Flowers

I get a little antsy if I am not creative for a while, and it has been about 4 weeks so I am pretty much going out of my mind. After traveling to Africa and back I have not had much time for anything but I am back in NZ and it's a public holiday! I tried drawing some animals but they didn't work out and I ended up getting really frustrated.

I opened a new canvas and this happened...

More Family

Jade—typical 14 year old

And Danni—typical 7 year old!

Textures textures, everywhere

So many textures have been catching my attention lately.

Some bark

A bromeliad

Cesco growing up so fast

My beautiful cat is growing up so fast. She loves everybody, especially the school kids that walk by in the mornings and afternoons. She is pretty famous at the primary school now!

Outside on the deck

Playing with her mouse on the carpet

Breakfast at Murrays Bay Beach

What a gorgeous morning we had. Matt and I took the girls to the beach, still a little cold to swim (didn't stop Danni though), so we played guitar, read Uppercase magazine and ate breakfast. It was stunning. Winter in Auckland has been wet and miserable so this was a real treat.

The gorgeous Murrays Bay fishing wharf

The beach with Danni in the distance

Danni after her swim

Jade playing her guitar

A seagull trying to get in on our breakfast

Some more sketchbook

Taken with Instagram because it is just so awesome!

My homemade sketchbook

I love looking at illustrator's or designers sketchbooks. I love seeing their doodles, thumbnails and development of ideas taking shape through the pages. I thought I might show you some pics of my sketchbook.

I handmade the actual book out of scrap recycled paper and card and wrapped it in kraft paper for a natural look. It is very rough but that is exactly how I like it. I LOVE the book, I love the different papers, I love that there are some old prints on some of them and I love the different effects I am getting from the varied textures on the papers. Hmmm, I wonder if there will be a market for journals of this kind...

Check it out...

The rooster and the chameleon

I warned you that I get bored very quickly! That was the whole reason I started this blog—to prove I could use one style only for a whole month. This one is completely different, pencil, acrylic and digital.

The girls

I have never really illustrated like this before and am still not quite sure but I definitely want to explore this some more. These are the girls I drew this week, which are now available as postcards in my shop.

Kitchen art

Yes, I still work on the fruit now and again.

Birds in frames

Amazing how much better they look on the wall. I think I will update my Etsy photos.

In frames...

My Gocco

I heard about the Gocco through a friend of mine and was immediately taken. It is a Japanese toy screen printer intended for children but has fast become an adult obsession. You can read more about it here. Unfortunately they are no longer made and haven't been since 2008 but can still be found and so can their parts and fittings. I found one on a New Zealand 'e-bay' and bought it immediately but only plucked up the courage to use it last week.  I made a screen print of my owl ink drawing. I made 85 of them and have listed them as a limited edition screen print in my Etsy shop here. I love the look of the Gocco print. No two prints are alike and there are these tiny imperfections that give the print its unique charm.
I also found this lovely textured paper that came in various pastel colors that has made each print even more unique. Here are some of the pics of the prints drying on my makeshift wash line and the final, dried, signed and numbered print.

My beautiful cat, Cesco

This is the latest addition to our family. Her name is Cesco and she is absolutely beautiful! She is now 6 months old and has completely taken over our home, our lives and our hearts. Her mother is a burmese and her father a tabby and she appears to be a little swirl of both.

Whimsical owl

I suppose you have guessed that I love owls. I created this one using watercolor and ink, but in a different style to the fruit in earlier posts.

Chickens in love

I loved the chicken so much that I created a rooster prince for her...

new birds in my shop

I have always loved birds so I decided to put some in my shop. I do have a few different owls in there, but I wanted to try a different style. These were illustrated digitally, in Illustrator and then coloured in Photoshop. They are available in my shop as postcards here. There is a fantail, an owl, a chicken (my favourite) a hummingbird and of course a kiwi..

New baby owl

Clearly I have been very busy. This is my new baby owl. I received one of those 'Aaaaaw' emails and I couldn't resist. This is drawn, scanned and digitally painted and is available in my print shop here.

Howdy pardners

These are my new illustrations—a little bit of Americana. As usual, they are available in my shop here as postcards.

This started out as an ink drawing, which I scanned in and inverted to give the white outline, and then colored it and made amendments digitally. (Illustrator and Photoshop).

I do believe I mentioned that I cannot keep with one style permanently. I wish I could but I love the change, I live for the experimentation! Maybe one day...

Bull terrier ink drawing

I bought a new ink pen and what better way to 'wear it in' than to draw my favorite dog in the whole world! A bull terrier. I have been blessed to have had 3 bull terriers in my life: Angie, Rothchild and Tyler. I will never forget how much joy they all brought to my life. This is available in my print shop Here. Hope you like it...

Loving the vintage type

I know I am probably a bit late for this fashion and it is in all likelihood on its way out but I simply cannot help having a mini obsession with it. Along with my love of affirmations, I decided to give it a try and see what came out of it. I took them into Photoshop to distress them a bit to make them look old but I must be honest, I preferred the plainer versions. I also tried to make the words make sense in the type to portray the same message visually as well as the obvious.

Comments welcome, this is the first time I have tried anything like this...

Owl ink drawing

I saw a picture of the most beautiful baby owl, so of course, I had a 'must draw that' moment! I have not wanted to do cross hatch again since the 30 day fruit drawing challenge so I used a simple line drawing style that comes a little more naturally to me than cross hatch. I have put it in my print shop on Etsy here but didn't want to sell it in the digital shop.  For those who have been 'watching', I used the same ink pen as I did in the fruit and veg alphabet, which is now almost completely done!