Wednesday 24 September 2014

lisa-marie's picks - week 38: GIRAFFE

If you didn't love giraffes before, you certainly couldn't help but fall in love with them during this week. So many incredible pieces depicting character, beauty, emotion and humour too.

It was an honour to choose the blog picks for 'Giraffe' week, but can I also say what a 'tall' order it was too!

As you will see by the number of artworks I chose, I struggled to limit myself. These are the pieces that resonated with me personally this week.

Lisa-Marie :)

Amy Gutteridge

Bettina Dodson

Camilla Sproule - Emma (8)

Diane McWhirter

Diane McWhirter

Emilie Cowell

Florence Ternour

Grace Bryant

Hannah Grace

Ian McLean

Imogen Appleton

Jacqui Griffiths

James Leong

Janet Murphy

Jessica Guthrie

Kim Bergstrom

Leonie Cheetham

Margaret Dewar

Michele Kempees-Lewis

Natalie Daniel

Nicky Johnston

Noemie Pigeon

Odette Teerink

Pei Shan Wu

Rachel Hardman

Sally Fawcett

Sally-May Lott

Skye Robertson

Tania McCartney

Vanessa Pritchard

Wendy Charman

Friday 19 September 2014

learn: Scraper Board with Jason Philp

Scraperboard is a great medium and it's the one that speaks to me the most. It can be a little too time consuming for some, but for me, it's a meditative experience scratching away the image.

In some ways it's like you are sculpting the image. Black lines are formed by carving around the lines you want. This can be a little tricky at first as you aren't drawing a simple black line but removing everything around it. you can create strong graphic images full of light, shade and texture. Scraperboard is also known as scratchboard.


Step 1 - Sketch
STEP 1
First step is to draw a rough picture of what you want, paying attention of where you want light and shade.


Step 2 - Blue Pencil
STEP 2
Next step is to draw your image onto the scraperboard. I use a light blue pencil as it is easy to see. Make sure the pencil isn't too sharp as this will scratch the surface.


Step 3 - Pointy detail
STEP 3
The scraperboard tools I use can be bought individually or in packs. They are usually small pieces that are inserted into fountain nib handles. This tool is the one I use the most and is great for fine detail. you can complete an entire image using just this tool.

Step 4 - Comb
STEP 4
I call this tool the Comb. It speeds up the process a little and you can create some interesting texture. (Good for hair)

Step 5 - Round
STEP 5
This tool that I call Round Head is good for removing areas close to the image safely. A big part of creating scraperboard images is removing the background.

Step 6 - Blade
STEP 6
A sharp flexible blade is awesome for removing large areas quickly and cleanly. When I want to leave a textured background I'll use the fine detail tool. Otherwise the blade will leave a very clean white background.


FINISHED
Digital Jpeg
Once the image is finished, I like to scan it and then using Photoshop, play around with the black and white contrast layers so it looks good as a digital copy.

The scraperboard I've been using is fairly cheap but works brilliantly. You can spend a lot of money on high end chalk scraperboard or not too much on paper scraperboard. Just be careful with paper scraperboard that is too thin. It's very easy to scratch through the paper.

I hope that helps, have fun scratching.

Jason Philp

You can see more of Jason's illustrations HERE

Wednesday 17 September 2014

nicky's picks - week 37: BALLOON

I am sure everyone will agree  that this week's theme 'balloon' was just so beautiful to watch on the wall. Even though picking illustrations for the blog is getting harder and harder, I am always so excited to see the huge variety of composition, mediums and interpretations challenge members are posting.

Thank you everyone for participating in yet another fabulous week of creativity.

x Nicky

Janet Murphy

Paul Heppell

Sally Fawcett

Tracey Read

Kate Bouman

Kim Bergstom

Melissa Tan

Mitch Vane

Natalie Daniel

Patricia Tejada

Stuart Ingram

Ann Abraham

Vair Buchanan

Damien Thomasz

Heidi Cooper

Jess Racklyeft

Judy Watson

Kylie Box

Lisa-Marie Kerr (Mia 8 yrs)


Tania McCartney
Vicky Pratt

Adrian Saich
Sally-May Lott (Z.Lott 5 yrs)