More envelope art

I haven't posted here in a while... taking photos has instant gratification I guess. Now if only I could photograph all the things I imagine in my mind but don't have the skill to create, I'd be happy :)

This was the envelope for a birthday card that I just had to draw on (I couldn't help myself). I drew the "accessories" in the same theme as the card itself. I forgot to photograph the card though... silly me. It said something like "When I grow up I want lots of puppies and ponies", so of sourse I had to make the card a bit more "edgy" seeing as the recipient was celebrating her 15th birthday and the card wasn't age appropriate whatsoever.

Typical chrome and black dub style with paint markers. I don't like the "G" however, but no biggy, I'm not a real writer anyway.

Which way?

Just a quick doodle, inspired by a thought/dream I had the previous night.

I haven't drawn much, I've been a bit more experimental with photography recently. That doesn't mean I'm snapping pics with my phone and then passing them through a crummy filter (because you know, apparently everyone's a "photographer" when they have a camera and an out-of-focus subject). But I'm not a photographer either, I just like pictures.

Also, having a bunch of photos means (or should mean) more source material to draw inspiration from.

I think I've said that before.

Squawk Squawk

Here's a macaw.

(felt pen on paper, A4)

I had a macaw as my desktop wallpaper and it was really colourful, hence my reason for drawing it. It's 100% pen, no pencil sketches or outlines, which in a way accounts for the rather rough nature of the drawing (which I like). Once I was done, the bird and its bright colours reminded me of a tattoo... a tattoo that I would advise nobody to get, but a tattoo nonetheless*.

My scanner was also set at 600dpi and the initial full-sized scan was over 7000 pixels wide (!) so when I zoomed in to the wing the preview had this really abstract look:

Sometimes, drawing and looking at things the way they aren't is fun too.

My desktop isn't a macaw anymore. Today its a blurry leaf macro photo. In a few days it'll be something else. Ahhh, the customisation never ends...

*Apologies to all the people looking for a macaw tat and stumbling on this page instead. Google's keywords makes the rules, not me :)

Illustrated envelope fun time

So, when the theme is a glamorous Pre-Oscars party, and you have a birthday card with an unbelieveably boring envelope and a box of felt tip pens, you obviously customise the envelope. Obviously!

(felt pen on... an envelope!)

From cruddy ball-point sketch, to pencil outline, to fill in.

I should have stopped there, but the back was as dull as the front was before I got my grubby mitts on it, so I did a little Googlin' and found some images of the official Oscar envelope design, for a little inspiration.

The back of the official envelope...

...and my humble little homage/rip :D

Any excuse to customise something :)

Flyin' rats

A couple of pigeons. The first was done in watercolour:

 I spent an hour, maybe 2 (on and off) total on this one.

The second pigeon was a really quick pen sketch and coloured with grey pencil as I don't seem to have a grey pen handy... Oh wait, just as I finished typing that I realised I have a grey Alpha marker but that's alcohol-based and I used water-based ink and hey look, I'm going off on a tangent:

I spent maybe 5 minutes on this one. I didn't outline in pencil beforehand and I'm pointing this out because it's something I rarely do. It's scruffy as hell and I didn't finish colouring in the green-purple feathers because I didn't want to over colour it, even if I undercoloured it. But for some reason I prefer this scruffy, unfinished pidge over the planned out and full colour pidge.

Funny how that happens...

Duck and cover

(watercolour, gouache and pen, A4)

Here's a Mandarin Duck. I was going to draw a Mallard but the vibrant colours of this duck are too good to pass up.

I haven't done a pencil drawing in a long time so this was going to be a pencil drawing. I started off with Inktense watercolour pencils, but because I only have 12 different pencils my colour pallette is really limited. I changed my mind part-way through so now it's mostly watercolour paint and a little gouache.

Watercolour is quick, which is probably why it's my go-to medium (I do get impatient sometimes). I will do a drawing soon. It's been a while, I might have forgotten how to use pencils.

Mariposa

(watercolour, gouache and pen, A4)

More gouache, although you can't really tell.

Fishfish

(gouache, watercolour and pen, A4)

My first try at using gouache, a totally alien medium to me up until yesterday. It was actually really fun to use, it certainly made my fish look good. I can see why illustrators like it so much.

Destroy

(Update, 6th August, 2011: Also submitted to Illustration Friday for the topic 'imperfect')

Kinga's and my personal illustration project is a little overdue, but I'm done. This time it's my topic of choice. I decided to break the pattern of monosyllabic words thus far and chose 'destroy':

(acrylic and pen, A3)

This was a weird one. It started off with a photo of a swan that I'd taken a while back. I thought to myself "it looks too clean...".

I started off in a painterly style, and the water leant itself quite well to it. Part way through I was watching a TV documentary about Impressionist painters, notably Monet and Renoir. I was inspired by it and made the water even more brushy-looking than my usual style normally dictates. The swan didn't really lend itself too much to a painterly style however. I wanted the appearance of fine details so I drew them in with white Posca pen. This gave the swan's body the suggestion of feathers, rather than looking like a milky, washed-out blob. It also made the swan pop out from the watery background, which was a nice after-effect.

After the first pass it looked like this:

I could have just finished here and called this something like Swan #1, but seeing as the topic was destroy and this had no kind of destructive quality about it, I had to go on.

The next step was to sketch a rough piece to overlay. I had a few choices for what word to use. I could have just went with destroy but that was way too obvious (and too long). I could have gone the corny route and used something like style or urban, but those feel like buzzwords used by the media when they portray or describe graffiti. Instead I went the more 'intelligent' route (sure...) and went with mute.

Why 'mute'? Because the swan I painted is commonly known as a mute swan. Makes sense now, doesn't it? I used the typical "dub" style of chrome in black. It's simplicity is in contrast to the complexity and roughness of the painting. Opposites are good.

Silver pen. Shiny.

Nothing like the juxtaposition of a majestic swan with a line of graffiti on it's side.

Illustration Friday: remedy

I got the poison, I got the remedy:

(watercolour, watercolour pens, ink, A4)

Take 2 happy pills and call me in the morning.


I just realised this is the second watercolour I've done in this kind of style, the first one was for a previous Illustration Friday topic. It's definitely not the first time I've used broken white lines. I like it. I think I might adopt it as my go-to style. Wait, have I finally found my style?

I doubt it...

Just an idea...

I'm trying something different here, but with a familiar style. Hopefully this doesn't turn into another one of those pictures that I don't finish because the idea was too difficult for me to make a reality. I hate when that happens.

Illustration Friday: bottled

Yeah, you know the deal:

(pen and pastel on paper, A4)

I added a vignette to darken it somewhat, the original image scanned way too bright. It also makes the image look old, which is a pretty neat effect.

original

detail

Dots, everywhere dots.


Update: I also found the first doodle I made when this week's topic was announced:

This is usually how I put my idea down before I completely forget it: really badly on a scrap of paper and in ball-point pen :)

Oh hey, a doodle...

Wow, I actually found one that doesn't look horrible!

 

Having said that, it doesn't look too much like a doodle either.

And in case you are wondering (you aren't) where you've seen these two before this is Bait meeting Proverb.

Illustration Friday: swarm

*clap clap*:

(paint pens and soft pastel on black paper, A4)

I didn't want to go with the obvious choice of bees, so I went with the less obvious (or really weird) choice of moths... and other winged creatures.

bait

Kinga Bee and I decided that we would have our own little illustration task and illustrate a random word chosen by either one of us, but unlike other illustration tasks (a la Illustration Friday) there's no pressure to finish within a week. The topic chosen by her was "bait":

(pens on paper, A4)

 
My first real post with felt tip pens, so yay me I guess. It's always nice to use something other than watercolours or pastel. No apologies for the patchy colour, I just started using Alpha Markers and I don't know how to control the colours yet. They are godly pens, however.

This was the first thing that immediately sprung to mind on seeing the word "bait". And because I like to show you how lame my first sketch is, here it is in all it's awful shaky pencil, testing the pen colour because the indicator cap is usually different glory:

Update: A very (belated) Happy New Year!

This is a repost, I originally drew and posted this back on 11th October last year, then pulled it into drafts a few weeks later as the other "competing" half wasn't ready (i.e., didn't start). I don't really know if she'll ever get around to illustrating the word *HINT HINT :P*, and leaving this in a state of limbo is kind of a waste, so I decided that this should be the first post of the new year.

I should have had a whole load of other things to post that I was expecting to do over the holidays, but that didn't really pan out too well. I did some things but I actually had more fun with my new camera than I did with pencil and paper. Fortunately that means a bunch of reference photos for future use. I might post some photos too. But first thing's first, I have to open a FB page. I've been reluctant to do so for a while but I guess now's as good a time as any...

Happy new Year again! :)

Update 2: Well wouldn't you believe it, soon after reposting this Kinga Bee only went and did the damn thing! It only took 4 months, 3 reposts and some subtle prodding to get it done, hehe. Complimentary link-back here (clicky).
To-do: comment on her picture. Better do it later, I'm still jetlagged, it's 4:30am and my brain is lugaw.

Illustration Friday: savour

"The cake is a lie" is a lie:

 

(felt pens on paper, A4)

...it exists and is very delicious. Yum :d

 

 The animal started off as a kind of dog, then evolved somewhat into a monkey-dog-koala hybrid. Now it's back to "animal".

Illustration Friday: spooky

This isn't spooky at all:

(felt pens on paper)

It does however have the cutest pumpkin I've ever drawn :)


(I wanted to use this word for another illustration project, but IF came along and swooped it up. You guys are like mindreaders.)

Illustration Friday: acrobat

The Freshest Kids:

(silver marker pen on black paper, A4)

acrobat

noun.

1. One who is skilled in feats of balance and agility in gymnastics.

I think b-boys fit that description quite well.

I just wanted to keep it simple and create movement. The silver pen doesn't look too impressive when it's scanned, but it is nice and shiny :)

Illustration Friday: proverb

A bird in the hand...

(Watercolour pens and ink on paper, A5-ish)

 ...makes a terrible mess.

Well, that's my experience anyway.

I remember...

While I wait for a) inspiration for a new drawing/painting, or b) motivation to finish my current painting, I thought I would post this really old picture that I found:

(felt pens and pencil, A4)

Note the date on the picture. I drew this 24 years ago with a little help (read: a lot of help) from my dad. If I remember correctly this was completely spontaneous and I just drew anything that I could think of. I really don't doodle enough now but when I was younger I was a total fiend with a bunch of pens and paper. I would sometimes zone out and draw, even if it was utter crap and I ended up binning it. This picture actually means quite a lot to me though, partly because it's the only thing I drew when I was a little kid that I still have, and partly because it was one of the first things my dad and I did together when he first came to London.

I think I might make doodle posts a regular thing. All I have to do is 're-learn' how to doodle :S