Sunday, July 30, 2006

Autumn in July


Its been so unbearably hot here recently, that I've little motivation to do anything constructive after work. There are wilting tired old trees near my flat with dry orangey brown leaves and freakishly early big spiky conkers on others. On my way to the studio, the flat Bedfordshire landscape looks pale. Everything looks like its given up because its just too darn hot and dry.
At work I'm going to start to figure out a convincing way to get a watercolour look because the watercolour brushes in Painter are a tad weird. I suppose I could just use real watercolours and scan the images in and tweak them digitally, but I feel like the challenge and I enjoy making my own brushes anyway. Actually, I'm bloody rubbish with a real paintbrush, it goes so well until the last moment, then I accidentally splodge the page with some stupid colour or spill my dirty water over my work. I've also had suicidal insects get stuck to my page and I end up trying to scratch them off, but I'm always left with a brown smear.

26 comments:

Instantiable said...

Yeah, I wouldn't trade the bugs in my computer for bugs stuck to a canvas...

That picture, so cute. Darnit! =P

Glad you're back!

claudine hellmuth said...

love her beautiful purple swirly hair!

Tricky Trev said...

Cute illo.

My English friend alerted me as to what a conker is when she visited me a couple of months ago. We call them Buckeyes here in Ohio.

By the way....regarding the hot weather...we Americans'll keep abusing natural resources and emitting fantastic toxins into the atmosphere so you lot over in the UK can have a nice toasty summer. We're all about sharing.

Mette said...

Oh man, this is really sweet. :) It makes autumn look less scary. Cause I'm not ready for it yet!

Mette said...

oh man, this is sweet. It makes autumn look less scary. :)

Mette said...

AHA. I get it. Haha. :p comment moderation. Sorry for the dobbelpost! :P Pick one.

Anonymous said...

I love the hair... such a soft (but strong) illo!

Anonymous said...

I love her hair... soft, but strong, illo!

° said...

lov her out fit and expression nice soft colors too

Marco Antonio Sepúlveda said...

Bella ilustración.

Saludos.

donnamcm said...

charming and you think it is hot there-trying living in Tucson in the summer!

mel said...

she is just too cute! love your style and colors :)

JO said...

She's so cute.

AstridMueller said...

What a cute little witch. Love your illo!

curiouskitty said...

this is so cute! :-)

tiffini elektra x said...

That is adorable! I love the colors you choose - and that hair is fabulous. It really has much more texture than most digital pieces. Wondeful.

Diane Duda said...

I love the little tufts of grass and the colorful leaves!

natural attrill said...

I like the brown paper style stripes at the bottom.

irisz said...

very sweet!

Anonymous said...

Summer is a bad time for watercolours... refridgeration... Having hair... Living... That kind of thing. However, my flat has been invaded by two types of caterpillar, which I believe is unprecedented.

Susan Mitchell said...

Very sweet illustration and I like the contrast of her purple hair against all those browns - luverly:)

murphy girl said...

she's darling, are there other images of her?

Instantiable said...

Wow, MadameBogg, look how excellent you are at your craft =) I need another one to spice up my blog again, hehe...

My word verification:
ilojik

That's how I always wanted to spell illogic.

Instantiable said...

http://www.startastory.com/project/yourshout/anangelandadevil.html

OMG, Hahaha... You are so tremendous. That's excellent, I knew it'd be good, and then I noticed your name and knew it'd be REALLY good.

I'm gushing, I should stop or I might upset someone.

Christine Lim said...

I like your illos. Very creative with those hair she's got. ;)

Unknown said...

Oh crikey! If my boss reads my startastory comic, I think it might upset him a bit! Not because its personal or anything, but because I use the f-word quite frequently and its rather "adult". Not cute at all! Children under 18, don't go there! So apologies for that Mr Art Director if you are reading this, its just my dark side expressing itself creatively! I suppose I could have deleted the above post, but Instantiable leaves such lovely comments!