It’s said that when a stuffed platypus was put on display in victorian britain it was thought to be a hoax. To draw it did feel I was drawing an otter’s body with a beak and surprised me that I had to get my head around the abstractness of this animal.
It is one in 5 existing mammals that lay eggs (and produces milk… so you can platypus custard – it’s a joke but it makes my insides curdle with the thought) existing in the wonderful world of eastern Australia.
It’s also venomous! Also a rare trait for a mammal. If you’re destined to be weird, be as weird as you can be and roll with it.
B had to be for blue whale, they are the largest known animal to have ever existed on this planet. I promise not all my letters are “the biggest this” or “largest that” but the large whales have always rocked my soul. I feel humbled by them.
The blue whale can reach 30 meters in length and are surprisingly slender, until they take in a big gulp of krill and wea water and then their throat balloon out. The head is shaped like a shovel with a ridge to the blow hole. They are quite pale and look blue underwater.
Other contenders for B:
Bowhead whale – Can live for over 200 years and are one of the longest living mammals.
Boxer crab – Have living anemone boxing gloves which the wave around to keep predators away or face the sting of its anemone pal.
Bowerbird – Build elaborate shelters and collect colourful objects to attract a mate.
SO you may know that I studied Zoology at University. It filled my brain with all these extraordinary facts about the animals on our planet and since my reincarnation as an artist I’ve wanted to capture the things which make me go “wow!”
Four years ago I had the idea of putting together an alphabet of crazy creatures. It’s taken four years for me to get confident in my skills and, most importantly, deciding what should be in it.
Get a print on etsy soon!
Atlas moth on leggins and other things at Redbubble
A is for Atlas Moth
I saw this amazing photo yeeeeears ago and it really hit me.
Photo by Sandesh KadurIt was a moth with guts. I had never imagined a moth looking so threatening.
It’s an Atlas moth, the largest moth in the world the article told me but there seems a lot of debate on that. Regardless the Atlas moth got my A because it never left me. Also the wing tips kind of` look like snakes heads!
Other contenders were:
Axolotl (don’t worry I squeezed this guy in with a massive cheat)
Albatross – with the longest wings of existing birds these guys can soar around the planet for years.
I went to art school with a mission: to become a wildlife artist. After the first few projects my tutor gave a big sigh and said “Ceri, could you try to draw something that is not a bird?” Luckily the principle was a bit more understanding of my obsession and asked if I would like to meet a professional wildlife artist called John Busby. I am terrible at remembering names but that name rang bells. In fact I was pouring over his book and enchanted not just by his illustrations but the way he wrote about them to.
He was a lovely man and I think I could have watched the birds coming to the feeder with him for a long long time. John passed away last year, his family recently set up a website documenting his work.
Here are some of his sketches that have inspired me.
John Busby, Canada geese arriving on migration
John Busby, Kittywakes
John Busby, Starlings bathing
John Busby, A whinchat, pied wagtails and plovers embrace the wind
John Busby, redshank
He captured the movement and life of birds. Anybody who has attempted to draw birds from life have that crushing your pencil into ash as the pesky things dart about. You need to be quick, confident, or at least owning of your mistakes which I think is the first step!
To have a career in drawing what you love John Busby shows that is is down to dedication, a lifelong curiosity and never stop.
I came across a call for an exhibition on the Welsh Artists facebook page. I want to enter exhibitions and posters but usually find out when it’s too late! So I was chuffed when I cam across this with 4 days to go. Woooo!
Luckily it was a postcard exhibition so I could do something tiny and quick. Also it would to be put on sale with half the cost going to the organisers fundraising for local artists. So I would only get £5 for my work. Less than the minimum wage so better not get carried away… ah well it’s a donation and a chance to practice!
As it was a local exhibition I decided a local scene would mean a lot. The castle was my first thought, and then I thought of the mountains as seen from the beach near where I grew up and have so many memories of. I found this photo which summed up my feelings really well.
Came up on google image search. It’s a photo that Julilipop sent in to tripadvisor.
The colours were perfect. Warm and cold. It is ALWAYS windy down there and even on the hottest day you get a bit of a chill. Worth it when you get that view though huh?
Problem with cameras is that they do the maths too right. Yes the mountains are far away but when you’re there your eyes focus differently… and I wanted to concentrate on these three and in these proportions.
Also birds. There has to be some for it to be my painting. Obviously you get the herring gull floating by, and some sand martins which nest in the cliff face which are the remains of an iron age fort, and ringed plovers scurry about like moving pebbles so they got in.
So yeah. I tried to keep it simple, and failed. Tried to keep to those lovely colours in the photos but the mountains got too dark and too blue. That meant the sky wanted to be blue or the sky of a different planet. Like Venus. Not today!
I used salt get some texture in the sky and had fun splattering the rest of it.
SO yeah (I’ve said that a lot) I like it and letting it go was hard but off it popped. I didn’t mean to put so much effort in it but I learnt a bit more about colours and I also found that using my mech pencil to go over my soft pencil leaves an imprint so I can erase the pencil and still see my lines but is much cleaner when I ink 🙂
I couldn’t make the opening night so I went on Saturday.
I couldn’t find it! So it must have been sold. I hope wherever it goes it has a happy life 🙂
I hope this encourages some of you who are new to exhibiting to enter your work. It feels great to be part of something. I just hope I catch the next deadline in time!
Bees are brilliant. At some point all those tasty things we eat is thanks to a busy bee somewhere.
Yet we’re not being great to the bee. Pesticides and loss of flowery meadows seem to be causing bee numbers to decrease.
The first step to know for sure is by counting them. The more we know the more likely we can figure out a way to help. Friends of the Earth have made a great app for making it as easy as possible to tick off your bees on your phone and helps you identify them to.
For me the best way to learn is to draw! I started with the top 5 most spotted bees in Britain from the 2015 bee count.
White-tailed bumblebees
Lemony yellow stripes and a nice clean white bottom (it’s all about the base when it comes to bumblebees). Males have yellow head fuzz. Very similar to the buff-tailed bumblebee which has more of a buff coloured tail and orangy-yellow stripes.
Honey bee
The odd ones out. Smaller and a lot less fuzzy. Oh, also makes honey.
Early bumblebee
Teeny bees. Two yellow bands though the workers appear to only have one. Males have yellow face fluff. The tail starts dark orange-red but over times fades.
Red-tailed bumblebee
Smart looking black bees with distinctive fiery bottoms. Males have that yellow fuzz which seems to be all the rage. Black and red are the colours of the rare red-shanked carder bee, but any confusion can be solved by checking out the legs. Bumblebees have hairy legs – but good luck trying to spot them as they whiz by.
Tree bumblebee
Wears a brown jumper and white pants. Lives in trees rather than in holes in the ground, sometimes taking other bird boxes. They turned up in the UK in 2001 but has now spread across England and Wales.
There are many more gorgeous bees to paint and one day I hope I will and make a sexy poster 🙂
I’ve been getting a painting framed for my friends who just got married! ❤
Last summer we went to the beach and poked several crabs and threw a few rag worms to the crustacean Colosseum to much gore. You’re never too old to go looking at what’s living in rock pools!
I snapped a photo of the pair and loved it so much I decided to scribble it down.
Usually I don’t work from photographs, the camera has already flattened the image and the colours and perspective are dictated for you.
So I just used it as a reference, and after I had put down what was important to me about the image I ignored the photo and inked the composition and details.I picked out the blue, red and green which most stood out to me and limited myself to them as much as I could.
I really loved doing this picture, even though it is very different to what I usually do. I hope I can make more memories and make more paintings for more cool people xx
Even though I had a lovely walk in the sunshine today and saw choughs and wheatears as well as a part of the unbeatable Anglesey coastline, I am STILL drawing New Zealand birds!
Australian magpies were always catching me out with their crazy warbles and cries. They hopped about in a jolly way in farmlands. Myna birds were similarly common, fluttering from the roadsides and perching on city sign posts.
Yellowhammers crying out for “a little bit of bread and no cheese” used to be a common part of the Britains soundscape. Sadly not so much any more. New Zealand has flocks of these little yellow finches bathing in the dusty roads.
I only saw one Shining Cuckoo, in Zealandia, Wellington. I was so excited I called out to a random guy with a big camera but he shrugged not understanding me. these are tiny sparrow sized cuckoos and indeed very shiny!
The Kingfisher would dash across the road in a flash of blue with it’s smart white collar standing out. As I drew this one it’s massive upturning beak looked plain weird and i had to fight myself not to give it a nose job!
Paradise shelducks, like most ducks, I mostly ignored (Shame! Shame on me!) but look how pretty they are! unusually the female has the more dapper appearance with her white head, though both hide beautiful hues of colours in their wings. Apparently the male is so devoted to his mate that the Maori would catch the female and just wait for the male to join her.
I hope to finish up my New Zealand project soon. As I’m back in the UK the market for these bird images is quite niche but if anyone would like a print please get in touch or check my Zazzle shop
There has been a lot of jetlag, love, friends, weddings, walks and easter eggs (+ a feast of New Zealand chocolate which I am regretting gobbling up so quickly!) but less drawing 😦
Partly because I need a new sketchbook. I can’t randomly change the subject of a sketchbook to wet and windy Wales after the wonders of New Zealand, the book would get a complex and lead an unhappy double life and I just can’t do that to it.
So I got a new Moleskine Sketch 🙂 just like the one I lost. I painted in it and it’s just as good as I remembered!
I haven’t forgotten New Zealand though. I want to create a personal wildlife map and been working on a few birds which for various reasons I didn’t get round to.
Fantails completely charmed me with their flitty, wafty flight and beeping calls. They munch on flying insects and like to follow people hoping they will disturb their next snack. I miss them!
Lemony yellow stripes and a nice clean white bottom (it’s all about the base when it comes to bumblebees). Males have yellow head fuzz. Very similar to the buff-tailed bumblebee which has more of a buff coloured tail and orangy-yellow stripes.
I’ve been getting a painting framed for my friends who just got married! ❤
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