A is for ..........

The illustrated alphabet is perhaps something which we have all encountered as children, that is letters of the alphabet illustrated to tell a little story about the particular letter.

 Recently I have challenged myself to start working through some letters to create an illustrated alphabet of my own.

So far I have worked on "F is for flowers"

"B is for beard  of Bees,"

 and, as I shared in my previous post "Q is for Quinoa"

United Nations International Year Of Quinoa Stamp Design

At the start  of the year I was one of some recent graduates of UNISA who submitted designs to commemorate the United Nations International year of Quinoa. The aim was to promote quinoa as a super food as it is jam packed full of nutrition and also to honour the custodians of the grain, the Andean peoples who have grown it for thousands of years.

This was the rationale for my design:

"This design connects with the origins of quinoa as a food from the Andean region where it was known as the "queen of the grains." I felt it was very important to acknowledge the indigenous nature of the quinoa and the region it traditionally comes from as people are very dependent on it's production for their own food source and it has been given to the rest of the world from there.

I have represented my idea of an Incan sun wearing a head-dress which is made up of sun-rays and also the quinoa seed- head/plant. The face of the sun  looks benign rather than fearsome to represent the health-giving quality of quinoa. The face could be construed as male or female in which case it could be seen as a queen (as in "queen of the grains").

The sun face is shaped as a "Q". The name quinoa is often mispronounced (the name sounds like it starts with a "K) so I wrote "Q" is for Quinoa on the head-dress. This gives authority to quinoa as it now becomes the word associated with the letter "Q".

The image and the colours are very bright and graphic as the image needs to be read easily when it is small. Blue represents clear Andean skies.

The letter "Q" is filled with seeds/grains of quinoa in lots of different colours as the plant colour is very diverse and colourful."

ideas about composition

 

colour ideas

final rendering

 My design was one of the 8 shortlisted and because of this we got the opportunity to go to Government House in June and receive a certificate from the His Excellency the Governor of South Australia, Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce.

Recently were were invited to the UN Annual Dinner at the beautiful National Wine Centre in Adelaide to see which designs had been made into stamps and happily all of them were!

This is my design. 

The stamps are only available on a limited release through the Adelaide Office of the United Nations. 57/81 Carrington Street, Adelaide SA 5000

We discovered that even though we all thought we were pronouncing quinoa as keen-wa we were wrong. The Chilean musicians attending the dinner told us it was actually pronounced keen-o-a. Glad we got that sorted out. 

A Wintry Fairytale

A while ago I shared an image I made as part of a collaboration.
It was an image of a snow goose which got me thinking. If the snow goose was part of a bigger story what would it be?

I imagined the snow goose as protector, it nestles in it's cave of snow in deep winter and protects all the people and houses in the village below.

A peaceful winter time image just as we are about to go into spring!

Etsy Shop

Well one minute we think summer is around the corner here in Adelaide and the next winter is back! It is so confusing but it has meant I am still quite happy to be inside doing inside activities!

I have finally got around to opening my Etsy shop. I have been playing with my new printer and making some prints. If you have a moment you might like to have a look.

Gelatine Prints on the brain!

Recently I created more gelatine prints to try and develop my skills in that area. By making  some masks and hand cut stencils it enabled me to work in layers and increase the depth of the prints.
 I also explored adding text and image to my prints to see what kind of effect could be created.

I have now got about a kilo of prints! lol.

It is my plan to make a hand bound journal one of these days and use excess prints as a basis for a journal.

using colour with a mask

 

using mask to create layers

hand cut stencil and masks

using stencil and hand generated text

layering and hand drawing

print with hand drawing and text

col·labo·ration n.

The illustrator/artist may be thought of as a creature who is most happy when closeted away alone with their paint, pencils, brushes and  their computer! Maybe the scene will include a dog or a cat or 4. This however may not always be the best thing as dogs and cats are fairly accepting of any design they are faced with.

With  this in mind my fellow illustrator Celeryanne and  myself entered into a collaboration.

For now I would like to share the images I created with this collaboration in mind. At a later date we will share the images generated by our collaboration.

Celeryanne has shared one of her images on her blog.

Illustration of the poem Escape at Bedtime by Robert Louis Stevenson

Illustration inspired by Celeryanne's photo of snow and reeds

Illustration inspired by the words "pond, jumble, pocket"

Illustration inspired by Celeryanne's sketches of dogs

Seasons Come, and Seasons Go.

"She enjoys rain for its wetness, winter for its cold, summer for its heat. She loves rainbows as much for fading as for their brilliance. It is easy for her, she opens her heart and accepts everything."

          Morgan Llywelyn, Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

 

 

It has been about 8 months since my last trip home to N.Ireland and a lot has changed in that time. Seasons come and go but it never ceases to amaze me that the world is a beautifully designed place that runs like clockwork in spite of our delusion that we are in control.

I had two winters in a row last year, winter in the southern hemisphere followed by a northern winter. For this reason my opinion of the seasons has become a little askew! The Irish winter was wet and dark and cold but even so it was lovely walking around in my parents garden, sniffing the decay and dampness. It really appeals to my dark side.

 

 

However the earth has merely been sleeping! Look what has happened in the last few months.

mum and dad in the very green garden.

 

Some giant super-veggies!

              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The changes from winter through spring to summer  made me reflect on how the seasons are ordered and what a wonderful world we live in; which in turn lead to me designing this illustration.
The circle of a designer's life!

Thanks to my niece Tori for the photos of summer and freaky vegetables!