This week’s topic at Inspire Me Thursday is "petals". I pulled an old one out of the wood-works for this week. I completed the piece below for my Grandmother who absolutely loves to garden!

This week’s topic at Inspire Me Thursday is “Family”.  I pulled this pic out of the portfolio. What better represents family than one of life’s blessings…pregnancy, where it all begins…

Ok so maybe you won’t like my singing but perhaps you’ll like this submission for Inspire Me Thursday. This week’s topic is Umbrella. I quickly sketched a lady holding a parasol.

…well not quite. I’ve been in London for the past few weeks, and indeed I had a great time. SO LUV THAT CITY! It’s one of my favourite cities with so much to do, so much culture, and a never ending agenda of new experiences…

The weather this April was magnificent, I think I was lucky as it’s usually rainy and gloomy. I took a million pics but did not lift my pencil even once to complete a sketch, I know, poor excuse for an artist huh lol. But as my friends and I say… S’all Guud

Talisman: something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects.

This week’s topic really made me think and I still didn’t come up with anything that REALLY fits the theme but I’ve done something similar nevertheless.

I remember picking dandelions out of the tall grass as a child. They always said that you should make a wish and then blow all of the petals away. I can’t remember if any of my wishes came true though. Below I’ve relived this childhood memory through a quick sketch…

I found this cool pic on the net… Did anyone else do the same thing as a child. I can recall that very few dandelions were left standing once I was done lol…

This week’s topic on Inspire Me Thursday is “KEY”. The first thing I thought of was “keys to the city”. Whenever I travel, I definitely don’t need the key to the city to have a wonderful time. If you do enough research before you hit the road, you’ll find that there’s never enough time to see and do everything…

So here’s to one of my favourite cities, Chicago! Below is black and white shot that I took of Chitown’s shoreline.

I had to bring out an old one from the woodworks this week. I felt that this piece below was a lovely example of this week’s topic, “poise”.

The leopard sat poised by the edge of a pond, gazing across her reflection through the grass at me. She could smell each breath I took, hear each beat of my heart and she knew it would be quick and painless… she remained poised and ready…

LOL I’m so dramatic huh. Here you go folks, my contribution this week for Illustration Fridays.

Water colour underlay, with coloured pencil on top. Original Piece measures 24in x 36in.

This latest piece was inspired by the “legendary” Erykah Badu. I don’t know about you but goodness knows her music moves me! The tranquillity of her voice coupled with her sharp stabs at the reality of such familiar experiences can’t help bring me to admire and appreciate the funky soulful artist.

I started this piece weeks ago but I never quite found the time or energy to finish. I wish there were more hours in the day between my career, family and about a  million and one other things! But nevertheless fast forward 3 weeks and guess what, it’s finish!!

This piece is a style that’s new to me but gives me a lovely break from the time consuming, intricate graphite pencil works which I’m use to. After all, I did say in my New Years Artsy Resolutions that I’d  explore different mediums and styles… I used watercolours on this piece and covered it with chalk and black pen.

At first I wasn’t pleased with the direction in which it was going. It’s amazing what transformations my attitudes take during a piece, one minuet I hate it, and the next I love it. I’m always my worst critique (I’m sure every artist can relate) even though I constantly remind myself to give each piece a chance. I am happy with this one though, so much so that I’m going to add it to my portfolio in the next month (so please don’t mind the copyright mark folks).

I think I’ll call this new piece “Transformations”.

Half Way

Complete

This week’s topic is an exact description of my pencil works. So, I’m submitting my favourite graphite pencil piece within my portfolio. It’s called “Between the Leaves” and depicts a young girl playing amongst Bay Grape Leaves. She’s holding a small lizard called a “Skink” which is one of the few species endemic to Bermuda.

This piece measures approx 3 x 3.5ft in real life and took me almost a month to complete because of the intricate pencil detail… Enjoy!

This week’s topic is moon. I’ve posted below, a picture of one of my favourite beaches. It’s winter and the seas tend to be a bit rough. I particularly like how the moonlight reflects off of the waves as they wash upon the shore… 

This is my first posting for “Inspire Me Thursday”. I’ve been meaning to join for a while now.

Wintery seas

Created by turmoil breeze

Wash upon these shores

Amid their bitter return

The moonlight shines beautifully

And swash after swash, for them we yearn