Words, words, words (part one)

February 26, 2013July 7, 2013 | Anna Cull

I’ve decided to write a few posts about a booklet I made at design school in 2011. The project was inspired by Stefan Sagmeister’s incredible book Things I have learned in my life so far. Every page is a photograph of a word (or two) created by using objects to form the letters. The lesson I chose to illustrate is that you don’t have to be like everybody else.

Anna Cull booklet cover — Things I Have Learnt In My Life So Far… (cover)

The cover of my booklet Things I Have Learnt In My Life So Far… yes, that’s me in the mirror. I was surprised that this shot worked. Every other photo was carefully planned and painstakingly executed — but not this one. This was completely spontaneous.

Anna Cull you — Things I Have Learnt In My Life So Far… (page one)

You represents individuality and potential. The photo features something from every word/page in the booklet. This word was originally going to be plants (see below) rather than drawings of plants but I didn’t think the images were strong enough.

Things I Have Learnt In My Life So Far... the process — You (the process)

All of the photos were taken in and around home using only the things I could find on site because I wanted to use the ordinary and everyday to create something personal and unique. I’m not like everybody else and neither are you : )

I’ll post the next two photos later in the week.

Shoot it, Sketch it: City lights

February 25, 2013April 23, 2024 | Anna Cull

City Lights, original photo – Christchurch, 2012.

Today’s Shoot it, Sketch it offering is based on a photo I took on my way to LUXcity last year. For one night, Christchurch was illuminated by 16 light installations created by architecture and design students from across New Zealand. The event provided an opportunity to visit a part of the central city that many of us hadn’tseen since the earthquake in February 2011. An hour before the event, the Great Airbrush Artist in the Sky painted a breathtakingly beautiful sunset and stole the show.

City Lights – chalk pastel and tinted charcoal, 210 x 297 mm, 2013.

Also participating in Shoot it, Sketch it are Clouds of Colour, The Little Leaf, Lunch Sketch, Poppytump, Two Scamps, Breana and 30 Minute Art.

Once in a blue moon

February 24, 2013September 16, 2014 | Anna Cull

Lilac Wolf NZ logo design, competition entry, 2012.

I entered this design in a logo competition a few months ago. The brief was to create a logo for dog spa Lilac Wolf NZ that was positive and memorable. The concept behind the brand is that every dog dreams of feeling like a wolf and being treated like a king.

My design shows Lilac Wolf surrounded by bubbles. He imagines they are craters on the moon… or snow falling in the forest. He is howling with happiness — or is he blowing/chasing bubbles?

These are the initial sketches. I really liked the texture of #1 but I decided to work with #2 because of the body shape.

The scanned sketch became a vector trace (flipped and altered slightly).

The traced fur was used as a guide for the coloured vector shading.

I deleted the original fur, continued to edit the shading and the bubbles, and gave the moon a gradient fill. I then redesigned the fur and tweaked a few things for the final logo.

P.S. For those who are curious, I’ve just been told that there was no winning design in the competition.

Shoot it, Sketch it: Watching paint dry

February 4, 2013September 15, 2013 | Anna Cull

Windermere Historic House acrylic painting — Windermere, Akaroa – acrylic, 315 x 420 mm, 2013.

This week’s Shoot it, Sketch it painting is based on the photo I used for last week’s post. When I decided to paint this beautiful little house, watercolour and ink seemed to be the obvious choice. Then my husband asked for an acrylic version. It turned out to be quite a challenge for me because I didn’t see it as an acrylic painting — at least not at first. But who am I to disappoint my biggest fan?

What a week I picked to use acrylics though! The weather in Christchurch has been rather warm and so the paint has been drying on the palette really quickly. It’s given a whole new meaning to the term ‘dry brush’! Click on the image(s) below to see more detail.

Others taking part in Shoot it, Sketch it are Clouds of Colour, The Little Leaf, Lunch Sketch, Poppytump, Two Scamps and Breana.

I’m going away on holiday in a couple of days (yay), so my next Shoot it, Sketch it will be 25th February.

A pre-modern business card

January 31, 2013June 24, 2020 | Anna Cull

I posted the artwork for Tim Gallant’s business card a couple of months ago but needed to finalise a few details before completing the design. Tim has a longbow-making business and is a talented drum teacher/musician.

The two finger salute included in the design is a gesture sometimes referred to as the Longbowman Salute and may or may not date back to the 1415 Battle of Agincourt. I drew the ‘salute’ as a medieval gauntlet and added a couple of other elements to create a logo that is, I hope, more humorous than offensive. The colours and layout were inspired by the Gallant Family coat of arms.

The background (below) was serendipity at its best. I painted it on a piece of nothing-special cardboard using some acrylic paint left over from another project. I thought it would be quite a smooth surface but, instead, the paint accentuated every little bump and ridge…but it scanned beautifully. I tweaked the colours in Photoshop to better suit the business card and voilà. Where would we be without happy accidents?

Shoot it, Sketch it: Windermere

January 28, 2013August 26, 2015 | Anna Cull

Windermere, Akaroa – ink and watercolour, 210 x 295 mm, 2013

Windermere, Akaroa – ink on watercolour paper, 2013

Windermere historic house, Rue Lavaud, Akaroa, 2012

I drew a quick sketch of this historic Akaroa house a couple of years ago (see below) and thought it might be fun to revisit it — figuratively and literally. The photo was taken a few months ago with this Shoot it, Sketch it project in mind. Windermere was built as a boarding house in 1877.

Can you spot the subtle difference? The house no longer has a chimney (the earthquakes that have rattled the Canterbury region over the last couple of years are probably to blame — an awful lot of chimneys and brick buildings were damaged in 2011).

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

Anna Cull ~ Art & Music

illustration