Well it’s only been *ahem* two or so years since I
last made a blog post here – whoops! >.<
I guess I got a touch distracted somewhere along
the way…let’s just hope I don’t take quiet as long to blog between this post
and the next one!
Anyway, picking straight back up from where I left
off, here are my illustrations and paintings from 2009 – 2011. It seems as
though I was in a bit of an art lull during those years as I hardly created
anything at all.
Starting then with two illustrations from 2009 and
one oil painting.
2009
Bonnie
Above is the singular oil painting I created in
2009. This was one of my very first commissions – albeit one I chose to do for
free. The little dog shown was named Bonnie and belonged to one of my mum’s
friends at work. Sadly, the dog had passed away but she knew how much her
co-worker loved his pet. Since he was retiring she asked if I could paint his
dog and supplied me with the only photograph she could acquire which was literally
the size of a postage stamp – argh! (I have to wonder if she stole the pic from
his wallet and photocopied it…honestly)
I did the best I could with the given
image and a bit of researching pictures of similar dogs. Thankfully all turned
out well. I wasn’t there when she presented it but he was overcome at the
gesture and decided to gift me a huge bouquet of flowers and a nice bottle of
scotch. :)
The two sketches.
I decided to call this first sketch, ‘While You
Were Sleeping.’ It is a sketch of my boyfriend at the time and little was I to
know then that he would eventually become my husband ^_^
I remember I sketched it after he stayed around my
house one evening; I woke up early but didn’t want to disturb him so took the
chance to do a bit of drawing. I’m certain that sentiment could pass as
exceedingly creepy if not for the fact that we ended up getting wed. Oh and I
needn’t have worried it turns out that he is a super heavy sleeper and almost
impossible to wake!
My only other illustration of note that year was a self-caricature
expressing precisely how I felt about Christmas.
Yep I wasn’t a fan.
2010
Zero paintings this year and only two sketches of
note. The first sketch below was from a trip to the Botanical gardens in
Birmingham, England.
I remember this day quite vividly not because it
was sunny and I got to spend the day with my now husband and his family but
because said husband somehow managed to brush past a cactus in the hot house
and had to spend the best part of the afternoon trying to get super fine cactus
hairs out of his coat, gloves and palm – ouch!
This bandstand was drawn in a moment of respite
from cactus hair plucking, sat on a long sloping hill that overlooked the green
of the gardens.
As for my second sketch …. Well I guess I just
really wasn’t into Christmas still.
2011
Three paintings this year, plus one underpainting
(I’ll show you later), two sketches of note and a tattoo design.
I’ll start with the sketches this time. First up
being a gondola rendered in charcoal.
I recall this being done for a ‘drink and draw’
challenge a friend was holding on Facebook. I didn’t take many of the weekly challenges
set by this group but this one interested me and it had been awhile since I
revisited charcoal.
This led to a commission from a great internet
friend of mine who asked if I could sketch his girlfriend’s cat named Misu. The
photograph was again terrible quality but the three of us agree that there is
something rather pleasant about this sketch of their kitty Misu ^_^
My other illustrative commission of the year was to
design a tattoo for a different friend who is very into his music. He asked for
a treble clef with a rose and below is what I came up with.
He seemed very happy with the design and paid me
for it however I don’t know if he ever got my design inked onto himself or not.
Of the paintings I made, one was yet another
commission (I was popular that year!) to create an oil painting based on the
anime Death Note. The customer in question had seen my previous Death Note fan
art and had a kid who was also heavily into anime. I created the below 12 x9”
of the two main characters for them.
This was a paid commission and I got told they were
happy but I never got to speak to the client or recipient.
Next up is ‘Baby.’
This is one of my few larger oil paintings. With
permission I used a photograph that a Canadian friend had posted on her page. I
really liked the contrast of smooth and textured surfaces and the stretched out
position of the cat. I was told later that the cat’s name was Baby and have
been promising a print to the owner since I completed this painting … it’s now
2016, I haven’t forgotten but I still haven’t got that full sized print done.
Also in some sad news I learnt that this little kitty passed away a couple of
years ago :’(
My final painting from 2011 was a 9 x12” oil on
deep box canvas that had no particular inspiration. I guess it was just one of
those ideas that spoke to me so I painted it out. Perhaps not the most shining
example of a wolf but I was happy with the mood it evoked.
So that bring us up to 2012.
After such a long lull, I was super productive in
2012…so my next post might have to be broken into several long ones, who’d be
an artist? :P
