Anne Curthoys: Creatures and Critters

Balaur Revisited

2012-02-13T23:15:00.001-05:00

This is Balaur, a little fat dragon I have used in a few pieces. I love him! I think of him as being somewhat like a bumblebee, un-aerodynaic but he manages somehow. My latest challenge to myself has been to sew a Balaur. It has taken some time and I thought about simplyifying him but he turned out great, I am so happy with it! He is by far the most complex sewing project I have completed to date. It is so awesome to see one of my little creatures in a 3D format!

Forward

2012-01-30T20:43:00.000-05:00

This particular jellyfish consists of a painted head and background, with crocheted tentacles propelling him forward. My Mum is able to crochet, I however can only get as far as crocheting a very long, thin chain. while perfect for jellyfish legs, it is not going to allow me to make a blanket or other beautiful things!

If - Prepare

2012-01-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to all! Over Christmas and New Year I have a tendency to be busy and lazy, the points when I am not running around madly are the points when I am taking the opportunity to do nothing at all, so I have not updated this in quite some time.

I don't make New Years resolutions for a simple reason - I don't tend to keep them! Then I get annoyed with myself for now keeping them, but if I did make resolutions I would plan to be more regular and detailed in updating here, at least weekly would be the ideal, especially with Illustration Friday to help me out. I have so much going on in other areas of my life, I often feel guilty drawing or creating when I have other things to do. I'm sure other people feel the same, though I have my doubts people worry about essays or papers due in a month!

In preparation to greet the New Year I must organise the direction I want to follow in my life. Today marks the first anniversary of my grandmothers passing and I miss her very much. She was always encouraging of me and my artwork so this is dedicated to her. She encouraged me to do something with art and she was a big reason to start this blog. The original version of this illustration is drawn in pencil and folds out of my sketchbook, it is a compass - a useful tool to prepare for a journey.

IF- Separated

2011-12-13T20:27:00.000-05:00

I think this is quite a sad sounding word, the peas are therefore sad at Bob's separation from them...

If - Silent

2011-11-14T20:56:00.000-05:00

This is one of my few illustrations where my creatures are not saying anything. Dugongs have always struck me as being very calm and quiet (though if there are any experts out there and I am wrong do let me know!) They are such sweet creatures that it's truly a shame that they are a vulnerable species.

Scary

2011-10-31T22:15:00.001-04:00

I can't do genuinely scary, and neither can these little pumpkin ghosts, though they do scare people if they pop out of a Jack'o'Lantern suddenly! They are quite harmless, they just like to play hide and seek!

A rather exciting note, my Fresh Pumpkin Pie recipe is in the pumpkin featured collection over at They Draw and Cook! Check it out here! I'm in the middle!

Happy Halloween all!

Contraption

2011-10-10T21:09:00.000-04:00

Poor baby mole has somehow managed to get himself stuck up a tree, so mother mole sets up a contraption with a giraffe friend to get him down.

If - Hibernate

2011-10-03T20:44:00.000-04:00

It has started to cool down here in New York, autumn is definitely moving in. Sadly however our building has not yet caught up and turned the switch that changes air conditioning to heating. Boo. I do sometimes wish I could hibernate as it gets far too cold here for me, I can't go outside without numerous layers of clothing and after a while I get very tired of jeans and sweatshirts! I might consider taking a leaf out of my little dragons book, seems like a cozy way to spend the winter!

IF - Mysterious

2011-09-05T15:44:00.000-04:00

T in Alphabetic Animals is for Tapir. These animals are largely nocturnal and very shy creatures, the babies have a few cool striped and spotted camouflage pattern. According to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, they are odd-toed ungulates - my new favourite word. They are related to horses and rhinos, they all have an hooves with an odd number of toes. Random word and fact of the day!
Happy Labor Day to all the Americans out there! (I'm not too sure what it is, being English, I just know that I get a day off!!)

IF - Disguise

2011-08-29T21:54:00.000-04:00

How would a raccoon disguise itself? Wear another mask, of course!

IF - Swell

2011-08-16T14:58:00.000-04:00

The owl ate a little too much and swelled to a large size..

This is a pop up owl taking up two pages in my sketchbook.

IF - Imperfect

2011-08-08T12:32:00.000-04:00

I think every artist/illustrator/crafter/person has times where they feel imperfect and certainly I believe that whenever most people create something, in their eyes it will always be imperfect. I think people are also much harder on their own work than others, and while you can like pr love something that you have done it is always going to be imperfect in some way.

I tend to draw everything by hand and often colour digitally, but I love the charm of something being hand drawn and therefore a little off/wonky/imperfect. This is a slightly different piece, I have been revamping a sideboard for my Mum and this is the design I am using. The stencil came out blotchy so I ended up touching it so much I could almost have hand painted it! When done there will be a number of these vine and roses on it and while none of them will be perfect I am very pleased with it so far as it is the best rose design I have ever done and it has a quaint, hand painted retro feel that I love.

If - Perennial

2011-07-25T17:54:00.000-04:00

Orchids are perennial flowers, they last for a long time, which the little mouse is showing by presenting an orchid.

IF - Gesture

2011-07-19T13:15:00.000-04:00

Hippy Hippo gestures with peace signs, wanting to give peace and chance and wallow in water or mud all day.

People are not my forte or I probably would have done portraits of my dad or husband, both of whom (especially my dad) gesture a lot as they talk! My dad is somehow able to make himself understood to people in other countries by gesturing wildly, even with a pretty strong West Country accent (basically a pirate accent to those unfamiliar with English regional accents). My favourite incident was how by imitating a meat grinder he was able to get minced beef in a butchers in rural France.

IF - Stay

2011-07-13T09:13:00.000-04:00

This is really quite a simple prompt this week, though I did have to think past the idea of a dog and commanding it to sit. It also works with my ongoing Alphabetic Animals, eventually I will get all 26!!

IF - Remedy

2011-07-04T19:12:00.000-04:00

One remedy for stress or anxiety may be meditation. Also part of my ongoing Alphabetic Animals. I have them all planned out, it is merely trying to find the time to work on them! Z usually involves Zebra's, so I looked for something different. This creature is called a Zig-Zag Salmanader, it is not a Salamander that is Zig-Zagging. Therefor it begins with Z!

The Many Uses of Mice - Launch.

2011-06-22T19:11:00.000-04:00

I have realised that I have used mice a lot in my work, I think their size makes them very usable animals. In this illustration, for example, the spoon is being used as a launch pad and there are only so many creatures this would work with. (Bugs would work but they don't have the same cute feel!) Although I am aware of the irony in keeping to a realistic size for the animals and then having them doing an unrealistic act! Assume the mice have discovered the moon is made from cheese and therefore are beginning a prototype model to get there! Perfectly reasonable!!!

Swept Away

2011-06-13T17:47:00.000-04:00

I seem to be on planes quite a lot these days and I have often wondered what if there was a bug or an animal that got on board. Flies seem to get everywhere but I have yet to see one on a plane. I would image one being swept off to another country and potentially being the only member of its species there... Look out for adventurous bugs on planes!

Shadows

2011-06-06T15:26:00.000-04:00

As I was staring at something else while typing the title, so the title of this blog post was nearly Shadwopoos. But I digress. The theme for IF this week is Shadows. This was a pretty fun topic as I tend to use a lot of colour and put in details so this was a bit of a challenge with a limited colour palette. I decided to go with shadow puppets, using some of the creatures I have used before.

Soaked

2011-05-24T19:49:00.000-04:00

The poor kitty does not realise he is about to be soaked. I will leave it up to you whether you think the dog is aware of the cat being there.

I have been in the Mid-West for a few days. I have also been very excited the last few days to have seen wild chpmunks, being a city girl visiting rural areas is quite relaxing and I do love to see all of the animals. There are bright red cardinals and bunnies! Bunnies just hopping around!

Beginner

2011-05-09T22:59:00.000-04:00

Everyone has to start somewhere, but even beginners can become great!

Easter Bunnies

2011-05-01T11:02:00.000-04:00

I have found for the past few years that I have been much less busy around Easter than Christmas in my school. As a result, last year I made my class Easter chicks, this year I made Easter bunny magnets. They really liked them (some a bit too vigorously, luckily I made a few spares to account for broken ears) and it also means they are not hyped up on chocolate! I made each one individually and by the end my eyes were going funny staring at so many rabbits! They are made from Sculpty clay, then I drew on the faces and features before varnishing them. The magnets are on the back, they are self addisive but I added hot glue to help then stick better as I know the children!

Journey

2011-04-18T21:37:00.000-04:00

I travel around quite a bit and this is usually a very true situation between my husband and myself. He somehow packs this tiny suitcase (it is small, it is not even the maximum size airlines allow - whats the point in that?!) while I am trying to cram more into my two, plus hand luggage. I have had a startling realisation that we will be flying Virgin Atlantic over this summer and they have a strict hand baggage weight limit! That is terrible! I cram things into hand baggage as you can usually fit a bit in and now my plan is ruined!

IF - Bottled

2011-04-11T23:03:00.001-04:00

I don't know how true it is, but I heard that cats squeeze through spaces based on their whiskers. They measure the gap and if it is wider than their whiskers, they can fit through. So imagine the catastrophe (sorry, couldn't resist) if the whiskers were trimmed...

Duet - How Charmingly Sweet You Sing

2011-04-04T23:18:00.000-04:00

I must admit, when I saw this weeks IF topic, my first thought was of two cats singing, one with a guitar. I then thought that this would probably be done many times, just changing cat to people/dog/creatures etc. So from cat I thought pussycat (I'm English after all) and then the Owl and the Pussycat. My husband had never heard of this before, but it is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear. I intended just to do the pair in the boat while the owl uses the guitar, but ended up doing a few more pictures!

Toy

2011-03-28T22:50:00.000-04:00

My favourite toy when I was growing up was an odd looking yellow red spotted teddy. My favourite toy now is his odd teddy, now battered, flattened and not quite as yellow. His name is Cuddley Dudley and I he has travelled to many European countries, as well as the USA. This is one of the more recent images of him, one of many I have created since I was very young there is still one earlier version in my parents kitchen somewhere!

Cultivate

2011-03-21T23:29:00.000-04:00

Living in NYC I long some days for a garden. I love to cook and would so love to have a garden to grow vegetables and herbs, hopefully one day I will have somewhere to grow these. Though if mine grew and looked this smiley, I might not want to eat them!

One very big plus point for home grown produce. I used to hate tomato's, to the point of a seed in a sandwich (even with the slice removed) would make me shudder. Then, two years ago my Mum grew cherry tomatoes in her garden. Since those, I love the things. Though none in a shop has yet come close to my Mums. I can't wait for the summer when there will be more of them grown!

Warning - Animals at Play

2011-03-07T15:47:00.000-05:00

The lighthouse warns ships away from the rocks, as the annual whale water polo/basketball was well underway! A homage to my new pet hermit crab is on the right!

My Milk Toof

2011-03-06T13:51:00.003-05:00

Over at the awesome blog My Milk Toof, there is currently a competition to design your very own milk toof. Rolly is mine and we had a lot of adventures, including meeting my pet hermit crab, but decided in the end to just have a nice bubble bath. You can see more of the details here.

Swarm

2011-03-01T23:18:00.000-05:00

Something a bit different to my usual style this week. I don't think that technically butterflies swarm, but I think they are lovely creatures and they are insects and other insects swarm, therefore they are IF-able! These are painted in acrylics, I then made concertina style paper to make them pop out slightly from the page, so it looks really cool in real life! Some of the butterflies here have shadows to them, I didn't want to get rid of these in photoshop so the only touch ups I have done is to fill in the background page.
Any idea's on the correct term for a group of butterflies?

Layer

2011-02-20T23:13:00.001-05:00

I think layer, I think layer cake. I seem to have done quite a lot of illustrations with mice recently, they care cute and it works so well for something of this size. Anything larger than a mouse would mean a very large piece of cake. This is inspired by a Cherpumple, basically the Turduckin of cakes. For those not familiar with these terms, a Turduckin is a turkey stuffed with a duck which is stuffed with a chicken. A Cherpumple is a layer cake with various pies (apple, cherry and pumpkin in one cake) baked in. Delicious, no?
This week is going to be a week of baking, we have a friend coming to dinner on Tuesday, brothers in law visiting at the weekend and as I have a week off from school, time to try baking macaroons! I get overly excited when I have time off, just because then I can bake things! I do like to cook real food (ie not baked goods) but baking is so much better, so many delicious things, so little time!

IF - Sweater

2011-02-14T22:56:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Snuggle up with someone special!

IF - Reverse

2011-02-08T23:01:00.000-05:00

This came to me just walking along the street this morning. I love it when that happens, I tend to like my random ideas much more than when I struggle to think of something. Random ideas seem the best to me, more organic and spontaneous. The longer it takes to think of something, the more contrived or predictable I feel it comes. With Illustration Friday especially, there are so many submissions I like to try and have something a bit different.

IF - Surrender

2011-02-02T20:35:00.001-05:00

I'm a little late in posting this week, I am back at school, have a friend coming this weekend and have been getting over jet lag after being home and therefore have just got around to this great theme. I love cats, my family has a very lazy one named Millie, but mice are cute too. Therefore, in Tom and Jerry and Itchy and Scratchy tradition the mice must win. Are there any other cat and mouse pairings I have missed?

Dusty

2011-01-24T18:14:00.001-05:00

Hear Dusty and I think of tumbleweed, long dusty roads - the kind you see in Westerns. This means cowboys. Sadly this did not strike me as that original or interesting a choice for an IF topic, so I decided to use an idea from one of the children in my class. We made recycled construction projects a while ago, using bottles, egg cartons etc they made various sculptures/models. One of the children made a box with most of the masking tape on the table and then proudly proclaimed that it was a Cowboy Platypus. Therefore, a 2D version of this becomes the idea for this weeks Illustration Friday idea.

Super Fat Happy Penguin

2011-01-11T19:05:00.000-05:00

I have been having quite a hectic time recently and have not done too much drawing too recently. I have been doing quite a bit of sewing (also means much stabbing in the finger but also a very stupid incident of stepping on a needle. Very painful and quite gross, luckily my lovely Mummy is great and tended to my shrieks). I made the first of my own sewn designs (my own pattern etc) and the result is Super Fat Happy Penguin, a gift for my lovely sister. He is lying on my A4 sketchbook, which gives you an idea of size.

Resolutions

2011-01-02T19:07:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to all! Just a quick idea/character for Illustration Friday this week, Christmas and New Year have been hectic and I will get more into the swing soon! I need to finish up my Sketchbook Project in the next couple of weeks, should be doable....

If- Mail

2010-12-19T20:58:00.000-05:00

Or if you hail from the Great British Isles, IF - Post.

Even Penguins need to send letters to Santa somehow.
English post boxes are so much prettier than American ones. I'm still not entirely sure which ones are mail boxes and which ones are bins or grit holders. I swear not all of the things I think are mail boxes are. Though I do like the mailboxes people have outside their houses in the US, though I'm not sure it is the most secure way to receive letters. Of course in New York it's just the rows of locked ones in apartments maybe no-one steals mail elsewhere.
My husband mentioned once than in England it's Royal Mail but we call it post and in the US you have the Post office but call it mail. The excitement of language.

Festive Phenonmenon

2010-12-12T19:34:00.000-05:00

Around this time of the year, a strange phenomenon begins to happen to the worlds reindeer...

I know we still have a while to go until Christmas but I'm feeling so festive now, especially as there is a Christmas tree stand right by apartment. They are real trees, sadly too expensive and large for my apartment, but I love walking by and smelling them, I think that is the best part about real Christmas trees. At the moment all I have room for is a 2 foot tall tree my Nan bought me, which is adorable and I will keep as long as it lasts, but I would love a real, huge tree. This would also give me an excuse to buy many more Christmas decorations, some of my favourite things!

If - Prehistoric

2010-12-05T22:31:00.001-05:00

I have done a few dinosaurs before, but never a mammoth so this was fun. Being married to a paleontologist I really should know more about dinosaurs than I do - which is very little. I got frightened away when I read the title of a scientific paper once and I understood maybe two words (which may well have included the). Therefore this comes with a disclaimer: the dinosaur is not entirely physically accurate. Though he did say purple was cute. (Though still probably not accurate).

Savour

2010-11-29T22:05:00.002-05:00

Everyone savoured the tea all afternoon. I actually wound up with 2 copies of this, one with the Johnny Depp style Hatter and one with a more Disney inspired one but I think I prefer this one, especially as I made Alice older. The teapots were so much fun to do! It is also one of the first pieces I have done in a long time without black outlines.
I love having a prompt to work towards each week. At the moment I am working and doing a Masters and it takes a lot of effort to not spend the rest of my time sleeping, especially if I have a creative block. The Illustration Friday prompts really help me to do something fun most weeks and give me something to work around. Before I started I never thought of using word prompts as a starting point but they work really well.

IF - Burning

2010-11-14T20:58:00.000-05:00

I have lived in New York for a few years now and one of the things I like about the US is Thanksgiving. It seems to involve a lot of food and just having a nice few days with family and not in work. It also means Turkeys which I love, I had seen them before on a farm, but now I have seen then on a restaurant/farm where the two males didn't like me being near their mates, regularly at a spot in New Haven (exactly the same place, every time) and near the Statue of Liberty and Central Park. In the middle of New York, just standing there. Two feet away from me. In typical New York fashion no one was paying any attention to it either. You have to love that about the US.
Something else I have also come to love is smores. So simple, so yummy and so American. Therefore this weeks submission for Illustration Friday combines two of my American loves - Turkeys and Smores.

Just so the Americans (ie my husband) don't feel too pleased with themselves, water and butter have T's in the middle. Therefore my pronunciation of them is correct, budder and wader do not exist.

IF- Afterwards

2010-11-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

The stingrays started with a speed race, afterwards they moved onto figure swimming. Another perfect combination for Alphabetic Animals and Illustration Friday :-)

Zoltan

2010-11-05T17:32:00.000-04:00

So I was looking for a new pencil case recently, but this being New York I couldn't find one that I really liked that wasn't really expensive. So I had a look through a wonderful book I bought a while ago - Make a Monster by Fiona Goble. It shows you how to make strange creatures and I had already made a couple, so thought I wouldn't stuff the next one and would attach some Velcro. This is the result.

I love it! The pattern is Zoltan and this may also be one of the coolest names ever too! It has made me want to try and turn some of my designs into stuffed toys, it's especially fun as I never thought I was great at sewing before.

IF- Spent

2010-11-01T21:02:00.000-04:00

Patty Platypus spent a lot of time in front of the mirror.
I wasn't too keen on the theme this week at first, my first thought was of something to do with spending money. (Maybe that says something about me more than the theme...) I finally thought to change this to time being spent and therefore we get a new Alphabetic Animal into the bargain!

IF - Racing

2010-10-24T19:18:00.000-04:00

Racing is the theme this week and as we approach winter the Barnacle Geese are racing the Canadian Geese south.

I will admit that the term racing initially conjures up thoughts of fast cars. Secondly comes sports, maybe then a school sports day. The first idea is due to a very good friend of mine who is obsessed with Formula 1, the second due to my husband and all of the strange American sports he has on all of the time. (He will insist differently and claim there are more model and cooking shows on in our house, but this is my blog so therefore I am right. As I type this there is American Football on; the New England Patriots are playing SD, which I presume to be South Dakota or San Diego or somewhere.)
The problem with these themes is the cars are very indicate and while it might be quite interesting to draw, they seem very time consuming and I would probably face my friends wrath if I were to draw anything incorrectly! The second idea clearly does not interest me that much, therefore we get racing geese!

Spooooky.

2010-10-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

Apologises for the title, I couln't resist. I love pumpkins, I have an adorable set of mini pumpkins and gourds decorating my windowsil now, makes me feel all snug.

My pumpkins for this weeks IF are trying to be spooky and scary, they are more cute so you might need to squint for the spookiness!

They Draw and Cook

2010-10-16T09:59:00.000-04:00

My Fresh Pumpkin Pie recipe is featured on there today! I love the blog and it is so cool to be on there! Check it out here.

Alphabetic Animals

2010-10-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

Two new parts if my alphabet to grace the blog this evening, newts and hippos. I love the newts I think they are adorable. The hippo idea came out of the feed blog picutre I did a while ago and becase I think of hippos and I think of them eating a lot. Maybe not cakes but they add some nice colours!

Beneath

2010-10-01T11:53:00.000-04:00

I don't think I have ever posted something for Illustration Friday this early before! I saw the topic and knew that one of my alphabet animals would be perfect for this. I adore moles, I used to look at mole hills (by used to, I still do but there are not so many moll hill in NYC) and see if they were moving as I was told this meant there was a mole digging and I really wanted to see a wild one! Never managed it but I still think they are extremely cute animals. As well as the featured animal, I decided each letter should be an animal for that letter, so this time the M is a millipede.

Old Fashioned

2010-09-26T11:07:00.000-04:00

I came up with a silly idea for this weeks Illustration Friday, I think everyone can relate to this! I love my parents very much but we definitely had moments like this (and my wonderful Grandmother still does this to me sometimes, usually if my skirt is slightly above my knees).

IF - Acrobat

2010-09-20T11:47:00.000-04:00

I like this weeks topic, it allows for quite a lot of diversity in the submissions. I do like drawing people but I love animals and monsters so much more. I also seem to fall quite a bit into drawing elephants I have noticed! I think it works extremely well for this theme however, people or some other animal wouldn't have worked as well.

I also got some very exciting news this morning, a piece I submitted to Uppercase Magazine is going to be published in issue 7! I am sooooo excited and thrilled! Now I must restrain myself from buying hundreds of copies...

Proverb

2010-09-11T11:10:00.000-04:00

I work in a school and have been thinking about making an alphabet for a while and this is the first finished piece, it also fits in with the Illustration Friday theme this week! I also wanted to use some fun words but not too long or complex sentences. I wanted to pick wither my favourite or slightly odd animals. I love walruses so this was great fun to do! The proverb is one I found online and is an old Chinese proverb.

Dessert

2010-09-06T23:23:00.001-04:00

I love dessert so very, very much. My husband is American and this kind of reminds me of the number of desserts I have seen at his aunt's on Thanksgiving and his parents at Christmas, such a wonderful sight...
A wedding seemed like a good venue for this, the wedding cake looks a bit like mine did, the flowers going down the side are based on my cake :-)

IF - Immovable

2010-08-30T10:34:00.002-04:00

My husband is a Paleontologist and so this was inspired by him, but it also means that I know it is rather inaccurate...My colours could be spot on though there is not much evidence for dinosaur colours, so they could all be bright pink. Which would be amazing. Plus, my husband is part of the team that has been working on a new dinosaur check this out! Below is my interpretation of Balaur!

IF - Atmosphere

2010-08-23T05:21:00.000-04:00

Aliens again for this weeks topic, they are having a space race in their own atmosphere!

Teashop

2010-08-16T16:57:00.001-04:00

I have been working on a series of painting inspired by cafes, I love spending time in random cute cafes people watching and feeling pretentious if I have ideas I suddenly scribble down in my little sketchbook. This is a little mini series of paintings on canvas in acrylic of popular drinks from cafes/teashops. In order we have Tea, Latte, Cappuccino and Espresso. Must go and get some more tea now...

IF - Star Gazing

2010-08-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

This is such a pretty topic this week! I love stars, I even went through a phase when I was about 12 of wanting to be an astronomer until a science studying cousin of mine kindly gave me books and told me a bit more about it, the amount of physics and proper science put me off! I also took a slightly different approach when colouring this weeks piece, it's much less colourful than I would normally do which I think it quite fitting. I also did a pencil sketch version but it didn't come out quite so well on the computer sadly.

If - Caged

2010-08-09T13:50:00.000-04:00

The problem I had with this weeks topic was that I had to get over the notion of caged being kind of sad, as that doesn't really fit with my style. I went with the image of the circus from years ago with bright and elaborate cages that carried the animals in a procession. In my circus there are a mixture of animals and creatures, just to make it more fun!

IF- Double

2010-07-24T12:21:00.001-04:00

I wanted to do twins from the start and kind of have a mirror image feel, the longest part of this weeks topic was deciding which animal to use! Though this previous post would have worked well too!

IF - Diary

2010-07-14T05:25:00.000-04:00

I had a hard time thinking of something for this weeks topic, it took me a while to get the idea of just an elaborate book out of my head which didn't sound that appealing. Then I though I could do a loose interpretation using one of my characters I created, in this case, my fat little dragon called Belor (though I hadn't ever decided he would be this small before!

Teapots

2010-07-12T05:09:00.000-04:00

At Easter I faced a dilemma, what little present should I give to the children in my class? Chocolate seemed the obvious answer, but the thought of chocolate hyped children put me off. So I decided to make something and ended up with an army of chicks on my coffee table. They really liked them, though I had to make sure to label each to stop any fighting and stress that they were not for eating!!
Since then I have made a pig, dinosaur and fat little dragon to name a few. My favourites so far though have been these teapots, which are really cute as decorations or necklaces as I can thread a small chain through the handle! The best part is I can make them in just about any colour and they look different and fun, some present making is in order now!

IF - Giant

2010-07-04T16:09:00.000-04:00

Back to a bit more of a general word this week, I liked the last two but it was difficult to come up with anything different. This week I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (again...) on DVD which inspired this idea. I think the White Rabbit is really sweet and the idea of a giant one seemed cute to me! I can't remember what the cake is called in the Burton film, even if I could it's a very odd sounding word that might confuse anyone who has not seen the film for the rabbit to be referring to it!

IF- Satellite

2010-06-28T15:20:00.000-04:00

My husband told me the other day that I need to challenge myself as an artist. I was a bit confused until he said that everything I do is cute, including this astronaut and the aliens! Satellite is a nice topic, I didn't like the idea of doing a man made one so a moon seemed like a really nice and obvious natural satellite. It's not necessarily our moon as I wanted to draw a ringed planet in the background (could be Saturn, could be a whole new planet) which I don't think can be seen from our moon!

Lemon Bars Recipe

2010-06-27T06:51:00.000-04:00

I really didn't cook very much until recently. I would make desserts and that was how I first got into it but it wasn't until I moved to New York with my husband that I started to cook meals and savoury things, and this only started because I finish work quite a bit earlier than him and thought 'Hey, it might be nice for me to cook something for him for a change.' Now I am pretty obsessed, I make basically everything from scratch, I have recipe books all over the place, bookmarked websites and blogs galore. One of these is They Draw and They Cook, to me a wonderful concept and combination of two great things. It means you have yummy food ideas and lovely pictures to look at. What could be better?? (Besides eating said food.)

This is my first attempt at drawing a recipe, it's really good and I need to play around with it a bit, once you have the crust then you could make a peanut butter/chocolate/other topping, time to try this I think!

IF - Paisley

2010-06-22T12:52:00.000-04:00

This is a pretty odd word in my opinion! Also quite time consuming but a lot of fun, I nearly went with something a bit more detailed but then I would have gone completely mad. This is Paisley Platypus, she likes her namesake fabric a lot and thus has many things in this style.

If I'm doodling it usually ends up being quite a complicated line pattern so a paisley design is good for this. I might have a go at a really large one at some
point and make it really intricate, but that is not a great idea for Illustration Friday as the week would be gone and I would still be playing with it!

IF - Ripple

2010-06-14T17:20:00.002-04:00

This is in response to this weeks topic, and also to the request of the person who suggested the theme, in an effort to help with the gulf oil spill. The idea is to create a piece that pertains to the gulf disaster, a small piece measuring 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. I was a bit concerned as my style is very light and cute, but this does work well with animals and I think that they look worried enough for the piece not to be taken too lightly.
This is the ripple blog where there is more information and more pieces for the project http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/

IF - Trail

2010-06-07T16:39:00.003-04:00

Trail is the theme this week. First thought for Illustration Friday this week was Snail Trail, that bit of slime that makes it really obvious when snails or slugs have been around and where they have gone. Of course my snail needed somewhere to to go and be caught going by it's trail...

IF - Slither

2010-05-31T16:16:00.000-04:00

This took a bit of thinking to get away from the snake idea, but I like this. The Mummy elephant is slithering her (very long!) trunk down to save her baby elephant!

Toe Fluff

2010-05-27T16:19:00.000-04:00

I submitted this for the toe fluff exhibition and there are a lot of very clever and cute entries. The idea is you have a template and customize it in your own way, I went with an elephant but decided it would be cuter it it was a bit more colourful rather than elephant grey! The main site is here http://www.toefluff.co.uk/home/

IF - Equipment

2010-05-17T20:42:00.000-04:00

You need the right equpment to get the job done! I thought this would be a fun and slightly different take on artist's equpment which seems like an obvious but fun choice for Illustration Friday :-)

IF - Fearless

2010-05-10T21:11:00.001-04:00

I have a cat at home, she is possibly the opposite of this Fearless cat, she will chase a leaf and then get freaked out by it. My husband is not a cat fan, he thinks they are slightly evil and mean, which inspired this. I like dogs too but I think they are a little stupid, cats sleep, eat and saunter around, the smart thing to do! They are pretty cocky too so that makes them seem fearless.
On another note, if you like what you see here be sure to follow me!

Puffer Fish

2010-05-05T21:34:00.001-04:00

I had his idea in the middle of work and had to scribble down the design on the back of a receipt. It is actually two 5x5 canvases (painted in acrylics) that need to be next to each other so the lovey puffer fish can see each other! I think puffer fish are really cute in reality so it doesn't take much to make them even cuter!

IF - Ahead

2010-04-25T20:21:00.006-04:00

I love Illustration Friday! I often spend quite a lot of time on one piece or get stuck for ideas. This is a great way to make me come up with an idea in the first place and then not spend ages on it, I can't keep playing with it as I only have a few days to finish it. The first thing I thought of with 'ahead' was a race of some description. Then glancing at my last post I decided that penguins racing would be so cute! I wonder if they do that in reality?! This was a bit of a challenge to make it look interesting as the main background is white and I usually hate white backgrounds, if I am painting, drawing or using digital colouring I find it such a relief to get rid of the last bit of white background!

Penguin

2010-04-22T21:05:00.002-04:00

This is tentatively named Sarah the Penguin, after my sister. It is inspired by the lovely book Olivia the Pig by Ian Falconer, which my class love. It is super cute but the colour scheme is what interests me, it is essentially in grey tones with small red details, like her bow or dress. I thought it would be a bit much to simply create another animal in grey and a little colour, but the thought of a cute little penguin with just flashes of yellow was too cute to resist! I love that even with such a simple colour scheme the book still grabs the children's attention, and is still fun for me to read!

IF - Detective

2010-04-19T22:19:00.003-04:00

This might be my favourite Illustration Friday piece so far. I work in a kindergarten and one of my favourite things about it is what the children come out with. Ranging from bizarre stories about home life (note to parents - children will embarrass you!) to the way babies are made (you eat store bought eggs from one particular pharmacy.) Also especially adorable is when they can't say a word correctly, which inspired this. They are just so cute when they are tiny!!

IF - Linked

2010-04-12T22:23:00.003-04:00

So I believe I am now developing an obsession with Illustration Friday... This was the hardest one to date for me, the only thing I could think of for a long time was metal chain. Not an especially pretty picture and not very inspiring. Eventually I came up with sausage links, which led to sausage dogs. (Or wieners as my husband calls them in his American way).

Follow the Pink Piggy Parade

2010-04-07T12:09:00.003-04:00

My Mum loves pigs, and I am rather fond of them myself. This came about because of her, she wanted a picture of cute, cartoony piggys. We had seen paintings of cows by Caroline Shotton when we were shopping in Bath and she loved those, but thought that lots of pigs with big eyes would be adorable. Of course big eyed creatures are my speciality so the pig came to be, then I decided there needed to be nothing but pigs in the painting.
Also, if you want updates on piggys and other creatures, be sure to press the little follow button at the top of the page. Go on, you know you want to.

IF - Dip

2010-04-03T10:46:00.003-04:00

2 IF posts in a row! So far I have worked with the first thing that pops into my head when I hear the word, but this time there were 3 thoughts! The first was to go for a dip or a swim, the second was a food dip and the third a sheep dip (basically where sheep are bathed to clean off parasites). This meant combining the three!

IF - Rescue

2010-04-01T13:58:00.005-04:00

Here is this week submission for Illustration Friday, I was originally thinking of a role reversal of the damsel in distress and the knight but thought it might be a bit obvious, so poking around my tiny kitchen inspired this one. I'm also now going to have mashed potatoes this evening...

Swirls and Otters

2010-03-28T10:57:00.002-04:00

More cute fuzzelly things. I like to think of the Otter one as being a cross between a very, very fat otter and Blinky the three eyed fish. The Swirly fuzzell came to life when I was bored in an old job one day, the idea was to try and draw something with a continuous pattern, not lifting the pencil off the paper. The only problem with that is fixing it up in photoshop took a looooong time!

IF - Expired

2010-03-24T21:49:00.003-04:00

I have just discovered Illustration Friday and the theme this week was Expired, so this is my take. The creatures in it are Fleas - clearly with some artistic licence used. My nickname in school was Flea as I was short and bounced around and over the course or several lessons I didn't like the Fleas were created. I think there are over 200 of them, the same basic design with little changes for each. This one features Angel Flea, Devil Flea, Ghost Flea and perhaps most importantly for this subject, Dead Flea. I do feel a bit bad about killing off my creatures but for this topic it seems quite fitting!

Cowbell

2010-03-18T22:11:00.002-04:00

Just a silly little thought that came into my head. I am fairly new to photoshop so I like the grey background rather than sticking with the stark white of the paper. c

2 for the price of 1

2010-02-27T11:34:00.004-05:00

I can't believe how long it has taken me to get these up. Being new to blogging I hadn't realised how easy it was for time to just slip by without doing anything! I have also been working on an Alice in Wonderland painting, which I am nearly done with and very excited about. In the meantime there are two Fuzzells here today, one is really just very girly with flowers ans pink, the other one is kind of a jelly cow which might be one of my favourites as it's so cute!

Fuzzell Revisited

2010-02-11T11:37:00.004-05:00

Another in the little series I have been working on, the idea is that they can look very cool together but work fine alone, the only real unifying feature is the big eyes!

Fuzzell

2010-02-03T16:05:00.003-05:00

I have been working a little series of creatures which have been named Fuzzells (I belive my sister came up with the name). They are basically cute little things that I wanted to paint in bright colours, ideally with the background bright and making the Fuzzell stand out more. Something which may become apparent is that I love things with big googley eyes!

Bloggy!

2010-01-29T18:37:00.003-05:00

Hello and welcome to my new blog! Hopefully you will like what you see, I would love to generate some interest in the things I create. Since this is meant to be an artsy blog, hopefully I can include a picture with every post. This first post deserves another first, the first piece of work I have really done not just for me or for fun. It's for a competition on Hallmark.com, where they run them pretty frequently. This is also one of my favourite attempts at writing I have ever done. I won't hear anything for a while, but the experience was a lot of fun and I will definately enter more in future!