Japanese Gardens

It's been a great time seeing friends and being relaxed with my parents in Portland. The time has gone by too fast. mornings melt into afternoons, into drunken evenings. consequently, I haven't done many sketches, but here is one from the Japanese Gardens in Portland:


tomorrow we are heading south along the Oregon Coast, eventually to San Francisco, and (hopefully) warmer climes...

I-F: Total

Some more moleskine sketches for you. I'm calling this the total Portland experience:


it's hard to see from the scan but i've collaged bits of the Powell's bookstore 'map' on here - they've redesigned their map and it's really cool (the bookstore spans an entire city block so you definitely need one!)

it's a lovely time to be in Portland. The trees are in full blossom, everything is so green and lush, sure it's raining and yes it was only about 10C today (and hailing), but it's beautiful. we've already had a few nice days in the midst of rain for hiking and walking around downtown, seen bald eagles and red tail hawks galore, and i'm remembering how to drive on the other side of the road as well (the "right" side, apparently.) more sketches soon...

In other news, a big thank you to Michelle Lana for spotlighting me on her blog, and for the lovely comments left by people there! Go visit Michelle's fantastic and humorous work!

Pick o the week! + first moleskine sketches

Hey! I land in the US and at my parents' lil ol dialup machine to find that Illustration Friday has chosen lil ol me as lil ol Pick of the Week! I can't say that "Wired" was my best work for IF but that's okay, I'll definitely take the honour! so thanks to I-F, and thanks to all my I-F buddies and anyone else who might be lurking on this blog (you know who you are!) I always appreciate your comments and it's nice to know that even my silliest little doodles get to see the light of day.

Speaking of which, here are some silly doodles from my 24-hour-melbourne-to-portland-travelling-ordeal. I really like my japanese brush and the little sketches are fun. I'm looking forward to really getting into it, and i think i might try collaging in bits of travel things I collect along the way (bus tickets, business cards, etc.) I'm also looking forward to getting some pigma micron pens when we go into downtown Portland (I couldn't seem to find them in Melbourne.) Anyway, here we go with my first real moleskine on-the-spot sketches...

I-F: Wired

I am so glad we are wired these days. It makes living across the world from your family so much easier, and makes you feel so much closer. When my parents moved from the UK to Canada, they went by boat and weren't sure if they'd see their parents again. Now, I can have daily contact with my family quite easily via email, webcams, etc., and can fly to see them within a day.

As I am doing TOMORROW. Yes, TOMORROW, I'm starting the first leg of my four month travel journey. I can't believe it really. It is one of those things that we've talked about for so long, and to have it beginning TOMORROW is really quite surreal. But I'm sure I'll cope!

So this week for Illustration Friday is a quick test of my mobile paint setup, seen here:

(it all fits in that little blue bag at the top of the image)

New toys include a Japanese watercolour brush (brush with receptable for water in the handle) and moleskine watercolour sketchbook. I think it will do me well for my travels! So this will probably be my last Illustration Friday for a while.... but i hope to do lots of sketches and doodles while i am away. Not sure how often I'll be able to upload images, but I will do my best!

so not much more to say except YAY I'M GOING! and my next post will be from the other side of the world... xx

another new header

Well i've had enough giraffes for the moment (though I do still love them!) - so here's a header of a different ilk. I've been drawing things like this for my latest and LAST illustration project before I go overseas, and it got me inspired to create something nice for me blog. i'm much happier with this one.
hooray for bloggy goodness!

Jungle rhythms

(this isn't a great reproduction because it's too big for my scanner so I had to photograph it)

A friend of my husband's saw my website and loved my giraffes, so asked me to do a painting for him. It evolved from a giraffe into a four piece jungle band! I had sooo much fun doing this. Also it is bigger than I usually paint (it is about 320mm x 450mm, and I normally don't do much bigger than A4 - 210mm x 297mm) so it was a challenge that way too. i really enjoyed painting larger - it gives you so much more room to play and to add little details.

I took a few photos along the way:

lines traced onto 300lb Arches watercolour paper

base wash of yellow and starting to put in the greens with some fun drips & spatters

shadows on the greens and add in reds/browns

all the colouring done!

painted ink lines to finish it off.