I’ve still got a couple days left of the Drawing Challenge, which I started ages ago, so I’ve finally time to blog day 29.
‘Somewhere I’d Like to Go’. I’d wanted to live by the beach in Sydney for years and finally got to do so last year and couldn’t be happier! I did this quick illustration of sea urchins to capture what it is I like about the beach – the pretty pastel and subtle colours and blue shades of the ocean.
As you can tell I love illustrating food! This sketch is taken from my recipes page which I will be updating with recipes – feel free to leave a comment if you want me to illustrate any favourite recipes – I would be glad to get some ideas!
Happy nearly hump day! This has been a manic week for me and I haven’t been home much due to too many commitments for friends’ birthdays and whatnot… so here is a painting I started a while ago but I thought it would suit for Day 22: Something I Miss.
This painting sorta reminds me of my home town of Howth on the East coast of Ireland. Howth is a little coastal village which was settled by Vikings in 819. I miss its colourful pastel shop-fronts and walks along the pier to looking out to the island of Ireland’s Eye.
What could be better than new shoes?! Over half way through now on the 30 Day Drawing Challenge – tune in tomorrow for ‘Something Orange’.
Day 16: My Inspiration – The Sea by Lili Cabena
Acrylic, mixed media and collage on canvas.
The week I started this blog and the Drawing Challenge, was the week I happened to be moving house. I moved to the little beachside suburb of Bronte, so I like to think my work has been inspired somewhat by living by the sea again: from the bright sparkling turquoise ocean on a hot day to the faded pale grey sea on a rainy day like today, the sea and the beach are the inspiration for my colour palette. I enjoyed playing with perspective in this piece and like how the collaged strips of paper cast shadows on the canvas and add a 3D effect to the landscape.
Gerda & the Reindeer. The Snow Queen lllustration by Lili Cabena
Mixed Media
I wanted to create a drawing that evoked that other worldliness depicted in the fairytale books I had growing up. At least that’s how I remember them – marvellous and magical – children can get so much more from the illustrations in a book than an adult can, and sometimes years later, just seeing that illustration again can take you back to how you felt when you first read that story.
My favourite fairytale was The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson. This is one of Hans Christian Anderson’s longest tales, unusual in that almost all of it’s main characters are female. It’s a story that has been illustrated beautifully many times by Dulac, Rackham, Milo Winter, Eleanor Vere Boyle etc. Those are some of my favourites. But who were the illustrators of the humble fairytale books we read growing up… they probably weren’t well known at all and yet would have approached this subject in their own way despite the many great artists having covered it already in their own style. The Snow Queen is topical at the moment with the release of Disney’s Frozen, which I am excited to see.
This is the latest painting I’ve been working on. I’m really enjoying working with the geometric trend at the moment and thought I’d mix this with some summer bright hues, earth tones and neons that would work well in any room as a piece of wall art.
There are so many digital prints around of this type of thing but I loved the challenge of starting out from scratch with pencil and compass, getting the geometry right and then working out the colour hue combinations, adding metallic copper as a final touch.
Option 1: Green Base
I painted this with the intention of it hanging on a wall in portrait format with the green hues at the base. Until my boyfriend commented that obviously it was meant to be hung horizontally as it looked better that way right?! Well now I’m confused…which way up does this painting look best? Please vote for option 1, 2 or 3! Thanks for voting!
Option 2: Red Base
Option 3: Landscape
Tomorrow, Day 13: ‘Comic’… coming soon!
Growing up watching Disney cartoons, I wanted to be Rapunzel. It must have been the endless tresses of hair, plus living on your own in a tower wouldn’t be so bad, you could read books and paint and draw… So for this challenge, with a little inspiration from a Disney Princess pose (Glen Keane & Disney), http://www.pinterest.com/pin/257760778647162265/ I sketched my own version of myself as a Rapunzel. Nothing better after a pretty ordinary day at work than to see yourself in princess mode.
Rapunzel
Tomorrow, Favourite TV Show…
Lili Cabena 