trying my hand at pottery

Earlier this year I decided to do a beginners pottery class, as I had always been interested in giving it a try. Also I think doing an evening class can be a really good way of forcing yourself to be creative even on days when you are tired from a long day at work and don’t have much time for creativity at home. Even though its not really illustration, today I thought I would post some of the pieces I made during the six weeks.

I made the yarn bowl as a birthday present for my mum, as well as two (small) mugs (plus a bunch of other things which will not be making an appearance!)- none of them quite turned out how I’d imagined in my mind!

So, back to regular programming tomorrow. I realise I have had a low presence on the blog the last couple of weeks- working hard on a few projects which  hope to share on here soon.

I know this time of year can be really busy for people- and it can be really hard to find time to be creative. Check out this awesome article on Etsy- 10 Tips for making more time to make. I certainly got a whole heap of useful tips from this.

Tomorrow I will be starting a week-long hand-lettered quote/day series- see you then!

emma

calligraphy quote practice #1

 

just playing around with scanning some calligraphy practice (from Molly Jacques Skillshare class) into the computer and superimposing onto a photo I took… haven’t tried converting these to vectors yet!!

hope you’re having a lovely week

emma

hand drawn timelapse video

Recently I was asked to illustrate the scenes for a video my sister produced with some other students for a university project. The idea was to have it resemble those hand-drawn whiteboard videos you see on youtube, and it was used to illustrate their vision of a library of the future. It was filmed scene by scene, and then sped up with video editing software. First time I’d tried this, and it was a lot of fun! I’d definitely like to try it again soon.

Here is the finished video:

I also found this video very inspiring. It is a clip from the BBC childrens programme, Jackanory, on which Quentin Blake used to do live illustrations of stories on a giant canvas! Amazing. Google it and you will find many more clips of episodes to watch 🙂

Thanks to my sister and her friends for asking me to get involved 🙂

Something else to check out:

* Quentin Blakes official website has been updated, and you can now see a whole load of awesome videos including interviews and an interesting How I draw section, as well as download free e-cards and desktop backgrounds! Definitely worth a look.

Have a great week!

emma

learning to draw letters

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been taking part in a new class on Skillshare called ‘The Art of Modern Calligraphy’, taught by the amazing calligrapher/lettering artist, Molly Jacques (<–check out her website).

The class has been great so far- and while I admit I was initially expecting a bit more in terms of project steps, I soon discovered that these steps alone would (and do!) require a lot of hard work+ practice+ dedication to master- and this challenge is part of what I love about it!

 

I am thankful that Molly has given out information that is not so readily available if you cannot attend a real life class, and has managed to create a class is an inspiring take on an ancient art form. You can see some of my somewhat embarrassing practice work throughout this post (I obviously still have a very long way to go!).

If you are interested in taking this class yourself (or any other Skillshare class) you can get a $10 discount using this referral code.

Also, worth a check out is the totally awesome Besotted blog, whose creator Tristan B has a wonderfully inspiring selection of posts on lettering. Great stuff!

Bye for now,

emma

free flight completed+ process

my latest wildlife painting is now completed! p.s the species is a light-mantled sooty albatross (Phoebetria palpebrata), inspired by one that was rescued by the bird rescue centre I volunteer at.

free flight, acrylics on hardboard, 56x70cm

This was my first large acrylic painting on board (I used hardboard, aka masonite and prepped it myself), and also the first painting I have entered into a competition. I used a limited palette of browns and blues (burnt sienna, burnt umber, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, and white) which was quite a fun experiment.

I gave myself the goal of entering this painting into a local art competition, just so I would have a goal to work towards and to give myself a push to try out a large painting. While I wasn’t entirely happy with how the painting turned out, I did manage finish it on time (via a lot of late nights!), and learnt a lot about painting on a larger scale as well as the handling of acrylics on board (a bit different to on paper!).
I also can’t wait to have another go at painting a proper seascape after having spent hours trying to perfect the background ocean in this painting!

Here is a animation I made of some in process photos:

The exhibition of the Trusts Art Awards will be opening this Thursday night at 6pm at Corban Estate Arts Centre. It will be a great show, from what I saw of some of the amazing artworks being delivered when I dropped my albatross painting off! If you are in the area and would like to come along, its open until the 13th October, more details here.

hope you are having a great start to the week!

emma

on the drawing board #1

 on the drawing board is a new series here on the blog which briefly highlights unfinished work currently on my drawing board plus other random bits and pieces, such as what I’m listening to as I paint (if you’re interested in that sort of thing). Hope you enjoy it!

If you have a blog and would like to link up with your own on the drawing board posts- click here to let me know!

Drawing:

kereru wing study, acrylics

Listening:

so relaxing! must listen on repeat…

Dreaming:

of summer. its the start of spring here in the southern hemisphere, and today is pouring with rain. fingers crossed for beautiful weather just round the corner!

Loving:

my new acrylic brush from Daler Rowney. Its a system 3 brush (round, size 12), that I got for $8 NZD at my local emporium.

source

It was an impulse buy but one that has become indispensable with the acrylic work I have been doing lately, especially as a blender when doing tiny details. Keeping this brush (just damp) on hand to blend out lines helps reduce problems with acrylic drying in the time it takes to dip your brush back in the water pot to clean it!

Quoting:

What is your goal for the week? Mine is to get a small sketchbook that fits in my handbag so I can take it with me to work. Since I’ve started doing more hours at work, I’m trying to find extra ways of getting illustration into my day, and I am going to challenge myself to do at least one sketch per day I am working (on the train or lunch, whatever). It will be one way of keeping my mind focussed and hopefully improving my drawing! Maybe I’ll even post them up here to keep an account of it…

Hope you liked the new series. Tell me- what is on your drawing board this week?

NZ conservation week

just popping by to say: its conservation week this week (8-15 Sept) in NZ!

awesome illustration from the Department of Conservation site created by 2bytwo

Conservation week’s purpose is to raise awareness about the benefits of conservation and to encourage kiwis to get involved in local projects.

If you are in New Zealand, here is a list of events you can get involved in.

a beautiful native common gecko (Hoplodactylus maculatus…i think) I photographed in my garden yesterday! I haven’t seen one of these guys in such a long time, lots of lizard species being impacted by humans due to loss of habitat and predation by cats in urban areas, so very cool to see they haven’t all disappeared! doesn’t he blend in well!

Cool gecko fact: These geckos (like all NZ geckos which are unique worldwide) give birth to live young, giving birth to twins in late summer!

You can help native geckos by planting appropriate species of plants, creating areas of cover (rock or wood piles) or even building a gecko home! If you’d like more info on making your garden gecko friendly, check out this link.

Hope you have a great week- back to regular blog posting tomorrow morning!

Emma

illustration pinspiration: blue

Illustration pinspiration series is all about showcasing amazing illustration work by artists around the web. See the first post in this series here.

This months pinspiration theme: BLUE

If you are interested in seeing more (much much more) illustration inspiration, check out my pinterest Illustration board.

Please note, none of this work is my own, all artists are credited below.

Rooftops- Sarah Marino

source unknown

渡　太一

 

Eyvind Earle- Midnight Blue, 1983

Leviathan, by Ture Ekroos

unknown source

Joey Chou

Please visit the respected artists websites to see more of their work.

will be back soon with the first post in a new blog series….

Hope you’re having a great week!

emma

pen practice 1.0

a little pen piece I did this weekend- relaxing drawing hundreds of tiny lines!

Its not exactly what I was hoping for (went ott on the lines!) but I guess its good practice of fine line work.

Done with FC Pitt artist pen (brush tip) and Rapidograph pen 0.35mm nib, based on an American Robin wing, reference photos from here.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

emma

a little spur-winged plover chick

here is a little spur-winged plover chick, illustrated in acrylics (Atelier interactives):

 

I have been meaning to do some more practice in acrylics- I am never 100% happy with the end result in terms of vibrancy of the paints (like you get with watercolour), but I am pretty happy with Atelier interactives so far. They work really well when using them like watercolours, like I have been doing. Unlike other acrylic paints you can also (to an extent) reactivate the lower layers of the painting (though of course you can layer without disturbing the lower layers too), and they don’t dry with that plastic-y look which is the thing that annoys me about acrylics! The only thing is it takes a little while to get used to layering with them. Perfect practice for this little chick- we’ve had two at the rescue centre I volunteer at, very cute.

On a bird- theme, I saw these videos about mexican science illustration intern at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology- Evaristo Hernández-Fernández when looking for motivation about acrylic painting in a watercolour style- its AMAZING! Very inspiring, especially interesting to me was that he is an ornithology student and self-taught artist- very cool!

Science and Art

and about his painting of the imperial woodpecker (extinct)- has a bit more info about his technique

 

Hope you enjoy!

emma