IF: Paisley

Paisley reminds me of my father's ties. It's one of those things that is linked in my brain. So it was easy enough to come up with something for this weeks Illustration Friday idea. Sadly, it has preempted my discovery of zentangles. They rock...and there is more coming. But in the mean time...

It feels good to be back to participating in this and I can't wait to do even more on the subject.

IF: Infinite

Nothing is worse than giving up because that is what failure truly is. I nearly stopped illustrating because of so many reasons but I refuse to fail and it is with pride and joy that I return at last.

"Finite is to fail, but infinite to venture." Emily Dickinson

Illustration Friday: Shaky

On shaky ground...

...in more ways than one.

Illustration Friday: Worn

I've been away a while but I knew I couldn't let another Illustration Friday go by without an attempt. I'm trying something different and hoping it will work but so far... I figure it's still better to do bad art than to do no art so this is me getting my head back in gear.

I like to call this image 'the bag lady and the mannequin'. Make it a metaphor if you please or take it as it is. I just hope the idea of worn gets across.

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: 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

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!

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: 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.

Illustration Friday: Impossibility?

I have a memory of loving purple skies. I don't know why (among all the colours available to me) I liked purple most of all. It might have been an act of self-expression or perhaps something else - like maybe I'd lost all the other colours and the only thing I had left was brown, orange and purple. And if I was going to have a brown tree with orange flowers it didn't really leave me a choice.

But the thing I liked most about it is that nothing was ever impossible. So in a bid to recaptrue that memory I did a picture I used to like when I was a child. It was oddly more difficult to remember it and do it 'right' but I loved the idea of a purple sky which automatically came with a green sun, a polka dotted cat and a zebra striped house.

It maybe a natural impossibility but I guess it goes to show there are no limits to the creative mind. Whatever I can envision, I can create. It makes life seem so much richer. Not only can we pull from the great storehouse of what is already there and already beautiful to behold but we can take it a little further and make it our own.

That's why I will always love my art - even when it is a little strange to look at. So hurray for yellow trees and checked roofs and the chance to do some things a little differently.

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.

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.

When The Week Ends Too Fast

The week has flown by and it wasn't kind enough to give me a warning.

I usually have everything I need to do mentally organised by Monday and the week is spent doing it with plenty of time to spare. But this week has been a little different. I made the mistake of thinking the Illustration Friday challenge was 'easy enough' and didn't do anything about it - which unfortunately included not thinking of a suitable idea. I only just managed to post my, hastily done, Illustration Friday picture and I am waiting on some kind of inspiration to push me towards my story for this weeks Writing Challenge.

Ugh, to have some way of doing that automatically... :-(

It's the first time I'm coming to the end of the week feeling a little caught out but there's still time to make it...I think. I just have to work double time and hope the muses find my sudden rush as endearing as if I was working with them in carefully choreographed creation.

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.