Penguins! Penguins! Penguins!

This month I have mostly been painting penguins. The top illustration is from a story I've written. The little girl is terrified. She can hear loud bangs in the kitchen. The noise is coming from the fridge. She musters the courage to open the door and see what's inside; to her surprise a waddle of penguins (a 'waddle' is now the official collective noun for penguins on land according to the international penguin conference held in Chile. The collective noun for penguins in the water is a 'raft'. Well there you go!) waddled out onto the kitchen floor. 

The bottom illustration is from this weeks illustration friday 'entangled'. I was beginning to design some christmas cards involving penguins and thought this was a perfect opportunity to capture them in sticky situation.

Creating Characters

I find one of the enjoyments about creating a new character for a story is exploring their personality through body language. Before I did my Masters, this was something a really struggled with, so I joined a life drawing class. I found when we did faster sketches, about one pose per minute, I got a much better at recreating the figure more accurately. I also spent hours in tea shops drawing the passers by. When people are unaware they are being sketched, their body language is far more natural. Practice really did help to make my characters more interesting.

Here's my latest character for a story I've written. I wanted her to be a little shy and nervous, but with a good sense of humour and a flare for fashion!

There's Another Bunny Rabbit!

Bunnies

Mother Bunny and Baby Bunnies...

                     

These little bunny illustrations I did for two of my oldest friends who have recently entered into motherhood. They've given me lots of ideas for this years set of christmas cards. Watch this space!

Jet Bike Safari

'Travel'

So, we've just got back from our summer holiday in the Canary Islands. We travelled with the whole family, my sister and her husband, my husband and my mom. We spent most days lazing on the beautiful beach or relaxing by the pool reading, but by the last day my husband was itching to do something a little more adventures. I'd never been on a Jet Bike before, but as my husbands Australian, and grew up doing water-sports, he assured me I'd be fine. We signed up to do a Jet Bike safari, first to see Los Gigantis and then to see the whales and dolphins. The safari started out great, we left the beach doing around 25 miles an hour which was great, I loved it! Then, without any warning, we speed up to 50 miles an hour! I've never felt such terror and such joy all at the same time, it was scarely fantastic. We saw a school of dolphins playing around a boat, then right near us, about 10 meters away from our Jet Bikes, a whale! I would recommend this trip to anyone visiting Tenerife, it was something I will never ever forget.

Equality

'EQUALITY'

This weeks Illustration Friday word is 'Equality'. I immediately thought of my sister and brother-in-law. They share everything equally so nobody ever feels without. This comes into full action when they serve up a yummy meal, they make sure everybody has exactly the same amount of food on their plate. The same number of potato wedges, an equal amount of chicken pieces in a chicken madras, a proportionate measure of vegetables on a Sunday roast. It doesn't matter what gender or size you are, all servings will be one and the same. Sharing is caring!

I'm working on a story featuring a fare few mice at the moment, so I thought I'd use them to illustrate this weeks word.

Illustration Friday

'Tension'

'Sweet'

'Worn'  

3 Weeks of Illustration Friday

All of these illustrations I did using a dip pen and ink, and painted with watercolour. I've used the last three weeks to really explore patterns and textures. I wanted to create a real sense of depth with the textures especially. For the next couple of weeks I'll be experimenting with shadows, attempting to create tension and atmosphere so watch this space and please let me know what you think.