Friday 30 July 2010

Half and Half Competition

Wowza, it's been a busy last couple of weeks! No sooner had I posted off my goods to the lovely Amy for her latest pika package (which a little bird tells me will be available from the website VERY SOON!) than I was hard at work with Harry Walsh creating our entry to the Half and Half competition.

In case you don't know, the project was devised to encourage all different kinds of artists to collaborate and make pieces of work together, from a painting, to an installation, or piece of performance art. The best pieces will be shown in the Vineyard Bar in Cork City. We decided to go for a straightforward illustration themed around tropical birds, with one half completed by myself, and the other by Harry. Perhaps not quite as avant-garde as a performance but... let's see how good old fashioned drawing talent fares! Wish us luck!

As I don't do this very often, I thought it might be fun for once to give my readers a glimpse into my working process, and let you see the work from thumbnail doodle to finished piece. We begin with three quick thumbnail sketches, different ideas for the composition:






It's decided that the middle composition would look cool and be easily split between us. Next, to sketch some birds and decide which ones might be included in my half of the piece. For me it was all about the colourful avians: peacocks, parrots, toucans, birds-of-paradise...



Twelve Wired Birds-of-Paradise



King of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise, Arfak Astrapia, Wallace's Standardwing



And last but not least, the classic macaw!

Next, the pencil work for the final piece with the selected birds drawn in position.



Time to put some colour on those birds... beautiful plumage!



Fill in the tree branches plus background and voila! One half finished!







So, for now all there is for me to do is sit back and await Harry's half... I will be sure to post the results here when it's all done. The competition deadline is 30th August so if you fancy getting down and collaborative... there is still time!

One last thing, my MASSIVE GIVEAWAY is still on, and has been extended! As of next week I'll be away on holiday catching up with friends, family and the in-laws, and it seems unlikely that I'll get round to sending off all those delicious goodies before I go... so the giveaway will now be going on until the end of August. I would love lots of lovely posts to read upon my return, so get commenting!

As always, thanks for reading. See you next time!

Friday 9 July 2010

MASSIVE GIVE AWAY!

Cue the fanfare, because I am very pleased to announce my massive summer giveaway! As mentioned last time, this is ostensibly to celebrate my birthday, but in fact I have been meaning to do a give away for some time. This was in order to celebrate reaching over 400 followers on twitter, as well as having over 150 fans on my facebook page!

There is a lovely collection of goodies to give away, including packs of stickers and postcards, single cards, A5 prints and A3 prints. Many of these are items that I won't be making any more, so get them while you can! Below is just a small sample of what is on offer.



How do I enter?
Just follow this blog, and post a comment below. The winners will be picked by random out of a hat in a couple of weeks time. Make sure that you have your current email address available on your blogger profile page because that is how I will be contacting the winners!

Will I win just one item?
In short, nope! Each winner will get a varied collection of lovely goodies to enjoy.

How many winners will there be?
As many as possible! There are no set number of winners, I will simply keep choosing people until there are no more prizes to give away. So, you have an excellent chance of winning something. All the more reason to enter!

So.... get posting! And have an awesome time in the sun!