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.)

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 30

My US holiday continues! Ironically, this Sydneysider is still reporting live from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, as my US holiday continues. This week, I spent about four extended sessions (sketching, outlining, painting, final touches) on a project that bounced into my head the moment I saw an ArtiCrafti brand moulded "koala canvas mask" in a Dollar King bargain store - for just $2.50 - a few months ago. I had to carefully pack and bring it OS with me, much to my penpal host's delight, who enjoyed watching the artwork emerge from my brain! The mask is decorated with images of Sydney in black ball-point ink and watercolour.

Week 30: Sydney

The mask is decorated with 3D detail, which includes yellow pompons for wattle flowers, white Tulip brand "puffy dimensional fabric paint" for seagulls and wave crests, and a toothpick flag.

Update:

Above: As modelled by my Ann Arbor penpal, Olivia!

Framed in a shadowbox

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 29

Still live from Michigan, USA. Douglas Lake in Northern Michigan, to be precise! The theme is "Plane, so here'a a model plane, created with iridescent Origami paper, which flies over my photograph of the lake at sunset.

Week 29: Plane

Update:

Week 29: Plane II

"Open wide, here comes an aeroplane!" Paper collage and permanent black Sharpie.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 28

Again live from Michigan, USA! Sitting here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on a drizzly Tuesday morning, patiently(?) waiting for it to be Wednesday in Australia, so that I can share my "Week 28: Feather" before I'm out of Internet range for a whole week! Here is some assemblage art, which uses sequins, plastic jewels, chenille sticks, stickered lettering, a touch of gold glitter, a wiggly eye - and real feathers - on a wooden blank of a rather plain bird who now feels Very Pretty.

Week 28: Feather

The original blank (right) and an outdoors shot (left and below) of the complete work.

Update:

When my brother's then girlfriend planned on wearing a Scarlet O'Hara crinoline for a fancy dress party in the late 70s, she ordered him the Rhett Butler outfit at the hire store. He examined it, baulked at the price and, instead, asked me to help him make a crepe paper chicken costume. Girlfriend was appalled - and my brother the chook was startled to meet a butcher at the party, who chased him all night with a giant plastic meat cleaver. Not easy to run in swimming flippers! Based on a Polaroid photo taken by me, the sketch is done in oil pastels on Ingres paper.

Week 28: Feather II

Week 28: Feather III

As in Arnold Feather (Jeff Kevin) of "Number 96", inspired by Andy Warhol's infamous Marilyn Monroe artwork. Freehand sketch with black Sharpie on transparent plastic film. Six coloured papers were placed on top, to colour areas with pencils, then placed underneath for individual photography. Six digital thumbnail tiles were then sorted in iPhoto and a final "screenshot" taken.

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 25

The theme for Week 25 is "Dots". I present Fairy Fatality Bread. 3D assemblage art using white foam core board for bread slices, coated with rubber art cement and edible sprinkles. Cardboard template fairy shapes were cut freehand. Wands made from toothpicks and glitter stars. All served on a dotty plastic saucer, cordoned off by miniature police incident tape (photocopied Word document on overhead projector transparency).

Week 25: Dots

Update:
Large red card dot on Ingres paper. Cartoon figure in black Artline Ergoline finepoint.

Week 25: Dots II

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 24

Week 24: Octopus

Here's my watercolour, watercolour pencil, blue highlighter and permanent black Sharpie blue-ringed octopus on gesso-primed white canvas, accompanied by a newspaper article about my very exciting capture of one at Pearl Beach in 1973. "The Daily Telegraph" did an extensive phone interview by reverse-charges - via the only public phone box in Pearl Beach - but the eventual story was watered down after several more octopuses were caught on the NSW Central Coast on the same day. Must have been breeding season?

Update:
Mixed media collage - on an ink blot. The piece of inverted writing paper has a faint image of planet Earth printed on it. The seaweed was created from a puddle of green watercolour paint blown upwards with a straw.

Week 24: Octopus II

I had been wondering if I could create a symmetrical inkblot octopus. It failed dismally, but I stewed on it for a day or so and then I realised I could salvage it with some collage over the top. That pack of silver/mauve "satin" metallic card was just $2 in a bargain store. Bargain indeed! The eyes are cut from a brown foam animal sticker and self-adhesive "jewels".

And, now, Dad Joke Warning (below): "I'd give seven tentacles to be amoctodexterous":

Week 24: Octopus III

Week 24: Octopus IV

Things you do when you should be packing boxes of books and action figures for the interior painters' imminent arrival: A piece of iPhone photography. I uncovered a cache of stuff last night, including these glass octopuses (above). They are suspended from transparent glass bubbles with fishing line. Originally bought at Fremantle Markets, Western Australia in the early 90s. Took me waaaaaay longer to set up this shot that you'd expect. They kept swimming away!

Teachers' notes for One red shoe

The Teachers' notes I wrote for Wilkins Farago Publishing are now online. I hope lots of school libraries buy their own copy of the picture book, One red shoe, and get good use out of it!

The notes can be downloaded as a PDF here.

When I was testing the book out with our Stage 3 students, even the Stage 2 students were intrigued, although they only really discussed the red symbolism throughout, not the stronger themes about war/unrest in the Gaza Strip, but they came up with this digital slideshow:

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 23

Week 23: Feast

Mixed media collage. Making use of a leftover test monoprint, discarded to my "bits & pieces" collage box in Week 19 (Fish). Turned upside down, new highlights and shading were added with Faber-Castell watercolour pencils. 3D fishnet created from decorative Claudia Elyse scrapbooking aluminium mesh. Shark created with satin-finish metallic card and permanent black marker, then glued to the front of the mounting frame. Shark's mouth cut from a small piece of gesso-primed watercolour canvas, finished with Faber-Castell watercolour pencils.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 22

Week 22: Eyes

I originally printed out an A4 sheet of cartridge paper with the text on it, intending to use it last week as a Jack-in-the-box for Boxes, but it evolved, instead, into a focus on the hypnotic eyes. (Coincidentally, I've spent the last week packing books into many, many boxes. Preparation for internal house painting!) Collage with acrylic and watercolour paints, permanent black marker and the nose of Roger Woodward.

Update:
Week 22: Eyes II. What to do when you've worn out your welcome? The school library's "Welcome" mat had lost all of its signage due to four years of kids trampling in and out. With only an hour to spare, I cut some paper templates freehand and used three cans of spray enamel to create this new message. Final detailing with permanent black marker.

Week 22: Eyes II

Paper templates

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 21

Week 21: Boxes

Coinciding with the 2014 National Simultaneous Storytime, this box of elephants from the picture book, "Too many elephants in this house" (by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner) was created with masking tape, red acrylic paint with sponged shading, blue corrugated cardboard, black ink permanent marker and pink and silver waterbomb balloons. Trunks were cut from matching pink and silver plastic partyware bowls. This prop will be part of my school's celebrations of this annual ALIA event.

Back of Elephant house

This back panel was left unpainted deliberately. Note the yellow plastic ladder emerging from the chimney hole.

One more elephant squeezes in!

Udates:
Inspiration struck tonight whist walking home in the dark from the train station. Here's the Minotaur in his labyrinth on Crete, created in just ten minutes with a cardboard box and a kitchen knife to make some slots.

Week 21: Boxes II.

Black Unipin fine line pigment ink cartoon on cartridge paper. Seemed like a good week for a soapbox.

Week 21: Boxes III.

An idea flashed into my head during breakfast and I simply had to do it immediately. Before this Challenge, ideas like this probably would be fleeting - and never made permanent. Corrugated craft board, with colour highlight from an ancient Faber-Castell Metallic Silky Pastel.

Week 21: Boxes IV.