Swimming turtle 2

Coloured pencil on paper. I used a clear solvent pen on the water to smooth out the pencil a little. It kind of worked. Size A5.

Handmade books

Here is a collection of four books that I made during a weekend bookbinding class. It was a lot of fun and great to learn different binding techniques.

Swimming Turtle - complete

I finished this illustration a while ago but I have only got around to posting it here now. I'm not happy with how the water turned out. I'll have to give it another go some time. I don't think there is enough depth in the water. I like how the turtle came out though, even if the paper I used wasn't the best for colored pencils. I've since been using smoother paper to get a crisper edge on my line work. The WIP can be found here.

It's a Boy / It's a Girl greeting cards

Here are a few greeting cards I made in preparation for my niece being born. Since I was making one for a girl anyway I decided to make some for a boy as well. A very limited stock is available through my Etsy store or for digital versions (including options for twins and triplets as well) go to my GCU store.

Swimming turtle WIP

Here is a work in progress of one of my turtle sketches from my previous post. The turtle itself is pretty much complete, I just need to work out how I want to draw the water around him. I guess I should have thought about that BEFORE I started the drawing but I was eager to get going so decided I would figure that part out later on!

Turtle sketches

A few turtle sketches I've been working on over the past couple of weeks. I just love turtles! They're so ugly that it makes them really interesting to draw. I've chosen the middle drawing to make into a finished piece similar to this turtle illustration I did a while back.

Children's book illustration course - Part 1

Last weekend I participated in a children's book illustration course run by Sandra Morris. I had such a great time and learnt some valuable tips as well. Over the two days we learnt about the history of children's storybook illustration, drawing techniques, character development and we even got to make a clay model of the main character in our story - which we had written prior to the start of the course. I'm really looking forward to Part 2 of the course in a few weeks time.

My clay model is still unfinished. I need to paint it once it's dry.

More greeting cards available on GCU

Here are four of my latest greeting cards to go up on Greeting Card Universe. Click on the link to see the full collection. More cards added sporadically :-)

Painting class - week 7

Pastels on brown paper.

The purpose of these four panels was to create four abstract pieces based on a combination of 2-3 letters (e.g. your initials) or numbers. The idea was to not think too much and just let the artwork happen naturally. It took me a while NOT to think too much while doing this project, but by the fourth panel I think I got there!

I'm aware that I haven't posted anything since week 1 of my painting class and that what I have posted has not been paintings. The reason for this is basically that I have not yet completed anything that is worthwhile. I have enjoyed this painting class and I have been slowly improving, and by the end of the course I plan to actually post some finished paintings! It has taken me until this last assignment in the class to really start getting into painting - it's a shame that the final class is this week, now that I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. 

Competition winner!

Congratulations to Gina who won my competition last month! For liking my Facebook Page she won two handmade greeting cards of her choice from my Etsy store.

Gina chose my zebra greeting card and my bat greeting card.

Congratulations Gina, and a big thank you to all who participated!

I still have more of these greeting cards for sale in my Etsy store plus many more so check them out!!

Huia Bird - finished

Illustration of the extinct New Zealand Huia bird. Created using colored pencils on cartridge paper. See the work in progress here.

Painting Class - week 1

Charcoal and white chalk pastel on grey paper.

I've started a nine week painting class to rebuild my confidence in using paints. I've been drawing with colored pencils for years now and have barely touched a paint brush in that time but I really want to get back into painting again.

The idea of these four panels was to get us used to the flexibility and looseness of charcoal in preparation for starting with paints next week. We used a picture of some bottles as a reference and had to choose four compositions within the picture to draw.

I didn't like these when I first did them but they have since grown on me. I like the contrast between the lights and darks.

Goldfish

Watercolour on Aquarelle Arches paper 140gsm

I painted this as research for a plushy design I want to do. I don't like this painting very much so it's not finished (and won't ever be finished most likely) I do like the colors, but I think I've overworked the fish too much and now I've just lost interest in working on it anymore.

Tardis greeting card

I made this greeting card for a friend's birthday. It's a much looser style than my usual stuff but I'm quite pleased with the result. Created using a wash of watercolor, black ink and white charcoal pencil for the window highlights and text.

Competition!

Hi everyone!

I’m currently holding a competition to increase awareness of my blog and facebook page as well as promote my etsy site.

Everyone who follows my blog

OR

‘likes’ my Facebook page 

between now until the end of February will go into a draw to win their choice of 2 greeting cards from my Etsy store.

If you follow my blog AND ‘like’ my Facebook page, you can choose 3 greeting cards.

You can view my etsy site here. 

The winner will be picked at random by me at the end of the month.


Good luck! :-)

Huia WIP

Here is a work in progress of the extinct New Zealand bird, the Huia. Created using colored pencils. See the finished work here.