Aloe vera WIP

Here is a WIP of my current project, an aloe vera plant in coloured pencil on Hahnmuhle Britannia matt 300g paper. A sketch of the same plant can be viewed here.

Aloe vera pencil sketch

I went to the Auckland Botanical Gardens with Sandra Morris and some other friends from my botanical illustration classes and spent the day sketching the variety of plants they have. It was a stunning day and we all had a great time. My most successful sketch of the day was this aloe vera plant, from the African Garden. I drew the whole piece using only an HB pencil. I didn't have time to finish the sketch on the day, so took some reference photos and completed it at home.

The finished drawing inspired me to create a larger, full colour illustration of the same plant, which is currently a work in progess.

Feature in CP Hidden Treasures magazine

I have just received my digital copy of the "Ann Kullberg Coloured Pencil Hidden Treasures" magazine where my Red Rose illustration is featured!

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