52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 47

Approaching Liberty. Watercolour, with green Sharpie ink on the crown spikes. Based on a photo taken by me, in January 1984, just before the torch was replaced.

Week 47: New York

Update:

John Lennon Memorial in Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York. With some strawberries and a little magic. Just imagine! I've been mulling this one over all week and strategising. I really wanted to do it, but drawing a mosaic like this, in the detail I wanted originally, could literally have taken months! Instead, it took about 30 minutes. Black Sharpie ink and watercolour. Texture provided by metallic pencil rubbed over my flyscreen wire door, plus a little added glitter.

Week 47: New York II

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Bonus Challenge

International Book Giving Day is running a bonus challenge to select four bookmarks that will be made available to online visitors.

Bonus Challenge: Bookmark

My entry for the International Book Giving Day 2015 bookmark competition. Continuing the theme I tinkered with in Leaves Week. Emu in black, silver and gold Sharpie inks and white Signo on green handmade paper.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 46

Emerging from the clown car. Black and red Sharpie ink, watercolour and collage (with various wrapping papers and tiny pompons) on A3 watercolour paper. I made a vague thumbnail sketch at work yesterday afternoon, and it was just going to be a painted sketch. Then I walked home, and passed a bargain store with $1 sheets of wrapping paper - and yet another collage was born. Each outfit was cut out freehand - no pencil lines!

Week 46: Circus

Update:

Stagefright at the circus. Black Sharpie, watercolours and metallic coloured pencil on A4 amber La Carta Weave textured paper.

Week 46: Circus II

"Reaching new heights in the spotlight." Collage, watercolour, coloured pencil and black ink. Labels rendered in Word. I love the irony that the box with the messiest contents is the one that got upturned.

Week 46: Circus III

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 45

Watercolour - with no pencil lines - based on a photograph I took one Autumn in Bright, Victoria. The painting came together very quickly after a night of compiling a big batch of report card marks, but I'd had the composition in my head all last week. Getting into the painting was very therapeutic. My reward!

Week 45: Leaves

Update:

Eucalyptus shape cut from green handmade paper remnant, with koala sketch drawn in white Unibolt Signo pigment ink, metallic silver Pilot marker and fine point black Sharpie. No pencil lines! Mounted on a pre-printed Origami paper square.

Week 45: Leaves II

I ended up with a spare eucalyptus leaf shape last night, cut from green handmade paper remnant, so I decided a lyrebird would be the best fit for the available area. Sketched in brown Staedtler Triplus fineliner, white Unibolt Signo pigment ink, metallic silver and gold Pilot markers and fine point black Sharpie. No pencil lines! Mounted on a sheet of black card.

Week 45: Leaves III

Assemblage art of a leafy apple tree with torn brown Ingres paper, candy mint leaves, acid drops and Jaffas on a blue piece of nylon fabric.

Week 45: Leaves IV

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 44

A yarn about yarn. Collage with knitted fabric scraps, toothpicks and a glittery star sticker. Decorated with watercolour and Sharpie inks on A3 watercolour paper. Typed word balloon in Pages on La Carta Weave paper. Note how the knitter is already wearing the garment she is making.

Week 44: Yarn

Update:

With my big ball of string [er yarn], I can do anything... Inspired by the Marion Holland book. Design created on black "scratch paper", which comes in a pack of five sheets (plus tool) for $2.50 from a bargain shop.

Week 44: Yarn II

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 43

Collage of ingres paper, feathers, ribbon with black Stained Sharpie ink. Weird coincidence that the ribbon had a similar pattern to the feathers!

Week 43: Bird

Update:

Sulphur-crested cockatoo in watercolour, on A3 watercolour paper. Feeling very proud as I used confident brushstrokes - and no pencil guidelines!

Week 43: Bird II

Eastern rosella in watercolour and a few touches of black Sharpie and white Signo ink. No pencil guidelines!

Week 43: Bird III

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 41

Freehand outline, cut with scissors from black card, and pieces glued down, collage-style, onto A4 white card, to enhance the face's axis of symmetry. This cutting style is called Notan.

Week 41: Black + White

Update:

People liked my giraffe finger puppet a few weeks ago, so here's a zebra. Cut from two pieces of watercolour paper, markings drawn with a black "Stain" Sharpie. One finger is draped in thin black cloth and becomes the nose:

Week 41: Black + White II

Pygar, the blind angel from Barbarella. Black Artline marker and white Signo pigment ink on watercolour paper, with real feathers collaged onto black card:

Week 41: Black + White III

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 39

3D papier mache squirrel, decoupaged with orange paper printed with the words "squirrel", "paw", "ear", "tail" and "acorn", plus eyes made with "i"s - and an "n" for a nose.

Week 39: Words

Update:

Black Stained by Sharpie ink (a brushlike tip, supposedly for drawing on fabric, but nice to use on paper, too) on La Carta Weave textured paper.

Week 39: Words II

Week 39: Words III

Words and Pictures: Watercolour over cardboard templates, painted onto the page of movie reviews from Mx newspaper. (Ha! I was cleaning up the work area the next morning. The "audience" template, which I cut like a set of paper dollies from some card and used to mask off sections, looks too pretty to throw away. Into the Odds 'n' Ends box it goes. We may see it again some day.)

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 38

Oil pastel giraffe wearing a bilby mask - and a bilby wearing a giraffe mask. Signage created in Word, torn edges and painted with coffee.

Week 38: Giraffe

Update:

Two-part paper finger puppet - one finger forms the neck. Outlined in black Sharpie, coloured with watercolours.

Week 38: Giraffe II

Week 38: Giraffe III

Freehand silhouette in black card collaged to a safari print gift bag. 3D eyelashes cut from white paper, with curls rolled over the end of a paintbrush. I was creating this at lunchtime today when a Facebook message came in announcing the passing of my actor friend, Elaine Lee (Vera in TV's Number 96) and I suddenly realised that my new giraffe needed to have - instead of white cartoon eyes - big white eyelashes. (Many happy memories having drinkies in Elaine's dressing room, after a stage performance, and watching her peel off her huge false eyelashes.)

Week 38: Giraffe IV

Mixed media collage with chenille sticks (poking through random holes made with a hole punch), torn paper and self-adhesive faux fur safari skin on a quill board background.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 37

Black and green Sharpie outline with watercolour.

Week 37: Balloons

Update:

Assemblage art with waterbomb balloons (decorated with Sharpie inks), metallic pipe cleaner, Scotch Expressions patterned "washi tape" and coloured card:

Week 37: Balloons II

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 36

"I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down..." - Mixed media collage backdrop for a puppet show. Acrylic paints, real straw for walls, paper clouds, windows and door, thumbtack doorknob with commercial wolf puppet.

Week 36: House

Update:

I decided I needed to do Part 2 of House I. "He huffed and he puffed and he blew my straw house down..." Mixed media collage backdrop for a puppet show. Acrylic paints, real sticks and cardboard bricks for walls, corrugated cardboard door, thumbtack doorknob, paper clouds and windows, computer print-out photos, with commercial pig puppet (playing three roles).

Week 36: House III

Between the above mixed media collages, I created another collage with flint paper, card, corrugated cardboard, black ballpoint ink and glitter stars. The black house is actually the negative space cut from the indigo flint paper:

Week 36: House II

Cotswold Cottage (1600s) and gardens, all transported from Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England, to Henry Ford's Greenfield Village, Michigan, USA. Watercolour and black Sharpie.

Week 36: House IV

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 35

The beautiful art nouveau Métro entrance to Abbesses Station in the Montmartre district, Paris, France. In winter. Green and black Sharpies, opaque white Signo and watercolours on Mont Marte watercolour paper.

Week 35: Paris

Update:

In the style of Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen's iconic poster for Rodolphe Salis' Le Chat Noir, here is my interpretation of le Chien Blanc, created in collage, black Sharpie, opaque white Signo and watercolours. Model: Jack Russell McLean.

Week 35: Paris II

My muse struck at about 10pm and I finally posted the pic after finishing at 2.30am and was too pumped to sleep. I hate it when my brain wants to keep being creative! In 1974, when studying French at high school, I used to wear a T-shirt with "le Chat Noir" printed on it, having originally bought it because it had French language on it, and having no idea how famous it was, nor its relevance to Montmartre! Last year, visiting Paris for the first time, the image was everywhere: in every Parisian gift store and souvenir shop and almost every cafe. Plus little white dogs (and dog poo) just as ubiquitous! Made me miss my Jack Russell so much seeing copies of him everywhere!

Is the tennis ball supposed to remind us of the "The French Open", aka in Paris as "Roland Garros"? Mais oui, but it is also there to hide a blemish in the background paper that was exaggerated by the scan. I came back from Paris last year all fired up with ideas for a story about a little white dog in Paris but, a few weeks later, my writer friend, Natalie Jane Prior, bought out her new picture book: of a little white dog in Paris (Pom Pom, where are you?).

L'escargot et la grenouille. Collage of painted watercolour paper, black Sharpie, coloured card and a downloadable, online, 3D menu:

Week 35: Paris III

I was trying to get the frog to look more shocked. But frogs are already so wide-eyed! The tiny print on the crumpled hors d'oeuvres menu actually lists both snails and frogs' legs. I found a free customizable menu template on the web! The sample already had a snails dish listed and I quickly altered the title of a different dish to include la cuisses de grenouille. (Just in case it's not "Paris" enough, it has an address card for the site of my cousin-in-law's first taste of snails. Much happier with it now. The shadows from the menu were all wrong last night, and I realised that the snail was seemingly falling off the table in the first version, but I'd stuck him down too firmly.)

Celebrating Book Week 2014: Connect with Reading

Click HERE to view a Flickr slideshow.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 34

Metamorphosis roulette: cocoons often look alike. Will I get a butterfly, or just a moth? Collage of torn card, crumpled brown paper bag and watercolour paper, black Sharpie, lettering in Word, and a light watercolour wash.

Week 34: Butterfly

Update:

Black ballpoint, watercolours, opaque white Signo. Childhood poem recreated in Word. From an era when all children's poetry had to rhyme. The poem was selected for a book that my primary school teacher-librarian, Janette McKenny (later Mrs Mercer) created the old fashioned way - and had bound in leather. "Just One More". I have enquired of the school and it seems to no longer exist. The original artwork pages for each poem were coated in egg-wash and I suspect it may not have withstood the decades. The butterfly above, of course, was painted this week!

Week 34: Butterfly II

Stained-glass window butterfly (in black card and cellophane layers - four original pastel colours of pink, yellow, red and blue) flies over my back garden - near the tree that inspired Tree Week. The result is way more subtle (and better) than originally intended. I was on my way to the newsagents to buy traditional sheets of cellophane giftwrap (with its vivid translucent colours) but ended up at the Chinese bargain store, buying four rolls of cello. But the unrolled portion was revealed as being so pale as to be almost transparent - and it took four layers to reach any kind of intensity of colour!

Week 34: Butterfly III

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 33

My beloved Kooky Spookys, ghostly glow-in-the-dark finger puppets from Hasbro (1969), at the height of popularity for luminous toys. Included are two characters that never went past the prototype stage. Collage of card, watercolour, black Sharpie and glitter stars.

Week 33: Toy

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

Update:

Week 33: Toy II

"Portrait of the Artist as an Action Figure". 3D assemblage art using textured card, printed in Pages, with collage, black Sharpie, twist ties, photographs, etc.

Okay, I was encouraged to add more Book Week accessories! Note that the male teacher-librarian action figure is always the "shortpack" and thus highly collectible.

And one more:
3D papier mache teddy bear, painted with Tamiya acrylic paints and highlighted with black and silver Sharpie and wiggly eyes. I fancied the idea of a bear who could change his fur colour by simply unzipping layers.

Week 33: Toy 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 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.)