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 : )

Shoot it, Sketch it: Sun shadow

November 19, 2012March 13, 2022 | Anna Cull

Anna Cull sun shadow triptych — Sun Shadow triptych – acrylic, ink and digital, 2012.

Last week’s partial solar eclipse as seen from Christchurch, New Zealand. The photographs were taken at about 10:00, 10:30 (at its peak) and 11:00 a.m. I didn’t have a fancy solar filter so these are photos of the shadow of the sun. They’re not the most spectacular shots of the event (!) but they did inspire this week’s painting : )

Follow the links to see what Bec from Clouds of Colour and Alana from The Little Leaf have done for Shoot it, Sketch it this week.

Shoot it, Sketch it: Little bear

November 12, 2012September 15, 2013 | Anna Cull

Anna Cull little bear in a pretty cabinet — Little bear in a pretty cabinet – ink and watercolour, 150 x 180 mm, 2012.

I will admit to getting a bit carried away with this week’s Shoot it, Sketch it. I like all the lost edges in this drawing — I wanted to make it look really old and a bit mysterious…

This little bear sits inside a tall wooden cabinet full of treasures and family heirlooms. The original image (below) is another one of my phone photos. It was taken through the glass of the cabinet door. I cropped the image to remove the elements I didn’t want (namely my reflection and that of the heat pump on the wall). I could’ve solved the reflection problem by taking the photo again with the door open but I really like the bookcase and the globe in the ‘background’.

Check out what Bec from Clouds of Colour and Alana from The Little Leaf have done for Shoot it, Sketch it this week too.

Sphere five

November 8, 2012July 7, 2013 | Anna Cull

Anna Cull Branching out – pattern sphere1 — Branching out – pattern sphere, 2012.

This is what happens when you apply Photoshop’s polar coordinates filter to a fairly detailed leaf and branch drawing. It’s a distorted version of this hand-drawn pattern.

Shoot it, Sketch it: Black bird

November 5, 2012June 23, 2020 | 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.

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.

Shoot it, Sketch it: Blue door

November 1, 2012February 8, 2014 | Anna Cull

Anna Cull blue door — Blue door – ink and watercolour, 220 x 205 mm, 2012.

Bec from Clouds of Colour and Alana from The Little Leaf started a new feature on their blogs this week. It’s called Shoot it, Sketch it. The idea is that you take a photo of something and then you sketch, draw or paint it. Just for fun. And I’m joining in…

Here’s my first offering. The reference photo (below) is not great quality — it was taken on my nothing-special Nokia phone which I carry everywhere mainly so that I can collect images for drawing and painting (such as this door) when I don’t have my camera with me. It’s quite handy as a phone too ; )