Agreeable Tiger Moth

Thematic Photographic this week is 'Turning Colder'
I haven't been out with my camera recently, so I trawled through the archives and decided to give this guy a requiem.
He's an 'Agreeable Tiger Moth' as far as I know, which isn't very far!
I've no idea who he was so agreeable with to warrant such a fine name, maybe he nods his head a lot after crashing into the light bulb a few hundred times:)
Anyway he was chosen for this chilly theme because it looks like he has on a large fur collared cape .
And I think these moths die as the weather turns colder.
If I didn't know any different he could simply be in repose, like a mini Dracula moth!
After all they are both night creatures.
Halloween must be getting to me:)

Illustration Friday 'Transportation'

Illustration Friday is 'Transportation' this week.
I'm afraid mine is a rerun , but I thought it was quite fitting for the theme, the transportation of pollen by Mr. Busy Bee.

Blue eyed Spider monkey!

Now I know I messed around in photoshop with this photo, but amazingly, the blue eyes are for real.
They call her Ol' Blue Eyes and she lives in Fota Wildlife Park where you can read all about her.
I didn't notice her blue eyes when I was taking the photograph as she was too far away. It was only when I saw them on the laptop and even then I thought it a trick of the light, the blue sky reflected. It is so unexpected.
The idea behind turning it into black and white was to try to high light the blue eyes, but I realise that it actually just discredits them.
I've put in the original photograph below just for the unbelievers!
I do like the black and white though, it reminds me of the old Tarzan movies I loved as a kid.

Thematic Photographic this week is 'Branched'
Well Ol' Blue Eyes would have branched out into the modeling business, given her most unusual features, had she been given half a chance.

Carbon footprints

Illustration Friday's theme this week is 'Beneath'.
These are my baby's footprints at six months old.

May the grass be always green beneath your feet, my darling one.

I used beetroot juice for the original, which came out a lovely soft baby pink, perfect!
But it has faded terribly since, you could hardly see the print when I took a photo of it.
So off to photoshop we go and kill all the cuteness.
Now it's more like a thermal image or what a carbon footprint might look like:)

Mosaic floor in Honan Chapel

As I was going through my photos for this weeks Thematic Photographic, which is 'Parallel', I came across these photos of the Honan Chapel's mosaic floor by Ludwig Oppenheimerin 1916.
It's a stunning work of art, my photos do not do it justice.

I love that Oppenheimer seems to pay little or no deference to the fact that it's a catholic church floor he's designing .
You are greeted at the water font by the twelve zodiac signs and then ushered up the aisle by what looks to me like a Japanese river god, but maybe it's meant to be God pouring forth life, or something!

It's been a few years since I took these photos, I'll have to go back with my camera and get the full story.
I cant remember, but I've a feeling Adam and Eve should be around somewhere.

Old fashioned pram in applique

Illustration Friday's topic this week is 'Old Fashioned'
I nearly did a self portrait as I'm feeling a little out of date and out of touch with what's hip today!
There, see, I bet nobody says 'hip' anymore.
Well as you can see I went for an easier option, an old fashioned pram in applique.
If only I had an old fashioned Nanny to go with it, I might even get round to sewing it all together:)

Still life in black and white

This maybe taking the Thematic Photographic theme Still Life a little too literally!
A couple of dead things(a butterfly and a daddylong legs) and a scull on a bed of feathers, taken to the extreme in photoshop.
I may have got a bit carried away but it was great fun!

Circus McGurkus inspired Illustration Friday.

This weeks Illustration Friday's theme is 'Acrobat'

Well,little Larry the Lemur is always pretending to be a circus performer, right now he's imagining he's an acrobat balancing precariously on the tight rope at dizzying heights, never before seen, in the big top of the stupendous tremendous Circus McGurkus.
And drum roll.....

Old celadon Lister generator

The theme is 'letters' this week on
Thematic Photographic
This is a photo of an old broken down abandoned Lister generator, well a piece of it anyway.
The reason it caught my eye is that the crackle of the enamel reminded me of the beautiful Chinese celadon pottery .
And I liked the backwards letters!

Illustration Friday "Proverb"

Just having a good old gossip.

Darling duckling

Thematic Photographic this week is 'Reflective'.
I've put up the close up 'cause I want you to see how adorable the little darling duckling is, but I really like the way the space around him emphasizes how tiny he is in the full photograph.

Illustration Friday "Dessert"

Yippee, banana split for tea! His favorite dessert.

I'm still trying to develop a style, and work on backgrounds which I find really difficult. So this week the lemur was done in watercolour and then put into photoshop for the background.
I'm not sure if the two work together, what do you think?

Thematic Photographic "Transportation"

The lemurs run wild at Fota Island wildlife park, it's great. They roam around in gangs, chasing each other and anyone with banana!
This fellow is hitching a lift from the rangers jeep, 'cause he knows that there's food at the end the ride.

Illustration Friday "Immovable"

Well I've done as much as I'm going to do on this.
Not cause I'm satisfied, far from it, I'm just tired of kicking a dead horse as they say, horrible saying really.
Anyway I did learn a lot about photoshop, like for @&*% sake don't forget to use new layers!

Paper Elephant

The theme for Illustration Friday this week is "Immovable".
I've called this one above "paper elephant", a bit obvious I know, but I like the slightly juxtapositional word play.
For some reason it reminds me of a childhood riddle... Which is heavier a ton of feathers or a ton of rocks?

Anyway below is a work in progress, Very slow progress since I'm relearning as I go all that I've forgotten of photoshop( which wasn't much to begin with).

Thematic Photographic "Flowers"

This is a photo of last years peonies. They're so voluptuous but far too transient. Their gorgeousness becomes all too much and they literally bow down with the weight of their beauty.
That is if you don't stake them properly which I learned the hard way this year!


People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us. ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

Illustration Friday "Atmosphere"

I can hardly believe it's nine months since my last post. Having just got back into the swing of it after the birth of my daughter, I accidentally killed my laptop. Death by drowning in milky coffee or so I thought! Turned out it just needed a little time to dry out and detox. I don't know how long this actually took as I had given up hope, it was my partner took a notion to try turning it on again, probably due to my moaning and lamenting driving him mad!
So to cut a long story short, I'm back ...again!