Blooming tea

This was my last assignment for MATS bootcamp (I will have to write another post about the experience… it was that amazing). We had to choose our favourite beverage and do a personal piece that could work as wall art. Everything about this was hard… first choosing just one drink (turns out I have hundreds) and then doing something that only I would like (really… just me?) – not easy!! In the end my calming chamomile, rooibos and honeybush tea is what gets me to the land of nod every night so I went with that. And one thing lead to another… before I knew it there was fynbos, wild flowers and honeybees all around. I love bright colours so that part was easy. I've tweaked the version I uploaded… the saucer now has some detail and I overlapped some of the flowers. To see the one I submitted and heaps of genuinely extraordinary illustration work please do check out the official gallery here…

Oh – and I still can't decide… yellow or grey stripes? It's the kind of thing that could keep me awake at night. Thank goodness for my calming chamomile…

Nautical dreams

My latest (and second last assignment) for MATS bootcamp. The theme was nautical and the end product was wall art. I ended up doing something for a child's room. Here is my dreamy airship in a bottle…

How to meditate…

Just made the deadline to upload for this months assignment – an editorial illustration for a magazine on the benefits of meditation. I really got going with this later than I should have but it's been that kind of month. Eventually (after my mom came to the rescue and took the boys to the spur for a couple of hours!) i did it…

 The MATS gallery will be up on Tuesday so you can see all the submissions there too.

Faces

A really quick little post just to show you my latest 'mini' project for MATS. I do love drawing faces – from reference or from my head. It's like people watching!

Cushion design

Been messing around with mocking up my jelly mould designs onto some cushion covers… think my favourite is the second one down. Next up – an apron (with the white version) and some notebooks (with the grey)…

Piece of cake…

Here is something I illustrated for the latest issue of Fresh Living Magazine… an article on acing your tax return. I'm happy with this… stylistically it feels like I'm going in a direction that I feel comfortable with at least :)

Bolt fabric – jelly moulds

MATS bootcamp is turning out to be one of the best things I've done in a very long time. The standard in the class is unbelievably high… most of the time – completely intimidating. But through gentle encouragment and positive motivation from Lilla I just keep telling myself to carry on with my baby steps and to 'go for it'! Here is what I decided upon for the submission for project number two.

Here are larger versions of the above smaller thumbnails…

Think this one needs something else 'extra'… perhaps some strawberries and some organic leaves in between to soften the pattern. Otherwise it makes me kinda happy. Must be all that pink!

The most interesting thing I've learned so far: creativity and its solutions are endlesss. In a class of around 500 people there aren't 2 single results to this project that are the same. The entire class gallery for March can be viewed here. Some wonderful work – please check it out.

MATS Project 2

Been having lots of fun (and learning) with jelly moulds – assignment number 2 in the MATS bootcamp and I'm about two thirds of the way with the project. I started with plain black line (always my favourite) and then started with clour and abstracting the patterns. The designs are destined for bolt fabric… but i think they could work on anything really. This is where I'm at…

Back to school

I am so excited… I can hardly breath. Let alone draw. I have signed up for the Make Art That Sells Bootcamp e-course with Lilla Rogers. Oh my! Just writing this is exciting. Taking deep breaths, and very teeny weeny baby steps… here goes.

First assignment: cuckoo clocks. I wasn't sure where to start with this and then one morning I was very amused to see one of our new chickens perched right on top of their coop. And thank goodness with that came some inspiration. Here is my doodle for my Chicken Coo-Coop clock!

As much as I loved this prelim sketch… when it came to translating it onto a cell phone case (part 2 of project one) it just didn't work. So I went back to the beginning (read: husband, wine, Saturday night out and a Dias Tavern napkin) and I had another go.

It's a process…

On Tuesday (the 25th of Feb) when the class gallery goes live I will post what I submitted… watch this space.