IF - Tribute

Much to my regret I learned that Penelope Dullaghan is not attending to Illustration Friday any more. I think she did a great job in launching this blog and thereby giving us all the opportunity to have fun in illustrating an issue every week. I especially enjoyed the quotations she gave along with them in her newsletter. Through posting and following other entries I also met some very interesting people I would be very sad to have missed. Knowing Thomas James from past times of Escape From Illustration Island (which was another favourite of mine) I am sure he will give this blog as much inspiration as Penelope before.

As a tribute to Penelope I experimented with this illustration. The rose itself was done for a Valentines's card some time ago. I have now added a texture as the 'pure' rose seemed somewhat 'naked' to me. As I have never worked with textures before, I am still in the process of learning how much is appropriate.

IF - yesterday

Yesterday this ruin might have been inhabited by knights and kings (who knows?). At closer inspection it is today's new home for flora and fauna.

Can you find the animals below?

IF - fluid

For 'fluid' I show you an illustration for my book 'The Golden Hero Dragan'. It was really hard to capture the feeling of fluidness.
During the research I found so many different aspects of water like flowing water, drops, bubbles, frost patterns, waves and more that I intend to do a series of it.

IF - popularity (6)

The last winter was so hard with masses of snow for weeks that voles came into my garden and ate virtually every single bulb they could find. And I had masses of them as spring flowers are my favourites, especially tulips. I had them in so many different colours and varieties including parrot tulips. In my garden plants are grouped by colours: shades of white in one flower bed, shades of pale pink over bright pink to dark red in another one and shades of blue and purple in yet another one. In between some greenish yellow of alchemilla. Anyway this year I didn't dare to plant new bulbs because of the voles which, once they had discovered my garden, continued to come throughout the year.
When I googled them to better know what they looked like I was completely surprized to see that they are no bigger than an ordinary mouse. Somehow by the extent of damage they had done, I had imagined them to be closer to rats.

Poster for a work group at school

At the primary school my son attends, parents were asked to give work groups on a 'Parents Project Day' on whichever topic they would like to. I volunteered to read 'The Gruffalo' in English (and German of course, as the kids have only just begun to learn the language) which is a story I admire very much. Besides I love reading to children. There is hardly a day when I don't read to my son and we discuss about the heard.

Anyway, in the work group I intend to hide any illustration of the Gruffalo itself from them and read till the moment before the mouse discovers its imagined monster to be real because I want the children to draw a monster of their own imagination with the given information. Afterwards we will of course go on with the story and the Gruffalo in the book will be revealed. I hope this concept will work. Especially so as I have never done such a work group before.

As there are 12 work groups, the children will have to chose which of them they are interested in. So every teaching parent had to create a poster to describe what one's work group is about. It had to show as few words as possible because some of the kids are not yet very accomplished readers. I had the idea of a forest with the information on a log pile and symbols for all the vital info.

IF - hibernating

 

The first thing that came to my mind for 'hibernating' was a polar bear, just because I love them. But apart from the fact that I don't think polar bears are hibernating at all (living in the everlasting winter of the Arctic), this seemed to 'wintery' an interpretation for the present season. So instead I chose some fruit and seeds people and animals are gathering for winter. And of course some fallen leaves, too.

The night sky is again part of my project 'The Golden Hero Dragan', all the other items have already appeared in a different context. I newly arranged them to fit this topic.

As you may have noticed, I have been kind of hibernating myself recently because of my current project of the fairy tale. It turned out to be more time-consuming as I assumed it to be, and I am afraid this may last a bit more. So I hope you will be patient with my hibernating and look forward to the finished book which, of course, I will show to you here on my blog.

IF - imperfect

These - imperfect - leaves are taken from an illustration for my current work upon the Rumanian fairy tale "Dragan the Golden Hero".
In fact they are only a very small part of it and won't really show at all in the final illustration because it's night.

Unfortunately the exhibition I told you about in my last post will only take place in January - February 2012 instead of September - October this year, due to human imperfection: the responsible librarian forgot to note down her promise to show my exhibiton then, and has already organized another artist to be shown. I was completely dumbstruck, when I heard this, but by now I have reconciled with the idea and indeed prefer the later deadline, because it allows me to finish the whole book including cover and let it be printed, so that I can even sell it right then.

If - perennial

As I am still very busy preparing my exhibition in September, which will show illustrations for a fairy tale, I did not think I could post anything this week.

But thanks to Susan Sorell Hill who, in her post, refers to fairy tales as perennial stories that deal with the Journey of Life, I decided to give you a glimpse into my fairy tale with the above illustration. Here the brother of the hero desperately wants to eat after a long struggle and the task both he and the hero had to face seemingly completed by now. But he doesn't know that these tempting pears are not what they seem to be...

IF - asleep

Hi everyone. I know I am extremely late with this post, but this is not because I was 'asleep'. It is rather due to my having been 'soaked' (one of the topics I have missed in the meantime) in problems, not the least of which was a complete breakdown of my computer and some of the adjoined hardware.

In the above illustration I want to show a cereal grain where the germ is still asleep. I also tried out a different technique from my usual colour pencils.

Of course the illustration for the approriate topic 'shadows' is on its way. I hope to publish it tomorrow at the latest.

Postcard for Valentine's Day Part 4

Finally here's part 4 of my Valentine's Postcard Project - the fully open blossom. Now I am going to work on the composition of the finished card. I hope you are as curious about the result as I am.

Postcard for Valentine's Day - Part 3

 

After a short break, here comes the third part of my Valentine's Postcard Project.

This part stands for the not so nice periods in every relationship: the fights, hurts and tears. On the card you shall have the chance to say that in spite of all these hardships you still love your partner.

Postcard for Valentine's Day - Part 2

Here comes the second Part of my Valentine's Card Project: the blossom that's just opened.

Postcard for Valentine's Day - Part 1

For this years Valentine's Day I am preparing a postcard that will show a rose in its different stages of growth:
- as a bud
- the blossom just open
- the thorny stem
- in full bloom

They shall display the different stages of love: just in love, only just together, just quarreling, to be deeply bonded. Then there will be some kind of indicator to show what stage you're in and to declare your love for the recipient of this postcard.
Here I'm showing you the first part, i.e. the bud. I will show you all the other parts as soon as they will be finished. And of course the finished postcard.