One large handmade book (A4 size)

Here is another handmade book created over a weekend at ArtStation. This is my favourite out of all three courses I have participated in. Just the pure size of this book makes it so much more special than the previous A6 books I have made in the past. I intend to use this book as a journal for a trip to India and Nepal I took back in Aug/Sep 2013.

Ten handmade books

I made these ten books as part of a two day course at ArtStation in Ponsonby. We spent the morning on the first day creating our own special 'paste papers', which - once dry - were used for the cover of each book.

This is the second book course I have done at ArtStation. Previously I have made a series of four books, each with a different binding technique.

Botanical illustration class

I've got pretty behind in uploading my botanical illustration on my blog. Here is my latest effort. Onion and garlic - watercolour and coloured pencil.

I started with the watercolour but wasn't really liking the result so continued with coloured pencil over the top. The garlic on the left is unfinished and shows the watercolour base.

2nd place in Sea Animal Portraits competition!

My turtle illustration got second place in another deviantArt competition! I should really have come fourth, but two people ahead of me got disqualified for not following all the competition rules. Ah well, I'll take it :-)

I now have an agent!

I am excited to announce that I am now a member of New Zealand illustrator Sandra Morris's illustration agency! http://www.illustration.co.nz/haslimeier.html

Botanical illustration class - month 3

Drawing leucodendrons using coloured pencils.

Miranda Shorebird Centre - Hand lettering

Just playing with some hand lettering with words that came to mind while at the Shorebird Centre a couple of weekends ago. 

Nature Journaling course

Last weekend I attended a nature journaling course, run by Sandra Morris, at the Miranda Shorebird Centre. It was the first time I had done nature journaling and it was a lot of fun. Over the two days we spent the mornings down at the shell banks observing the local wildlife and sketching them while looking through telescopes. Some of the many birds we spotted were spoonbills, wrybills, caspian terns, mallards and pied stilts. 

In the afternoons we went for walks looking for plant specimens to take back to the centre to draw.

The photos here show the stunning scenery, plants specimens, sketches, using the telescopes and photos I took of the birds through my telescope.

Botanical illustration class - month 2

Bamboo (left) and freesia bud with cross section of flower. Drawn using a 0.05mm black ink pen using the stipple technique.

2nd place in Underwater Life contest

I've just found out that I got 2nd place in an underwater life contest through deviantArt with my latest turtle illustration!

It's hardly a huge deal but it will give me a few features of my work and a little more recognition within the site. And it gives me an excuse to write another blog entry which are pretty few and far between really.

Better than a hole in the head!

See the other winners here.

Botanical illustration class - month 1

Graphite leaves drawn using 2H, 4H and B pencils as part of my botanical illustration class with Sandra Morris.

A blast from the past

I had a surprise email from my good friend Andy last week telling me to go to his Facebook page. When I did, I saw this picture that he had posted.

These four drawings were drawn by myself about 12 years ago using black ink pen on paper. It was part of a university project and I had completely forgotten about them until Andy emailed me. I had given them to him as a gift many years ago (something else I had forgotten about) and he had just got them framed professionally.

I'm so touched that he liked them enough to get them framed! It really made my day!

Swimming Turtle finished

I finally finished it.

Swimming Turtle WIP 2

Making progress, slowly. I'm really wanting to finish this in the next couple of weeks, it's been dragging on for too long now. 

Another swimming turtle WIP

WIP. My third turtle illustration. I have drawn this one a little larger than the previous turtle drawing so I could get more detail in and make it look more realistic.

Best Christmas present ever!

I received this amazing Christmas present from my wonderful husband! 120 Caran D'ache color pencils. I can't wait to try them out!