Illustration Friday - Run

I'm afraid that in my present state, the thing that came into my head with the topic "Run" was runny noses. My husband, baby and I have all had terrible colds this week. Fortunately our baby is mostly better, but my husband and I are still sick. So this is a cartoon of me blowing my nose.

Illustration Friday - Match

I was mucking around trying to draw burning matches with oil pastel and chalk pastel, but it wasn't really working. So, I thought I might do something a bit different, and did this sketch on a bit of newspaper. I liked it much better than my pastel efforts.

My husband also had an idea for a drawing. His idea was to draw a "match made in heaven" - two winged and haloed matches looking lovingly at each other. He particularly likes the idea because we are both red-heads. But he refused to do it himself ("too cute"). He likes to pretend he is very tough. Anyway, on his urging, I drew it for him.

The other idea which came into my head with "match" was this funny little cartoon (only took me a minute to do).

Photo - Mekong Sunrise

This would have to be another of my all time favourite photos. I was standing on a balcony on the Thailand side of the Mekong River, watching the sun rise on the Laotian side. As I took the photo, the sun just glinted off the trellis on the balcony roof. Usually my photos of sunrises and sunsets are disappointing, but this is the exception!

Drawing - The Life Tree

This is a drawing of Yggdrasill, the Life Tree in Norse mythology. The serpent at the base is the Nidhogg. I did this drawing in pencil about 6 or 7 years ago. I'd like to try another version in watercolour pencil.

Illustration Friday - Play 2

I have decided to do a more upbeat interpretation on "Play". My friend Tim and I were going to do a children's book called "Eric and the Woozle", featuring Eric and his dog. We never got around to it, but I had a really clear picture of what the first page would look like. So I decided to draw it. This is the first time I've used computer techniques extensively with a drawing.

It reminds me of the sort of games I used to play with my sister. We were often explorers and I would draw a map of the lands we had to explore. Household objects became extraordinary things and other rooms became other countries inhabited by different beings.

Drawing - Blue woman

I'm still going through all my old stuff - I found this drawing in pencil which I did about a year and a half ago. I have always wanted to improve on the way I put shadow on faces - I think this must have been a practice attempt.

Drawing - My Left Hand

Somehow I haven't liked my last couple of Illo Friday drawings, so I thought I'd try something else. This is a drawing of my left hand which I did last night. As you can see, it's a pretty bony, knuckly old hand with long fingers. One of the first things I noticed about my daughter when she was born was that she has exactly the same long-fingered hands (in minature).

This is a present for my friend Lol, who loves hands and has been trying to persuade me to do a drawing of a hand for years.

Illustration Friday - Play

I didn't feel very inspired by this week's topic, for some reason. When I thought about the word "play", the rather depressing realisation occurred to me that many games are actually a kind of ritualised or disguised combat. I think world news at the moment has seeped into my consciousness. Anyway, I tried not to get too depressing with my drawing, and just did this quick cartoon/sketch. I used fineliners and brush textas and then added in the script with Photoshop afterwards. The boy is modelled on my cousins (avid computer game players, both of them).

Illustration Friday - Capture

This drawing in pastel is taken from a photo of a tiger I met near Luang Prabang in Laos. Her name is Phet (meaning "jewel" in Laotian). This looks like a very sad drawing, but I'm pleased to say it has a happy ending.

Phet and her two brothers were captured by poachers when they were tiny cubs. The poachers killed their mother. Phet's brothers died, but Phet survived. The local people didn't know what to do with her. So they brought her up like a normal cat to begin with. Then she got BIG. She couldn't just wander around the village any more. They had to put her in a cage (the small cage in this picture). However, they started a fund to raise money to place Phet in a local reserve just for her.

In the picture, Phet is not sad - she is excited because she has seen our tour guide, Wendy. Wendy had known her since she was a small cub. When Wendy approached, Phet let out a yowl of excitement and stretched herself right up to the top of the cage. Then she started to purr, and put her head down for Wendy to scratch behind her ears. That's what she's doing in this drawing.

I did a search on the internet and found that Phet eventually got her reserve and didn't have to stay in the small cage for much longer. That made me very pleased. I see this drawing as capturing the brave and curious spirit of Phet.

Drawing - Zebras

Illustration Friday has inspired me to look back at all my old drawings and artwork. I found this zebra drawing (and an accompanying version in red) the other day - I had totally forgotten about it.

I've been drawing for longer than I thought - I drew this in 1991 when I was living in the UK. Anyway, if I do say so myself, I like it. That doesn't seem like bragging because it was done so long ago that it feels like a different person drew it!