Who Stole my Ladder
12x12 inches
Coloured Pencil, Inktense pencil, black Promarker and
White ink highlights on Wooden Art Panel

Make a Wish
8x10 inches
Coloured pencil and Faber Castell Pitt Pens on
Watercolour canvas

A couple of more Trompe L'Oeil pieces and some big learning curves. After attempting and discarding Make a Wish 7 times, using a range of mediums, I finally decided that I had better complete at least one and move on. As you can see the black background is blotchy and whilst I had hoped that an application of varnish might resolve this issue, it actually made it worse. So what did I learn from all this trial and error and exasperation? I need to take a different approach and avoid doing large areas with black background, and this lead me to working on the wooden art panels, and this proved so much more satisfying and less frustrating, so I think this might be the start of a series. Hope these put a smile on your face :)

Please help me :)

Two blogs in one day - I'm on a roll. But actually I am asking a favour of my fellow bloggers. This is my entry for the upcoming Illustrators Australia exhibition and features our youngest son Sam, who has a particular fascination for dragons and dinosaurs. I wanted to try and capture the magic and wonder of childhood in this illustration, but I am stumped when it comes to giving it a title. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. This is another digital illustration, done with corel painter and photoshop.

1st Prize Drawing Section ASMA Awards Exhibition

A Life Well Spent

6x8 cm

Graphite pencil on drafting film

I often forget to post if I have won an award, but have just come back from collecting my prize for winning the Drawing Section of the ASMA (Australian Society of Miniature Art) National Awards Exhibition for "A Life Well Spent". I wasn't able to attend the Presentation Evening last night, as we were on our way back from Canberra, but had the opportunity to browse the exhibition this afternoon. How inspiring!!! When attending these Miniature Art Exhibitions, I am always reminded of why I fell in love with this genre of art in the first place. This was a timely prize for me also, as the prize was a boxed set of 120 Faber Castell Polychromos, and those of you familiar with my work would know that these are my favourite pencils - some of mine are only about one inch long now. Whilst there, I was happy to learn that my painting "Hush Little Mouse" had sold as well.

ACEO - Sunkissed

Sunkissed

2.5 x 3.5 inches

Graphite and coloured pencil on drafting film.

One of the things I admire most in other artists is a wonderful imagination and the ability to create beautiful artworks without relying heavily on reference photos. This is an area, I feel I need a lot of development, particularly for illustration work. The Flower Folk and this ACEO are some of my early efforts which I hope will vastly improve over time. Whilst I still used some reference photos in these cases, I tried to avoid referring to photos too much. Commissions often require an artist to do a very close copy of one or several reference photos, and this is an area I find relatively easy. I believe to be truly artistic, it is necessary to extend beyond this, and whilst I'm not truly happy with any of my attempts over the last couple of weeks, I'm hoping with practice, to eventually produce work that is both creative and also to a standard I am happy with.

Flower Folk - Hydrangea

Hydrangea

6x8 inches

Coloured pencil on drafting film

Hydrangeas are round, jolly folk with gentle natures who like to come out with the warmer weather of spring and then hang around all summer, only to disappear once the cooler weather of Autumn drives them away. :)

Flower Folk - Rose

Rose

6x8 inches

Coloured pencils on drafting film

Rose can be a bit of a Prima Donna - she is beautiful when handled with care, but get on her wrong side and you may experience her thorny side!

Flower Folk - Thistle

Thistle

6x8 inches

Coloured pencil on drafting film

Flower Folk are very cheeky little characters, who are basically quite shy and can pop up unexpectedly in your garden at any time. Thistle can be a bit prickly, but she loves nothing more than to put a smile on your face. Watch this space as I introduce you to more of the Flower Folk.