29 May 2008

Red, yellow and blue pencils only

This drawing was an experiment in drawing with only three pencils: one each of red, yellow and blue. It was a really interesting and challenging exercise. You may recognise this green bracelet from my previous drawing of it.

Tai Chi - an experiment with drafting film

This is my first time drawing on drafting film and it was a really interesting experience. I intend to use it again in future. I find it very interesting the difference that the colour of the paper behind it makes - the version above is with a black backing and that below is with white.

27 May 2008

Ink

This little bottle of ink with its glass pen and miniature leather book is something I have been meaning to draw for a long time. It was a present from my brother's holiday last year.

Finished self portrait

This was a lot of fun and I hope to get round to doing another one sometime.

25 May 2008

Carved stamps

I have been making a few hand carved stamps recently, carved from erasers. I think they have a lot in common with papercuts, which I talked about in my last two posts, because you have to think in terms of silhouettes and areas of colour which can be cut out by hand.

The Happy Birthday stamp was much easier than I thought it would be to make, and I think I will be making a lot more stamps with text on them.

The blue birdies stamp was for my mum's birthday, and has one of the birds on each of the large sides, with the text on two of the smaller sides.

My papercut

A few days ago I saw a lovely papercut on Elsa Mora's blog, which inspired me to try making one of my own. I have a book about papercutting, and I am a big fan of Rob Ryan, but this is my first attempt at trying it myself. I'm afraid my attempt is a little bit rough and ready (I think I need a sharper knife!) but it was a fun experience and I'm sure I will try it again. I had the Chelsea Flower Show on the TV while I was doing this, which fitted in well with the plant-related subject matter of the picture. I based it on this photo I took on holiday.

Souvenirs of China: Papercuts

These were some papercuts I brought back from China. I really liked the modern style of the figures in the black papercut - it reminded me a bit of Rob Ryan's work.

The brightly coloured papercuts were the present that the tour manager presented to me on my birthday. They are all of pigs, as I was born in the Year of the Pig (but I'm not telling which one!).

23 May 2008

Self portrait, part 2

Broken

I had been meaning to post some drawings and photos of my souvenirs from China, and before I had a chance to do so I managed to break one, this tiny teacup. It has now been seamlessly stuck back together with superglue, but has a small hole in it so it is not much use as a teacup! Here's how it looked before it was broken:

22 May 2008

Self portrait in progress

After seeing Mithi's self portraits and those by a few other people I decided I should have a go at doing one of my own. I was also inspired by this painting by Jill Zhang which I have a postcard of.

This is the first time that I have used a grid to help me copy a photo, and it made it a lot easier to get a good likeness.

18 May 2008

Dundee Degree Show

Today I went to the degree show at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. It was the first place that I'd been to a degree show (last year) and I was glad that it lived up to my high expectations of it. My favourite exhibits were:

1. The beautiful paintings and prints of women in Chinese clothing by Jill Zhang. I would have bought one of these if I could have afforded it! But I had to make do with a postcard!

2. Genesis, an animation by Yeojin Jung based on Korean paintings.

3. The "Tea Monsters" illustrations by Jen Collins.

4. The works by the Jewellery and Metal Design students, many of which featured beautifully intricate patterns.

14 May 2008

11 May 2008

Cherry blossom snow

This is the third Sunday in a row that I've gone to the Meadows in Edinburgh to try to take photos of the cherry blossoms, and finally the conditions were perfect although a bit cloudy. The petals had started to fall from the trees and the breeze was helping this process along and creating cherry blossom snow.

Work in progress

I'm working on a coloured pencil drawing of a girl I took a couple of photographs of in China. There's still a lot of work to be done on it but I'm quite pleased with it so far.



Dad's birthday card

And now the birthday season is over for another year!

10 May 2008

Christian Aid book sale 2008

Today I went to the huge Christian Aid booksale which is held every year in Edinburgh. I bumped into a friend at the bus station so I had someone to talk to on the bus journey there. Unlike last year the weather was sunny and warm. Here's what I bought at the sale:

Ladybird - Knitting
Ladybird - Action Rhymes
Ladybird - Finger Rhymes
John S Goodall - Escapade
John S Goodall - Before the War
John S Goodall - An Edwardian Diary for 1979
John S Goodall - Victorians Abroad
Walter Crane - Flowers From Shakespeare's Garden
Mike Wilks - The Annotated Ultimate Alphabet
Laurie Klein & Livia McRee - Photo Crafts Sourcebook
Will Ferguson - Hokkaido Highway Blues
Koji Yagi - A Japanese Touch For Your Home
Donald Richie - Introducing Japan
Michael Macintyre - The Shogun Inheritance
David Scott - The Japanese Cookbook
David Scott - Far Eastern Vegetarian Cookery
Alexander McCall Smith - Portuguese Irreguar Verbs
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
Jed Rubenfeld - The Interpretation of Murder
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go

It's a pity I didn't take a list of what I was looking for, because I ended up buying two books I already had!

08 May 2008

Catbus

This is the Catbus from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro. I finally got round to making this for my brother's birthday. I'd been thinking about making one for some time, after making a set of Totoros (and a soot sprite) for him and his girlfriend a few years ago. So now they finally have the Catbus to complete the collection.

Birthday card for my brother

Based on his Mii.
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