Illustration Friday - Ferocious

'Wallow'  ©Caroline Soer 2009

Perhaps not the first animal that springs to mind when you think of the word 'ferocious',  but actually, the Hippo is apparently one of the most aggressive and dangerous animals in Africa.  Therefore, I present my Hippo watercolour (for a second airing) for this week's Illustration Friday prompt.

Illustration Friday - Mesmerising

 Magpie - ©mixed media Caroline Soer 2011

 Magpies love to cache - they seek out and hide appealing oddments.  This one has found a broken string of beads - Magpies seem to find shiny objects mesmerising.   Mixed media - Oil pastel, ink, gouache and glass beads on paper for Illustration Friday.
P.S.  Clicking on the image may take you to Blogger's new photo viewer (a new feature that doesn't always seem to work at the moment!).  If it does and you still want to view the image larger, right click, select 'view image' and then use the magnifier to enlarge again for greater detail.  Hopefully that will work!

Illustration Friday - Boundaries

Boundaries - watercolour ©Caroline Soer 2011

Dry stone walls create field boundaries. This is a watercolour and gouache painting on gessoed mountboard for Illustration Friday.  Click to enlarge if you like!  Landscapes aren't usually my 'thing', but I fancied having a go at one last weekend to try to capture memories of the verdant landscape we enjoyed while walking this summer near Crosthwaite in the English Lake District.

Between red and yellow

 

Caesalpinia pulcherrima

Between red and yellow lies the colour orange. Now, in the main, I'm not overly fond of this colour  - I'd definitely not choose to wear it, accessorize or paint my walls with it, but I love the flamboyant orange-hued tropical flowers I see around me here in Malaysia!

 Whilst out walking on Friday, I found a sizzling selection of blooms in this colour range.

How about these?  Three stunning Spathodea campanulata blooms from the Flame of the Forest, or African Tulip Tree.  I found a mass of these glowing like embers beneath the tree. 

This amazing spidery bloom is Gloriosa superba otherwise known as Climbing, or Flame Lily.

And finally  a quartet of tropical orange beauties from the archives!

Gorgeous or what?

Illustration Friday - Mysterious

 

Mysterious ©Caroline Soer 2010

I've shown this illustration before but thought it fitted this week's mysterious theme too.  This started life as a a watercolor that was allowed to dry with plastic wrap on top.  The plastic formed patterns in the paint in which I then 'found' these characters and defined them with watercolour crayons. A fun doodling exercise I do from time to time!

 

©Caroline Soer 2010

Here's another I've just finished - lots of strange hooded figures seemed to be within patterns formed by the plastic wrap -  it's a mystery how they get there!

September

Already September - where have the last few weeks gone? One thing about living in the tropics is that we don't really get season changes - well, apart from one rainy period to the next! I thought I'd put up a collection of photos and sketches to remind me of autumnal colours. The first montage of golden beauties is rather small but if you click to enlarge you will see the details in all their finery!




'Juicy pear' - watercolour sketch ©Caroline Soer



Love the colours in this mossy bank!

The aubergine collection

Mangosteens - Watercolour ©Caroline Soer

One of my favourite Malaysian fruits!

Last of the summer photos and some recycled illustrations

Pink'nfrilly

Gorgeous flowers en masse at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

I've gathered together the last photos from my summer holiday and made some more montages. I decided to accompany these with some sketchbook bits and pieces, some of which I've shown before, but most of which have had something new added for the occasion!

'Sweetpeas' watercolour ©Caroline Soer

Sorry that the quality of this image isn't very good. I wanted to include it as sweetpeas are such lovely frilly flowers! It's taken from a larger watercolour painting behind glass. I painted this many years ago - the flowers were from my Mum's garden ... I can smell that heavenly scent now! I've added a couple of lines from a poem by John Keats and a digital pastel colour detail.

'Tango' watercolour with collage©Caroline Soer

These roses from a beautiful bouquet were quickly rendered in watercolour in my sketchbook. Later, for an Illustration Friday project, I teamed them with a pair of my little folded butterflies. Today I added a coordinating border made from digital colour swatches.

Just feast your eyes on these luscious summer berries! Click if you want more!

Cherries - watercolour ©Caroline Soer

Sometimes paintings just don't go according to plan! This illustration is something salvaged from one such occasion! I decoupaged the image of cherries onto another piece of watercolour paper and added a border digitally from colour swatches.

'Cherry pairs' watercolour ©Caroline Soer

Cherries from a sketchbook I used on holiday in Provence couple of years ago.

Part 2 to follow later!