Illustration Friday - Messenger

Its been absolutely ages since I had the chance to submit anything for Illustration Fridays word of the week. However as it's the holidays I got time to do something for this week and the word 'Messenger'.

I love the look of the royal mail bikes, so bright and cheery! When researching images I came across some old images of a postman on a penny farthing bike! I was quite tempted to draw that, but settled on this classic style instead.

I hope your enjoying your hols? We went on a 6 mile countryside walk today and have now got bubble & squeak in the oven...Lovely!

Speak soon x

Illustration Friday - Soaked

Good evening folks, how are you? I have been home sick all week with a kidney infection (boo)..So Its been a cycle of drawing/sleeping/being ill/drawing/sleeping... I'm REALLY looking forward to feeling better but the upside is that I got to make some fun patterns...There's always an upside :-)

This one was inspired by Illustration Fridays word of the week 'Soaked'; my idea is that if your going to get soaked these are the kinda things you want to be wearing..Unless your someplace very cold of course in which case I would suggest a winter wetsuit!

I wish you all a very happy weekend, cheerio for now :-)

Illustration Friday 'Journey'

Hi all, my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday for the word 'Journey'

The idea came from a conversation I had with a friend yesterday about careers, we were talking about how we had thought that if we went did well at school, went to college, then to university that we would be on our way to a well paid and fulfilling careers by now. And I guess we both are, sort of at that point except we are now trying to decide if we should do further training, an MA maybe, to get where we want to be. That then throws up the questions like: How can we afford that? Do we still want what we wanted back when we chose our university courses? Will we get a job at the end of it all anyway?

So basically life isn't as simple as A, B & then comes C..Sometimes there's a whole lot of stuff in between the start point and your goal. A bit serious maybe but that's what inspired this illo!!

I hope your all well and enjoying your weekends, I have people over for dinner later, and I'm looking forward to tackling a new recipe, cheerio for now  :-)

'Bottled' for Illustration Friday

The word of the week is 'Bottled'....

If I was to make perfume I would like it to come in a bottle like this. My favorite perfume is Karma by Lush. Anyone else like it?

Goodness me I've done it again...(Illustration for this weeks Illustration Friday)..

The word of the week is 'Duet'..I thought of this straight away..I love seeing the images in my mind come to life on paper :-) I also did all of this out in my new garden studio. The peacefulness actually did me so much good.

Watercolor, gouache, pencil, felt tips and black pen....My new favorite combination!

I hope you are all well out there..Have a lovely evening/morning.

Cheerio!

Illustration Friday - 'Toy'

I can't quite believe it. I actually got an IF image done in time for once!

The word is 'Toy'... Which got me thinking about the dog breed Toy Poodle...I grew up with a miniature poodle called Molly, she was the best dog in the world! We had her for a long time about 10 years I think.

I really enjoyed getting this image done, in my mind I could see a poodle sat outside on some grass near some colorful flowers and I just worked from that. It's great to get something done and I also really enjoy doing the IF challenges as they really do get you illustrating things you wouldn't normally draw.

IF : Surrender

Better late than never, I'm getting this Illustration Friday entry in at the last minute I know... This is one of my new Lino prints, I have been working on a few different images and was going to wait to show you, but then I thought this would go so well for this weeks IF so I had to blog about it.

I'm really enjoying working with Lino printing, although my fingers are sliced to bits! I have discovered that warming up the lino helps when cutting it so I have been using a hot water bottle to heat up the lino. This is fab as when I'm cutting the hot water bottle can go back on my lap..Genius! :-)

Have a good evening everyone!

Ps: I will soon be stocking my lino prints in my Etsy shop...Watch this space!

Illustration Friday - Burning

It feels so good to have time to draw, I haven't had any art time since last Thursday and was starting to feel a bit upset about it! So I abandoned my to do list this evening and tackled Illustration Fridays word of the week 'Burning'. I had no plan I just sat and drew with coloured pencil then painted over in gouache, by the way I love gouache, I can't get enough of it, I love the chalky feel of it and how it dries so fast, I have no idea why I abandoned it for so long....It's also so easy to use with other mediums too..So I used gouache, pencil, watercolour pencil,pen and ink and felt tip with this one. Looking at this image makes me feel a bit sad actually, although I imagine that's the healthy reaction to a picture of buildings burning!

Illustration Friday 'afterwards'

I had a dream that I found two black horses in a top floor flat in the city center, I've been watching too many animal rescue TV shows I think! I had this dream going round and round my head for days so I decided to create something from it... So I dreamt about it then afterwards I painted it...ta da!

Illustration Friday 'spooky'

Go me! At last an entry in on time! :-) So for this weeks word I got thinking about foxes and the noises that they make. You know the scary screaming noise the females make and the other noises that the cubs make when they begin howling. I've heard these sounds many times living in the countryside in Devon and they always gave me the creeps!
So I began researching foxes online and I came across this article about a sighting of a black fox in the UK, the article is from the Telegraph newspaper and is about a sighting of a black fox in a grave yard in Lancashire. The article goes on to explain how black foxes are very rare in the UK....

David Dunlop, Lancashire Wildlife Trust conservation officer, said: "Only one black fox has been seen and, as far as I know, it's the only one to be seen in this country before," he said "In North America, I think it's about one in five red foxes are black but that's because they were introduced from Europe."

 

Image from here

So I thought why not draw a black fox, a bit 'spookier' than a red fox image right? So I sat down to do a painting. Here it is...

I've got to say that I love this little painting! I'm so happy with it, it's great to make something that you love isn't it?! I'm still working on some other paintings, one in particular I keep restarting with...I'll get there soon though!

Last weeks Illustration Friday image

I know, I know, I just keep missing the boat with these illustration friday entry's. I had so many ideas for last weeks word 'beneath' and started quite a few designs failing to finish any of them in time! Anyhoo I did sit down this evening to put something together. I decided to create a pattern design too as that is something that I need to get back on track with. So here we are, for 'beneath'... the idea was that beneath the horse there are his shoes. So I created a simple repeat pattern using a horse head and horse shoes. I am happy to get something done, even if it is too late to enter on the website.

I have almost finished my first painting so will post about that soon, hopefully tomorrow night. I have 3 paintings on the go at the moment and am enjoying them very much :-)

I hope everyone is well out there, have a good evening!|

Things I love days 10 and 11

Hey all, here are my drawings for days 10 and 11 of my project. Day 10 is a section from a tea pot that I own, it's decorated beautifully with elegant birds and different floral pieces, this is my favourite  part of the decoration and it sits under the handle of the teapot.

Day 11 is also my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday 'caged', this is a drawing of an necklace that I own... I possibly went a bit OTT with photoshop on this one!!

Things I love - Day 8

These shoes, are damn nice shoes! They also have quite high heels which is why I have only worn them out of the house once! I'm better suited to me flip-flops or boots really! So instead I just like to look at them looking pretty in my room!

Illustration Friday 'Artificial'

Word of the week for Illustration Friday is 'Artificial'. I'm afraid my image for this week isn't too exciting!! It is good however to have a reason to draw everyday items, I need to do this more often I think, 'Sweetness and light', a sugar substitute. Boring, sorry!

Day 3 & 4 the BIG project

Hi all, so I'm back from the beautiful Devon countryside... I saw friends and family, had some very interesting and inspirational conversations and didn't want to come back! I managed to get my drawings done for days 3 & 4 and here they are.....Day 3 is a collection of tea cups that I put together at my mums house. I love the house that my step dad and my mum live in, it's full of lots of interesting things and I think I could definitely go there and just draw for a week, there are collections of glass wear, antique cigar cases, tea sets, teddy bears, old tins and lots of other things they also have two tortoises and four crazy cats...So as you can imagine there's a lot of things there to work with!

My drawing for day 4 is of a violin. This is something I was given yesterday by my grandma, she has just moved home so has lots of stuff to sort through as she is seriously down sizing, I was given lots of photography books and some great art equipment (she's a photographer) and this violin. This violin is very special as it belonged to my great grandfather who died just before I was born. He was an artist and a musician and whilst I was growing up my great grandmother kept this violin high up on the wall and we weren't allowed to touch it as it was so precious to her. I remember sitting crossed legged on the carpet looking up at it and really wanting to play with it. I spent a few years at school learning the violin then gave up, I'd love to learn again and now I have my great grandfathers violin to look after and learn on....Pretty special don't you think? I'm very happy about it. :-)

I did a lot of playing around in Photo shop with this drawing and I like this version too:

I feel a violin pattern coming on! Just not today, as it's very late here in the UK. Night all I hope you had a good weekend :-)

Illustration Friday - Breakfast

Here's my entry for Illustration Fridays word of the week 'Breakfast'. As I mentioned recently on this blog I am trying to loosen my style  up a bit and so this is what I was keeping in mind when creating this piece.  I didn't look up reference material except to remember the colours on the marmite label, and tried not to get to wound out about the perspectives being off....Boiled eggs and marmite soldiers is definitely one of my fave breakfasts although I rarely have it..That would require too much thought too early in the morning!

Illustration Friday 'Satellite' -Unfinished sketch

Hi all, I ran out of time for this weeks IF topic, I have decided to post my unfinished image anyway and here it is. Coming up with this image really got me thinking, sometimes I spend SO long working on an image as I want it to be perfect that it sort of loses something..For this weeks topic I was also worrying that I wouldn't have time to 'get it right'....Then I felt annoyed at myself for thinking that way, so now I'm posting what I've done anyway! All this worrying isn't good!!

So here's my sketch for 'satellite':

I started playing around with sections from this image and I think it has some interesting parts to it:

I want to make an effort to create more without thinking too much about it all, I'm also really feeling the need to get my paints out...I need more texture in my life! watch this space..! :-)

Illustration Friday ' Paisley'

Illustration Friday 'Paisley'.......Yes it's a paisley parrot :-)....Bird mad! I think this would be a cute piece of art for children's stationary.... What do you think?

Illustration Friday 'Ripple'

I had grand plans for this weeks Illustration Friday topic..Grand plans that I may still complete! However I ran out of time (as usual)! this week so I've put together a quick illo that I still quite like instead..

Happy Friday 18th everyone, hope you have sunny days :-)

Entry for Illustration Friday - 'Trail' , and another peacock drawing

Here's my first entry in months for Illustration Friday, for word of the week 'Trail'. Also here's another peacock drawing... pretty colorful yeh? :-)