograph, when the colours are layered - and loving the unpredictability.

Update:
Prismatic origami paper snowflakes on a black card background.

Week 27: Snow II

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 26

I spent all day Wednesday surrounded by fog in San Francisco so, in the wee hours of Thursday, when I tried to recreate a plump, fluffy, accurate-to-nature cloud I had painted in 1978, this came out instead. Celebrating the rediscovery that purple and umber are the perfect tones to shade a cloud! You'd expect to need grey or black, but no it's purple and umber! Oil pastels on tiny notepad paper of the Cova Hotel, downtown San Francisco, USA.

Week 26: Clouds

Update:
A bit of a thought experiment. "Every silver lining has a cloud." [Quote from Avon, "Blake's 7".] Created by attaching a torn Ingres paper cloud to my hotel window, complete with a silver lining made with a tinsel pipe-cleaner:

Week 26: Clouds II

No more baked beans for you! Oil pastels on Ingres paper:

Week 26: Clouds III

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 19

Week 19: Fish

Oil pastel goldfish, with watercolour wash on gesso primed canvas sheet, and photographed inside an actual fishbowl.

Update:

Ahhh, what a quandary! I made a set of prints (monoprints, but I got two good ones off the positive) attempting to do a "Fish II" entry for the 52-Week Illustration Challenge - and it's soooo colourful, I wondered if it was better to save as a "Week 20: Colour" entry. It needed some work when it was dry, so I was mindful of the possible changed theme as I went. Being red/green colour blind, next week's theme was always going to have its challenges. Of course, my other quandary: at first, the original "positive" I created probably looked better than the "negative" prints. Choices! Decisions!

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, especially when mounted in one of my bargain bin $3 mounts! It's a monoprint negative, with acrylic paints brushed onto the cardboard positive. Moistioned cartridge paper applied and peeled off then, when dry, a few details were added with waterproof black UniPin marker and Faber-Castell watercolour pencils.

Week 19: Fish II

Week 19: Three negative prints and the positive for "Fish II"

Top left: Failed negative monoprint (I forgot to wet the paper). Top right: Positive in cardboard layers for "Week 19: Fish II". Lower pics are two more monoprint negatives, one of which became the final artwork.

The unmounted monoprint negative for "Week 19: Fish II".

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 15

Week 15: Detail

Meerkat in black Sharpie, coloured with oil pastels, on brown paper satchel.

Week 14: Simplicity II and Week 15: Detail.

Update:
I decided to have another go at "detail", revisiting the saurian aliens of Sirius, from the television phenomenon, "V": the 80s version, not the recent remake. Handpainted lizard scales show through my phony human mask in this "V" selfie:

This was the trickiest "selfie" ever taken. No prescription lenses, but get everything important in focus: and highlight the cheek, the hand, the hat and chest insignias, and hide the Apple logo on the iPhone!

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

Week 15: Detail III - Fish

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 10

Week 10: Pattern

Paper weaving, created in 2014, using two old and damaged/unfinished oil pastel artworks from 1981. They had languished in the garage since 2000 (and the previous garage since 1984) and were under a thick layer of dust. I wasn't particularly attached to either of them - they were very early attempts at using oil pastels - but I love the newly-created weaving. Below: The original artworks from 1981.

Above left: Old unfinished giraffe, oil pastel on Ingres paper, 1981.
Above right: Age-damaged bottlebrush artwork, oil pastels and acrylic wash on white art paper, 1981.

Tania McCartney added an article to her blog in which I describe the creative process involved in this technique.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 5

Week 5: Flower.

Gardenia from my garden, oil pastels on black paper.