The paper clay kitten that dried out on our window ledge this week, has come to life! (And it’s madder than a march hare.)
The 52 Week illustration theme this week is TOY.
Kitten Called Thunder
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I am not a toy!
Revenge in 4 stages
Dog performs psychological punishment.
Cat demonstrates turning the other cheek.
The 52 Week Illustration Challenge theme this week is TOY.
Happy Wednesday.
Week 32: PSYCHEDELIC
Cat trouble again
I don’t know if the cat is directly responsible for this little dog’s trippy bad dream, but she is certainly doing her best to mozz him.
Calculus Doodles in Bed
These were all done using a historical fashion book for reference and a differential calculus book as a canvas.
I first looked for interesting mathematical lines and diagrams, then found fashions that seemed to meld with them. The rest was a bit of swift improvisation. The women in the fashion book are (deliberately) bland and faceless. I added some life to the people, and altered poses, and fashion to suit the squiggles of my pen.
I do seem to find this kind of squiggling very relaxing. And it can be quite suggestive of all sorts of things… Astrakhan, embroidery, hedges…
Last-day-of-the-holidays Doodles (experiments with blobs part 9)
Here are some final blob doodles to mark the end of the school holidays and back to work tomorrow (not to mention the piles of washing). I painted some more spiky blobs this time thinking that they might do well for some more birds, just for fun. The curvy spikes have served well in most cases as wings and beaks.
The colours did not work very beautifully on this one. But here is a little Carnivore Bird Thing finding his legs… or his dinner.
This is another Little Carnivore. I like his colours much better.
Little Duck Thing with Big Feet. (This blob is really very small.)
With all those babies, it’s only fitting to have a Mumsy kind of bird. This is a Mummy Trouserbird. She is waiting for her babies to catch up, but they are not very quick on their feet.
This is a Daddy Pyjamabird. He’s getting up for a midnight snack. (note: At night a Trouserbird is called Pyjamabird.)
This is a Trouserbird wearing a parachute.
This is a Preposterous Thing. what can I say? He is lucky to be anything, considering that not long ago, he was merely a blob.
This is a walrussy thing. He may be depressed due to the fact that his tusk is coming out of the wrong place and causes him discomfort.
Holiday doodles
Here are some little watercolour blobs done while on holiday in Portland. Our holiday was short but very sweet…unlike Blob Bird No 3 who is short and short-tempered. These blobs are all just a few centimetres across. I forgot to take a fine brush with me, so I couldn’t get any fine feathering to work. I did birds first, as the 52 Week Illustration theme of the week is ‘feather’ and then I played around with dogs, monsters etc.
After we got home, late yesterday I did some more drawing in bed. I remembered that the shaggy hair on the lower legs of some breeds of horse (like the Clydesdale) are called ‘feather’ so I drew some Clydesdales, and then found myself drawing a Rebellious Teen Pony With Attitude, who also has feathered legs. I rather liked her.
Blob Bird 1
Blob Bird 2 – what a cheery fellow
Blob Bird 3 – a foul mood. He was drawn at the bottom of the page, and no room for a decent pair of pins.
Blob Bird 4 – Also in a foul mood despite his fancy trousers.
Blob Bird 5 – a bit mad I suspect.
We met a pair of swans in a park with a pond and little hire boats with outboard motors that the kids were able to steer. The swans were crazily gorgeous in a bizarre way, and very grumpy. I was watching them for a while and then drew them from memory later. We also saw Mortimer the Raven at the park, with his friend Edgar. I fed Mortimer from my hand and I saw up close that he really does have a hairy beak! Joan Aiken did not lie.
This is one of the cross swans, drawn from a blob. (Also cramped at the bottom of the page with his toes falling off the edge. I’ve added a bit of digital depth of tone to this one. He was pale grey)
One of the swans, from a blob. But he looks quite cheerful here, but I think he may have some goose blood in him.
A page of dog blobs. These worked better than the birds I thought as I had warmed up. (Maybe it was the champagne, or maybe it was the log fire…. hmmm)
Here are the Cross Swans again. These were drawn in bed last night after we came home. I’ve scanned them and coloured them digitally.
This is one of the bed sketches of a Clydesdale. Below is the Teen Pony.
Week 27: Snow (experiments with blobs part 6)
These first two are grey blobs with red crayons scribbles in the middle of them. I have found they are harder to turn into things. The red crayon scribble is quite distracting! Who would have thought?
Blue Booby Baby Blob Bird Playing in the Snow.
Ink, red crayon, felt tip, watercolour, white acrylic, digital layering.
Old Dog in the Snow.
Also ink, red crayon, felt tip, watercolour, white acrylic, digital layering.
Search and Rescue Dog in the Snow.
This one has no digital layering. Thought I’d see what the white acrylic paint could do with the snow all by itself. I also skipped the red crayon scribble. Instead, this time I did a grey ink background wash with a red watercolour blob in the middle The red watercolour blob was what suggested the shape of the dog character and the rest followed from there.
I didn’t think I’d come up with anything for the ‘snow’ theme actually. It isn’t something I have much experience with. But blobs are a good way to start when you don’t know where to start. Then, just add some warm winter woollies and snow.
Cloudy Days in Melbourne
Winter has finally arrived in Melbourne. And the 52 Week Illustration Challenge theme is clouds.
I didn’t have to do anything extra for the Challenge this week really. I am working with clouds all the time for Thunderstorm Dancing, and although I can’t post an entire image until the book is published, I did post a fragment of the spread I was working on, which features approaching storm clouds (below). Froth, spatter, roar and hum.
This spread was finished until my Beloved told me that the veranda perspective needed alteration… the same veranda that the Cat Called Thunder is trotting across. So I will finish it (again) today.
I’m not saying I relate to that cranky terrier up the top. Not at all. Nope. And I do appreciate the help with perspective.
I did find myself wandering off to do cloud blob doodles to cheer myself up though.
Monster cloud blobs…
Wolf cloud blobs, crossing raging rapids…
Bird cloud blobs… one of whom just might possibly be a vulture cloud blob… (Should that be who or whom?)
And lastly this rather bizarre Cloud Blob Doodle which in fact I had done a week or two ago as a variation on the blob improvisation idea. Wherever that photo was taken, it wasn’t Melbourne this week.
Judy Watson 