moving botanicals

I put together a little album of some of my botanical sketches recently. I'm starting to fill the pages of a gorgeously simple black covered Daler-Rowney book I have. 150gsm acid free cartridge paper and all. Let me know if you think the photography is too dark with these as they were taken on a cloudy day. I can always re-shoot.

swirls

And another using this online sketch tool called harmony. I've just worked out you can change the pen and background colours. I wish it had an eraser but I can't seem to find one. This lot of swirls was done using the web brush.

digital doodles

I was reading Geninne's beautiful blog this morning and was led to this amazing online sketch tool. I was just doodling with it but am in awe of the different brush effects. Just start drawing on the page with your mouse. Imagine what you could do if you were concentrating :)

Which reminds me, I was lucky enough to get a wacom tablet for christmas and have not really discovered all that it can do yet. Must make time to play.

2011 sketchbook project

Do you know about the wonderful 2011 sketchbook project? When you sign up you're sent a simple moleskin sketchbook which you are to fill (according to your chosen theme) by the deadline [15th January, 2011]. Then, the thousands of sketchbooks submitted will be exhibited at galleries and museums on a tour across the United States. But note: anyone in the world can enter! How cool is that?

This is the part I like: after the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view. Also, you can opt to digitise your sketchbook so people who can't go to see them on the tour in person can flip through them on the web.

I've just signed up! I love drawing, I love sketchbooks, I love the concept behind this project, and I love Brooklyn.

whiskers

trees with whiskers, edinburgh gardens, fitzroy north, melbourne

Last Sunday I had a drawing date with a friend in the lovely Edinburgh Gardens. We had so much fun sitting there drawing in that gorgeous winter afternoon light. We worked until our hands grew frozen and then wandered up the road to a cafe for hot chocolate and other sweet treats. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. We've decided it might be a semi-regular thing and we'll invite anyone we know who would like to come along and draw.

I've been totally drawn into Design for Life. Is anybody else watching this amazing series? French product designer Philippe Starck takes a group of young UK design folk and puts them through a series of exercises in the hope of finding someone who will get to work with him in Paris for 6 months. Thankfully it's not as painful or cheesy as most reality shows of this kind. From a teaching point of view it's absolutely fascinating and everyone at work is talking about it. You can see episode one here. If you're quick eps two and three are here on iview. And there's a good description of the series here.

khadi papers

I love the way going into an art supply shop can bring about disappointment and surprise all at the same time. Disappointment because I was really hoping their pieces of shina plywood would be large and 6mm thick. But no, they were tiny and 4mm thick :( Fussy me. It's so hard getting shina ply for woodblock printing in Australia. I have a few leads though so will see where they take me. The pleasant surprise was finding gorgeous paper from the Khadi Papers range, 100% recycled handmade from Indian cotton rag. What I love about this company is the way they treat the environment so carefully through their process of making paper. And they produce lovely rough textured pieces with irregular deckled edges. Yum! And because I can't stop handling the paper, I've started a little pen and ink drawing of a fragile dragonfly on a small piece.

fruiting habits and the like

It's funny the kinds of anatomical names for plants that they use in botany. This is part of one of my drawings and according to the botanical information I had on hand it's technically a 'fruiting habit'. Strange looking thing but I'm quite fond of the quirky shapes. Almost pod-like, and I'm a sucker for the cuteness of pods.

And speaking of illustrations and quirky, lovely things, the new Pikaland August Project is up and live. You can also find out about the magical wonder of Pikaland by clicking on that gorgeous little bird holding the sack on the top right hand side of my blog. Amy from Pikaland coordinates the most original international illustration project I've ever come across. Check out the work of all the amazing illustration artists participating in the August Project. You'll even see some of my work there :)