The Writing is on the Wall

One of my friends, who lives in Bahrain, recently returned home to New Zealand to have her baby. A gorgeous wee girl called Zoe. Thus this piece fills two purposes - one it gives a bright and colourful wall-hanging for a lovely wee lass and two, it helps me get my art into another country of the Middle East. The materials used was tombow markers and fineliner pens on oilpaint paper. With its thick weave, this paper does not hold colour very well and often I end up with murky results, however I bought it and I need to use it, so I have tried to find the best way to work with it. Pencils do not work well on the weave, but brush markers fill in the lowered spaces quite neatly.

Zebra ... Octopus ... Emu

My fiance commented that I should work on more large pieces, and he's probably right. When I have completed my current list of ATC trades, I shall devote more time to larger pieces such as this.

I might even make similar Animal Letter charts to request - provided the child's name is 5 letters or less!

Bound for Latvia and Serbia

It was quite serendipitous how I met Nauris , a lovely fellow who is going to help me get my art into Latvia. You see, normally he sells his art, and thus he was sending messages out to some folks in the Ebay Group of ACEO Enthusiasts, and somehow he discovered my Facebook. I AM a member of ACEO Enthusiasts, as it turns out, although I haven't posted there since before my trip to Madagascar in 2007. Anyhow, he graciously agreed to do a trade with me, even though he usually sells, not collects.

So first up, here is a New Zealand themed card:

If your Totem is the Puriri Moth...
You are somewhat shy and keep rather to yourself. However, you believe in living life to the full, as tomorrow it may end, and will never turn down an opportunity when it comes your way.

(There's not really much to say about the Puriri Moth - it only lives for about a day once in moth form, as it has no feeding appendage. It is also the largest moth in New Zealand, found only in the North Island - which lead to much excitement the first time I saw one).

And the second card was inspired by his fantastic character "Mr Cat". Mr Cat gets up to all sorts of activities and seems to have a lot of fun, so it made me think - maybe I should draw my Miss Katta. So I rustled up a new Katta the Artist:


And to add more to my conquering of the Eastern Europe countries, I have also tracked down a lass in Serbia. the Owl Totem shown previous is destined for her doorstep, along with this pretty Poison Dart Treefrog I rustled up a couple of days ago:


And last but not least, although he's only travelling as far as Australia, is this delightfully colourful Himalayan Monal. I've been meaning to draw one for a while. Finally, I've gotten onto it!


And so concludes another Artful day!

Scenic land Downunder

I don't draw enough landscapes, it's true. That's because I'm pretty bad at them. And do you know how you get good at something?

You practise.

So, here's the results of my latest practise:


What you are seeing here are four specific landmarks located at various points around New Zealand.
We have:
Moeraki Boulders at sunset (just north of Dunedin, Otago)
Viaduct at Arthur's Pass (on the way to the West Coast)
The Lighthouse at Cape Reinga (Bay of Islands)
Volcanic Terraces at Rotorua

Three of the four pictures were referenced from my own photos, only the Moeraki boulders were not. I think it's time we went down south again!

If your Totem is the Owl...

You are intuitive and can reveal secrets from out of the darkness. These are not always welcome, but will always be filled with wisdom and guidance.

I've done quite a few of these. Maybe it is time to make a book?

Flying off to Germany

I'm not sure why little Bug Eyes here is looking so concerned. He's off to a lovely new home in Germany with TheMoonDrop. I guess maybe he's not looking forward to a long voyage by air, especially when he has to share an envelope with this two bright chaps:


Of course, Red-billed Toucan is filling himself with tasty berries, whereas quirky little Robin Redbrest is eyeing you with curious suspicion.

Alphabet Twinchies

The lovely WhisperedPrayer lured me into a trade with her (bribing me with her beautiful art and a theme I couldn't resist). So here are three twinchies for her alphabet chart.

M is for Marmoset (Pygmy)
V is for Vulture
A is for Aye-aye

These were a blast to make, I could do the whole alphabet quite contentedly.

These are prismas and tombow markers on oil-paint cardstock. It was an interesting experiment because the weave is too deep for pencils to work without a great deal of blending. However, the brush markers filled in the gaps. I hope the end result is bearable!

And even more Chimeras

But first I thought I would share off this magnificant work of art I received in the mail yesterday:


It is Prismacolors on sandpaper as drawn by MegansEpicMess. Isn't he gorgeous?

Now for my more boring art:


Dragonfly/Mouse for Tabblyn.



Blue Jay/Red Panda gryphon for Eraserqueen