Christmas Birdy

Going to attempt to colour this. 

We will see how things go. 

:)

Little Owl

Thought I would also share this lil guy with you.

I had been invited to a baby shower over the weekend (which was a bad idea to go to, but oh well :P), and I forgot to buy a present the day before, so I made this little guy in one evening from quilting fabric - he was super easy!

I admit, because I was in such a rush, I did not design him - I got the idea here (and theirs is so very cute), which is pretty naughty of me. But I figured I wasn't selling him or anything, and I tweaked the design a bit because I didn't have any felt. 

So with all due credit to the original designer whom I got the idea from, it was a good fun project for an evening. I am tempted to make more (of my own designs of course)!

Festive Birds

Not very happy with how that background scanned - but hey, 

you win some you lose some. 

 :)

Mysterious Murals & Wedding Pandas

Howdy everyone. 

Some pictures for you. The first one is of a really cool and quirky mural that I discovered just off Queen St in the city. It's kind of tucked around a corner, but the colours are so pretty. I like the tree growing randomly out of the top of the wall too. 

Unfortunately the artist in me cringes at the anatomy of the character - it doesn't seem to make any sense, but hey, none of us are perfect - and I wouldn't do better at that scale. :) Nice work by the artist whoever you are!

Here is my little WIP for this week. It's a gift/commission from a newly married couple (freshly nuptialed last week Friday) - and they (particularly the bride) love pandas. Who wouldn't right?

So they wanted some bridal pandas for their thank you cards, and I figured this time, instead of just doing it digitally for them, I would do a traditional version for them. Probably in colour pencil (I can't resist the colour pencils).

The above is the rough version, just need to tweak some bits and then start working on the colour version. :) So will keep you updated on the progress! 

It's been a long while.

Well - a lot has been going on in life recently that has meant that I have really lost a lot of desire or drive to draw. I'd venture to say that most people would have experienced something like this, whether it's to do with art or work in general.

But I was thinking about it tonight - and realised that things weren't just going to magically fix themselves. I needed to get up and make an effort. 

So for tonight we have an oldy - but we will see how things go over the next couple of weeks (still got some tough things to get through) and hopefully, even if I can't control anything else in my life, I can just pick up a pencil - grab some paper - and doodle something. 

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

A little WIP

Bette Davis Study #2

And another study for something a little different.

Bette Davis

*Sigh*

It's been too long since I last posted. Things have been busy in a silly way. Every day I think about drawing - and most days go past without getting anything drawn. I feel like I'm going to have to learn everything all over again if this goes on too long! : P

However in the meantime - here is a quick Bette Davis sketchy digital painting practice pic. Didn't capture her perfectly - but that's why they call it practice isn't it? :)

Finished Surfer Girl

And here's the finished pic! Just in time for the party tonight. 

Hopefully she will like it. 

Done in color pencil.

WIP

Here's my work in progress for a friend's 21st birthday present. I have decided to do it traditionally although at the moment it's a combo of pencil sketch and digital. 

I was going to do it all digitally - but I think there is something about getting an original one-of-a-kind piece of artwork aye? What do you guys think?

I'll pop it up once it's done. I still need to do a bit of tweaking to the pose. 

This girl is super talented - she surfs (as you probably deduced), she is intelligent and musical (she is studying music and now maths at University).

Skills. :)

Illustration Friday: Teacher

So for Illustration Friday this week I decided to go pretty straight forward. 

Introducing - some of my teachers from high school, as I remember them. :)

Mr. Leitch

3rd Form Maths

He really did wear a shirt that looked like this. It was two different shades of blue and had the massive polka dots on it. 

 Mr. Kitchen

4th Form Maths

Mr. Kitchen rolled old school. He used chalk on a blackboard. 

There was an office out the back of the classroom and he would go out to grab some handouts or something, and would come back with chalk dust all over his face - so we joked that he had an addiction to chalk after all his years of teaching, and would sneak out the back to munch on a handful during class. 

Ms. Don

Art History Teacher

She was quite little and very artsy. 

And she very much knew her stuff. 

Ms. Moignihan

7th Form English

This, my friends, was one of those teachers. 

One of the infamous ones that you never forget. 

I haven't quite managed to capture it here, but she looked a bit like Jabba the Hutt's sister. She's the one that accused me of cheating on my mid-year exams because I did well. I had not cheated. She was the one who said that she hunted down her students years after they had finished school to see if they had made anything of their lives (thankfully I haven't ever heard from her) : P

ONe thing I can say about her though, I did learn a lot under her tuition - and I guess that's the main thing isn't it.

: )

Brown Haired Girl

Yay some colour!

Trying my hand at digital painting again.

Girl with Hair

I hereby entitle this 

'Girl with Hair'. 

Lots of hair. 

Weary and worn

We were watching 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' last night.
There were so many worn out and weary faces in that film. So I was doodling while I was watching it and I drew my own version of a weary worn out face.

 

Then I was doing some research through my lovely book collection (I love my book collection), and in one of the books I found a well worn piece of paper with this printed on it:

 

And on the back of the paper, this:

Cool huh!

I remembered that it was from a wedding that we went to back in 2007(?!) I think it was. It's one of my favourite sonnets - I think it's number 116 (correct me if I'm wrong).
Yay for Shakespeare.

Owls

Owls are cool.

I actually took this as an interpretation from a really beautiful photo, yes - owls are this cool in real life. 

But the pic I found didn't have a credit to the original photographer - so if anyone recognises it and is happy to give credit where credit is due, feel free to do so. :)

Illustration Friday: Lonely

Well this is a bit naughty of me, because it was a picture that I did last week in relation to something else - and I have been putting up too many pictures of birds - and it's just a sketch. However because of how busy things are at the moment, I figured that it is better than nothing. 

I am missing colour tho! Need to get back into it again. 

Illustration Friday: Coconut Migration

My very late submission for Illustration Friday - keyword 'Carry'

King Arthur: The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
King Arthur: Not at all. They could be carried.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
King Arthur: It could grip it by the husk!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
King Arthur: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
King Arthur: Please!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Am I right? 

Birdy

I've just started working on a new super exciting project, which I can't tell you much about at the moment, but I can probably give you sneak peeks as I progress. 

This little guy is a potential character design. :) I love drawing birds. 

Illustration Friday - Lost

Poor little guy.

And now she's done!

WIP

Might make a few changes to this - but I thought I would pop up a sneak peek of it since it's been ages since I've put anything up!

Lil Fox

Wonder Woman

Lynda Carter was the coolest Wonder Woman.

This isn't her - but when I was looking for reference for the costume I found some pics of her and she was gorgeous! Yay Wonder Woman, and her Lasso of Truth!

Ugh - practice, practice, practice. 

One day (maybe) I'll get better at Digital Painting. Just don't have enough time for it at the moment. 

Gibson girl

It's unfinished, but it will do for the moment. :)

Yup, still here...

'The strange creature with the bulbous middle wasn't a sight Nessie had expected to see while partaking of her afternoon tea.' 

~Adapted for Illustration Friday submission :)~

Water wings and lake monsters

It has been far too long - been working at... not art. : P

So I have set myself a bit of a challenge. I have to try and complete an animation - so I have a silly little story, and have tried to make a start by designing some characters. I have given myself a super long deadline because I can't see it getting finished any time soon, and things are only going to get busier!

But here are some concept doodles that I did today - if I share these with you then it is even more pressure to get this thing animated!

Well, we will see what happens from here. I will keep you posted! 

:)

Stowaway doodle

...or something along those lines.

Tramping NZ

I went tramping this weekend with a bunch of the youth from church - through the Karangahake Gorge to Waitawheta, and we tramped up the old train tracks that had been laid over 100 years ago to cart Kauri trees out of the bush. 

It was such a beautiful part of the country. Made me so thankful to be able to live here - and I felt so spoilt! We live surrounded by such amazingness that we take for granted. 

So although I didn't get any drawing done this weekend I thought I would share with you some of the gorgeousness of our country. 

The one above was the view from the hut we stayed at in the morning. 

What a gorgeous country.

I'm so thankful that God gave us so much diversity and beauty in this world.