Shoot it, Sketch it: Double rainbow

December 31, 2012December 17, 2013 | Anna Cull

Double rainbow triptych – Christchurch, 2012.

One evening last October I noticed a strange light coming in through the window. When I went outside to investigate, I was met with this beautiful sight: a double rainbow over the neighbouring rooftops. These are my three favourite shots.

I drew the houses and trees with an Indian ink brush pen and the rainbows and sky were painted with my trusty Neocolor II watercolour pastels to give the rainbows a naïve, childlike quality. I really like the way they’ve picked up the corrugated texture of the watercolour paper.

Double rainbow #1 – ink and watercolour, 2012.

Double rainbow #2 – ink and watercolour, 2012.

Double rainbow #3 – ink and watercolour, 2012.

Others who have been participating in Shoot it, Sketch it are Clouds of Colour, The Little Leaf, Lunch Sketch and Poppytump.

See you in the new year : )

Landscape ~ Seascape

December 20, 2012June 24, 2020 | Anna Cull

Artist Rowena Hart has a lovely daughter. Her daughter, Marnie, was one of my tutors at the college where I studied communication arts and design. How amazing to be asked by my former tutor to design a business card for her mum as a surprise birthday present. To say that I feel honoured doesn’t even come close.

Of course I wanted to feature some of Rowena’s art in the design and the white bird is a recurring motif in her work. Rowena paints acrylic landscapes and seascapes (among other things) and also uses mosaic and collage techniques.

Landscape for Rowena #1 – acrylic on card, 150 x 250 mm, 2012.

Landscape for Rowena #2 – acrylic and digital, 150 x 250 mm, 2012.

Landscape #1 is actually two acrylic paintings put together in Photoshop. The white bird was kept on a separate layer so I could play around with placement. The mosaic pattern was drawn in ink and added later.

Rowena said she couldn’t believe that the business cards were so perfectly her!

Happy birthday, Rowena. I’m so glad you like them : )

Coat of arms… or coat of fingers?

December 14, 2012June 24, 2020 | Anna Cull

This cheeky coat of arms is part of a business card I designed for Tim Gallant. He originally asked me to design two business cards — one for his longbow-making business Pre-modern Industries and one to promote him as a drum teacher/musician. It was my suggestion to put everything on a single card by creating a coat of arms.

Tim specifically asked for a two-fingered salute to be included in the design (an insult that is also known as the Longbowman Salute, with some claiming the gesture dates back to the 1415 Battle of Agincourt). So I combined the ‘salute’ with a few other elements to create a logo that is, I hope, more humorous than offensive. The colours and placement of the elements were inspired by the Gallant coat of arms and a medieval illustration style seemed the very thing to tie it all together.

Love Your Body campaign poster

December 6, 2012July 7, 2013 | Anna Cull

Love the shape you're in – mixed media, 297 x 210 mm, 2012. — Love the shape you’re in – mixed media, 297 x 210 mm, 2012.

Here is my entry for a poster competition run by the NOW Foundation promoting the positive, healthy, inclusive portrayal of girls and women. Yes, another competition. It’s been a busy month.

My aim was to put a positive spin on the idea of body types and to create an image that would make people smile. All too often, we hear ‘pear’ and ‘apple’ shapes (et cetera) described as problems that require fixing in some way. Instead, celebrate your shape because it’s all natural and naturally beautiful. Love the shape you’re in!

The fruit characters are ink and acrylic — one is a self-portrait : ) The background collage was created using paper and gesso. I added the heart spotlight in Photoshop.

Shoot it, Sketch it: Leaf study

December 3, 2012February 8, 2014 | Anna Cull

Leaf study – ink, watercolour and digital, 175 x 210 mm, 2012.

This week’s sketch was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to see how watercolour behaved when applied to art board. Now I know. The biggest surprise was just how much water I could wash over the surface without it buckling.

All it needed was a little poem to finish it off (so I wrote one).

Anna Cull leaf study in Golden Bay — Leaf study in Golden Bay, 2011.

Follow the links to see what Clouds of Colour, The Little Leaf, Lunch Sketch and Poppytump have been doing for Shoot it, Sketch it.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

November 30, 2012July 7, 2013 | Anna Cull

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).

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 : )