Illustration Friday - Giant

Dahlia - watercolour ©Caroline Soer

Here is my 'giant' Dahlia for Illustration Friday. I made this watercolour sketch some years ago during a weekend workshop devoted to painting large scale. This is A3 sized - a big departure from my usual format!

Illustration Friday - Paisley

Paisley Allium

This week's Illustration Friday word is 'Paisley'. After struggling with a couple of ideas for this topic, I suddenly remembered the two lovely vintage paisley shawls which act as throws over chairs in my sitting room! I relieved one of its duty and scanned the fabric. With its beautiful patterns and muted colouring, I thought it would work well as a digital pattern to fill a flower silhouette from a fun font I found a couple of years ago over here.

vintage paisley shawl

Paisley Nerines

vintage paisley shawl


Paisley Roses

Illustration Friday - Fleeting

This week's IF theme is 'fleeting'. I've posted a page from my sketchbook with a couple of illustrations of dragonflies. I'm a big fan of these creatures - so beautiful, but for such a fleeting time. Their adult life lasts around two months only.



Now, here's one that's lasted a while longer! This is a favourite dragonfly image of mine. A fabulous art nouveau, plique a jour brooch created for the actress Sarah Bernhardt by Renee Lalique. Lalique designed many pieces for her during the period 1891-94 .


Finally, here's a photo of a fabulous Hibiscus flower in my garden. This dramatic bloom is also very fleeting - it lasts only 24 hours!