Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Illustration Friday: Cracked


This is more about a crack than cracked but I figured it would crack someone up and went with it anyway. It was actually my boyfriend's idea so I can't take all the credit but he disowned it the minute I told him I was going to post it...no fun. :-D

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Illustration Friday: Contagious III


"Smile, and the world smiles with you; cry and you cry alone."

People don't really smile as much as they used to. We can blame it on any number of things: the failing economy, the lack of anything to smile about, the fear that someone you smile at might just be an axe murderer... But in an attempt to do something different, I've been smiling at anyone who crosses my path. It not only feels great for me (a cross between silly and utterly light-hearted) but I've had a few favourable responses.

So maybe spreading the flu is 'natural' and yawning is contagious in its own strange way. But if there is anything I wish to pass around like wild fire, it's a smile. Go on...smile with me.

Illustration Friday: Contagious II


It's been said that the easiest way to know if a person in a crowd is looking at you is to yawn. It is so contagious that they won't be able to help doing it too. I am a believer in that idea now especially since the search for the perfect yawning picture resulted in several of my own.

This is the second picture in this series and it came to me shortly after the first. There is a third in what is now an interesting triptych.

Illustration Friday: Contagious I


It's flu season and with the recent H1N1 scare it's not easy to think that I might get sick. Sadly with its severe contagiousness, it might be hard to keep something like that in check. So when you have the flu - please cover your mouth.

This is a public health warning from your friendly local artist. LOL!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Illustration Friday: Parade (Coloured)


A little colour makes for an interesting change to an otherwise drab picture. And the ducks still look like their having fun...

Illustration Friday: Parade (Pencil)

Ducks on display is the way I would like to think of this. The best part is they all look like their having fun.

Watching The Audience

Desperation is great for inspiration. Everything I have come up with for this weeks Illustration Friday spark word: PARADE has been a little off. My artistic vocabulary has never been so severly taxed and I wondered if I really had the skill to pull of some of the ideas I had in my head. In a bid not to give up, I did this picture...


It's a lot like the other pictures I have done but for some reason it didn't feel like enough. I just didn't feel it, what with the plainness of it and the fact that it still didn't fit the idea of PARADING (although the first version was meant to be a nude).

So I decided to add a little colour using paint - nothing complicated there except I learnt that just because its drawn a certain way doesn't mean its ready for digitization. But I was a little better pleased with the final effect. It was a little strange but still intersting enough to give me some ideas for the future.

Sadly, it still didn't fit what I wanted for Illustration Friday. (Or maybe I just wanted to experiment some more) so I'm trying the same technique on something else...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Illustration Friday: Hierarchy


Hierarchy (c) 2009 Nahellenia

In the midst of the worst
in the midst of the best
sometimes leading the pack
most times stuck with the rest

At the top of the hill
with the world at my feet
or with knees on the ground
by a better on beat

In the midst of the good
in the midst of the bad
sometimes doing my best
most times acting so mad

This is life every day
is the way it should be
all are king for a time
yet slaves eternally

I grew up in a large mixed family and there was always someone who had done something before me and someone who would do it after me. It made me a lot more conscious of the idea of being average - knowing that there was always something or someone better or worse. Hierarchies are a part of life but for the most part they serve a clear purpose.

I just wish it was easy to know that even the king is slave to his people (or his tyranny) and the slave is mastered only by him who he gives his soul; not him who owns his body. So here's to my family hierarchy and the knowledge that being the third last in line is no different from being first or last.