A Slice of Fun

Here's the cover of the catalogue of images for kids to colour in. Pardon the morbid dark background on the cake but it's the only folder I had on hand. Since most of the colouring in will be done at kids' parties, I thought it was novel to do a slice o' cake and candle.
Haul out those paint kits and have some fun, kids!

'Saurin

Little series of fun (but educational, ahem) linears for kid's colouring workshops. Every paleantologists wishful thinking, this guy. I think the boys who are going to add colour to him will dig him muchly.

Comments on the Buzzfuse, thanks eversomuch!

The Stalker

The view out of Rapunzel's window in this day and age...possibly.

Comments on Buzzfuse, purleez.

Restless Leather

Here's one I did back in '97. It goes without saying that I had some issues, but I still did love to illustrate. It was based on myself and my ex, except I had long black hair and wasn't bald. And looking at us both these days, we're vaguely "normal" now. And living separate, responsible lives.

Lurrrrv Pedestal

Well now, my take on this is a rather contraversial one in this day and age and this is a simple blog, really, so let's stick with...enjoy the sketch. Did this one day during lunch at the factory I work at sometimes.

Buzzfuse comment away.

Sad Christmas 2008

Here's one of this year's rejects for my Christmas 2008 greeting card range. Without the fonted wording, of course. Interesting thing I was told by the art controller - they don't want photoshopped designs that can be churned out by their own designers without using much time or creativity. They want authentic, original looking artwork that's worth paying for. S'wot I've always thought, really. Funny how some clients love Photoshop and others just never will, huh? (personally, I just do it for the cash if I have to but I'm an old-school, hands on girl all the way)

Comments on the Buzz!

Dark Nights take their Toll

Eskom teased us tonight. The power is still on when they said it wouldn't be. I have my list written up of “things to do when the lights go down”. Like, write important things on my monthly planner. Write up the week’s schedule. Catch up birth date reminders in my diary. Neaten up my room. If I really squint my eyes in front of the candle flames, I could pull off painting my toenails and even sketch a little.

Last year my landlady cut the electricity in my flat because I was late with the rent. Seven weeks without power can make you a little kooky if you buckle. Winter had started kicking in and my heater wasn’t an option. My work shuddered to a standstill without my PC. A day without music is pretty awful. Charging your cellphone and camera batteries at the neighbours stops being embarrassing. Eventually. So does warming up your food in their microwave.
So, I guess four hours four days of the week isn’t as spectacularly devastating.

I wish us suckers on the Block 8 location of the load shedding schedule had been given the 6am to 10am power cut instead of the 6pm to 10pm one. I would have just slept in and had a fruitful day, dangit. 12pm to 12am are pretty much my peak creative hours, followed by a session of chilling out in front of my PC, journaling, catching up e-mail, blogging, pottering about on Facebook and trawling the internet. Blimey, the pressure of hitting the save key every 20 seconds preceding the hour of power petering out is somewhat stressful. How did we get so hooked on the trappings of the PC?

I can’t see what the heck just crawled over my foot in the dark vicinity at my feet as I’m sitting squinting by candlelight at my desk.
I can’t make cups of tea while I work or read – my one vice and joy in a cup.
I can’t listen to international news via streaming audio on my PC while I photoshop.
I miss Back to You on Thursday nights. And the Trump on Tuesdays.
But wait, on a more positive note, here are some tips for those powerless moments that I learnt last year in a dark, cold flat.

Long life milk can stand outside the fridge for up to 2 or 3 days.
Gas is a wonderful thing. So are batteries.
It’s a good time to defrost the fridge.
The phone still works. Make those calls. Catch up and link up.
The ducks at the park aren’t going anywhere. Neither are the birds. Go and feed them.
The library is a worthy institution that is filled with reading opportunities you can take home and curl up by candlelight with.
E-mail and the internet stop being the axis around which your day revolves.
Take walks. If you’re healthy and not living in Hillbrow, you have no excuse.

Oh, one more thing. Intimate communion with Jesus Christ will get you through any proverbial paw paw that just splattered across the fan.

Comments on Buzzfuse (when the power ain't pifflin')

IF - "Multiple"

There just aren't enough cupcakes in the world, really...

Delicious comments on Buzzfuse, please.

Furry Purry's

Sketched up my friend's cats for her birthday this year. Didi and Ross.

Love those Buzzfuse comments!

They're Ly'on!

Here's a South African experience I'm sure a lot of us indigenous folks can relate to. I'm trying to get a medic alert bracelet and recall getting one from the Lion's Rotary Club years ago. I lost mine, so needed to get a number that didn't just ring for what seemed like days at a stretch. I'd got a number off medic alert's website that was about 4 years outta date (chaps, what's up with that? Dust off that keyboard, slap your mouse about and update your website already!)In final desperation I phoned Telkom and asked for the Lyon's Club Association's phone number. The one I was given was different to the one I'd been flogging for days, so that tweaked my hope button a bit. I phoned it and got through to an automatic answering system that told me I'd reached the Lion Park.

Awfully South African, huh?

Comments as usual on Buzzfuse.

Illustration Friday - Bog Roll Theory 2-ply vs 1-ply

I have friends who insist they buy two-ply because you use less. So, even though it costs enough to bring tears to your eyes (resulting in the potential use of so much more of the stuff), apparently it's a psychological sort of usage. You pull off more streams of one-ply because two-ply is so much thicker and lovely and fat and absorbent.
I say codswollop. I'm a struggling freelancer who can only afford one-ply and those occasions I've felt like spoiling myself (three-ply with those really big contracts), I pluck just as much of my bog roll, no matter what the ply.

Does anyone out there agree with me? Relate to this? Swear by the two-ply?

Comments on Buzzfuse if you dare!

Goose on the Loose!

I recently came across this illie while flipping through my hard copy porti in search of something completely not this! But you know how it is. You have one goal in mind and suddenly, poof! You're distracted, get all sentimental, veer right off the track and end up slapping this puppy up on your blog. This goose looks a little frantic because, as geese go, they don't fly solo. Where the rest of his goose gang is is beyond me.

Throw your comments around like spice on fresh chicken (that oughta unnerve this goose even more)

Wine and Roses

AAAAaaaaallllright, I know it's all wedding and girl and floral and wotnot, but the cakes are done now, range complete and onto the bodices. So the girls can look forward to more flowers and pearls and the boys can anticipate some delightful shapery in corsetry. Always a pleasure.

Love those Buzzfuse comments!

Storyhoarding

Trying to make a point of scribbling up at least one storyboard an evening, just to keep loose and build up a porti. This was one idea from what seemed like hundreds of sticky papers on a wall in a conference room filled with brainswarming, er, storming marketers. Phew...no pressure to instantly conceptualise here or anything!

Christmas Time! Er...well, almost.

It's that time of year again. No, not Christmas, just deadline for designs due. Here are some sketches I doodled to inspire something more substantial, colourful and just downright Christmassy. Heck, I think I have 2 more weeks, so best start whipping those reindeer...erm...out. (artist's note: no reindeer will be harmed during these creations)

Comin' Up Roses

And so begins the wedding bodice range...

Happy Wedding!

Coupla storyboards for wedding cake range I'm working on for the canvasses - nice to scratch and scribble a prep sketch here and there and not be tied to exact detail. Loose rendering always reminds me that I can still draw! Phew!

Bag Ladies

Is my blog starting to look really girlie? Pshaw, will have to balance this out with a couple of tattoo designs here and there for the boys, but until then, here's another coupla finished canvasses of the handbags range. In the pink and feeling blue.

Divine Valentine!

I'm rather chuffed. My Valentines' card range is up on the shelves and this is one of them. Thought it'd be nice to scan it with the packaging - s'how it looks on the shelf. There you are then, you mushpuppets out there....get yours now at Clicks and Spar. Just 8 shopping days 'til the big one!

Bottine Bootleg

Well, this is what I've been up to lately...more stock for the antiques shop.