Illustration Friday: Adapt

Technology might mean we have to adapt ourselves to new ways of doing things but there are so many other ways we have to make necessary changes to deal with technology. Just the plugs to my power supply need an adapter to work properly and these are just the ones from my computer to the main socket. Is this really progress?

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 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!

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...

Illustration Friday: Fleeting

Have you ever tried to hold water in your hands? For a while it looks like you can...and then the moment passes and it's easier to understand why someone somewhere thought of glasses.

Illustration Friday: Talisman

Love (c) 2009 Nahellenia

one little rose, three little words
a chance to show what we can
wide as the ocean: free as the birds
this is a lover's talisman

Symbols of love are never more important than when they are applied in a timely fashion. I have never found anything that speaks to the magic and miracle of falling and love (and staying that way) than the rose. It is talisman to those who use it - imbuing them with the power to say things they might otherwise not, do things they might otherwise falter at.

I think that is why we have roses, beautifully scented, wonderful to behold and yet with just the right number of thorns to remind you that love can also sting.

Drawing Hand

The means, the method and the magic.

I love the pencil. I think it is both a means and the magic behind a creative endeavour. I did this drawing several years ago while working with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Edwards, 1992). It's about as far as I got but I think this was a good effort.

I thought of posting the drawing for IF (and heralding the pencil as a talisman of great power) but I feel it isn't enough and because it isn't current it inspires a sense of laziness I do not want to encourage. So I'm still working on that post but figured I'd share this one anyway.

Illustration Friday: Poised

Poised to strike...and poised to sing.

It's a good thing not to judge a IllustrationFriday prompt before the week is over. When I first saw the word POISE, I thought, "These people are trying to kill me." But now that something has come to mind it isn't so bad. I only wish something keeps coming to mind and it is within my capacity to produce it. Because my first idea just wasn't.

To those professional illustrators and artist out there, "What do you do when something is clear in your head but isn't so clear in the outcome?"

Illustration Friday: Subtract

Subtract (c) 2009 Nahellenia

daylight turns to dusk
dusk descends to darkness
sunshine subtracts slowly
left to linger in moonlight
a thousand stars beckon
a thousand crickets sing

dawn gives up the darkness
light comes back again
morning blooms and all is bright
and birds begin to sing
so the day is born again...

subtract it from your life

I did this in my (quickly becoming) favourite style. I did the dark ground in grafite dust then slowly added the definition by erasing it away the sun and the hightlights in the water and sky. The dark tones were added with a pencil then highlights subtracted with the same eraser technique.

Illustration Friday: Intricate

I don't think I can say anything about this one other than check out the intricacy of the weave. It was not only intricate in its creation (READ: I couldn't find a shortcut to save my life) but in its crafting in real life.

Baskets like these are constructed from a reed that was initially considered an environmental hazard. Now they are part of a thriving craft industry.

Illustration Friday: Breezy

Getting an idea is only as good as how soon (and well) one can use it. It's taken me very long to put this one into effect. But I think it is a good effort. Trying to get the pencil as dark as possible was rather difficult but with a little more pressing I think I got it. I should probably try editing it once it is scanned but that has to be a job for another time.

It is interesting to note that I had done something else earlier - this rough sketch for a possible painting came really quickly - and I think it has suitable potential for something in colour down the line.

Thinking in pictures is getting easier...me thinks!

Illustration Friday: Instinct

What comes naturally? Nurture! The natural instinct to care and to love is in every person. I would only hope that it is not an insinct we have forgotten with evolution leaving us empty and alone.

I had two similar ideas for this weeks Illustration Friday idea but in my efforts to do something from memory, I realised I was running before I could walk. I'm trying to improve my drawing skills so I shall limit myself to life drawing for a while (using pictures when I'm in a tight spot - like this one from Getty Images) and see if that doesn't help me get better. Only then will I go back to drawing from imagination and memory. Hopefully the slower journey will have fewer mishaps.

In the meantime I get to enjoy doing one more thing right. In this case, a chance discovery of Picasa's compatibility with my scanner, has given me improved pictures. I'm not losing the mid-tones as I was before and it makes for a fuller illustration even in pencil. It, however, also picks up all the eraser marks as well. I can't have everything but I'd rather too much than too little.

Illustration Friday: Celebrate

Celebrating victory.

In this case, the concept more than its expression is what I would like to celebrate. Sadly, my brain to pencil link is kinda fuzzy and it gives me a whole new appreciation of the idea of 'use it or lose it'. But I'm using it now and perhaps in time, I will find it as natural to draw as to breath.

I do have to admit a certain amount of personal growth. Never before would I have tried something so out of my league, never before would I have been unafraid to suck, never before would I have put it in a public forum and never before would I have believed I could do a drawing once a week.

It's getting easier every day. Easier to draw, easier to try new things, easier to suck - or even get better. So perhaps that is my victory and that is definitely something worth celebrating.

Illustration Friday: Time

Better late than never,but better never late. It's the motto I live by and although I spend a lot of my time waiting on others, I don't ever want to change.
~
Still going strong with pencil shading and I think I might be on to something...slow and easy never hurt anyone. Plus, it makes my pictures look that much better when I take my time.

Illustration Friday: Flawed

I've decided to return to basic pencil work. It's a much easier medium for me and I am able to express myself without a problem. It doesn't mean I won't return to coloured media at some later date but I might want to wait until thinking in pictures comes more naturally. It is one of my flaws at this time.

The others is that I don't like the idea of using facial features as flaws (especially since they add character - and I love freckles best of all) but I figured any face marred by tears would automatically qualify. Sadly, the very light tears do not scan very well (HELP! :-( ) and they might get lost in the fields of grey.