I’m drawing whippets over and over again until I get the expression just right for final art.
Sometimes, when I’ve drawn the dog several times over in the ‘pose’ (for want of a better word) required for the illustration, I still can’t get it right. Low growl.
Then I sometimes draw the dog (or cat, or person) in another way entirely and it gets my brain out of the gridlock.
Here’s Lucy telling me to play ball and chill out sister.
Ball anyone?
Here are some of the coloured blobs from a week ago.
An assortment of mutts, birds and abominations.
Sickeningly Girly Mutt
Disappointed Mutt
Cheery Puppy Mutt
Gloomy Mutt
Sniffy Mutt
Wiry Mutt
Cheery Bird
Moulting Bolting Bird
Silly Bird (Hugo’s favourite)
Opera Owl
Salvador Snail
Political Pig
Bunny in a Box
Our old boy, who sleeps with his tongue hanging out now. (But not with his eyes open…)
Pencil sketch with digital wash.
This set of four pages will be up for silent auction at the Australian Children’s Laureate Fundraiser. Consider buying a ticket to what will be a fabulous night of fun with the Australian children’s publishing community and grab a one of a kind gem from the selection of silent auction items. (Soon to be uploaded to the Laureate Website.)
Dick Russell Grinned
Three Tasks for Dick and Porky
A Bone of Contention
A Little Unreal
Set of Four pages
Alice is the dog. She loves train trips. She loves train trips almost as much as swimming in circles in the dam with a stick in her mouth. And she really, really loves that!
The well dressed lady is inspired by a photo of Ada Rehan. Ada lived from 1859 to 1916. Does this make her Edwardian? She was an actress and she fed her retriever too many chocolates.
The picture is possibly for Camperdown’s upcoming Animalia exhibition… only how to get it there? If I frame it, the glass will get broken in the post won’t it? If I don’t frame it, how can it be displayed? I was going to send the artwork still in the book, so that it could be displayed open on a table. That didn’t work with this one, as I ended up collaging three pieces of paper together and they are no longer in the book!
I’ll have to make up my mind by tomorrow or I won’t get anything there in time.
Well! I made up my mind. I sent the Cornish Soliloquy instead. And Alice’s Ecstasy can be purchased in my Etsy shop here. Hooray!
Okay, so hopefully your café waiter is enriching your life with insightful children’s book recommendations by now. (See my earlier post here)
But is your vet into book illustration? If not, change to this one. My vet sends me photos of endearing beasts from her surgery. All illustrators need this service.
Here is a Spoodle with very talented whiskers. His name is Charlie and he looks a little glum because he is sleepy after his pre-med. I have heard that he likes to lick feet (and sometimes dig up veggie patches after they have been covered in Blood & Bone;-)
If you can’t see how talented his whiskers are in that photo, try this one.
If you still can’t see, then you must use your imagination. I did.
Stage One… the whiskered wolf
But it wasn’t enough. I mean, really… was it?
Stage 2… some further growth
In for a penny, in for a pound. Might as well have a bit more fun…
I like the irish terrier. If only she were a standard poodle instead, she would make a fine, proud mother for a doodled spoodle.
It has been interesting to spend time making meaning progressively more tenebrous rather than aiming for clarity as would be more usual in my paid work! It’s rather like creating a very elaborate and wandering daydream on paper.
I wonder whether this imbroglio represents the state of my mind lately :-)
Lucy the whippet gets in on the action…
Poor Poppy. As I have a thumping headache at the moment due to a cold, I sympathise with his predicament :-)
Often it’s the quickest pictures that have the most life… And often the quickest pictures are pictures of dogs… Ahem
This needs to be re-worked and then ‘unworked’! But I’m trying for that look that Hugo gets when he is squirming with glee, half crushing whatever he is holding, and throwing his legs about from a safe vantage point… not quite ready to join in… The cat is getting closer to the right baleful and disgusted expression :-)
Dogs, dogs and more dogs! Do you desire dalmatians? Do you prefer pugs? What dogs do you like? Maybe some honest mutts?
These original illustrations (and perhaps a couple more if time allows) will be auctioned to raise funds for my sons’ primary school in Mentone Australia. The final day for bidding will be Saturday 23 March (if you can make it over to Broome Ave Mentone in person to enjoy the fun of the school fete) or you can bid over the phone until Friday 22 March if you live too far away or you’re too busy sipping champagne by the pool.
If you would like to phone through a bid with your credit card details, call the school office on +613 9583 4935 or you could email them on mentone.park.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au to make arrangements.
The Dalmatian and the Pug are monotypes (one-off prints) hand coloured with watercolour.
Arf!
Judy Watson 