Kingfisher

Some more felt tip pen experimenting. Getting the colours right on this one was tricky, but layering the blue and the greens worked well in the end with a bit of grey blending over the top! Happy with the way this one turned out, particularly the simple fish.

Golden

Having a play around with my trusty Berol felt tip pens the other night, I did this study of a Golden Pheasant (aka Chinese Pheasant).

I love using this medium, I think I'll have to do a few more in the coming weeks :D

Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

Christmas card number 2 is done! A festive Swiss inspired cuckoo clock. We had one once, although the cuckoo-ing did get a tad annoying at 3 in the morning... but they're so gorgeous I think it's worth it!

Over and over...

Oh I do like a good pattern... this one took me a while as mirroring the birds correctly was a bit of a pain! But I'm really pleased with the outcome. The process involved a dodecahedron split into 12 isosceles triangles (yes it's rather maths heavy producing these!) and each of the 12 triangles has one image within it. It's then mirrored back to back around until the entire dodecahedron is filled.... phew! Quite labour intensive work but I adore the fact they grow almost organically in the paper. And who said maths wouldn't help in the real world?! I based the colours on oriental drawings and paintings, as I thought it would suit the delicacy of the pattern, particularly the pink against the jade :D

Blue Sunday Blue Tit

The weather in the UK at the moment is beyond dire, it just keeps raining! And to top it off I've not been well at all, so feeling a bit sorry for myself currently.
To cheer myself up I got my felt tip pens going again, and out came this Blue Tit who I think is rather cute. This one only took me 15 minutes, still striving to loosen up my drawings and I think it's paying off!
Here's hoping to a better week this week!

'Secret' - Illustration Friday

First of all, I'd like to say a biiiig thank you to the lovely folks at Illustration Friday for picking my entry for 'Shiny' as pick of the week! I've been beaming all week!

Now onto this week's entry for the topic 'Secret' and... more magpies! This old nursery rhyme about said birds popped into my head:

"One for sorrow,

Two for joy,

Three for a girl,

Four for a boy,

Five for silver,

Six for gold,

Seven for a secret,

Never to be told,

Eight for a wish,

Nine for a kiss

Ten for a bird

You must not miss."

Seven for a secret never to be told... :)

'Shiny' - Illustration Friday

This is a piece I did a while back (actually, nearly a YEAR ago, crikey!) of Mr.Magpie with his hoard of shiny things! Therefore I felt it appropriate for this week's Illustration Friday contest :)
It was drawn freehand, then scanned and made beautiful in Photoshop. 

Mr.Quail and the felt tip pens...

... and now for something completely different! 

I bought a bumper pack of Berol felt tip pens a while back thinking I'd give them a go and see what would happen. Well I finally got round to it, and I'm so glad I did! I've been working on images of birds recently for a very exciting project/business idea (super excited, more news to come soon!) so once I'd done the pencil drawing for this little quail I thought 'why not use those felt tip pens?'

It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, you just have to pay more attention to the colours you're using and layer them to create subtle shades (like the brown, grey and blue made this really nice purpley-grey colour that was perfect for parts of it!)

Really happy with the results, so I'll be getting my felt tips out again soon I reckon. I love it when you try something new and get a positive out of it, so motivating!

'Vocal' - Illustration Friday

Finished this in the nick of time!

This week I was inspired by a video my boyfriend showed me (who, like me, has a soft spot for all things cute) of a cockatiel singing 'If You're Happy And You Know It...'

You can watch the video here: http://youtu.be/U9NZnpleU0s?t=30s

Too cute! So here is an equally vocal cockatiel, singing something a bit more challenging.

Ode to Birdie

We currently have a pheasant residing in our living room... to cut a long story short we rescued it from being flattened on the road and it's nowhere near well enough to go back into the wild :( poor thing! Once the suspected broken leg has healed and it's ready to fly again we shall set him/her free (it's only a youngster so the sex is still unknown, hence the gender neutral name 'birdie'!)

Birdie has the most beautiful feathers, and some of them fall out as he/she is grooming. So i scooped some up and decided to do some studies on them. Here's my first one which is just water-colour straight onto paper, I want to loosen up my painting so no pencil sketch first (eek!)

When Birdie has been grooming again I'll collect some more I think...

'launch' - illustration friday

Everyone needs a bit of encouragement launching from the nest, but it gives you the space to spread your wings.

I can't wait to get my own nest with space! 22 and no money for a place of my own, I'm sure I'm not alone either with that one...

Anyway this is my entry for this weeks IF, it's a contour drawing (which I love doing at the moment, creates some really interesting lines and shapes) and a different approach to composition for me too. Let me know what you think!

the hunt...