Illustration Friday: atmosphere

Don't they know it's the end of the world?

 (acrylic and pen on paper, A4-ish)

This came out a bit different than what I was imagining in my head, but I'm happy with it. I also forgot how quickly acrylic paint dries (I've been on an oil paint trip again, results to be posted soon, maybe) so it's a bit scruffier than I was expecting, but I suppose it lends the painting some character :)

Deep breaths now...

Illustration Friday: star gazing

2nd post today, I'm on a roll. (edit: now with slightly less crummy photography!)

Hey the stars are out tonight:

(pastel and pen on black paper, A3)

You look up at the stars, I look back at you...

I couldn't scan this in my A4 scanner without it looking like a bad cut-and-paste job, so a photo has to do (scanning pastel is messy too)

Enjoy :)

Beats, Rhymes and Life

I'm in the middle of doing another painting (I know, right?!) but in the meantime here's a custom Mini Munny that I did a while ago:

Painted with acrylic. The flagpole is a wooden dowel. The flag is white denim - it was stiff enough to hold the flag shape without needing constant wind :) - and coloured with Sharpie markers and white paint.

This little fella, standing proud at 11cm (4 1/4" in The Queen Measurements™) initially had an acrylic lily painted on his head. It was going to be a gift for a friend but I decided not to finish it, and instead repainted him as something completely different. Much simpler but different nonetheless. I decided on making him into the red and green figure found on many of A Tribe Called Quest's albums:

I think I was going through an ATCQ phase at the time and I listened to all of their albums from start to finish. My Munny is based on the cover artwork of Beats, Rhymes and Life. This cover is also my favourite as it's done in a graffiti style and I'm partial to a bit of graff:

So yeah, that's that. My painting will be posted when it's done, that or it will be put in the bin if it turns into a disaster.

Illustration Friday: caged

My entry for this week's Illustration Friday, no cages allowed:

(soft pastel and pen, A4)

Big fish eat little fish. Little fish all like O.O


My creative block is back again. I want to paint something but I dunno what.

Illustration Friday: breakfast

Eggs and bacon for breakfast:

(watercolour, A5)

My little chicky is all grown up :)

Illustration Friday: diary

Blah blah blah my entry:

(pen/ink/watercolour on paper, A4)

A bit of a break from the norm. I was playing around with this line and decided to do it in some kind of calligraphy. I could have gone straight for the obvious "draw a diary" but went with a heart instead, it's what you pour out onto the pages of your diary after all.

Anybody know where the line comes from? And who knows where I heard the line first?

No prizes for the right answers. You're on the net, Google is only a URL away.

(OK, maybe a cookie)

Looks like rain again WIP

Last night I overcame my artist's block :O
and I began painting :O :O
With oil paint :O :O :O

(oil paint on paper, A3, WIP)

This was inspired after I saw a mushroom cloud. Not in real life, otherwise I'd be dead and typing this out would be really difficult. No, I was just link bouncing on the net and saw a picture of one. And as I like juxtaposing different things together, I introduced a lady with an umbrella. I like the calm and the chaos being played out here.

I'm only 2 days deep into this piece so it's not finished, but I had to post it even if nobody sees it because I'm quite happy with how it's turning out. I still feel like taking it down in tone a little. Make it darker, a little more sinister. Oil paints take longer to dry fully, way longer than I'm normally used to with acrylic, but what is nice is that it was still wet and workable after leaving it for 8 hours while I went to sleep. Blending it is fun too, I like being able to blend the paint when it's already applied. What's doing my head in at the moment is cleaning the paint brushes and then wiping them down so they don't thin out the paint I've already applied. If only I could just run it under the tap like a water based paint. Oh, I also can't just rush through it like I normally do with acrylic. My palette looks pretty though. Messy as hell, but pretty :)

I am painting this on paper. I know, I have a canvas just itching to be blessed but I really didn't want to mess it up with something that is essentially just an experiment with a completely alien medium. Let me get a few more of these done before I commit.

Today is the hottest day so far in London. BBC news said max temps will hit 31°C. Looks like rain again...