Gundagai

Another day, another dollar...well maybe not, but it is a good day all the same :). I still haven't really decided what to do regarding the Australia theme, but I am currently into sketching the buildings at Gundagai (Australia) in pencil and chalk pastels. I have been inspired by the amazing drawings by Elly Cottrill which I saw at the Edinburgh College of Art degree show at the weekend. You should check out her website at http://www.ellycottrill.com/. I want to be more patient and take more care with my drawing and colour mixing and matching, and so along these lines I have applied to RBGE to do their Botanical Illustration certificate over summer. I am really hoping the reasons I am applying to do the course stack up and they say yes! Here are a couple of sketches of what looked like to be an abandoned or run-down pub at Gundagai.

A few things....

I seem to have a few ideas running around in my head just now, or should I just say happily sitting in the sun and having a think :). I got pretty excited by the thought of creating my own pop-up book last week thanks to the vintagepopupbooks.com website, in particular I really liked this ship http://www.vintagepopupbooks.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=K-8. So I am hoping some kind person will buy me a "how to make a pop-up" book for  my birthday ;).


I have also been looking at a book I bought last year titled Arthur Rackham: A Life With Illustration by James Hamilton. It is such a beautiful book. I have been inspired by his pen and ink and watercolour work. Rackham somehow managed to combine the thinness and thickness of lines with subtle colour perfectly. I have been looking at animals also this week, so I think the below work of his ties in quite nicely.

So, inspired by Rackham, I thought I would start trying my hand at pen and ink and water colour this week. Ha, now I appreciate Rackham even more! I am getting a better hang of varying the thickness of my lines and have started putting a bit of water colour in, but I need to be more patient than I usually am. I think I also have to leave the ink longer to dry as well, overnight didn't seem to be long enough. I also played around a bit with some of the filters on Adobe Photoshop this afternoon, so this is what I have so far.

Yass: horses

Yass: horses (conte crayon filter)

I am still thinking about Australia and trying to figure out the best way to go about what to do. I am thinking about intimate scenes (family, pets, backyard etc) but am still exploring the images I have. I am exceedingly happy though, because in huge part thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, I now have a new Sony digital camera, with 18.2 mega pixels and a 20 x optical zoom! It can also take panoramic shots and is quite a bit more shake proof. Before I forget, I also went to the 3 Harbours Arts Festival on the weekend. I went to both the Cockenzie Power Station and Cockenzie House, both of which were good. Cockenzie House also had a good cafe where I managed to score a massive piece of home-made coffee cake!! Mmmm. The festival runs from 2-10 June and the website is http://www.3harbours.co.uk/.