Blobby Positivity

I've been brainstorming greeting card/ gift ideas- blobfish seem quite popular at the moment. They have a sort of 'it's so ugly it's cute' appeal to them. I've been going with this, and trying to merge it with ideas of 'body positivity'. You can't force someone to be attracted to you, but if they are, then good for you- no-one should feel bad for how they look, we should all just strive to be healthier.

Illustration Friday- Bumblebee

I made this using a honey comb texture- a lady on the street keeps bees and I scanned some of their wax. This is more of an experimental study than anything else. I've got a more stylised submission in mind- if I have time to develop it before this week is up I'll post that too.

The earth

Throughout the past few weeks we've been experiencing a devastating heat wave in the United Kingdom and across Europe. Climate change is very real, and caused by humans- in part we are living longer, generally more resource intensive lives, but another huge factor that doesn't get nearly enough air-time, due to its taboo nature is human overpopulation. Alarm bells start to ring- nobody likes to be told that their choices could be considered in any way unethical, or harmful to the very people that they choose to bring into the world- but I find this question impossible to ignore. I come from a large Catholic family (23 cousins!) I love them dearly, but what's done is done, and we have to look forward to the future and consider our impact on the earth- not using so much plastic, consuming less meat, not taking a transatlantic holiday every year, and choosing to have a small family.

In this image, a new born infant is covered with the same cracks that the earth is, and is crying out for it.

Illustration Friday- Icon

So, last week's topic of 'icon' is still running- I thought I'd create a Buddha illustration for the sake of catharsis. I loved seeing Buddhas of all styles and sizes when we visited temples in Japan. Maybe it's because I'm a bit too used to Catholic iconography, but I do prefer Eastern religions- in general, they SEEM more peaceful (note I say 'seem' because just about all religions have a horrible dark side).

Illustration Friday- Icon

This was a picture that I created quite some time ago, but I thought that it would be relevant to last week's topic, as Corbyn is seen by many as an icon of hope that we'll move towards a fairer society.

My Garden of Hedgehog- Colour Collective and Illustration Friday 27/04/18- Transformation.

A concept that I had been doodling for a while now. I originally imagined the spines being trees, but decided to draw them as flowers in a hedgehog garden for this week’s colour collective. It’s not very refined, I may edit it some more at a later date.

Flower

This is a flower that started to grow in my mum's garden during the 7 months she's been in care. They just sprung up one day, out of the cracks in the garden path. I know that it's some kind of weed, but I don't know what it's called.

Illustration Friday- Pink

Here's a quick (albeit late) scribble for Illustration Friday. I've been collecting textures and patterns that I can use in my work, trying to draw more, and thus improve.

Illustration Friday- Monkey

Last Friday's theme was/ is "monkey".
When we got married in February 2017 we went to Japan for our honeymoon. One of my dream destinations was the monkey hot springs to see the Japanese Macaques taking a bath, but we didn't make it. Maybe some day. I loved the Japanese mountains.

Colour collective- mink, and rat poison

I've had a lot of distractions in life recently, but I've also decided that I need to get my act together and be more productive. This is this week's colour collective challenge. Someone got me thinking recently about rat poison; rats are so naive, and it's quite ironic, the idea that they believe it to be food, and it ultimately kills them.