Illustration Friday Pick of the Week

I'm so excited!  My birdies in the nest are 'Pick of the Week' over at Illustration Friday!!

Illustration Friday - return and vocal

'Return' ©Caroline Soer

I've decided to keep this illustration up for another week as it fits both this and last week's Illustration Friday words 'return' and 'vocal' so well!  Here the baby birds are being quite definitely vocal  awaiting the return of their parents to the nest!

Illustration Friday

 ©Caroline Soer 2012

For Illustration Friday - 'Shades'.  Some pebbles in shades of my often used water colours,
Paynes Grey and Ultramarine.  Lifted from my sketchbook and combined with a little digital colour swatch  today.

Illustration Friday

 ©Caroline Soer 2012

This week's Illustration Friday word is 'yield'.  Did you know that a poppy head can yield up to 30,000 seeds?  (No, me neither!)  This illustration is watercolour, gesso and pen ink.

Illustration Friday - Intention

Kingfisher  ©Caroline Soer 2011

'Intention' for this week's Illustration Friday.  A watercolour sketch I made for the Brooklyn Sketchbook Project last year.

Illustration Friday - Capable

'Capable' ©Caroline Soer

'Capable' for Illustration Friday.  Now you see me, now you don't ! Chameleons are capable of blending in with the scenery!  Very quickly done this afternoon with Inktense pencils and a touch of gouache. Oh dear - I've just noticed that he looks like he's been impaled, poor little chap!

IF - Fluid

Watercolour paints and inks on gessoed mountboard ©Caroline Soer 2010

This one gets another outing today for Illustration Friday's 'Fluid".  Sadly, the fluid is oil :(.   Originally titled 'Ripple',   I painted this as one of a trio of small paintings for IF's collaboration with Ripplesketches Blog to raise money to help the animal victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill.

Ripple II©Caroline Soer 2010

Ripple III©Caroline Soer 2010

IF - Suspense

 'Suspense' ©Caroline Soer 2012

Suspense is the theme this week for Illustration Friday.  Will the little fishing boat make it safely though the storm?
Thinking about it,  I could probably have taken almost any watercolour painting for this theme as there's usually an element of suspense or tension with this medium - especially on paper that's been prepared with gesso !  The paint has a mind of its own and does all kinds of unexpected things as it runs over the slippery surface!  Certainly not a technique if you like total control over your artwork!

IF : Twirl

Mermaid Twirl ©Caroline Soer 2012

A very quick piece for this week's Illustration Friday - 'Twirl'!  I created this with watercolour pencils on paper I'd previously patterned by impressing cling film into paint and ink.

Grounded

Paper Butterfly Garland ©Caroline Soer 2012

This little flight of paper butterflies is temporarily grounded - a collage for Illustration Friday.

Illustration Friday - Stripes

©Caroline Soer

A piece from the archives for this week's Illustration Friday. Sleeping stripey cat on patchwork quilt collage.

Illustration Friday - Scary

  ©Caroline Soer 2011

 Scary (odd eyed!) ginger cat stalks poor little gecko!  A watercolour from the archives for this week's Illustration Friday.

By the way... there's still time to take part in my Giveaway!  I'm giving away a print of one of my two paintings of  Birds with Berries.  You can choose which you prefer. The deadline to enter the draw is tomorrow - 1st November!

For more details see the Giveaway  post below, but in a nutshell  I'm hoping to get a little more exposure for my Facebook art page, so if you'd like to be included in the draw to win a print of a Bird with Berries painting, just hop over there  and LIKE the page if you do!  Please also leave a comment in the Giveaway post below.  Thanks very much everyone who has taken part so far!!  And a big thank you too, to Kim Fleming   for publicizing the event on her new blog new blog for illustrators: Illustration Station  - do take a look - it's a super rescource for illustrators!

I'll be making the draw late tomorrow and will announce the winner here on Wednesday!  GOOD LUCK!

Illustration Friday and GIVEAWAY

Fuel ©Caroline Soer

This week's Illustration Friday word is 'fuel'.  I decided on a bird and berries theme and actually painted two similar versions of the same illustration this week.  The one above started life as a watercolour on which I'd used quite a lot of masking fluid.  I was aiming to get a sort of outlined, batik/silkpainting look.  Well, needless to say it wasn't a successful experiment so I tweaked it back to life with with a good helping of acrylic, some gouache and watercolour pencils!

 After I finished that yesterday,  I started on a second painting.  I've taken photos of the work in progress.  This first shows the mountboard ground with torn paper and hole punched collage covered with gesso and the first brushstrokes.

A little more detail added.

 Some final details added with coloured pencils and a craft knife to (carefully) scratch out some highlights.

Fuel II ©Caroline Soer

The final piece - it has lots of texture.  I'm not sure which one I prefer, how about you?
Well, if you're better at making up your mind than I am, you could stand a chance of winning a print of your preferred illustration by taking part in my  GIVEAWAY!

How do you take part?   Anyone is welcome to join in - regular followers or visitors alike - I really do appreciate all those of you who follow my blog and take the time to leave me comments - but it's ok to be a quiet occasional visitor too!  All you have to do is first quickly hop over to Facebook - I've recently set up an art page there and would love it if you would  'LIKE' my  page  - the link is here in the sidebar on the right.   Yes, you're right - a little shameless self promotion !!!   To be included in the draw next TUESDAY NOVEMBER 1ST you'll also need to come back here to leave a comment on this post to say which of my two 'Fuels' you prefer.  Easy! Oh, and you could DOUBLE your chances by promoting my giveaway on your own blog or FB page,  and becoming a follower here (if you aren't already) if you like.  Just don't forget to mention that in the comments section here!  Thank you and good luck to everyone - I'll be back next week with the winner!

Illustration Friday - Scattered

 

Scattered ©Caroline Soer 2011

A mixed media illustration of dried Poppies (including scattered real seeds), for this week's Illustration Friday theme.

Illustration Friday - Contraption

Contraption ©Caroline Soer 2011

For this week's Illustration Friday theme of contraption, here is one of the most devious devices ever invented - the deckchair!







Plus a little bonus - this lovely old YouTube Heineken advert featuring Norman Wisdom doing battle with a deckchair.

Illustration Friday -Hibernate

© Caroline Soer 2011

The days just fly by and here we are again, already at Friday and I'm scraping in at the last moment with my offering for Illustration Friday's 'hibernate'!  A page of little thumbnail sketches that I didn't have time to take further and add colour to this week.  No words as I hope the images tell the story of a this little bear trying to hibernate! Please click to enlarge!

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.

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!