#letitsnow

I have a husband from Africa who is obsessed by snow.  His effusiveness on the subject tends to make the British roll their eyes, but inside we all know that a White Christmas would be really magical.  Sadly it's gotten warmer in the last few days, but maybe it's like Elf where everyone has to have xmas spirit for Santa's sleigh to fly, ie: if it trends on Twitter it will come true.

I absolutely love the work of Ernst Haeckel (look him up) and this is my own Natural History array for Christmas, labelled and everything.

Merry Christmas everyone!

5 Days // 5 Drawings

I decided not to blog my drawings every day; that would just be too much.  Doing them everyday is enough work!  I fell a day behind on Saturday because, well it was the weekend and I just didn't think about it.  I have caught up now though, so I at day 7 I am still on schedule.

These are all over the place and so rough.  Welcome to my head!

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Day 3

Favourite Food

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I have spent a good chunk of my life as a vegetarian.  These days I mostly don't eat meat, but do still eat meat sometimes, if that makes sense.  When I do eat animals I get free range / organic and appreciate it.  I also try not to ignore where it came from (ie animals).  It's easy to forget when it comes clean, sliced and wrapped in plastic that that ham used to be a pig.

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Day 3

Favourite Place

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What a thing to have to decide! let alone draw.

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Day 3

Best Friend

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Again, I'm not an eight year old girl (anymore) but in the spirit of things; here's Ross.

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Day 3

Favourite Character

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He's not literary, but on Sunday I was watching 30 Rock and squealing about how much I love Kenneth.  This is grotesque and half melted.

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Day 3

Favourite Quote

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I'm learning to not deliberate about the prompt too much.  I have other stuff to do with my days as well people!

30 Day Drawing Challenge

A drawing a day for 30 days.  That's the challenge.  

I found a list that laid down the gauntlet and suggests something to draw each day.  I'm not sure who created it, so I can't give credit, but I think I'm a bit late to start because there's a Movember reference.

an anonymous challenge

No matter.  I gave it some serious thought because it's quite a commitment (especially over Xmas time) but decided that even if I only take one minute to do the drawing it's worth while.  My other concern is that some of the things I have to draw are quite introspective and I'm not very good at that.  I don't even like playing 'favourite ___' and there are a few of those.

This aint gonna be easy...

Here are my drawings from yesterday and today.

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Day 1

Self Portrait

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Feeling shy and psychedelic, so I did a Seurat / CMYK thing in ink.  The yellow didn't scan so it looks a little less fluro here than in real life.

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Day 2

Favourite Animal

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I almost went for Okapi, but still after all these years I think I would go for a Horse when pressed for my favourite animal.

Over Being Under

This came to me watching letlive. on stage.  Their live show has converted many a non-believer and frontman Jason Aalon Butler was recently named Kerrang's Greatest Rockstar in the World Today.  Do you need another reason to give their album Fake History a listen?  I think not.  

(but just in case: note the Care Bear tattoo)

Zoo Day!

Last Friday I went to the Zoo (ZSL London Zoo) and had a brilliant time looking at the beautiful//crazy animals.  I'm ambivalent about zoos because it's hard to prioritise the happiness of the animals when people also pay to get a good look at them, but I do like seeing the animals.  I think London Zoo does a very good job in general.  Definitely the least satisfied-looking animals are the Tigers; one was just pacing a figure eight by the fence until the crowd grew too big and then it moved to another spot.  But I was happy to see a poster showing the new Tiger pen that they are going to build and it's big!

These are my photos from the day, and a couple of sketches thrown in for good measure.  Pretty self-explanatory (but I can't label them all because I can't remember what they all are).  :)

  

Cheers!

Limited Edition

I have officially issued two new prints!  They will be on show at Salon91 in Cape Town from Saturday 3rd December until 14th January as part of a wonderful group exhibition called 'If You Let Yourself Love a Wild Thing'.  If you live in Cape Town, or just happen to be there over this period, head up to 91 Kloof Street and have a look.  The grand opening is on from 11:30 this Saturday.  Check the details on FaceBook.

I have re-worked 'The Hazards of Love', so that the fawn has a lush habitat to reside in, and have also created a brand new print called 'I Dreamt There Was a Songbird Singing at my Window'.  Both are available through my Etsy Shop right now.  

The Hazards of Love

As 'The Hazards...' was inspired by a Decemberists song (/album) I thought I would give a donation for each print bought to Breast Cancer Care as a celebration of Jenny Conlee's remission.

'The Hazards of Love' can be bought as an A3 Limited Edition of 20.  Click here for Etsy listing.

...and also as an A2 Limited Edition of 20.  Click here for Etsy listing.

  

I Dreamt There Was A Songbird Singing At My Window

'I Dreamt There Was a Songbird...' is an A4 Limited Edition of 20.  Click here for Etsy listing.

My Brightest Diamond

Maybe a poster is totally redundant once the gig has passed, but I was way too busy before the show to even start on this.  I went to see My Brightest Diamond last Thursday and wanted to memorialise the show in poster format.  

Shara Worden gave such an excellent performance along with her full suite of musicians and a little help from Stateless frontman Chris James.  They performed the new album 'All Things Will Unwind' top to tale in a marvellously grand church.  The pews were a little hard on the behind, but acoustics and the view were good.

All Things Will Unwind album cover

Shara sang her unbelievable version of Feeling Good during the encore.  A video doesn't quite do it justice, but this one's pretty good and you will get the idea.