Rescue - Illustration Friday

I feel a bit sorry for this little spider but this illustration was inspired by a true story so it was in fact his fate I'm afraid.  Loxie has no tendencies towards mousing or birding, she is not exactly the finely tuned assassin her species is known to be. That said, she does love a spider. She only ever catches them at night though and I often get up in the morning and find spider corpse on the lounge floor as evidence that she has been having some sport in the night.  On this particular night I was woken up by a great commotion 'holy cow, I'm being burgled' I panicked to myself.  But when I turned the light on I saw Lox sitting by the end of the bed with her (now dead) spider. She looked pleased as punch and was evidently wanting to show mummy her handiwork. I don't have any major issue with spiders, being in Australia got me over my fear of them. But I was very grateful to Lox for the good work she did and continues to do rescuing me from the possibility of them scuttling across my bed at night.

Equipment: Pencil, watercolours, Moleskine sketchbook. Trying to use watercolours last night with Alexander wriggling around on my knee was no easy task but this wasn't going to work if I used pens as I wouldn't have been able to colour Lox black without obliterating the spider. I managed to paint this in 5 minute bursts when I was able to put him down before he grizzled and needed picking back up again. Actually, he is kicking around on me now as I attempt to type this post one-handed. It's been a few months since I used watercolour in a Moleskine sketchbook too. I know lots of people complain about the waxy paper and how it takes the paint but I really like it.

Little Squirrel

I was sitting in the park a couple of days ago and Alexander had fallen asleep and was snoring away in his pram. I had the new Moleskine on me but had no idea what to draw so I just lay back and looked up at the sky. It was my second favourite type of weather - when it's really warm but also overcast, it reminds me of being in Malaysia or Goa when a storm is approaching. Anyway, all of a sudden I heard a crunching scraping sound behind me. I wondered what on earth it was. I looked up at the tree behind me and there she was, a little Squirrel trying to break through the husk of a nut. I loved the way her big fluffy tail was curled down the branch, usually they are stuck up in the air. What a lovely little thing to put on the first page of my new sketchbook I thought. So here she is. I haven't coloured her in as I only had a grey and green pen on me. To be honest, I should've coloured her with the grey as she was a grey squirrel but I really fancy to turn her into a red squirrel as I think a rusty red would look really nice with the mossy green that I used on the leaves.But actually I quite like her in white. I can't leave her and the branch and the nut white, something needs to be coloured but I'm not sure. Open to suggestions...

For the time being, I like to think she is getting ready for the approaching winter.

Old Stuff: More Animals and Birds

A few more things I have found in the old files... and on one of my favourite subjects: animals and birds! Equipment and style is pretty varied!

My cat Flori (Loxie's actual mummy!)

Stuffed owl sketched at Natural History Museum, London

Another owl sketched at Natural History Museum and coloured digitally, YES! Digitally!! I was obviously feeling brave enough to open Gimp on that day!

My 2011(?) Christmas card design. Dip pen and watercolour on Arches paper.

'There in a wood a piggywig stood'. Illustration for The Owl and The Pussycat. Watercolour on some quite cheapy rough watercolour paper.

'They danced by the light of the moon'. Illustration for The Owl and The Pussycat. Again, watercolour on cheapy watercolour paper.

Sakura Lines...

Here are some more things that made their way into my sketchbook recently.  They are quite varied so it does feel a bit weird to compile them into one post but if I don't I might never get around to posting them!  I would say they are all sketches that are 'in progress' for various reasons... and in terms of equipment, they are all Sakura Pigma Micron 01 on the Seawhite Sketchbook (the Pregnancy Sketchbook).

Animals...
I would like to do some animal illustrations for Alexander and here's where I'm at thus far...

Unusual Things...
I realised recently that I have hit my limit on observational drawing of random objects. I've really enjoyed it and it has helped me to discover different styles of drawing and using different mediums but I am really a big believer in not continuing with something when you feel done with it. Instead I have been working on sketching things that I find unusual. This is also really helpful for me personally as I find lately that the places where I might get a few minutes of drawing time are very repetitive - the local park being the main one, so keeping an eye out for the not-so-obvious is quite helpful...

Shadows...

I noticed in the park a some interesting shadows falling across my 'blank page'. So I drew around them and I really like the scene it created I am now on the lookout for more interesting shadows. I wonder if anyone can guess what the shadow inducing objects were! :) ...

Fruity! aka Illustration Friday 'Fresh'

Filling up these missed-out pages in my Pregnancy Sketchbook I had a page free opposite an illustration I had done of a bottle of Lime Original Source back in May.  At the time I had intended to paint some limes and lemons on that page but never got around to it. So, given that I haven't done an Illustration Friday for months and months and that this week's theme is 'Fresh' it seemed like a good idea to finally draw and paint lemons and limes. And, as luck would have it, I have a fruit bowl full of them!

This was done ridiculously quickly while Alexander was still asleep in his pushchair following our walk at the park. A really quick sketch in pencil with some watercolour sploshed over the top. I then had a bit of a brainwave about cropping it square. Don't know where that came from but it reminds me now of a cushion cover!

Junk Boat 'Illustration'

I'm almost done with this pregnancy sketchbook! To be honest, I can't believe I still haven't used up all the pages in it.  It's a shame I didn't do all the drawings I did during my pregnancy in this book as the illustrations I did on bits of paper were really relevant. And this brings me neatly to my idea for my next sketchbook - a little A6 (technically not quite those dimensions) Moleskine Sketchbook who is sitting on my kitchen table patiently waiting to be dropped into my bag and become my little sidekick and be filled with 'illustrations'.  Yes, illustrations as opposed to observational drawings. I suppose everything I sketch could be classed as an illustration but what I'm talking about is more of the drawings that are more from my head. Scenes, ideas, messages, pages with more thought given to the composition. 

To start me along that route I've filled two of the final pages in the pregnancy sketchbook with this little scene of a Junk Boat sailing off into tropical waters. From as young as I can remember I have been enchanted by the idea of travelling. For me, dreams of travelling have always given me the same feeling as the belief you have in magic when you are a child. The beauty of travel is that when you grow up you can really go to these places. So anyway I drew this little scene for Alexander. It isn't brilliant in terms of the shockingly bad application of my watercolours but I hope that Alexander will find it enticing when he is a little bit older and fancy to imagine himself in this little boat setting off to explore these islands and beyond.

Feeling your baby's pain...and using the red pen I'm always scared to use!

We went to get the 8 week jabs done and it was horrible. I felt so guilty taking Alexander to the surgery knowing that something horrible was going to be done to him. Then when the injections were put into his legs and he stuck his little bottom lip out and started to cry I couldn't help crying too. It was awful.

I decided to do a little illustration of this in the sketchbook (which is still by the way the pregnancy sketchbook) because I've been wanting to do a page that is personal to us again. Pigeons in the park are fine but I really like trying to document things that are relevant to this time in our lives. Also, as with most of these type of illustrations, the composition for it had just appeared in my head and I wanted to get it on paper. I love it when that happens, when a composition just pops into your head.

I really love how this has turned out. It reminds me of a screenprint. And I LOVE the red background. I knew as soon as I saw the composition in my mind that the background had to be red but I really struggled to put that 'Lipstick Red' Promarker onto the page and I even messed about looking at all my other colours wondering if I could use a different one. I am SO terrified of this red pen. It is so fierce and has the power to obliterate other colours on a page and destroy a drawing, not to mention the next two pages of a sketchbook with the bleed through! 

Unfortunately, the blue of the tears isn't showing up too well from the scanning. I don't know if I will ever work out how to make my scanner scan with clarity!

Birds. Birds, Birds

I seem to have sketched quite a few birds at the park. These all actually came from pages containing other things - people sitting on benches etc. And those were often pages that I didn't really like as I felt like me dip in concentration had meant the drawings on those pages were just hideous! But out of the hideousness some little gems emerged, well I think so. These little birds all moved so fast I was forced to draw at warp speed and so didn't run into the concentration problems I had with things that were more static.

My Hiatus: The First Thing I Drew After Having A Baby (and what followed)

This was the first thing I drew after my son was born. I just really wanted to draw something again and unsurprisingly what was to hand was a toy. I sploshed a bit of watercolour on at a later date. I have no idea how I had the time for watercolour! I guess he must've slept in the daytimes more back in those early days. I also drew his other favourite toys in the days that followed..but gave up on watercolour for pens instead as you can use them while holding a baby!

Other things that were convenient to draw...(these sketches all remind me why I always write the time on my page)!

I've also found I do a fair bit of sketching in the park as the walk there usually sends Alexander to sleep in his pram.  It gives me a bit of time to sketch but to be honest I generally think it looks a mess because my mind is so focussed on him in case someone comes along and steals him.

Drawing Perfection aka Drawing the Ones You Love

I think it will be many years before I pluck up the courage to attempt to draw or paint my son. He is just so perfect I have this weird fear of drawing him in case I don't do him justice.  I wonder if this is how painters of royalty have felt, especially the ones from centuries ago when a king or queen could chop your head off for treason, not that my little one would chop my head off I'm sure. I have also refused my mum when she asked me to paint her and I've freaked out and declined when friends have done that thing where they say to you 'ooh, can you draw me now?' when you are sitting in the pub.  Its funny. I don't have any nerves about drawing a stranger in portraiture class or on the bus though, and I think my portraits turn out looking pretty true to the sitter. I wonder whether actual portrait artists who take commissions always felt comfortable with the idea of declaring themselves portraiture artists or whether they also had to get over a fear of making their sitter look like Shrek. On another note, my baby wriggles a lot! So I would have to wait til he is asleep, which I guess I have to do anyway in order to have some time for drawing!

But, he is growing so fast and I know I will kick myself one day if I didn't draw him while he was little. So I have drawn his back while he was asleep on his front...yes, I know babies aren't supposed to sleep on their front, but I reckoned that drawing him meant I was keeping a pretty close eye on him!

I really messed up the left arm. Also, I drew this on the back of the Happiness Tree page, ergo Alexander is covered in colourful leaves...

My Hiatus Pt3: While you were sleeping

Don't worry, he does have all his limbs, I just didn't get time to draw his left foot!

My Hiatus Pt2: 'Harbourfest'

For those that don't know Bristol, it has a lot of water running through it and a lot of boats so the city holds this Harbourfest event. I was hoping to do a couple of sketches of boats to use for some art for Alexander's wall as he seems to like looking at boats. But in fact I ended up paying more attention to the other stuff going on - like the dance stage which had some amazing dance crews and Bristol breakers and poppers. Something else I really liked was this tree in the 'Happiness Project' area. It is a tree and you get a coloured paper leaf and write on it what you are grateful for and tie it to the tree. I wrote a leaf on Alexander's behalf and wrote 'Grandma' on it because we really would be lost without her.

To sum up the day I did this little illustration. It looks like I have loads of time on my hands doesn't it?! Actually it was the kind of repeated pattern drawing that was quite easy to do one-handed while Alexander was on my lap.

I don't really like that I coloured it black. In hindsight I would've coloured it all light grey including the leaves.

Equipment: Sakura Pigma Micron, Berol Fine, Promarkers (I forget which colours)

My Hiatus Pt.1 'Two girls and a dog having a picnic'

i have scanned! alexander was asleep and let me put him down for long enough to scan a few bits from my sketchbook. i'm so tired, i should have taken the opportunity to sleep but i felt an overwhelming desire to post something. of course he 'waah lahhed' before i finished and he is now across me feeding hence the one-handed-sorry-about-lack-of-capital-letters post! i don't know whether to put all the sketches i've done since alexander was born into one post or to split them. one thing i can say is that they are really not brilliant. i get this desire to draw but my mind is so much on alexander, especially when we are out, that i don't focus on the sketch. i'm not someone who is able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time and that applies to drawing too. even the loosest, simplest stuff i do like the continuous line drawings i have to put 100% concentration into!

well, here is what i did yesterday in the park. i go to the park nearly every day. this was right before alexander woke up in his pram and before a random jamaican guy tried to get my number.

i have for a while been noticing that some people when they sketch combine black pens of various nib widths. i really like this as it gives something similar to the line variation you achieve with a dip pen and so is an out and about or baby friendly alternative to a dip pen! i was a bit scared about doing this, i've never really known what to do with my 'M' pitt pen. but i've tried it here and i really think it has turned out okay. i have also gone back to my sketching roots and used my beloved grey and vanilla promarkers. they are the first colours i ever used and also really what got me into sketching regularly. it is my favourite way of sketching to just have one or two simple colours and a lot of white space. i don't know whether this sketch means i have gone back to square one though! i hope not!

Equipment: Sakura Pigma Micron 01, Pitt 'M', Promarkers Cool Grey 2 & Vanilla