Mr. Monster says no to canned food!

Illustration Friday's topic this week is 'Canned'

Mr. Monster says "Bluaaghh" when offered canned food, "me only eat fresh food, if you please"
Well, he has some manners even his refusal of canned goods is a little dramatic:)


I am thrilled to bits to receive these awards from Robyn






Now I have to do the following...
1. Put the award logo on your own blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate 5 to 7 others.
4. Add links to them.
5. Leave messages for nominees.

Ok then, I'm passing them on to...
bifsniff for always having something interesting going on
bookbaby for her beautiful insights and brilliant photography
Dew for her fabulous ladies with the red gloves and her adorable dogs
Tony for making me laugh and for his great rants :)
Paintedfishstudio for her brilliant creative pARTy ideas

Now that took me ages, so my nominees, please feel free to just bask in my admiration without having to pass it on:)

sandman

My friend, Danielle, an artist, has a wonderful imagination and pours her creative energy into her kids.
Above is a sandman sculpture they made the other day by digging into the sand to create the negative image, garnishing his eyes and lips and then pouring in plaster of paris.
When it's set you carefully dig out him out and ta-da a sandman is born:)
I was the luck recipient of this magnificent specimen who now lives in my garden, glaring and grimacing at anybody who wanders into his sights.

Penguin

Well here he is at last.
Penguin forever immortalised on canvas!
Acrylic on canvas 8" x 8"

Big Bird's new car.

Illustration Friday's topic is 'Enough'
Well Big Bird had enough of waiting for the bus as it was always late and packed with people and she was tired of bumping her head on the low ceiling.
So she bought herself an open top blue convertible and can now be seen flying along the open road with the wind in her feathers.

acrylic on canvas 8"x 8"

Old Penguin paperbacks

This gorgeous oil on canvas was painted by Irish Artist Dannielle Sheehey.
Dannielle is an amazingly diverse artist who works in all different mediums, from large public installations to exquisitely formed small metal sculptures, and of course oil painting.
Her recent exhibition took her and her beautiful paintings to Sydney Australia.
I saw Dannielle's work exhibited in The Triscal Art Centre in Cork and I fell in love with a painting of a stack of old penguin paperbacks but unfortunately it was already sold so I commissioned my own stack.
And the great thing is that I collect these old penguin paperbacks so I gave Dannielle
some of my all time favourites to put in the painting so it's far more personal.
The photo of it doesn't really do it justice, it is actually more vibrant in reality.
I love my painting.
Thank you Dannielle

Hedgehog cartoon

I came across this thanks to Little A's little book
I don't know if I'm just getting old, but I find the muted colours and the classical music very restful and the Russian voice over is definitely a nostalgic trigger from way back when Irish television had to rely on foreign cartoons having very little of their own.
But all that aside, isn't Hedgehog adorable, the way he's going over in his head the conversation he'll have with Bear Cub and his little old man mannerisms.
Well I agree with Little A it is a masterpiece.

Froggy Portrait

Illustration Friday's topic this week is 'Foggy'
So as you can see I'm taking artistic licence here by adding an 'r'!
The Froggy came out of the Foggy dawn and rolled away ribbuting to himself.

Acrylic on canvas 8"x8"

Delphiniums

I have the most gorgeous blue delphiniums in the garden at the moment.
They have a beautiful purple sheen here and there, that makes them almost luminous.
I just had to get out my watercolours and give it go.
This approx. 30cm x 40cm

My penguin portrait

This little guy has been part of the family since my partner gave him to me thirteen years ago.
I'm very fond of him, he has a darling little hyperactive waddle when he's wound up, sometimes he gets so excited that he falls over his own feet!
And he delights in giving the cat Ms.Tippytoes a fright every now and then.
Well I decided to celebrate his longevity by painting his portrait.
This is just the first sketch, I intend immortalise him on canvas but first I need to do a few character studies:)

Flower prints

I did this flower print today with flowers from my garden.
I was inspired by this post at painted fish studio
I used the exact same technique except with flowers on watercolour paper.
The column of blue flowers are delphiniums, and of course everybody knows the pansy, the little red flowers are verbena and the last are little purple daisies.
I was amazed at the detail and colour that came out.
I have no idea how colour fast the natural dye of the flowers is but it was such a joy just to experiment.
I'll be sure to date it and record the fading, out of curiosity.

Dragon breath

Poor ol' Puff had a fierce case of bad breath, 'twould blow you away so it would!

This is my submission for Illustration Friday's topic, 'Fierce' .
I prefer the black and white version , but I went to so much trouble doing the colour one that I decided to post it as well, even though I don't think it really works.
Although I do like his nose in colour:)