Wednesday, 27 September 2017

Scribble Picnic - Radio

Hello friends,

This week's Scribble Picnic prompt is RADIO.

I had a few different ideas running through my head for this one:

Our own digital radio playing music while a goldfish danced in its bowl beside the radio.
Or a mouse dancing on top of a radio to the song, Billie Jean, in Michael Jackson style clothes.
Or perhaps a 70's roller-skater carrying a boom box combo as he skated along the promenade at the beach.

So, what did I end up sketching? 

I started out with a rat on rollerskates carrying a radio/CD player combo — sketched roughly with pencil

Which I changed to this groovy rat rollerblading along as his radio/CD player combo belts out some funky tunes. Is he off to skate along the promenade, I wonder?

The finished illustration - Ink, watercolour, and Prismacolour pencils in Moleskine sketchbook

I have to say how thrilled I am to be able to draw directly from my imagination all thanks to Michael's Scribble Picnic prompts each week. They really get my mind thinking and imagining all sorts of scenarios.

Of course, I do have a studio muse but, as you can see below, he really isn't any help at all


To check out the other contributions for this week's picnic, click HERE.
To find out how to join in on the fun each week, click HERE.
The prompt for next week is BLANKET.

Thursday, 21 September 2017

Scribble Picnic: Watch Out!

Hello friends,

The Scribble Picnic prompt for this week is WATCH OUT! 

It is Spring here in Oz and the bird nesting season is in full swing so I immediately thought of swooping magpies.  While they aren't the only species of bird to swoop at perceived intruders to their territory, they seem to hold the record for being the most persistent and aggressive. I remember my son, back in primary school, bleeding from just below his eye due to a magpie swooping at him.  I remember being swooped at myself many years ago when I was trying to hang out the washing in the back yard. They are fast, catch you unaware, and they do make contact if you're not fast enough to duck. It's very common in our area, warning signs are in place, and sometimes, people (particularly cyclists) wear funny hats with soft, long, skinny spikes sticking out in all directions to hopefully deter a magpie attack. Magpies see anyone as fair game, no matter the age...you walk into their territory and WATCH OUT! Here, magpies are a protected species which I'm very glad of as I'd hate to think of people harming them simply because they are protecting their young.

That said, magpies are very clever and will actually recognise faces and come to know the humans who mean them no harm.  In a previous home, they would gather twice a day for their treats and, quite often, one or two would come into the house, sit on our dining table and watch my son or I cut up their food. We have never been swooped/attacked since we started making friends with them.

I still get magpies bringing their babies to my door for their daily treats. Their babies can be very loud and demanding and, by that stage, are nearly as big as their parents. They are brown in colour unlike the typical black and white of the adult magpies. I love to watch them! 

SO, getting back to the prompt, I only managed a rough pen/ink sketch...not yet finished. The bird in the sketch will be a magpie when the piece is fine-tuned and coloured in.  These sketches are done completely from imagination and I made it into a cartoon-like sequence. Can you tell what happened?



NOTE : No sweet, old ladies were harmed in the making of this sketch.




Next week's prompt is RADIO. To join in on the fun, click HERE to find out how.
This week's contributions to our picnic can be found HERE.

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Scribble Picnic: Black & White

Hello friends,

This week's Scribble Picnic theme is BLACK & WHITE.

Numerous thoughts rushed through my mind — A white sketch on black paper, a Zentangle Wolf, a black ink sketch on white paper, a chess set, a zebra etc.

The Zebra is what stuck in my mind so I did a rough pencil sketch to start with. I wanted to create a cute, baby-like Zebra...a character in my mind, if you will.

The first layer of watercolour

And the end result

I wonder if anyone else thought of a black and white zebra?

Michael hasn't put the page link up for this week yet so I will come back and add it when he does.
Next week's prompt is WATCH OUT! To find out how to join in on the fun each week, click HERE.

Okay, just checked, and our illustrious leader has put up the post for this week so you can click HERE to see the contributions from my fellow Picnickers.

I thought you might like to see a couple of my zebra art pieces from years ago.

This one was done with acrylic paints on an ACEO card made from matte board

And this one was a love job for one of my sons. I called it 'Zebra Sunset' and painted it with acrylics on a 36" x 24" gallery-wrapped canvas.

I'm still dealing with back and hip pain...some days are good, some are quite bad. I feel like I'm developing a permanent limp but I will give the physiotherapy more time to work.

I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful week!

Thursday, 7 September 2017

Scribble Picnic - Tie It Up

Hello friends,

I'm running late but I had a good excuse — explained later.

As hard as it would have been, I very nearly let this Scribble Picnic pass without doing anything. I went off to bed very tired after a long day but — an image came to mind and I just had to do a very rough scribble of it — straight from my imagination. I'm so glad I managed to do something after all. Obviously, lots of refining is needed as the rectangular shapes on the roof-racks will be turned into suitcases...but I think the idea is cute and will look better with ink and some watercolour.

The theme for this week was 'TIE IT UP' but for some unknown reason, my tired brain was thinking 'TIE IT DOWN'. Both can pass for the same, I guess.

After making sure all their belongings were securely 'tied down/up' on the roof-racks, these two besties were off on an adventure to the big city — a new life awaited. How exciting!


To see what my fellow Picnickers have done for this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join in on the fun each week, click HERE.

I had a bit of an adventure myself yesterday when my two sons and I decided to take a trip to The Spit, Main Beach at the Gold Coast to capture some photos of the sunrise. We woke up at 1:30 AM to get organised and were off on our adventure by 3 AM. It takes just over an hour to get there. It was dark and cold when we first arrived being that we have only just started spring.  I was so grateful that Aaron had packed some blankets for us. Plus I had taken some Thermo mugs filled with hot coffee. It was heaven!

So here is the sunrise in sequence, taken with my Samsung Galaxy Note 5.





I was so excited to see a couple of pelicans on the beach so naturally I had to get a pic of one

Isn't he/she beautiful?! I adore pelicans! There were lots of seagulls about too waiting at the waters edge as the tide moved in.

We had a beautiful, fun morning! I was a little worried that the fine, dry Aussie sand would have caused my hip and back to flare up but, while I experienced a little pain later, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The physiotherapy must be helping. YAY!  Walking in soft, fine sand can be very hard on the legs and hip, particularly uphill, and especially when you're not used to it.

While the sand looks dark and reddish in this pic, it's purely from the glow of the sunrise, as the sand is actually a white-grey colour in the dry sandy parts of the beach.

We will definitely do that trip again. Needless to say, after a spectacular start to the day, the lack of sleep caught up with me by evening so I went off to bed around 9 PM — and did my Scribble Picnic sketch too before lights out.

I hope you all enjoy a beautiful week!