You can buy Tom from Etsy here. (sold)
You can buy Tom from Etsy here. (sold)
Category Archives: illustration
Scratchings
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Yesterday afternoon I locked the girls up to keep them nearby so that I could draw them. After they got over the idea that the paints, palette, brushes and water bowl might be edible, they carried on with their scratching, leaving me to do my own scratchings. Hilda, kept coming back to check though, in case I had just forgotten about the treat I was going to give them.
This altered book thing is a little like op-shopping… you go in hoping to find a little gem, and often, you do find it! In each case here, I drew the chicken first, and then found a few words in the text to compliment the picture. It seems to nearly always be there. Mysterious, happy chance.
‘Charming’ felt tip, watercolour and gouache on vintage book page.
This is Vita, who is a Light Sussex Bantam, and thoroughly charming.
‘I have quite lost my appetite’ felt tip, gouache and watercolour on vintage book page.
This is Vita again. Vita is ALWAYS hungry.
For sale on Etsy here. (sold)
‘Phoebe leaned forward’ felt tip, watercolour and gouache on vintage book page.
This is Hilda really. Phoebe is her stage name :-) Here she is demonstrating the Pekin ‘forward tilt’ which is a sign of good breeding and general loveliness on the show bench. Hilda rocks the ‘forward tilt’. She is a black birchen Pekin.
For Sale on Etsy here. (sold)
I did another of Storm, but it needs a little further tidying up… or saving… so I’ll leave it off for now.
The book, by the way, is Georgette Heyer’s ‘SYLVESTER or THE WICKED UNCLE’ 1957. The mind boggles.
The Geebung Polo Club
I picked up this book of ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s verse in the op shop the other day. It is past its prime as a book, in that the pages are all coming adrift, perhaps expressing their wish to break away and start a new life on their own. In this I intend to help them.
Having lived around the corner from the pub of this name many years ago, I started by reading this drily catastrophic verse about an epic Polo battle. It is really very playful, and much shorter than I had imagined. After one reading, the pages came out of the book in my hands.
I took the hint and obliged…
Part A.
They were long and wiry natives from the rugged mountain side,
And the horse was never saddled that the Geebungs couldn’t ride;
(sold)
Part B:
Now my readers can imagine how the contest ebbed and flowed,
When the Geebung boys got going it was time to clear the road;
And the game was so terrific that ere half the time was gone
A spectator’s leg was broken – just from merely looking on.
Admittedly, both parts of the poem were originally to appear on the same page. But due to a serendipitous error, wherein I found I had glued the first half of the poem on the right hand side of the page instead of the left… well, we now have two works of art. He he.
I’ve just begun to list artworks on Etsy. You can find my shop here. (Although there’s not much in it yet!)
Twisted Whiskers… or the Spoodle Doodle
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 :-)
Donkeys can’t fly on planes
South Sudanese children tell their stories of survival
Click the invitation to go to KidsOwnPublishing web site to read more
This is an invitation to attend the launch of the publication Donkeys Can’t Fly on Planes. These powerful stories were written by students from refugee backgrounds at Latrobe English language centre and Traralgon (Liddiard Road) Primary School. A wonderful community collaboration.
Date: Tuesday August 20, 2013
Time: 6pm
Venue: Art Play, Birrarung Marr Park, Melbourne
I produced this image of a Sudanese family for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development last year, as part of a frieze to promote reading to children in the early years.
Nicki Greenberg and other comics stars
This is Nicki’s gorgeous new web site, which shows off her breadth of work. Her graphic novels and comics work are particularly strong. I just love this piece Comic Fatigue. (Postmodern or just Loony Tunes madness? …Or was Loony Tunes a form of postmodernism?) And I really, really loved her graphic novels The Great Gatsby and Hamlet.
I’m often drawn to the idea of doing a graphic novel… but then I look again and imagine drawing all those pages, doing all that very difficult composition and hardest of all CHARACTER CONTINUITY x one billion! …And then I change my mind. Hats off to all you amazing graphic novelists. You are awe inspiring.
While I’m on the subject, if any of you out there are crazy enough… Oops, I mean spirited and passionate and motivated enough to want to launch into comics, I can highly recommend Scott McCloud‘s books Understanding Comics and Making Comics as a brilliant starting point.
For further inspiration on art, writing, comics and perhaps life… try reading What it is, by Lynda Barry.
Drawing from the imagination
Drawing without the use of a life model or reference material can lead to some surprising results. He he. Who knew Mum had two left feet? (Size 11 by the looks)
Immortalised on line before Eraser Surgery.
Alice gets in on the action – sneak peek at one corner of spread 22-23
Funny how when you draw something upside down, your eye can lose its usual sense of proportion. This is the last in a series of head-stand sketches for Thunderstorm Dancing. In some of the earlier sketches, when I turned the picture the other way up after drawing, (so that the child was seen with with head upwards) I was amused to find that her head was enooooormously too large, and sometimes her body was extremely shortened.
However, I didn’t try drawing this picture the other way up. I felt the only way to get the right balance, weight and feeling was to draw her as she is to be seen on the page.
The Prettiest Publications of the Past on AbeBooks
The Prettiest Publications of the Past on AbeBooks.
In case you want something to drool over while you are drinking your morning cup of tea, check out the AbeBooks e-newsletter for this week at the link above.
By the way, a couple of weeks ago I wouldn’t have known what this book was. Now, I know a little about Charles Lamb whose life was an interesting one, because I have read Anne Fadiman’s book ‘At Large And At Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist’. I’m so glad I did! It is a really wonderful read.
If you crave more delicious book covers after you’ve drooled over that lot, make another cup of tea and go over here.
And if you’re still thirsty, here is something more contemporary and bright. You should be properly awake after that:-)
Have a great day!
Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2013
Congratulations to the shortlistees for this wonderful award. Here are the children’s fiction covers. Hooray!
From The Age today: Miles away from the flak, PM gets acquainted with a good book or two.
The 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists are:
Fiction
Floundering by Romy Ash
The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey
Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser
Lost Voices by Christopher Koch
Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany
Poetry
Burning Rice by Eileen Chong
The Sunlit Zone by Lisa Jacobson
Jam Tree Gully: Poems by John Kinsella
Liquid Nitrogen by Jennifer Maiden
Crimson Crop by Peter Rose
Non-fiction
Bradman’s War by Malcolm Knox
Uncommon Soldier by Chris Masters
Plein Airs and Graces by Adrian Mitchell
The Australian Moment by George Megalogenis
Bold Palates by Barbara Santich
Prize for Australian History
The Sex Lives of Australians: A History by Frank Bongiorno
Sandakan by Paul Ham
Gough Whitlam by Jenny Hocking
Farewell, dear people by Ross McMullin
The Censor’s Library by Nicole Moore
Young adult fiction
Everything left unsaid by Jessica Davidson
The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett
Grace Beside Me by Sue McPherson
Fog a Dox by Bruce Pascoe
Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield
Children’s fiction
Red by Libby Gleeson
Today We Have No Plans by Jane Godwin and illustrated by Anna Walker
What’s the Matter, Aunty May? by Peter Friend and illustrated by Andrew Joyner
The Beginner’s Guide to Revenge by Marianne Musgrove
Judy Watson 