Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 21

Week 21: Ink.

Black finepoint marker, graphite pencil and coloured pencils.

Update:

Week 21: Ink II.

Black finepoint marker, graphite pencil and coloured pencils.

Week 21: Ink III.

Inkblot male seahorse and his brood, enhanced with blue ballpoint ink and a hint of coloured pencil, white Signo pigment ink and watercolour.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 15

Week 15: Ocean.

Sketches in black, blue and red Sharpie, white Puffy Paint, white opaque Signo, and gold Kindy Glitz on remnants of salted watercolour wash, mounted on black card. Inspiration from many pics in a Google Image search.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 42

Crayon resist jellyfish and sand, acrylic blue wash and collaged fish (using junk mail pamphlets and paper patty pans).

Week 42: Under the sea

I knew I was going to use patty pan cases as scales/fins several weeks ago, and I knew i had several packets and leftovers in the pantry. But most of them turned out to be plain white and a few were silver on the outside and white on the inside. White-spotted red and green cases wouldn't have been my first choice, but who can argue at 11.30 pm? The glossy junk mail pamphlet that became the school of silvery fish was for a set of free chromed boules (if I bought a case of wine). I love the randomness of the lines and reflections!

Update:

Black Artline finepoint ink, watercolour, silver-coated chocolate balls and ground pepper for a little extra texture.

Week 42: Under the sea II

I have memories of a breakfast cereal toy (Plonky Piano in the Neptune's Seaweeders band) who looked a little bit like this, but I also caught an interview with comedienne Jenny Slate, on Letterman the other night, talking about her original character, Marcel the Shell with shoes on, and that got my brain ticking over. Plus there's signage, which seems to be an ongoing theme for me recently.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 17

Week 17: Horse I and II

Horses and Seahorse in double-ended black Sharpie on acrylic backgrounds over primed canvas miniatures. Detail in metallic gold Signo pigment ink. Horses are based on a sculpture displayed in the foyer of the Manning Building, Pitt Steet, near Central Station, Sydney CBD. Seahorse is from a photograph I took at Darling Harbour Aquarium.

Updates:
I saw a giant permanent marker in a discount store and had an idea to try sketching a zebra with minimal pencilled guidelines. I'm quite happy with the result. It's huge in comparison to the miniatures!

Week 17: Horse III - Zebra

Zebra sketch inked with 7mm "extra broad" black permanent marker, with watercolour muzzle and background on A3 art paper.
I also had a burning idea for a cartoon:

Week 17: Horse IV - Washing day at the pantomime

Double-ended black Sharpie (no pencil lines!), plus watercolour on white primed gesso canvas sheet.

Seahorse on the wall!

After many, many months, the seahorse mural is finally completed and grouted to the wall of the shower recess.

Originally traced from a 3D carved wooden seahorse my parents once brought back for me from a Pacific Island cruise, the eyes and bubbles are glass hemispherical "stones". When the white background started looking too stark, seaweed strands and a school of fish were added.

For a time, I was flummoxed about the grout. With white tiles for the background, white grout would have looked wrong. I considered adding a grey coloured oxide, but how much would be needed? Then I found green ready-made grout in a squeeze bottle (now a deleted item, sadly) from Riot Art & Craft in Penrith. They also had vibrant pink.

Epiphany 2009 - and down it comes...

Two friends called in yesterday, and that means that somebody beyond this household actually saw - in person - that I really had decorated for Christmas! And today, down it all comes for another year.

You know, I really miss the smell of real pine needles but, not having a car - and only actually seeing one real tree on sale this year at the local fruit shop - plastic Christmas trees are just too convenient. Maybe one year...

This season's two ornaments were:


Christmas 2008: The felt koala riding a seahorse is one of my new Christmas ornaments, purchased from a souvenir shop in Circular Quay, Sydney, one day last January while heading around the harbour to the Sydney Opera House. The other features the three main characters (Fry, Leela and robot Bender) from the "Futurama" animated television show. They originally came in a boxed set, bought several years ago from Kinokuniya bookshop, in a year when I simply couldn't resist them - despite already having bought my "Superman Returns" ornament. I glued the characters around a mirrored disco ball ornament, essentially to consolidate them as one item, after Bender's leg broke and I figured that all three figures needed some support.

Previous entries include:

Epiphany 2008

Epiphany 2007

On the twelfth day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas.

Packing up Christmas each year always reminds me of my dear friend and former work colleague, Patsy. She doesn't even undecorate her artificial tree any more; just wraps it up in a huge plastic dropsheet, four corners tied at the top, and bundles it off to her back shed. It was a ritual originated by panic one year, when her Easter dinner guests were pulling up in their car, and she realised the house still had evidence of the previous year's Christmas cheer! The next December, the same guests were arriving... and with one tug of a ribbon: instant Christmas!