A Literary Christmas

It is now late on Christmas day and the house is finally quiet. It has been a busy day - if you don't count the short nana-nap this afternoon - so I haven't had much of an opportunity to enjoy my gifts yet.


BUT…

It is going to be a very literary Christmas.

Santa has been good to my this year, not only did she leave me a new camera, there was a whole swathe of new books as well. Lara Morgan’s first Rosie Black Chronicles – ‘Genesis’, Suzanne Collins – ‘Hunger Games’, Simon Green’s - ‘The Man With the Golden Torc’, two of Joseph Delaney’s - ‘Spooks’ books, Bernard Cornwell’s - ‘The Burning Land’, Cornelia Funke’s newest book – ‘Reckless’, a gift voucher from my local book shop and last but certainly not least, ‘Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot’ by Anna Branford with brilliantly delightful illustrations by Sara Davis.

Although, like I said earlier, it has been a busy day. The first thing I did after the exchange of gifts – and a nice coffee – was to sit down in the quietest corner of the house I could find and devour ‘Violet Mackerel’ Not only is it a lovely story with enchanting characters, nearly every page has a little of Sarah’s magic. She never ceases to amaze me with her illustrative talents. One day I hope to be as good.

I walked around today and kept finding myself looking for my own small things.

I’m going to buy a second copy of ‘Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot’ to donate to my school library. I’m working in just the right class next year (Year 4). I know some kids who are going to love this book as much as I do.

Congratulations Anna and Sarah. You made my Christmas special. And thank you to the team at Walker Books – you know your job.

Accidental Art

How do you have accidental art?

A couple of years ago while holidaying on Moreton Island in Queensland, I found some lovely large flat leaves in the garden. I painted some scenes on them and eventually consigned them to my art folder.

Last year, I was working with a student during lunch time and a few of the Year 5 girls were looking through my art folder and came across the leaf paintings. I was busy and distracted at the time and subsequently wasn’t really listening when one of the girls asked me a question.

My answer was “Yes, I’m sure that would be fine.” And I waved them away. About five minutes later, I had leaves landing in front of me on the table and instructions for what the children wanted painted on their leaves.

Their question had been, “If we find some leaves, would you paint a picture on them for us.” I ended up painting about a dozen leaves for the children.

The moral of this story could be – Always listen to children before answering them!

But my moral for this has turned out to be – Sometimes happy accidents happen!

I enjoyed painting on the leaves and I improved my technique with each one I did. Now that I have my studio set up, I have continued to paint on gum leaves and liquid amber leaves.

Now here is where the second part of the happy accident happened.

The little one teacher school at Rockley, where my children started their schooling had their 150th Anniversary on the 6th of November. One of my friends from Rockley was organising the event and asked me if I would like to set up a market stall.

I framed up the leaves I had on hand and made some postcard prints and bookmarks of the artwork. I only sold one painting on the day but received two commissions for specific subjects. (A frog similar to the one I sold earlier in the day – frogs are in, I could have sold that leaf three times on the day – and a scene from the Tarana Valley, as a gift for a Canadian teacher who has been on a work exchange.)

Since that weekend, I have sold two more of the leaf paintings and have commissions for six more at $55.00 each.

I think I may have set the price too low!

3-E Poetry

I have been working, for the second half of the year, helping out in one of the Year 3 classes. There are some wonderful kids in "3-E", some real characters. The kids have been learning poetry in term four, much to the distress of the boys.

"But poetry is gay, Mr. Doherty"

I've heard that statement more than once this term.

Week one was Limericks. One of the boys insisted that if he was writing a poem it would be about something cool! Theropods. Finding rhyming words for that is not an easy task. I thought I would set a good example and write a limerick of my own. It is about young Nicholas and his theropods.

....Young Nicholas loves dinosaurs
.....Even though they have very sharp claws
....He can name them all for us
.....Like the Tyrannosaurus
....With short arms but terrible jaws.

This week's style of poetry was Diamond Poems. Seven lined poems shaped like a diamond about a linked subject. The poem switches between the subjects in the middle of the 4th line. The 2nd and 6th line have 2 descriptive words. The 3rd and 5th line have three verbs, ending in -ing

....................Egg
.............Oval, white
..Moving, cracking, hatching,
Helpless, hungry, high nest
..Growing, learning, flying
..........Black, feathers
...................Bird
..................................by Oden.

All the words were his, with only a little prompting.

I love working with the Year 3 students. I'm definitely going to miss them over the Christmas holiday break.

Painting #2

Kookaburra Sits In The Silver Birch. Oils on slate

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It's half past midnight and I have just come inside from my studio. I have installed the gallery hanging system, hung some of my paintings and emerged with another finished painting under my belt.
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This one, I'm really happy with - my first ever oil painting. In the past I have shied away from oils. They take too long to dry, you need turpentine or thinners to clean up, it is smelly and just seemed like too much of a hassle.
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Now, I have discovered that I love oils!
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I like trying different things with my paintings. Rectangular canvases can get a little monotonous. That is one of the reasons I have experimented with painting on leaves in the past. I found a nice, oddly shaped piece of slate half buried in the backyard. After digging it up and brushing the dirt away, there seemed to be an image trying to break out of the stone. I sketched about on the surface for a while and found the kookaburra hiding inside.
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What do kookaburra's usually sit in? Old Gum Trees. That's why I sat this kookaburra in a silver birch. What can I say, I like being different.

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A Space to Write - A Space to Paint

My Studio.

After years of being stuck in a corner, I finally have some space of my own. No longer do I have to listen to what my son assures me IS actually music, while I try to concentrate on writing. Music is a mood setter and I have discovered heavy metal doesn’t enhance the mood in a book about a sensitive young girl trying to bring a

little magic to her world.
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No longer do I have to take half an hour to set up my easel and all my paints only to have to pack them away again half way through the painting so there is room in my

corner to do the other things I need to do. That is the fastest way to lose inspiration.

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Now, I can write to my own soundtrack and leave my current painting works out and still have

room to move. It’s like heaven!

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The studio still has a few touches to go before it is completely finished;

· I have to install the gallery hanging system to display my paintings.

· I still need to add book shelves on the wall above the work bench for my resource texts and favourite books.

· I also need to rebuild and update my old desktop computer for writing.

· And I have to find a bigger rug for the floor and curtains.

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But it is workable already and I opened my studio for business over the weekend. It has most of what I need. A wet area to paint, working bench space to sketch and paint watercolours, a desk to write, a light box to help transfer sketches onto canvas or watercolour paper, storage cupboards, a heater, a stereo, a coffee machine and privacy.

What more could you ask for?

I have even been productive over the last three days. I have finished the first painting from the studio and have two more partially completed.

My first painting is titled;

Opals, a watercolour on watercolour canvas.

My two partially finished works are seen below.

Pickets by the Lake - Oils on canvas & Kookaburra Sits in the Silver Birch - Oils on slate

Tuesday Chooseday

Choose-day is where I choose what book I am going to read next. At the moment, I’m reading Derek Landy’s ‘Skulduggery Pleasant – Playing With Fire’ It is the second book in the set and so far, just as good as the first. Skulduggery is such a brilliant concept for a character. I’m jealous.
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But, the next book on my to read list is Mo Johnson’s, ‘Boofheads’
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‘Boofheads is a story about three seventeen year-old mates who have been friends since pre-school but whose friendship begins to change when they go into Year Eleven. Eventually they have to make a decision whether to accept the changes and reassess the nature of friendship, or cut their losses and run.’
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Excerpt from the author’s website:- http://www.mojohnson.com.au/boofheads.html



Boofheads
Walker Books Australia Pty. Ltd
First Ed. 2008
ISBN: 978 1 921150 67 8 (pbk.).
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Now I have looked at this book a few times in the bookshop and thought ‘I’ll have to buy that next time to read.’ I finally did buy a copy of the book last weekend at the Children’s and Young Adult Literary Festival in Sydney. It was a wonderful day and ‘Boofheads’ came out on the top of my new To-Read list.
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I also had the pleasure of meeting Mo Johnson and hearing her speak about her books. Mo is the type of person who makes you smile. She is a very funny lady and if that humour shines through in her book, then I’m in for a real treat.

Mo at the launch of Boofheads

It was clear from hearing Mo speak that she – like me – has a soft spot for the kids who are a little bit naughty. Tommo, Casey and Ed seem like my kind of kids. I can point out the new generations of ‘Boofheads’ coming through the school system. And I think that’s a good thing.
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What would the world be like without a few ’Boofheads’?
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How I Illustrate

I call this blog Words and Pictures, so I thought it was time to let you into the artistic part of my brain.


When I sketch and paint traditionally (pencils and paints), I usually start with plain white paper but this is a digital painting and I usually do those a little differently. I usually start with a coloured background, chosen depending on the mood I want to express.


Subject: Groat.

Groat is a character I have been developing for a possible graphic novel project.

(I have always liked the classic TV show 'Land of the Giants' and thought it would be pretty cool to on day write a story with tiny people living unknown along-side us).

But, I didn't want to write about fairies or pixies. I wanted something different. I created the Scarrow. The scarrow are about 6cm tall and basically humanoid, tribal and have no knowledge of metal or humans.

Back to Groat. He is a very large, scarred and often aggressive lizard that wanders the countryside near the Scarrow's Territory.

Preliminary sketch.

I wanted to highlight Groat's massive size compared to the Scarrow so I decided not to sketch him completely. I thought if he crept up on one of the Scarrow and they turned in surprise, what would they see?

A big mouth and a big eye.

Detailed Sketch

After I have sketched in the basic shape, I add some detail to the sketch to give Groat some character. I wanted him to look old and gnarly so I added lots of bumpy scales, especially around the eye.






Basic Colour Block

Next I blocked in the basic colour scheme as a guide and to sort out the tonal values of the picture. (Ratio of dark to light)


A lot of people tell me they cant draw to save themselves. I believe they just stop before they add the detail.



Adding the Detail

The focal point of the picture is the eye, so that's where I started to add the detail. I sketched over the scales to darken and texture them. Added in some hot red and yellow tones to draw the viewer's eye to meet Groat's.

More Detail



Basically, I continued to fiddle in the detail out toward the nose and mouth, adding some highlights to the darker scales.

This is the most time consuming part of the painting.

The more detail you want to add, the longer it takes.



Final Painting
















I continued to darken and texture the picture to give it a solidity. Finally, I added in a dark background with just a hint of stems and foliage



This digital painting was created on my A3 size Wacom graphics tablet and stylus and took about five hours of sketching and painting tme to complete.