My ex-colleague Alasdair, who is these days behind the clever Otto & Spike label, commissioned me to make a wedding present for his friends. Not a conventional portrait, it's rather a pair of characters representing the couple's various interests. I forgot to photograph them on their stands before I handed them over, so here are some sketches and scans of the finished pieces. I hope they like them, I enjoyed making them!
I love the play on western and eastern painting styles in these images from Islamic Art by Barbara Brend, London, 1991. Above: Portrait of Shahzadeh Ali Quli Mirza by Yusuf in the Qajar style 1280/ 1863. "The prince was the Minister for Science, Commerce and the Arts," writes Brend. A fittingly rich context.
Above: I call this little lady the Frida Kahlo of the east. A portrait of an acrobat, it is painted in oil, shaped to fit a wall niche. (She can be seen in colour at the V&A, London.) 1830 - 40.
Above: Iranian horse calligram, 1266/ 1849 - 50.
Above: I love that Bahram Gur is leaping into the composition in order to slay the dragon. A page from Khamseh, copied by "the slave Bihzad" in 898/1493. Before the days of colour copiers. 
Above: last but not least, "The lion advised by his mother" from a Kalilah wa Dimnah, Syria (or Egypt) 755/ 1354.
Until I was contacted by the editor of Melbourne's Child to ask whether I would like to contribute illustrations to the magazine, I didn't realise that the publication is actually Australia wide, and is familiar to those in respective states as "Sydney's Child", "Adelaide's Child" etc. Don't tell anyone, but I hadn't done editorial illustration since last century. And I think it shows, because my little girl is a bit -- well -- stiff. But I have since worked on a couple more illustrations which will appear in the subsequent issue, and I can report that I am happier with them. 
The illustration as it appears on the page, below. It's pretty small, which is good. Illustrations always look more impressive when they're reduced. Like on a stamp...it's one of my dreams to illustrate a stamp one day. (Likely a pretty common and time honoured dream among illustrators!)
Trying out a horned animal design that I made up yesterday. Even though there are all manner of such beasts in graphed form out there already, of course when I needed one I couldn't find a nice one in my books (or on the internet) so I made one up.
Here is the basis for my graph, from 5000 Animals, Amsterdam, 2001. (It's a great resource for both strange and wonderful copyright free animal engravings - thanks to my dear friend Serena!) 
Not QUITE as adorable as the engraving is the finished graph. This was made in Illustrator by placing a transparent grid over the drawing and filling in each square. Because knitting stitches are actually wider than they are high, the grid should actually be made up of slightly squat rectangles. However my knitting must be so tight when I follow motifs that they don't need to be. That's my theory anyway.
All posters by Herve Morvan, 1950-60. From the aptly titled The Genius of French Poster Art: Herve Morvan, by Veronique Morvan, Tokyo, 2010. Of the Perrier posters above she writes: "this advertising campaign displayed over one month was ahead of its time in the way it engaged the public...The panels were replaced with each new week, such that the woman is left with the cyclist's legs, or the hunter is garbed in flowing skirts, and so on..." How I wish that I had been there in Paris in 1950 to see them!
I invented a top! Well, sort of. It's based on the shape of an embroidered South American top that I bought on etsy last year. It's so clever that I thought I'd see whether it would work in an even simpler incarnation. I have also been reading about mid twentieth century American designer Claire McCardell this week. I was hoping she would approve of my simple top.
The other day I went into the studio with the view to making a picture which would go into my illustration folio as a "fashion" piece. This random page happened instead. Possibly because I have gone from being a complete fashion nutcase in my youth to someone bemused by the increasing speed and wastefulness of so much of it. 
I don't suppose that that sort of attitude will land me a freelance fashion drawing gig anyway, will it? In the meantime, I am pleased that I found this sweet face smiling among the waxed apples in a Safeway catalogue. It's no portrait, but I think I captured something.
I had been wanting to make this cushion for a while, and this week I finally got around to it.
Post-it notes are highly recommended for marking rows.
The finished cushion being sewn together -- it is backed in heavy denim fabric.
It's finished and in the shop.
above: Little Red Riding Hood, 1890. I love the contrast of the simple and beautiful game board over the detailed picture.
above: the game of railway promoting character Phoebe Snow, 1909.
above: the word 'dude' obviously used to have a more interesting connotation. His slovenly friend looks strangely contemporary: she might be Emily the Strange's grandmother. All from The Game of Don'ts and Old Maid, 1905.
Above: the Manhattan Post Office game, 1897.
Above: a card from Logomachy, or War of Words, 1887.
Above: I am also inordinately pleased -- considering eastern Australia's extreme tropical weather -- that my scarf pdf pattern is finally in the shop. It's a fun way to make use of leftover yarn!
The idea of doing a little dancing burger lady has been on my mind for a while now, so it was really interesting to see an blogpost on etsy showing a hamburger motif recently.
I actually did alot of sketches and it took a while to decide whether she should be a fairly anatomically correct woman, or something more odd, based on a vintage doll perhaps.
The vintage doll won out because the idea of painting her seemed more interesting. I ended up using watercolour rather than the more usual acrylic, as I thought it might be nice to make a hamburger seem more delicate and befitting of a ballerina.
Happy New Year!
Thanks Mum!
