Grumpy Cat & Fat Cat

Grumpy Cat - hand drawn and coloured on cartridge paper using Derwent colour pencils. Yes, the fur takes forever but its very calming - possibly like knitting? I don't know, I don't knit.

You either love them or you hate them - cats, that is. I love them. My husband hates them. SO the only cats around our house are hand drawn (or strays but the dogs chase them away...). Which is why I created a character called Scaredy Cat a few years back, based on a cat I had when growing up, and I have been meaning to do some more as part of a series but just haven't got around to it. Having done a few rough sketches just recently, today I finally took one to colour - YAY! So here is my latest crazy cat illustration called 'Grumpy Cat' (above). Quite similar to Scaredy Cat (obviously related) but much, much grumpier and possibly very mean (I wouldn't get too close or you might find out why...).

OK, now for the next one (I'm on a roll...), possibly called Fat Cat after a cat (yes it was fat) my parents had when I was younger...

Fat Cat - yes, this cat is a big cat. In fact both cats this illo is inspired by were huge (or was I just little?). Again, hand drawn and coloured using Derwent colour pencils on cartridge paper. Its so good to give Photoshop a miss and get back to hand colouring...

Actually this character is a cross between two cats we had (we had a lot of cats) - one was a beefy boy black and grey tom cat (who chased dogs...) and the other was a soft, floppy black and white cat with a weird pink tongue (it was a bit dopey). We had more cats too - but at different times of course!

Illustration Friday: Twirl

Twirl - hair twirler extraordinaire! I was wondering where my paintbrush had got to...
Doodled by hand using a black felt tip pen, then scanned onto Mac and coloured in Photoshop. The infinity swirl background was created in Illustrator, imported into Photoshop and then a motion blur applied.

I'm a severe hair twirler. After a lot of hair twirling, staring into space (humming 'You Spin Me Round' by some 80's band... forgotten their name?) and procrastinating, I realised that being a self confessed hair twirler, there was nothing else to draw but me twirling my hair! So I started doodling (I'm not a doodler) while thinking about hair twirling and this twirly haired doodle emerged! I think I like doodling... also swirls... and orange and green.

Thanks again Illustration Friday for pulling me out of another rut (although I did get a lot of hair twirling done!)  :)

Illustration Friday: Prepared

Prepared - you have to be really prepared to enjoy a day at the beach in the hot Aussie sun (or you'll get burnt and end up looking and feeling like a cooked lobster...). Illo sketched by hand with felt tip pen, scanned onto Mac and coloured using Photoshop.

We recently went away for a few days to visit family who live near the beach... it doesn't matter if you go for two or twenty days, when you have kids there's a lot of preparation (and packing and planning ahead) involved, especially going to the beach when you're a non-beachy bunch like us! We rarely go, so the preparation involved is always super stressful - sunscreen, towels, swimmers, spare clothes, water, zinc, more sunscreen, more water, hats, sunglasses, rashies, boogie boards and a humungous bag to put everything in. And the sun is sooo hot here in Summer (and super intensified on the beach or in the water) so being prepared is very important for lilly pillies like us! Fun in the sun? Not if you get burnt! I know - I missed putting sunscreen on my ankles... the pain.

All Cats are Grey in the Dark

Just entered a couple of more designs into the latest GoodJoe T-shirt Competition: Theme No. 10 'Proverbs'. You know, proverbs as in wise things your mother (or someone wise) used to tell you ie. Patience is a virtue, Look before you leap. Remember those ittle gems? Anyway I chose 2 and and came up with a some ideas but finding something that will appeal on a T-shirt isn't easy. However, I'm really loving doing this, its such great learning curve AND its for a great cause. Again its all about the process, trying new things (ie. tackling Illustrator instead of using the usual Photoshop) and pushing myself to a whole new level (hopefully not over the edge...).

All Cats are Grey in the Dark - sketched by hand, scanned onto Mac and then redrawn using Illustrator. Outline was then imported into Photoshop and colour was added.

Really happy with the Cats in the Dark design, it was great fun and not as try hard as the other one (Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder) which looked great in my head but just didn't translate into Illustrator as well as I would have liked - too tight or something. Agh... Illustrator versus Photoshop, a constant battle. Cats however are always fun! Even slipped old Scaredy Cat into the mix (of course). Feel free to pop over and check them out at GoodJoe and vote if you like (pretty please with sugar on top? xo).

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder - this design was created completely in Illustrator

Illustration Friday: Grounded

"grounded – unable to fly because of weather conditions." (English Dictionary)

Grounded – hand sketched using 5B pencil, scanned onto Mac and then colour and texture were added using Photoshop. I'm loving Photoshop lately (we have a love hate relationship).

Have to say that this week's topic was an absolute torturous struggle for me. Felt like I was grounded from coming up with an idea! Actually had to consult my faithful old high school dictionary (obviously desperate) and it quoted the following: grounded – unable to fly because of weather conditions. This meaning then circled my brain in a continuous chant for what seemed liked days (OK maybe a few minutes) until finally something came to mind... a boy, standing with his finger in the air testing for a breeze, desperately wanting to fly his kite, only to find that there is no wind, not a single wisp, thus rendering his kite unable to fly because of weather conditions. Yep, sounds really lame when you put it into words. Anyway, thought I'd take advantage of the boy and his kite idea and try a retro ish Aussie summer ish style this week – something for the boys rather than the usual girlie illo!

PS. the hardest part was coming up with a boy style kite! I must have drew at least half a dozen (batty dragonee, octopusish...) before the sad eyed monster appeared. Hope its boy approved?!

Illustration Friday: Highlight

Highlight - the outline of this illo was hand drawn using black felt tip pen, scanned onto the Mac, then coloured and texturised using photoshop. The background is an original watercolour background I created using watercolours on watercolour paper which has been collaged into the scene.

Actually I think this illustration has been the highlight of my week! I enjoyed creating it sooo much from the initial thought through to its final colourful outcome. My first idea was a firecracker filled night sky with the silhoutte of a kid and her pet sitting on a hill, watching the fireworks being the highlight of the New Year, blah, blah, blah, boring... Then I thought about how much my daughter loves her dog, Skippy, and how Skip is the highlight of every day of her life (along with rainbows and the colour green) so it just transformed into the two of them sitting on a hill, illuminated (highlighted?) by the glow of a rainbow sun shower... obvious, really. Or you could just take it on face value - there is a high light in the sky...

Yay! Just entered a T-shirt design Competition!

I finally did it, that is, came up with an idea, created a design and entered it into a competition before the closing date (first time for everything...). Great way to end this year and start the next. I'm very excited about this comp, not that I expect to win, but it is for a good cause, Goodjoe is a T-shirt design company that only prints designs that will make a difference to the world. Love this idea - good on you Goodjoe! So, feeling very strongly about overly-plastic-packaging and over-consumerism and thinking back to an era when life was much more simple (and so was the packaging), I based my design on KISS - which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid (advice given to us by our Geography teacher in High School). Have to say I hated geography and didn't do very well at it but this little gem has stuck with me for life (so I did learn something after all!).

PS. if you want to check out Goodjoe T-shirts or even better, vote for my design (?!), then go to the Goodjoe website. x

KISS - hand sketched with black felt tip pen, scanned onto Mac and coloured in Photoshop. The dress is actual fabric scanned in and colourised in Photoshop too. Wanted to create an illo with a simple late 1960's to early 1970's style. And yes my mother did dress me in homemade dresses and big bows when i was very little (love you Mum).

Below is another design (Plan B) I created for the same theme but somehow the impact got lost in the translation from my head to paper ie. it sounded like a grreat idea but just didn't cut it (no lunch pun intended) as a final design (to me anyway). Oh well...

KISS lunch - I used a scrunched up brown paper bag for the realistic bag texture. Liked the idea of collaging real textures - something new I haven't tried and seemed to work for this simple style. You see what I mean about the lunch design though - just doesn't have the WOW factor needed to be able to pull off being printed on a T-shirt, does it?