Illustration - a challenge

I have some poems I have written that I would like to illustrate. However, the process of illustration - producing an entirely original image - is a great challenge for me. Particularly when I feel my basic skills need so much work. Nonetheless I've decided to start working towards that goal and making potentially relevant sketches from life or images, composites, collages and anything else that may help the process become easier for me. There is no time frame - it is all just for fun which takes the pressure off. This is my first little brainstorming sketch for a poem titled 'The Red Room'. The patterned background is a photocopy. All else is ink / watercolour.

"You're" by Sylvia Plath

You're

Clownlike, happiest on your hands,
Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,
Gilled like a fish. A common-sense
Thumbs-down on the dodo's mode.
Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,
Trawling your dark as owls do.
Mute as a turnip from the Fourth
Of July to All Fool's Day.
O high-riser, my little loaf.

Vague as fog and looked for like mail.
Farther off than Australia.
Bent-backed atlas, our traveled prawn.
Snug as a bug and at home
Like a sprat in a pickle jug.
A creel of eels, all ripples.
Junpy as a Mexican bean.
Right, like a well-done sum.
A clean slate, with your own face on.

I love the poetry of Sylvia Plath - and this is one of my favourites. I found an old pic. of my daughter in this crazy jumper she used to love and I couldn't resist sketching it. It reminded me of this poem...each child born unto themselves from the start.

Time or lack thereof...

Like all working mothers I struggle to find time...time to fill all the necessary demands of each day, time to finish things, get the washing done. Time for more important things like quality time with the children. But most of all I struggle with finding time for myself - time to put on make up or commit to a drawing. Nonetheless, I want to find some time just for me. I know it will make me, and consequently, everyone else, less strung out if I succeed! So I'm starting small...with 2 achievable goals in mind. Rise a little earlier for a more relaxed morning, so I may attend to myself before the kids awake. Secondly, to fit drawing, even writing, in where I can. To keep carrying my sketchbook with me so I may use 10 minutes here and there. I may not produce any great work. But I will get practice and a sense of acheivement from that alone! Just like this little vintage clock here...one of my favourite possessions gave me a sense of happiness today regardless of its flawed proportions!

3 Clowns

3 clowns all in a row. Pastel and coloured pencil. This was fabulous fun to do! This drawing was made for the November challenge at The Drawing Club from an excellent reference photo.

Sketching on-site

I discovered the Urban Sketchers blog online and was instantly in awe of the talent and dedication of the contributors. Their sketches and observations inspired me to begin carrying a small sketchbook everywhere, along with various pens and coloured pencils. I have already made a few sketches on-site, seizing the precious windows of time when they come. As a mother of two who runs a fledgeling business from home with my husband time is a severely limited luxury.

Returning home from walking the kids to school there is a narrow street with a couple of enormous overhanging jacarandas, they drop their beautiful blossoms in abundance, carpeting the pavement with their soft purpleness. I stopped, crouching down and made a quick sketch. When I got home I flicked some watercolour over the top to finish.

On a recent trip to the city I had a moment to myself, waiting in the car with the heat pouring in, while my husband and brother loaded a bundle of furniture into the boot, onto the roof and all around me. Outside the car was a gorgeous tree with these stunning upside-down bellflowers in soft apricot colours and curly-wurly upturned tendrils at the base of each large bloom.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting my Mum and a friend in the city for afternoon tea and a visit to an art exhibit. I felt very brave and very nervous as I seized the moment and sketched the people on the train into town. The man at the very back of the sketch was fined $200 by guards for having an invalid concession pass.

I look forward to capturing more moments when out and about.

A Lorikeet

This started as an upside down sketch and then I couldn't resist adding some colour. It was fun to do because the bird reminds me of a pet lorikeet we had a few years ago called Matisse. He was a fabulous bird, full of character, but unfortunately he became aggressive towards the children. Luckily we were able to find him a new, loving home and he now has loads of freedom - he flies free throughout the day and returns home to his cage each evening to sleep.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Lack of time and lack of confidence have kept me from commiting to the sketches I've attempted over the past few days - the results have been dismal! I have been entirely disheartened. Then, last night, I stumbled across some exercises I did a few years ago when I was working my way through the excellent resource 'Drawing on the Right side of the Brain' by Betty Edwards. These drawings (both from very early chapters of the book) reminded me that I can improve with practise and that so much is dependent upon freeing the brain from its blocks. The drawing of the horse and rider is particularly interesting - it is an exercise in 'upside down' drawing, a copy worked from an upside down image/ line drawing - the purpose of the exercise is to free the brain from its false visual constructs and concentrate instead upon the flow of the lines. While initially challenging the process really works - you can see the tightness and faltering of my early lines at the head but by the time I am at the horse I have loosened up and begun to trust the lines. The legs and tail of the horse have the kind of confidence I long to achieve while drawing. So, I have decided to rework the book, now it is only a matter of finding it...

Woman with Bird

This is the most recent drawing I have done (graphite & chalk pastel, A3, a little too large for the scanner!) - it's almost 2 years since I attempted any visual art and I feel very rusty with the pencil. I want to draw more often so I can free myself of the 'tightness' that has always plagued me and draw more loosely, yet more accurately - in essence, just get better!