Week 18 Grandmother

My children's grandmother hasn't read the rules.

This is a memory I have, from years ago, of my mum racing up a tree as soon as we arrived at her new house. My children weren't as keen as she was, she'd clearly been waiting for an excuse for weeks

I have a photo somewhere, but I can't find it. This will become the only record of the event :)

Drawn using wacom tablet in photoshop

Week 17 - Collector

Like a butterfly collector but more animal friendly,
influenced by The Sound Collector (Roger McGough),
and turning out more like a smaller version of the BFG
My collector is making the world a happier place by collecting positive things and getting ready to share them

Drawn in ink and colour added digitally

Week 16 - Mirror

This week I created a new pattern. I doodled a host of frame ideas, on my A5 sketchbook, with the idea that I would tidy them up and straighten them. In the end I only rearranged them and added a tad of colour

and copied a street-photo from 1941 of children playing with a broken mirror. I didn't go searching for this, I happened across it in a magazine - a bit of serendipity :)

I started with the pink pen - because that's all I had to hand, and added the black for definition later.

Week 15 Ocean

I had so many ideas and so much stage fright this week.
I've bottled out of some of my more ambitious ideas and kept it relatively simple, and to a theme.
I love the light coming through the water and onto the ocean floor - so here's a literal interpretation and a repeating pattern developed from my tutorial which I wrote a few weeks ago.

Acrylic on paper, A3

Shells drawn on paper with a fineliner
Pattern created in photoshop, then coloured.
Ripples added as an extra layer.

Week 14 Camping

Firstly, I have used a sketch I made at the Port Eliot festival last year and added a digital collage to it.
I'd like a funky tent of my own - perhaps the sunflower one.

Week 13 - Movement*

I thought of clock movements, animals and birds moving, migration - I started off with some experiments with static/movement illusion. I experimented on paper first but found it is much more effective when done digitally. 

So many of my ideas didn't make it to fruition, but I had another fresh idea - my second posting was based on banners you see at rallies: political movements. 

I wanted a meadow with lots of butterflies fluttering by. If you scroll up and down you should see them move :)

This was drawn by hand, scanned in and coloured digitally. I wanted it to be a repeated pattern, but for some reason it just didn't work.
However I am very happy as it was chosen as one of the pics on the challenge page this week :)

Week 12 - Non dominant hand

This kind of prompt is tricky because you could draw anything - so many choices means it's hard to see the wood for the trees. 
I chose the first one from a recent photo I took and the second was just playing with scribbly, doodly flowers. It was so hard not to grab the pen with my right hand when my left hand just didn't want to go where I wanted it too.

(To be completely honest, I also tried a  self -portrait or two - but they were truly awful). 

Swans
Fineliners on cartridge paper. A5

Scribbly, doodly flowers
Wacom bamboo tablet in photoshop

Week 11: Mother

I went off piste a bit with this one. To be honest I'm not entirely certain how the idea came to me (or why it came to me while I was listening to the sermon in church on sunday - but there you go!)

My children have no idea of the reference for this, if you don't know either, I suggest you watch Alfred Hitchcock's psycho - it's a classic!

Week 10 Animal*

Sometimes the categories are so broad it's hard to know where to start - it's a little less broad than last week though!
So we have two smiling animals and one that makes me smile:
a quokka that my son took a photo of when he visited Rotness Island near Perth - they can't stop smiling
a goat and 
an elephant

Quokka

A5 Sketchbook, colour pencils

Goat
fine liner, A5 sketchbook, cartridge paper

Elephant
fine liner, A5 sketchbook, cartridge paper

Week 9 - watercolour

This kingfisher posed very nicely for me just after a frosty sunrise recently.
He's painted in watercolour but the green background was added digitally.
I wasn't sure which to add, so I used both.
In the end, I actually think a turquoise background works quite well.

You can buy it on a whole bunch of stuff in my rebubble store :)

This is part of a pattern template
The tooth lines are fine liner, the rest is all watercolour

Week 8 - Horizon

New Horizons space probe viewing Pluto over the horizon of Pluto's moon, Charan

Fline liner on cartridge paper, coloured in photoshop

Week 7 - Kindergarten

Week 6: Printing*

I got a bit carried away this week and still didn't manage to do a mono print or a lino cut!

Here are my three offerings, most recent first.

I was expecting to end up with a duo-tone image, with smooth edges, so that it would look a bit like a labyrinth. However I like it like this - a bit less polished, like me.
I took a photo of an ordinary ink pad thumb print and edited it on photoshop.

**and it was in the #illo52weeks picks - can't believe it!

Fine liner and colour pencils
Wallpaper printing,
featured in a British Pathe film, 1968

The wall paper designs are based on some of my patterns :)

One day, I will see some of my work on fabric or paper, I hope.

Well, the theme is printing - why not go literal?
Collage of coloured paper and letters cut from a magazine.

Week 5: 1920s - bubblegum*

I investigated all sorts of avenues for this. Actors, art movements, fashion, inventions - you name it!
A couple of ideas were bound to be popular on the challenge page and I don't think I'd be able to add anything new or different to the collection of beautiful art that was appearing.
So inventions was what I plumped for. Having ruled out sliced bread (clearly a great invention but not very exciting to draw), I went of bubble gum.

Drawn with pen and scanned into photoshop, I then cut and copied and fiddled with the 15 different candies I drew to produce this pattern. All colour added digitally.
I may have got carried away and produced a pattern larger than absolutely necessary!

Week 4 Swimming

4 images
An eclectic range of styles this week.
Inktense pencils, fineliners, brush pens, photoshopping... here's my swimming collection, in the order I created them.

2016 Week 3 - Theme Park*

Two images
Continuing my attempts to produce repeating patterns, here's my rollercoaster.
I created a draft on paper and then used it as a guide when I drew it in photoshop.
It took AGES! It's not perfect, but I am pretty happy with it.
(** and it was included in the picks :)  )

And now, here is a little sad doodle character not tall enough to ride.

This design, along with a few others, is available on clothes, stationery, home decor items and more in my Redbubble shop 

2016 Week 2 - Outdoors

Three images

Padley Gorge, Peak District. From a photo taken the day after my Godson's wedding when he took us all on a little ramble
Created in photoshop with a wacom tablet.

One of my goals this year is to master repeated patterns. I worked quite hard on this, but it's still quite stripey! I am happy with the meadow-ness though.

This design is available on clothes, stationery, home decor items and more in my Redbubble shop 

I also mis-remembered this prompt - I thought it was 'outside'. Here's my first illustration which I couldn't enter for the challenge, but I want to share it anyway.

2016 Week 1- Fancy dress

2 images

I convinced myself that the theme was costume, rather than fancy dress. My illustrations still fit the theme but I might have approached it differently if I had read the instructions properly!

Tim Angel of Angels costumiers and fancy dress emporium
This is where I went to get fitted for my first costume as an extra.

This is Shakespeare's Titania as seen in a school performance for Rock Challenge

My 52 weeks of illustrations - 2015

I did it!
A year of at least one illustration a week, uploaded and shared for the world to see.
This link takes you to Photobox, where there is a slideshow of the book I have made.
Ignore the suggestions that you might like a copy of the book!
Katharine's 52 Week Illustration Challenge

Here are all the pictures I entered into ther weekly challenges in a collage

Week 52: World

2 images and a video clip

I got a bit (very) carried away 
Sofa ridden, with a cold, and down time between Christmas and New Year, gave me lots of doodling time.
First of all is a world map distorted in shape, to accommodate 28 individual doodled sketches. They are the top 25 tourist destinations according to Trip Advisor with three of my own choices.
The clip whizzes through the sketches in less than a minute: here it is.
I have no idea why I felt the need to do another illustration, but you will find it below...

U are my world

Week 51: Family

4 images
I reverse order of being created

My family
*EDIT: Hurrah :) I have another illo in the weekly pics before the end of the year :)

My husband's side of the family

A very lovely brand new family

A very famous musical family