IF: Tree

Flowering Horse Chestnut

See many beautiful tree illustrations here!

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Scatter!

Scatter!

Scatter! A design with Galápagos Sea Lions; new, improved and available on linen and cotton at the Forest & Sea Spoonflower page!

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Update 2014: See the new version of the sea lions here!

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Illustration Friday - Hibernate

Winter Sleep

Click for larger view.

I think I'll feel like giving this a go when this amazing Indian Summer is over and the cold weather arrives.

While reading up for this illustration, I read that a bonfire pile is heaven to a hedgehog looking for a place to hibernate. If you're celebrating Bonfire Night at home next month there are some good tips to avoid a grisly end for them and the other wildlife in your garden here.

You can have a look at all the other Hibernate illustrations here!

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Arabica Cherry..



Arabica Cherry in Smoky and Mineral Blue

.. available here now too!

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IF - Perennial

Arabica Cherry in Red.

Arabica Cherry Details (in Smoky Blue, Warm Grey and Mineral Blue).
Click to view larger.

Arabica coffee: a perennial breakfast favourite and perennial flowering tree.

Have a look at some truly wonderful perennial illustrations here.
Peruse and vote for your favourite coffee designs here.
Read about bird-friendly, shade-grown and organic coffees here.

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Love your weeds!

Butterflies is the subject for the new Spoonflower contest with a palette limited to just these six colours (I missed yellow!):



It did show me though how habitual my colour use has become and that's the whole idea right? I quite like that it's a pattern that would never have come about if left entirely to me! If you have a spare second, please click through and vote for it :)

Tree-hugger's Lawn

Tree-hugger's Lawn Details - click for larger view.

This weedy design was inspired by the idea of leaving a bit of your garden for wild, native plants to grow.If you're not a lover of weeds but would like to attract more butterflies to your outside space, there are loads of websites about which flowers butterflies will be attracted to - either for nectar or as a food source for their caterpillars. These small, natural areas add up fast to increase the available habitat for local wildlife!

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Summertime

This is an old sketch, one of the ones I hadn't got around to painting, but this week's Illustration Friday is Midsummer Night and so a great time to get this one finished :)

Riverbank

Riverbank Details - click for larger view.

The little beastie on the rock is an Alpine Newt. They live nocturnally in forested areas next to ponds or streams - perfect for this evening riverbank scene.

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Java Sea

Illustration Friday: Soaked

Java Sea I

Java Sea II

This inter-island area of the Pacific was flooded at the end of the last ice age and now its warm, shallow waters support an estimated three thousand species of marine life. I'll admit, I often sketch from the telly, mainly nature and travel programs, and these drawings were taken from film of the rich volcanic waters off Krakatau (Globe Trekker on the Travel Channel).

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Illustration Friday: Beginning

I've really enjoyed the weekly Illustration Friday challenge since I started participating in January; it has brought out ideas that I would otherwise never have had and it's been so interesting to see everyone else's interpretations of the themes. I've been looking to see if there are other projects out there I would love to join in with and came across Spoonflower, a website where you can order prints of your own textile designs that also holds a weekly design contest. I specialised in textiles at college and have been thinking for a while now that I'd like to get into it again so, to begin, I've entered the design below into this week's contest. If you like it please click through and vote for me!

Vanilla Bean

Vanilla Bean Details

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Illustration Friday: Bottled and Journey

The first thing that crossed my mind when I read last week's subject was our summer holiday a few years ago in Alcúdia Bay. I would have loved to have bottled some of that Mediterranean Sea breeze to bring home with us; we had such a brilliant time that year.

I was too late to enter this painting for 'bottled' but I think it's just as good for this week's theme:

Badia d'Alcúdia

Click on details for larger image.

Have a great weekend!

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Illustration Friday: Duet

Monkeys fly on parrots' backs - it's true! OK, I wouldn't believe me either, so have a read about this lazy squirrel monkey and his parrot compadre. I think they make a most excellent duet for Illustration Friday this week!


Lazy Monkey

Click on details for larger image.

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Denim Dinos

This is a print I made this week for my brand new nephew using my newly discovered and very addictive toy: vector graphics. The dinosaurs and landscape have a denim, corduroy or linen texture. His name goes on the flags and his date of birth goes on the Plesiosaurs backs (where the asterisks are).

Denim Dinos

 Click on details for larger image.

Print with matting.

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Recultivate

Take two of this entry for Illustration Friday.

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Illustration Friday: Cultivate

Fertile Crescent

According to Wikipedia (I know, I do not hold back when it comes to research :) ) people first began to cultivate plants for food around 10 000 years ago in the fertile crescent.

I included in my painting:
* some patterns from ancient pottery found in the region
* grains, chickpeas (or garbanzo beans to those of you over the pond), flax and papyrus, some of the first crops to be grown
* the pre-cuneiform pictograms for fish, pot, bird, ox and plough (in the sky)

I really enjoyed painting this one, I hope you like it! Head on over to the Illustration Friday website to see what all those talented peeps have been up to this week.

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Illustration Friday: Reverse...

...deforestation.

Click to view larger.

My painting is based on the rainforests of Madagascar, fourth largest island in the world and sometimes referred to as the ‘eighth continent’ for its unique and diverse wildlife. Only an estimated 10% of Madagascar’s original forests remain.

The following links are some brilliant ongoing projects for reforestation around the globe. Have a look!

• Eden Reforestation have planted 10 million trees.
• The WWF are working on reforestation and the restoration of degraded forests.

There are loads more out there and I'll update this list as I find them. Anyone got any favourites?

Added on the 15th February:

• The Plant a Billion Trees campaign is an initiative by The Nature Conservancy to restore Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Long isolated from its more famous cousin the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest is unusual in that it comprises a wide range of forest types and habitats. For this reason it is remarkably biodiverse and supports many highly endangered species.
  The aim of the campaign is to reforest 2.5 million acres and connect more than 12 million acres of existing, fragmented habitat with new forest corridors. One Dollar plants one tree!

Added on the 18th March:

• David Attenborough's recent series on Madagascar featured Feedback Madagascar an organisation working on a number of projects which include the Wild Silk Forest Appeal. They aim to plant 30 000 trees to support the local wild silk industry and so encourage protection of the endemic tapia forest. And for those concerned about animal rights, unlike the cultivated silk industry, the cocoons for wild silk are collected after the moth has emerged.

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Illustration Friday: Surrender

Summer Returns

The swallows will have to surrender to their instinct to fly north for the summer. I'm looking forward to that, it's freezing here! You can have a look at all the other Surrender illustrations here!

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Illustration Friday: Dusty



Oasis

Oasis detail: camels and lizards. Click to view larger.

Cool water at the oasis after a hot, dusty journey! Visit the Illustration Friday website to see everyone's hard work this week.

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Illustration Friday!

The Illustration Friday theme this week is Chicken, suggested by ChickenGirl (of course!)

I was reminded of this big chicken:

You can read all about him here.

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