birds

Shoot it, Sketch it: Blue

| Anna Cull
Blue (seagull #2) – mixed media, 205 x 290 mm, 2013.
Blue (seagull #2) – mixed media, 205 x 290 mm, 2013
Seagull #2 – Akaroa, 2012.
Seagull #2 – Akaroa, 2012

I hope you like this week’s Shoot it, Sketch it. The water and the seagull standing on the wall are two different paintings that have been combined in Photoshop. The gull was sketched in graphite and then painted using acrylics thinned with a gloss medium. The background and wall are thicker acrylics that have been applied with a palette knife.

You’ll be seeing a few more paintings over the next month as I come to terms with my new artists’ acrylics and the knowledge that I’ve just accepted a commission to do a large peony rose on stretched canvas! I do love a challenge : )

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

| Anna Cull

Poles apart – Christmas design, 2012.

Here is my entry for this month’s Tigerprint design competiton. The theme, Coming Together at Christmas, provided an opportunity to explore what Christmas means to me and to look at what things provide those “I love Christmas” moments.

For me, it’s about connecting with family and friends. When they are far away, coming together at Christmas also means sending handmade cards through the post (yes, the old-fashioned way). It’s one of my favourite things about the season.

My ‘Poles apart’ design features nine little scribble birds/animals (representing countries all around the world). I imagine them on wrapping paper, gift tags and bags. The design looks particularly festive in red but I’ve also made a bright green version and one using a brown paper background (see below).

Christmas design – penguin, 2012.

Christmas design – polar bear, 2012.

I think my two favourites (penguin and polar bear) would also work as cards. The ink drawings have been scanned and turned into vector images. The backgrounds are a mixed media and digital collage of vintage stationery. Sometimes it pays to be a magpie : )

Shoot it, Sketch it: Black bird

| Anna Cull
Black bird on a grey day – ink and watercolour, 125 x 170 mm, 2012

Here is my second sketch for Shoot it, Sketch it — take a photo of something and then sketch, draw or paint it. The initial sketch was done with dip pen and ink. The watercolour background (something I painted for another project last year) was added in Photoshop.

The photo (below) was taken on a grey, spring day when I spotted this little bird on a tree outside my studio window. It was taken in a hurry, through the less-than-spotlessly-clean window, but was still good enough to use as a reference. Something about the silhouette appealed to me and I thought it would be fun to draw — and it was.

original photo
original sketch

Check out what Bec from Clouds of Colour and Alana from The Little Leaf have done this week too. They’re the bloggers who introduced the Shoot it, Sketch it feature.

Out of the blue

| Anna Cull

Seagull #1 – acrylic on card, 210 x 297 mm, 2012.

I’ve been spending a bit of time on digital illustrations lately and felt the need to get back to something altogether more analogue. So I spent an hour messing about with acrylics…

Whether it’s good, bad or mediocre — if I don’t create it, nobody else will.

On a good day…

| Anna Cull

‘On a good day, the soul within sings’ – ink and watercolour on paper, 280 x 185 mm, 2012.

Here is my completed entry for the Chronic Pain Awareness Month (New Zealand) charity auction/competition. As mentioned in my last post, this year’s theme is ‘the soul within’.

The competition is open to anyone who has a relationship with chronic pain and I suffered from monster migraines when I was a child. Doctors and specialists told me that I would ‘grow out of them’ and I have to admit they were right. It took more than twenty years (!!!) but they did eventually, slowly, bit by bit, diminish over time. The headaches I get now simply don’t compare. I’ve also had RSI/OOS in my hands. With rest, therapy, and a complete change of lifestyle, the condition is now under control. I still have bad days but it’s something I can live with. And I am very, VERY thankful.