Illustration Friday- Safari

This is a mural I painted around 1995/1996 (yes, yeeeeeears ago!) which has a safari theme and I thought was appropriate for this weeks Illustration Friday. It was painted on the wall in the children's ward of a public hospital. They were after something bright, interesting to look at and cheerful. I have no idea if it's still there to this day but I remember I really enjoyed painting it over a few weeks during a very hot summer! It feels like I've cheated a bit this time around but it's been a pretty busy and exhausting week so thought I'd give myself a little rest whilst still putting something up.

Illustration Friday: Beginner and Lesson

Beginner (this weeks topic)

Lesson (last weeks topic) click to see larger

Last week turned out to be a pretty hectic week so I didn't make it to the deadline but got it finished by Saturday so got pretty close! Two very different styles. 'Lesson' reflects the hundreds of life drawing classes I've done over the years. Art rooms always have a chaotic and often eccentric feel to them which I wanted to capture in this cartoon. Aside from the chaos, life drawing lessons tend to be really quiet as everyone is so intent on what they're doing and in their own little worlds so much that there's rarely time to chat.

'Beginner' looks at the intent focus and effort babies go through when they're first starting to explore the world and put two and two together. Everything is new to them so they're a beginner at every little action they fulfill. The look of concentration just to stack some cups is the same you'd see on a concert pianist. I like the simplicity of just sketching with a mechanical pencil for this one with no bells and whistles.

Comic Meetup drawings for May

I arrived late and only stayed about an hour but still got a couple of drawings done. No topic this time, just a free for all. I tried out drawing a cute monster type creature without pencilling first (I always pencil first so it's a challenge to get stuck in with markers and fine liners straight up!) It didn't turn out too bad. Still get the fine liner running into the marker so figure I'll have to invest in a copic fine liner in a thicker grade than my 0.05 for outlining. I also drew a comic style chick only using the copic liner and marker which seems pretty sharp. I guess I should start moving on and experimenting with some other techniques for a bit of variety!