Week 7: farm
I struggle to illustrate animals and enjoyed the restrictions of the squared paper – don’t ask me why – I have no idea?
Medium used: pencil, copic markers and Kikki.K gel pens.
Today the new theme starts: Coffee (yuck! I’m a tea drinker) 
“Abracadabra!” said the little blue penguin.
© Ramona Davey 2015
For this illustration I have used Copic markers, Artline pens and collage materials.
I thought I wasn’t goiong to come up with an idea in time before the day ended. I had a need to do collage and so I thought I would give that a go in a rather tentative fashion.
© Ramona Davey
I finished just in time to do school pick up. And I feel quite pleased with the end result.
It is always such a relief to complete each weeks challenge and I am determined no to miss a week. This keeps me developing my skills and is good practice at meeting deadlines.
Tomorrow the theme is ‘Magic.’
© Ramona Davey 2015
I’ve always liked the style where the illustration looks like it has been coloured onto a black background. So I though I would have a go using sketchpad.io. As you know copying a style is a great way to learn new techniques.
It was fun to do. The next theme is ‘Kitchen.’
Retro could mean so many things. Definition of retro :
© Ramona Davey 2015 – copic markers and pencil crayons
Next weeks theme starts tomorrow (every wednesday) and it is ‘Bugs.’
Every week I panic and think I won’t be able to come up with an illustration for the 52 week Illustration Challenge – it really does make me feel nervous. I almost feel like giving up but I don’t because the joy I feel when I do manage to create a new piece of artwork is wonderful.
Pencil, copic marker, coloured pencils, Artline pen.
I was so stuck with this theme and then I realised that the book I am reading is based in Italy. Masquerade is written by my writing buddy Kylie Fornasier, and I am thoroughly enjoying all the drama and intrigue that went with the Carnevale.
© Ramona Davey 2015
This year to keep me inspired and creative I am taking part in the following:
This challenge has just finished and I managed to revise 5 manuscripts in four of the seven days allocated to this wonderful challenge.
52 Week Illustration Challenge 2015
This challenge is currently in Week 2, but you can join in at any time.
This competition opened recently and closes on the 30th April. last year I came first in the Aspiring Unpublished category for preschool. Such a boost to my confidence! You can read about it here: CYA Conference 2014.
Other challenges and opportunities may arise as the year goes on and I will attempt to participate or submit work to as many as I feel I am ready for. I can’t wait!
Yes, it’s that time of the year again when you are up for new challenges. I cannot believe how quickly last years illustration challnge founded by Tania McCartney went. And I still cannot believe I am going to join up again! Will I have the time? The energy? The inspiration? I hope so and I will try my hardest to participate each week no matter how busy or uninspired I may find myself.
I will submit an illustration each week no matter how I feel about it. And we can be our own worse enemies where judging our own work is concerned.
So here is the first illustration of this years 52 Week Illustration Challenge for 2015 is:
Drawing anthropomorphic characters is incredibly difficult for me. I want to develop my skill in this area, to simplify my drawing and be consistent in style.
This week I am also participating in ReviMo2015 founded by Meg Miller – this challenge encourages you to revise a manuscript for each day (if possible) from the 11th January to 17th January.
So far I have managed to complete day 1 and tonight I will meet up with my critique group to see what they think of my revisions!
I can’t believe the year is over – which means The 52 Week Illustration Challenge founded by Tania McCartney is also over! It has been a great challenge to be part of and I have created over 52 illustrations that certainly wouldn’t have existed had I not participated. It was a delight to see everyone else’s creations too. If you would like to see the complete collection click here: 52 Week Illustration Challenge 2014
My other hobby is family history and I love the old silhouettes or Victorian era cameos that were in fashion as broaches and wall portraits. This is my daughter drawn using textas onto white oval shaped paper and then stuck onto black card. Ignore the dodgy and wonky outline of the oval, I had to draw the shape by hand.
Ruby by Ramona Davey 2014
Last night was New Years Eve and so it was apt to finish with fireworks. Using a Gelli printing plate can be a bit hit and miss. I love this aspect about this medium. Using cut out firework shapes I created layers of different colours and finished the illustration by adding the cut outs on top to create a mixed media collage.
Fireworks by Ramona Davey 2014
I had a great evening watching the Sydney fireworks with family. So Happy New Year everyone and thank you for all your wonderful support throughout this creative year!
Lucky you, you get four illustrations this week. Gee, life is flying by so fast at the moment, I can barely keep up. School’s are breaking up tomorrow for the long Christmas holidays, so kids will be home!
Week 47: New York
This was a dufficult theme for me. It was too abstract. But I will not quit or avoid the challenge. I like history and was thinking about New York when it was new and young.
pencil sketch
Week 48: Fox
Foxes are harder to draw than I thought. I felt nervous and therefore decided to keep it small.
pencil and pastels in a 10cm x 5cm sketchbook
Week 49: Sunshine
Whilst still unpacking the house from a recent move I found my printing resources again. I was a bit out of practise and the first few attempts were disastrous, but I was pleased with the final result. I wasn’t brave enough to add the dark inner circles to my sunflowers. I didn’t want to ruin the illustration. It is sometimes important to know when to stop.
Gelli printing
Week 50: Christmas
I love Robins! When I thought of Christmas, I thought of Robins, which then led me to think of worms and some kind of Christmas truce. Just like the truce on Christmas Day between the soldiers of opposing sides during World war 1.
pencil & watercolour
Now to mull over next weeks theme which starts tomorrow (Wednesday): Sillouette
My daughter was playing around on ‘Sketchpad.io,’ so I thought I would have a go as I am always happy to try out new mediums.
Here is my attempt at ‘Leaves.’ I had the story Jack And The Beanstalk in mind when I created this image:
There has been a great trend for digital collage style illustrations in picture books in the past ten years. I am a fan of that style and love playing with patterned backgrounds. For example the Charlie and Lola books by Lauren Child, by David Mackintosh’s books, eg: Marshall Armstrong Is New To Our School and the wonderful illustrations by Liz Anelli.
This is a great them and so many ideas could have been created. Sometimes just choosing the one idea can be a challenge in itself. I recalled that the collective noun for puffins was circus, so that was the basis of the idea for this weeks them, A Circus Of Puffins.
Here is the initial sketch which part of me prefers as I am always hesitant to add colour incase I ruin the image:
And here is the coloured version in pencil crayon which is not 100% satisfactory but that’s because I ran out of time and am trying not to be too precious with my illustrations during this challenge. My focus is provide an illustration within the deadline rather than finish a polished artwork each week. 
Now to the next theme: New York!