IF: Wide (Fat Fairies)

These wide mouth little guys are set to get ever wider tummies as they work their way through this pile of fairy cakes.

The colour version is my first effort with digital colour / Photoshop, which is a media I'm completely clueless in...any advice gladly received!

My first idea was actually to have a large snail making its way along a narrow lane, the snail would have been a 'wide load' due to an extended shell - visualise porches, turrets, extra rooms... Unfortunately I couldn't make this work, would love to see someone else to have a go!

IF: Electricity

Renewable energy?...

IF: Seed

Ok, so technically it's a blade of grass and they don't come directly from seeds, but as I missed my first IF last week since starting this blog, I wanted to ensure that I posted this week (does missing last week count as a 'wrinkle'?!)
This is an older illustration in a media I am really hoping to get back into (acrylic paints and ink).

IF: Primitive

Possibly stretching the topic a bit this week, but here goes....

I've been experimenting with last weeks dragon sketches (middle picture) which were drawn from a dinosaur toy (above) with the aim of creating something new. Here comes the tentative link... so, this entry shows the earliest or 'primitive' stages in the process and the newly enhanced version!

I'll keep playing around with the new dragon character if he proves to be a hit.

IF: Fail (or...'If at first you don't succeed...')

A few failed attempts usually come before success, as is the case for the character above.
Another sketch and just in time this week as I've been away, back to colour next week! This is a study of a rather cute dinosaur toy, I think he makes for quite a nice character so might revisit him again.

IF: Save (save the birds!)

A very quick sketch today, and the link to this weeks IF topic 'Save' isn't wonderfully expressed.

Basically I was going for a continuation of my cat theme from the 'Leap' and 'Heavy' topics, where the cat saves, rather than eats the cute birdies. Unfortunately I don't have time to develop this idea this week, hence the sketchy sketch!

IF: Homage to Pooh

A double homage, to the wonderful characters of A.A.Milne and inspiring illustrations of E.H. Shepard from Winnie-the-Pooh.

I wanted to interpret the characters and stories into my own style, but have found myself needing to study them a bit first, so for now I've included essentially a copy of one of Shepard's illustrations (above) and a couple of sketch studies (left). The wonderful thing about Shepard's simple, effective drawings is that you just can't capture the Pooh character making it even more special.
This weeks IF has inspired me to revisit these lovely stories and images, not least because they are loaded with lots of philosophical and zen thoughts too! (see 'Pooh and the Philosophers' by John Tyerman Williams and 'The Tao of Pooh & The Te of Piglet' by Benjamin Hoff).