The Beekeeper's Daughter; graphite and oil on board

After many years I have picked up my oils and completed a new painting. I can't remember the last time I painted in something other than acrylics or gouache so this has been a big experiment.

The Beekeeper's Daughter 2014, 25cm x 25cm; finally made real after about three years in my head :)

Dream big, little one ~ Custom skate deck art

This one was a big nerve-wracking to make, it was a gift for my niece's first birthday. Firstly, we were ordered to not bring gifts (lol! like I'm going to promise that) so we decided on something that cost nothing but time and would be super special and grow with her.

So my husband and I joined forces and planned a bird and dreamcatcher design with the words "Dream Big". This is a standard full-sized wooden skate deck, painted, inked and drawn with a variety of different mediums.

Another addition to the miniature canvas menagerie

Another abstract background chosen and this time, a bright green frog popped up! I adore frogs, they are so bright and beautiful and have such amazing physical prowess. Did you know that along with breathing through lungs, they also breathe through their skin to regulate moisture and fluid transfer in a process called cutaneous gas exchange? NICE!

A new miniature painting - little Broadbill

Getting the paints out was very therapeutic! I painted a bunch of abstract backgrounds on some 10x10cm canvas boards and picked one for this little guy.

The circus is in town!

I just put the finishing touches on these three beauties. The Lion Tamer and The Fire Breather are extra special to me as two of my very close friends posed for these ones for me :)

All three of these are pen, ink and pencil on watercolour paper. Once I have them photographed at a high res I'll add limited edition prints to my store.

Gainsborough Art Awards sneak peek

A sneak peek of my entry into the Gainsborough Art Awards, 2012 :)

"Who knows what song the caged bird sings?" Mixed media on wood, 45cm x 90cm.

Fingers crossed!

Birthday Party - Photo booth

On the day of the party I set up a photo boo the corner of the room. All it needed was a well-lit corner, a blank wall, a chair and a basic point-and-shoot camera on a tripod.

A simple cardboard sign, the printed props and some childlike humour were all we needed to have a ball!

DIY target game tutorial

As seen in the super-duper 5th birthday party of 2012, the target game!

The shooter tutorial can be found at Come Together Kids. That is where I originally saw the idea and I won't rip of the concept by making my own tute :)

At most this project will cost you a couple of dollars. At best, it will be free! I always keep a few plastic cups and balloons in the cupboard for when I have a party.

I picked up the clear standard plastic cups and found them strong enough to support the balloons on their own. No need for doubling up the cups.

DIY Birthday party stage 2 - activities & games

ooooookkkkkkk

Birthday Party stage 2 involves the games. All these games are recyclable, diy, customisable and nearly free (or totally free, depending on your stash).

Top: colour in.
Easy friggin peasy guys! I found some free colour in pictures of Transformers and dinosaurs, changed the black to a medium gray (so they are nicer to colour) and printed them.

Middle: Pin the tail on the dinosaur.
Cardboard from a box, with butcher paper glued over the front, painted by hand. Add a matching cardboard tail and ta- da! Inspired by: Paper and Cake

Bottom left: Target game. (Tutorial)
Disclaimer! IF you include this in your party be prepared for it to be hijacked by the adults. Oh, and leave it till last as the kids love it too!
Cardboard from a box, softdrink box, tissue box, cracker box, white glue, tape, paint, pom poms, plastic cups, balloons. Pom pom shooter tutorial over at Come Together Kids

Bottom right: Ring toss.
Cardboard, cardboard tube from a aluminum foil pack, cheap paper plates, glue, staples, paint. NOTE: I found the single plates did not work very well, so I stapled two plates together, one upside down on the other. Inspired by A Little Learning For Two

Along with the DIY photo booth there was barely enough time for the kids to play with everything. They had a ball and a bunch of the adults got involved too. Laughter and merriment was the order of the day!

The beauty of women

 Beauty and the deep

 The dragon ballet

The eye of the beholder

Finally I have some photos of this series! These are only preliminary photos but they give a good idea of what I have been working on.

These are all pen and ink on paper. I was thinking about mermaids one day and got to wondering why they are thought of as sirens, luring men in with their exquisite beauty. Could it be possible to lure a man in if you were a different animal? If I were a sea creature surely tentacles would be just as stunning as a goldfish tail. And how about the leafy dragons, with their wispy seaweed-like fins?

So the animals inspiring these works were the goldfish, the blue-ringed octopus and the leafy seadragon.

I'm in print! Ok, digitally, but it still counts

I was recently interviewed by a lovely blogger and artist, Lyubka to be included in her artist interview series alongside some amazingly talented people. It's such an honour to be included and a massive boost to see my interview on screen.

Check out the interview and read all about Lyubka too, she's a talented artist and great blogger.

Time flies, allow me to recap...

In attempting to find where the time has gone, I felt compelled to make a list. I have had 2 months free of study and swore to myself that after Christmas I would devote plenty of time to my own artwork and build a nice little library of work. While I did manage to complete 3 new pen drawings and an inked drawing, I didn't manage anywhere near what I planned. My wall is still full of post-its with ideas, plans and random names for artwork :(

In no particular order:

• Hosted Christmas dinner
• Prepared my son for his first year of school including all prerequisite uniform, stationery, backpack, lunchbox, textbook and accessory shopping. That quite frankly deserved a month all to itself
• Hosted and promoted my first blog giveaway on two blogs
• Opened an Etsy store
• Sewed a panne velvet quilt
• Baked a three tier chocolate cake, shortbread, sugar cookies, marshmallow slice, chocolate coated marshmallows and pretzels for dozens
• Sewed 7 baby dresses, 5 headbands and made a dozen hairclips
• Sewed a dinosaur pillow, wrist cuffs and made a customised dinosaur dig
• Painted 5 shirts, a golf towel and made tulle pom poms for decorations
• Put together 8 baby and child gift hampers for donation
• Did the Christmas shopping!
• Took the kids for a photo with Santa, attended a Christmas concert and a graduation
• Made a flogger and tickler
• Had a short holiday - the first as a family of four
• Painted a swan portrait
• Played with a DSLR camera for the first time
• Had a Christmas party and organised a Secret Santa
• Kept blogging AND Facebooking :)
• Participated in various Etsy treasury-making and promotion
• Watched my son ride his first big-boy bike and scooter, saw my daughter stand for the first time, cut new teeth and do a handstand
• Got my hair done, woot!
• Read at least six new books - that's right, start to finish, I feel your envy :)
• Lost weight, not quite as much as I would have liked but I haven't regained any. Don't let the door hit you in the ass, weight!
• Drew pictures, played Search and Find, built transformers and read stories with my son
• Cuddled, sang to and played with my daughter
• Spent time with my husband, we even saw at least one good dvd (though the rest were crap, thanks Hollywood)
• Took on extra page-layout work, voluntary work and I-don't-get-paid-for-this extensive promoting, networking and random business crap that's supposed to make people notice me
• Laughed, cried, was amazed and schocked
• Spent too much time anxious or depressed, but got over it
• Did all the regular stuff that helps keep the home and family going

None of this was done alone, were it not for my husband taking kid-duty while I worked or my kids being so well behaved and quiet while I converse with clients or finish artwork I never would have made a quarter of this list. I still wish I could find more time to work on my own stuff but perhaps that's something I have to work on this year.

How has your summer (or winter) been so far? Have you achieved what you wanted?

Don't forget you can always fit in those missed projects in the future!

Going black

Today I'm going black to support the anti SPOA and PIPA movement.

Do you want your internet censored? Do you want your web page under scrutiny by the government? Do you want to risk being closed down because some big business thinks you are impinging on their copyright? Don't risk the amazing and free-spirited voice of the internet that has been creating and supporting individual voices for years.

Piracy is the worst type of theft, stealing other's hard-earned ideas and creations is the most despicable form of flattery. But these laws are not the way to protect us.

Absence makes the pen work harder

 

I've been absent, I know. But in my defense I've been getting my photography on and just couldn't tear myself away! I borrowed my brother's kick-ass DSLR and shot 325 photos over 3 days, lol.

My main aim was to attempt to photograph my pen drawings to see if I can wring some sense of quality from the shots. My point and shoot is good but I always have a bunch of work to do to the pictures afterward. I still had to edit the shots but it wasn't so bad and I could maintain the feeling of hand-drawn.

I've been working on some animal-woman hybrids and in the spirit of Valentine's Day that is assaulting my senses from all directions, an octopus embrace. Those ones are still un-inked but the raven is finished.

So after experimenting with focus, depth of field and macros I'm off to do some real work!

Swan painting for Mum

For Christmas this year I wanted to give my Mum something special. She has wanted a swan painting for as long as I can remember but I had always found the plain white of her favourite swans to be a bit boring in the painting stakes. Since i have been working in painted relief lately, and on wooden board I figured I would give it another go.

This piece is acrylic and pen on plywood board, approx60cm x 150cm.

 

 

The woodgrain comes through on the swan, giving her a sun-dappled appearance. She is highlighted by a vibrant mix of violet, lavender, cobalt, teal, grass and aqua and detailed in black fine line pen.

I was finalising the black sides on Christmas morning but it only took one and a half nights to complete :P

Community Garden signage complete!

Our Community Garden was involved in the Gold Coast Harvest Festival last weekend and needed a nice bright sign for the event. As volunteer graphic artist for the group I created a hand-painted sign :D

In keeping with the colours, plants and vegies currently in bloom, the sign has become a favourable addition to the Garden.

And then it all went pear-shaped

I have no idea why pear-shaped is bad, but it is.

After carefully sketching, masking and taping I added the inks and then shit happened. The paper warped, the ink pigment separated and I ended up with a wet muddy mess.

So I started again.

A decent artists' watercolour paper this time, taped to the board and sketched. AGAIN. By this time I was becoming right royally pissed with winged horses. Do you KNOW how many muscles and shit a horse has? Unless you have studied horse anatomy it makes drawing them a pain in the ass. And here I had to draw it about five times.

Anyway, it's done now. You can see the progress here:

 sketch penned in

body outline thickened, hair detail in

first wing detail

 second wing detail

contour lines and ink laid on

gouache backdrop in, water and splash detail in

finalised!

So there you go, a little glimpse into the progress of my mixed media drawings :)

This is how the inking starts

Just a little insight into how my ink pieces develop.

After sketching the design and finalising my proportions, I sketch the image onto watercolour paper, giving thought to how much background I want to show. Then I grab some masking fluid and a rubber sculpting tool and mask off all the areas I want left the paper colour first.

Once the fluid is dry the background goes on. That's up later :D

How to turn cheap white shoes into rockin purple skully flats

I found these cheap white Kmart shoes for $6.00 a pair. They are totally comfy but I wanted purple, NOONE has purple! Then, either by some covert Australian conspiracy or crafty fate I couldn't find purple shoe dye anywhere, *sob*.

I wanted my purple shoes dammit! And then, pondering the possibilities and reaching the conclusion that all rockin purple flats should be emblazoned by skulls, I figure I could jump in the craft cupboard and use some existing materials to reach my dream.

Acrylic paint is actually really great for faux leather and I have used it many times to antique book covers and the like. The trick is to not 'paint' but rub the colour into the fabric so it absorbs as much as possible.

I masked off some hand drawn skull pictures on each shoe and after the masking fluid had dried I mixed up some acrylic paint. One tip is to mix a colour a little darker than you want, since the white will show through a little unless you really paint it on and that leaves the shoes open to cracking and peeling. Dab on the paint with a soft cloth, covering the shoe completely and then dab off the excess with a clean cloth. You want the material to absorb the pigment and then remove the excess. It will take a couple of coats but each coat should be so thin that by the time you have finished a coat on one shoe, the second shoe will be ready for another coat.

Each coat should dry to a mild tacky finish before adding another coat. If you want a pastel colour, dampen your cloth and dab into your paint. Rub the paint into the shoe and buff off, leaving a light coloured dye.

When the shoes are completely dry, remove the masking fluid. If you are careful, you could use a sticker in place of the masking fluid.

 

  

I finished these shoes off by painting the rear seams and where the shoe meets the sole with a fine paintbrush and then touched up the skulls with a white paint pen around the edges and added my final details with a fine point permanent marker. I buffed them with a beeswax furniture polish to seal them and add a little moisture back into the fabric.

Cool huh? And reeeaaaly comfortable.

Green and Gold - acrylic on canvas

I live on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Most people just think of the beach when considering my home town; don't get me wrong, our beaches are lovely, but not nearly all we have to offer. Within half an hour either of each other are the bright blue and gold beach and the lush sub-tropical rainforest. I love that! Also, our wildlife is spectacular.

A few years ago now the local council had a debut competition - artwork of any medium that must represent the gold coast. Entrants would go into an art show and the winner would have their piece used in promotional material for the Gold Coast.

My husband and mother got spiffed up with me, all excited and eager to see my work in it's first ever art show. We get to the venue, "where on earth is my piece??" I asked my husband. We looked around and found a staggering array of artwork, many pieces completely figurative and certainly not representative of the Gold Coast, but apparently belonging to the airy, over-dressed and fluffed up 'artists' floating around.

We asked the people on the door what was going on, nearly in unison with a gaggle of other left out artists. The response was, there had never been a guarantee that all work would be displayed (*cough*bullshit*cough*) and they were very sorry. Obviously put on the spot and without any power to choose which pieces to display, the staff at the door were nonetheless made the scapegoats. Many local artists quietly voiced their extreme displeasure that night, particularly when questions about the obvious lack of adherence to the brief many of the displayed pieces advertised.

The shamefaced staff did their best to appease all but it was quite obvious the organisers of the event had not even read their competition entry rules and handed the reins over to self-important local artists with little talent but plenty of connections. It was what a Sopranos fine art mafia competition would be I guess.

One of the works was a photograph of high heeled shoes on the sand. Hmmm.. yep, that represents the Gold Coast.

When we went to pick up my painting there were once again many unhappy artists and the staff were quite obviously sympathetic to the fact that we had, indeed been promised a display but had been left out at the last minute. When I went to my piece and my mother 'quietly' mentioned how so many of the pieces did not meet the brief but mine had, the lady at the counter looked quite embarrassed and was noticeably surprised when I took possession of my work. She commented how well my work represented the Coast and inquired about my age, the answer seemed to surprise her since I was about 23 at the time.

Anyway, I have a work of art I am proud of and my mother refuses to relinquish hold of, lol. I can comfort myself in the fact that the winning entry of a common photo of Surfers Paradise beach would never stick in the minds of viewers like my Green and Gold will.


So, as a homage to my town you have 'Green and Gold' Acrylic on canvas, completely handmade. Even the frame. Size approx 120 cm x 60 cm.

Left side: the Natural Arch. A natural bridge of stone carved from eons of water, about 30 mins from me in the Springbrook National Park.

Middle: Rainbow lorikeet. Local and sometimes annoying little buggers. Can be found everywhere - beach to rain forest. Yes, you can have them as pets but only from registered breeders and NOT from the wild (as some people do)

Right side: 'The Spit' surf beach famous for its enormous sand pumping jetty reaching far out into the sea and where many a fisherman has spent long hours trying to catch something brag-able.

The scene is a blend of the best of the Gold Coast's environment and includes natural and man made phenomena. Bringing the two halves together is a native parrot flying from the shady confines of the rain forest to the buffeting expanse of the surf.

Let me know your thoughts.