Kazart Phoebe - Vermillion

Phoebe wanted to paint. She had vermillion on the brain. All she could think about was painting scarlet, vermillion, crimson... in fact, she just wanted to paint everything red. What did this mean? Was she angry? Mad? Going mad? She didn't care. She just wanted to get the red out of her head...

Phoebe Vermillion – I actually painted a small canvas for this background - serious fun! Phoebe was sketched by hand then redrawn using Illustrator then collaged onto the painted background using Photoshop. She's doing the classic about-to-throw-a-baseball pose just in case you're wondering... not that she's into baseball but it just seemed to help catipult the paint further.

IF - Eye Glasses (Thick Black Glasses?)

Elvis oh Elvis... how would I get to work and back and maintain sanity without you? Seriously, I drive approx. 70km to work which takes 1.5 hours on a good day and up to 2 hours on a bad day and then do the same trip home each night. That's 140km stuck in my car with only my music to entertain me (the ads and crappy talk back on the radio are enough to do your head in so only ventured when absolutely desperate or CD player is having a spasm or completely sick of listening to the same CDs over and over and over... yep, my car is old - it even has a tape deck but we don't go there... Back to the IF topic - Eye Glasses? I did a series of huge pastel drawings based on people who inspired me that also happen to be wearing thick black glasses - which brings me back to Elvis Costello. He wears them. His music inspires me. I think I would marry his voice in another life... xo

Thick Black Glasses No. 1 (Elvis Costello) - sketched using pastels and charcoal on a huge piece of cartridge paper
 (approx. 600 x 900cm ish BIG)

And here are a few more v inspiring, creative, thick black glasses wearing faces from the same series... same huge sizes. Must do more... if only I could draw and drive at the same time?! Can you get booked for that?

Thick Black Glasses No. 2 (Tim Burton)

Thick Black Glasses No. 4 (Lisa Loab)

Thick Black Glasses No. 3 (Jeff Golden)

Phoebe - Mad Hair Day

Phoebe couldn't think straight... her head felt like spaghetti – inside and out. Nothing seemed to make sense... had she got her wires crossed again? She tried to focus but losing her train of thought, decided to embrace her present tangled mess instead and just go with it. ROCK ON Phoebe! She secretly always wanted to be Suzi Quatro – but unfortunately, she only knew how to play classical guitar... oh well, no one will notice the difference?!

Mad Hair Day – originally sketched in pencil then redrawn using Illustrator. Collaged onto a watercolour  background in Photoshop where colour and special effects were added. Its so much fun - so many layers involved!

The idea for this illustration came from having a bad hair day (week?) while trying to come up with a new idea for a Phoebe illo for Illustration Friday. The end result has absolutely nothing to do with the latest IF topic but i feel soooo much better for having got another bad hair day out of my system! Thanks Phoebe... x

PS. This was created while listening to an inspiring black glasses wearing hero of guitar...

Portrait of girl in pigtails

Ok, I know its been a long time since I posted anything - SLACKO. But sometimes life just gets crazy busy and things have to be juggled around a bit. Unfortunately this meant that I haven't had as much time for my art BUT here is a portrait I painted recently...

Portrait of girl in pigtails - Painted on canvas with oils, I used a couple of photos as reference. I wanted to capture the light hitting her hair which seemed to illuminate it, as well as her face. Didn't want to get too bogged down with detail but in hind sight I wish I had spent more time on the eyes...

I have been pining to do some more painting lately but there just hasn't been enough time... soon. Soon I will get back into it - just need to juggle things around a bit more...

IF - Whiskers (x20)

Meow, meow meow, mreow! (English translation is Ho, ho, ho, oh ho!) Here's a stack of crazy cats in Christmas hats with twenty whiskers in tack! I just happened to be working on my new Cat Stack Christmas card design when the new IF topic appeared - 'Whiskers'. Purfect!
Have a meowy Christmas from Fat Cat, Scaredy Cat, Sneeky Cat and Grumpy Cat... mreow (x4).

Whiskers (x20) - count them if you like but there's definitely 20! Original illustrations were hand drawn using derwent colour pencils. The hats were sketched by hand then collaged using Photoshop. Hats were coloured in PS too. These are the crazy things i think of driving to and from work in my car... crazy hats for crazy cats!

If you would like to buy a Xmas Cat Stack Card, Print or Tee then go to Redbubble. Great for Christmas gifts!

Illustration Friday - Zoom

Phoebe's life had become a big blur. She was so busy, each day seemed to zoom into the next in a continuous motion. (Was she in a movie?) She didn't even have time to stop and smell the roses. She zoomed from place to place, job to job, person to person, thingy to thingy... at a ridiculous pace. Luckily she had a zippy red sports car to zoom around in because as we all know, red cars go faster... go Phoebe, GO!!

Zoom - the purple blur in the background is inspired by all the beautiful Jacaranda trees out in flower at the moment. I love them! When the flowers fall its like purple snow (not to be confused with Purple Rain by Prince). I love November. x

Illustration Friday: Book

Phoebe was sooooo tired... so tired that she thought she'd catch an early night in and curl up with a good book. Unfortunately the book wasn't that good (and she really wasn't that into books...) so before she knew it, she had literally fallen sleep (yawn) curled up with her book... zzzzzzz.

Book - if only I could find a book that was so good that I couldn't put it down... zzzzz. See? Just the thought of reading puts me to sleep. I wish I loved reading...