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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Hatching!

This Bald Eagle pair from Iowa are about to welcome their first chick of 2011:

It's so amazing to watch something like this live and is thanks to the Raptor Resource Project, a nonprofit organisation working to restore bird of prey populations in the Midwest.

Update 12th April:

I caught these stills of feeding time earlier. They really don't do the chicks justice though; they're still so wobbly and uncoordinated :) I'm glad they're ok with all the bad weather they've had in the midwest this weekend. I hope that none of you have been badly affected either.

Click to view larger.

More bad weather (19th April):
Ahhh, poor thing : (

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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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Equinox

Flowering Horse Chestnut

Springtime for the northern hemisphere: flowers, longer days, sunshine and a new year in many cultures. Love it.

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Joseph Joseph!

I've been busy the last week or so putting together my entry for the Joseph Joseph worktop saver competition.

I had lots of ideas and was planning on doing all six entries but I've never used vector graphics before and had to learn the program as I was designing this one. Not the best time for it but I'm pretty good at it now! Anyway, I'm pleased with the result, even if it was all lonely in the email, and I love using the vectors!
 

A la Carte

Click on details to view

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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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Sea Dragon

Look what I won! A full resolution pdf copy of Naomi Orana's Sea Dragon:

 

I just love the patterned fish! And look at the style in which she announced the winner of her giveaway:

To see more of her beautiful paintings visit her blog 1 day or have a good old rummage in her Etsy shop!

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