Very last-minute pattern to submit to my online Make It In Design Summer School! I took a tracing of one of the pomegranates in my sketchbook, scanned it in, cleaned it up, and used a few colours from their palette to quickly create this today, managing to submit it just before the deadline. Phew. It was fun doing patternwork again though ... I know it quite well, and yet it was as though I were rediscovering something new. Fun. Here's the tracing as an in-progress shot:
Cheers.
I've experienced a bit of a 'creative pause' recently ... read more HERE if you like. It seems to finally be over, and the upside of it is that I had a lot of time to look back over this last year and ponder over the amazing lessons that I've learned. It's been truly chaotic, and tough. I've been shoved and pushed (screaming and wailing slightly I admit) out of my comfort zone, my safe box. To the point where I almost froze up in fear -- it wasn't easy letting go of what I thought I knew of myself -- but so completely necessary, in order to allow new and wonderful ways of experiencing and perceiving the world into my life.
I'm bringing a new project into my already rather full life right now. Why? Because I love it and it excites me, and fortunately it's also been accepted as part of my course-work for the coming year. More about it later on, but these are the few experimental sketches I've done so far and they express beautifully the journey that I've been on and where I stand at the moment.
First, the watercolour and pencil sketch below ... it's very reminiscent of my old work, precise, relatively controlled, more realistic than not. Once I was done with it I found it terribly boring, frozen, static. Tell me what you think:
Then I decided to take on the lessons that I've learned this past year. To experiment, to allow myself to make mistakes, to remember that sometimes the process is far more important than the end result, to accept that giving myself the license to just relax and play yields results that are imperfect but can be quite satisfyingly beautiful. Here's a glimpse at the work-in-progress on another page of the A2 sketchbook that I'm tackling now:
Notice the difference? I feel that I'm finally allowing myself to develop, to explore, and to just appreciate the moment I'm in, without fear, without insecurities (i.e. the inner editor screaming at me to have things perfect and 'right'), and to allow myself to open up and see things in a completely different way ... to go with the flow. I'm finally taking a step in the right direction, and this is after a lot of help and pushing and pain (yes, pain) from people who had the faith in me and saw a potential that I wasn't able to see in myself. Well, I'll be thanking them as I go along. But one of them, my tutor at Banbury College, is doing wonderful things as she pushes me over the cliff. I shall quite enjoy the coming year, I think, and scream with joy all the way down. Rebirth. Hugely inspiring.
For those of you who like a peek into the step-by-step process, I did remember to take photos of that first drawing while I did it and here they are ...
I've broken through a lot of barriers this past year and I'm no fool, I know that there are a lot more ahead of me, but I welcome them with relish, learning to appreciate every lesson. Cheers.
Day 15: Baby Penguins
Still working on catching up with #The100DayProject animals ... so here's a few baby penguins for it! If you'd like to see the rest of them, click HERE. I've a lot of catching up to do, so off I go to pick another animal, though I may concentrate on panda bears for the next few days as practice for my book illustrations.
Drawn with Derwent water-soluble sketching pencils, painted with Winsor and Newton watercolours, in a Stillman & Birn zeta sketchbook. Cheers.
via www.marianablackillustration.com
Day 4: Baby Armadillo
It's not that I have so much free time on my hands that I have to join a Drawing A Day challenge (cue hysterical laughter here) -- it's that I really really need to draw a lot of animals for these books I'm illustrating, so when the opportunity came up to join #The100DayProject on Instagram, I immediately grabbed at it. Forcing myself to get started on those animals, particularly ones that are in some way related to the panda bear and elephant habitats.
To read the rest of the post, please click here: 100 Days of Animals.
I've had a bit of a cold these past couple of days. The fact that I had to make a 15 minute presentation at college didn't improve my stuffed-up mood, but I've had a bit of a rest since then, and so today decided to take a break from work and just paint an orange tree in watercolour ... good therapy.
The tree was one in the courtyard of a lovely villa in Spain where we stayed for a few days ... I love citrus trees, had a few of them growing in my garden in Australia, and loved picking the oranges and lemons when they ripened, full of warmth from the sun. I'm not really crazy about the end result but it did what it was meant to do and I'm feeling a lot better. Cheers.
I've been playing with panda bears again, this time on linocuts. Considering making some greeting cards out of these prints, what do you think? Here are a few more experiments: Playful Panda Prints.
The sketch that led to the flowers I finally placed in my HOPE design for January. I'm still in the midst of reorganising my work and my life and have to confess to a bit of a dilemma here as it looks like I'm going to have to decide whether to carry on with the newsletter or place it aside for the moment. The idea of cutting it out hurts quite a bit but, well, I'm having to prioritise, and the illustrations for the children's books that I'm working on tops that list.
Work for college comes next, and the fact that my children's book illustration work has been accepted as part of my course (work-related project yay) helps tons. Floating Lemons seems to be doing rather well despite being mostly ignored recently, but I doubt if I can keep up the monthly commitment to illustrating free printables for the newsletter. I may continue to do so on an erratic basis whenever I find the time (ha ha I'm hilarious) ... we shall see how it goes. Excuses, excuses, I know. But sometimes we just have to give up some of the things we love -- temporarily at least. Perhaps I can work on it once every two months instead, this year ... hmmm that's an idea.
I shall have a good think about it, and hope that meanwhile you'll enjoy the fancy flowers sketch and that you'll pop over to my children's book illustration (and college) blog to see what it is that's been taking up so much of my time lately (beware of panda bears!): Mariana Black Illustration
An update and sketches from my children's book illustration blog ...
I've been on a much-needed break and am now back at college and concentrating on getting some work done! Back to sketching, drawing, all forms of art and creativity, and freeing the imagination to play. I'm back researching for my work-related project, illustrating children's books, and this little panda is calling out for my attention ... he's a sweetheart and I think I might end up sticking with him though we still have a lot to learn about each other. It's going to be fun, I think.
I'm also sketching animals in general, so here's a Binturong, or 'bear cat' that I drew in between classes. Might explore this further too, a bit later on ...
We're doing rather a lot back at college, so I'll need to do quite a bit of catching up here on the blog. I'm trying to get into a good routine, but as I'm not exactly a star medalist at organisation, this might take some time. Bit by bit ... Cheers.
via www.marianablackillustration.com
This is probably the longest I've gone without blogging. The final month of 2015 and this first month of 2016 have been spent taking a (much-needed) break and reassessing everything in my life after the numerous changes and challenges of last year. I've had to make decisions on what to prioritise and what to cut out completely, and have been surprised by the choices I made.
So I'm starting this year out full of Hope, and I'm passing that along to all of you. I've decided to carry on with the free printables to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter although it almost didn't make the cut. But despite my extremely full schedule now that I'm back in college, I do find pleasure in producing a text-based illustration every month, and anything that makes me feel good is staying for the coming year! This year I'm going for just one word, every month, that will express some form of inspiration or just good energy, and I think that "hope" is the perfect way to begin, even if it is a wee bit late ...
Here's a step-by-step progress of the illustration, from trying to figure out which text design I should use:
I was helped immensely by friends on my facebook and instagram pages who voted almost overwhelmingly for number 6, thank you! I then scanned it in, cleaned it up and printed it out very faintly so that I could roughly draw the flowers intertwined through it, and experiment with colours:
Once I decided on what I liked, I scanned the whole thing in again, made small changes in photoshop, reversed it and printed it out so that I could draw the outlines out in pencil and then transfer them onto a sheet of watercolour paper, then start colouring it in with watercolour pencils:
I then added water, painted over the pencils, worked in extra layers, and kept going:
Here's the final illustration before I scanned it in and cleaned it up in photoshop:
It took me a lot longer than expected but it was a pleasure getting 'into' a piece of art again, and a wonderful beginning to a creative year full of hope. I'm expecting more changes and challenges this year and look forward to tackling them all. Cheers.
PS: To get the Hope design as a free printable please do sign up for the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter and you'll get a text illustration available for you to download and print out at home every month. To subscribe just click HERE. Thank you!
"Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come, we have only today. Let us begin." -- Mother Teresa. A fitting quote just as we enter a new year. I'm not quite sure of where the time has gone, it's flown past far too rapidly. And I have tons of wonderful work to complete as yet, so off I go to organize 'stuff' before I launch myself into what awaits me in 2016 ... Cheers.
As always, the printable above (as well as the rest from 2015) is free to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, so if you'd like this to print at home, then just sign up HERE. Cheers.
I've been trying to work out of that box, to leap from my safe comfort zone. Not an easy thing let me tell you, despite the fact that I'm a huge fan of change and of learning new things in life and of fearlessly (ahem) exploring the unknown.
I've also been known to dip my toe in the water, scream "argh it's freezing!!" (slightly colder than tepid) and dash wimpily off across the sand as fast as I can manage. So. Not as easy as it seems. Still, here are my (artistic) attempts at leaping into that crazily unsafe unfamiliar space ... first, in painting as loosely as possible, and second, at carving rather than drawing ...
I'll admit that they aren't what I'd call works of art (or vastly different from my norm) but that's not what I was trying to achieve. I'm just experimenting, enjoying something new. I'll get there, bit by bit.
These were done as part of my college course, and will be reblogged over at my children's illustration blog, so to take a peek at that, just click HERE.
"Follow your dream". I think that pretty much says it all. I live mine daily. I work at what I love and love what I work at. Everything else ... well, if it's something I love it becomes a part of the dream too, something else to work on, to aim for.
Are you following your dream? I hope so -- but if not, perhaps this print might give you a bit of a motivational start-up kick. It's free to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter, so if you'd like this as a printable (as well as the rest from 2015 so far), then just sign up HERE. Cheers.
A quick painted sketch of a raven holding a dying flower (I think it's a rose but can't quite tell), just in time for me to wish you a Happy Halloween! Be safe and have fun. Cheers.
This was an experiment. I was feeling relatively blocked and unmotivated when, in ceramics class, one of my tutors -- knowing me quite well by now (have I mentioned the amazing tutors we have at my course at Banbury College yet?) -- brandished a paintbrush and a set of watercolour underglaze for ceramics. Seriously? Wow, why hadn't anyone shown me these before? So I played around with them on a tile I'd made of paper clay. I'm not all that happy with the end result but loved the process and am planning on making and painting more, with relish.
I shall have to consider adding some of these to my own private stash of paints. Meanwhile have a fantastic week. Cheers.
This was originally posted up on my new illustration site, so I'm linking to it here: Mariana Black Illustration. I'm trying to find some way of being less repetitive with the blogs, and sharing illustrations over both without getting too annoying about it! I may end up putting different ones here and there and just carry on linking to both with different news on each blog ... let's hope that works!
Meanwhile, here are my latest sketches of elephants and pandas, as research for my children's illustrations. Just getting to know the animals a bit better ...
I'll be spending more time this week on my art and college work and posting all of that up here, so please do pop by soon for a peek. Cheers.
This month I've invited good friend and talented designer Lisa Zainuddin from oxoloco.com to kindly contribute one of her lovely calligraphic pieces for the free printable that's available to subscribers of the monthly newsletter. What do you think of "Flourish & Bloom"? Absolutely delightful, right? Here's a shot of her work in progress ...
Lisa is also collaborating on the children's books with myself and brilliant author Jennifer Poulter, so you'll be hearing more of her as time goes by.
Meanwhile I'm back at college and the workload is pretty intense at the moment. I'll be posting pages from the sketchbooks here as I go along, as well as at the new site for my persona as children's book illustrator Mariana Black! It's all a bit confusing right now but I'm sure I'll get everything sorted out eventually, though some lines may remain blurred forever - I don't quite have a problem with that though.
As always, the monthly illustrated quotes are available as free printables exclusively to the subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Click HERE to sign up for it.Have a lovely week! Cheers.
New projects, a new blog, and back to College I go tomorrow for a new year. The exciting news? I have a whole year in which to work on illustrating for children, and it's all been accepted as part of my work for the course this year, so there's a lot of fun waiting to be had. Just pop over to my new site for a look and follow me there! Just click here: Mariana Black Illustration.
I've been working towards this dream for years now, so it's truly wonderful to be sharing this news for you. A lot of visualization and a lot of hard work ... and the possibilities are unlimited. Dream big. Cheers.
Just a quick glimpse at what I'm playing with right now ... more elephants of course. Though I shall be starting on a new animal soon as well. Experimenting, I love it.
Wishing you a wonderful week. Cheers.
I liked my Flying Elephants watercolour so much that I decided to give it away as the free printable for the month, available to all subscribers of the Floating Lemons newsletter (to sign up, just click: HERE)
I have been busy busy busy. Dreaming big. I'm working towards setting something exciting up, and I should be able to let you know about it very soon. So it's back to the drawing board for me now, with delight. Have a joyful week. Cheers.
I've illustrated flying elephants before, and even tried updating the older version (click here to see it - Illustration: Flying Elephants) a while back. There's something about the image of these colourful elephants flying joyfully across the sky that attracts me, so I thought, as I'm drawing elephants at the moment anyway, that I'd give it another try. This time in watercolour.
The above image is the final scan knitted together (it's on an A3 page and I only have an A4 scanner so I had to piece it together in Photoshop.
Here are a few of the progress shots ...
What do you think? I'm going to have to tweak them further digitally, clean them up a bit, then start placing them on products at my online stores as I'm actually quite pleased with the result.
Have to dash as I'm about to go away for a week. I've just moved home too, so blogging has been erratic. Please bear with me while I get my life back into some semblance of order and start having fun with my art once more. Cheers.
"Change Your Thoughts and you'll Change Your World" -- Buddha
I've always believed that it's we decide our own futures. Our thoughts dictate our attitudes, choices, interests, and that in turn decides our lives and the paths we choose to take upon our journeys through it. It just makes complete sense to me.
In the last couple of years I've been reading books and watching videos by certain spiritually and/or positively motivated individuals, some of whom have become my mentors as far as this approach to life is concerned. I'm going to share a few of these in case anyone else out there is interested, so just click on the links below ...
Apart from all this refreshing philosophising and thought meandering, I've been at work on my new project whenever I have the time, and will be launching a new blog all about it soon. Meanwhile, have been sketching more elephants, and here they are:
If you've been following me on my facebook page you'll have seen some of these already, and I'll keep posting more there as soon as they sneak themselves into the sketchbook.
Cheers.
I've been hugely busy, and at the moment my life has been turned upside-down while I explore new horizons that lie before me, but I'm also slowly getting back into my work routine ... with exciting projects coming up that I'm already in love with.
I'll elaborate on those projects (that will be incorporated into my coursework for next year as well) a bit later on, but here's a hint:
I'll just add that it's something I've wanted to do for years but never quite had the confidence to tackle before ... It's going to be a lot of fun!
With that in mind, I enrolled in a couple of online classes as refreshers and also to learn something about the practical side of illustrating children's books. I've just started on the first one, Picture Book Illustration: Animal Characters by Eric Johnson, on Craftsy, and have been sketching elephants for the first class. Still need to do more drawings and still need to learn a lot more about them, but here's a bit of a start:
I'm also being reminded of how grounding and therapeutic just having a pen, pencil, or brush in my hand is. I've missed it these last few weeks. As it is, I shall be moving house very soon so things will get slightly chaotic once more, but I'm sticking to my art therapy - I need it.
Cheers.
I don't normally take a month off from blogging, and can't believe how that much time has managed to just slip away from me - but it's the summer holidays, and we went as a family to Italy, and although I DID take my sketchbook and watercolours with me with all the best intentions, obviously that didn't quite work out. We walked everywhere which was wonderful but by the end of the day were absolutely exhausted.
"Appreciate This Moment". It's the most important moment of our lives, wouldn't you agree? If we don't value it we screw up a past that we're in the very act of creating, and walk blindly into a future that's composed of an infinitude of more 'present moments'.
I'm a bit late with this, I know, and I apologise profusely for that and hope that you'll bear with me while I catch up on work and art and life in general. As always, it's available as a free printable exclusively to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Click here to sign up and have access to all of the free printables of 2015: Floating Lemons Newsletter.
Cheers.
It's wonderful to be able to have time to just have fun with paint again. No idea of what flower this actually is, but a few appeared in the garden and seemed perfect as the subject for a bit of experimental play ...
I did say experimental, didn't I? This is pretty far removed from the precise, detailed drawings I normally do ... but what a wonderful experience, splashing around with water and colour. Still feel that it lacks depth and am almost tempted to keep at it, but won't - that's enough for the moment. I remembered to take a couple of photos somewhere along the way:
I used watercolours - a small Winsor & Newton travel box, on a square 7"x7" Stillman & Birn sketchbook with smooth, extra heavy weight paper (180lbs/270gsm) and a variety of watercolour pencils for a few extra details at the end. Wonderful paint time on a drizzly, dreamy day.
If anyone knows what flower that is, please let me know!
Wishing you a colourful week full of creativity. Cheers.
I'm in recovery mode. College is finally over with for the year, the exhibition was finally taken down (our bit anyway, the rest of it goes on till the end of June), and I'm taking a deep breath before I sit down and organize my life, work, and art.
I have a very exciting new project to work on next year, and will be starting on it very soon, so will fill you in on it once I have everything settled. All I'll say now is that it's something I've wanted to work on for a very long time and am looking forward to it and rubbing my hands together in glee - can't wait to get it going.
Meanwhile, here's my printable for June: “Believe in Miracles. They happen every day."
As always, it's available as a free printable exclusively to subscribers of the Floating Lemons monthly newsletter. Click here to sign up and have access to all of the free printables of 2015: Floating Lemons Newsletter.
I'm taking a few days off to enjoy a break with good friends, and then it's back to the drawing board. Wishing all of you a week full of miracles, great and small. Cheers.
