Mondoodle 18-10-2010

By elise | Published: October 19, 2010

Here’s a happy one :-) I was in class last night and the pen was playing around (picture a disembodied hand autonomously drawing if you like). And here’s what it drew. Some time ago I did a girl in gumboots and mud using a newspaper as an umbrella. I liked that so it found its way into this one. Of course it’s raining frogs this time…


Good old frogs. I love doing quick simple shading like this – and how you can do it across a face without it really impacting the detail or taking away from the smoothness of it. If I was to contour shade where I tried to wrap the shadow around the face, make the lines follow the angles etc… I’d risk making her look like she’s wearing a beard. I think the trick is to pick one direction and keep it simple and uniform.

Unless it’s Movember.

Drawn in a classroom on level 4, RMIT, Cardigan St on Monday 18th October, 7.10pm, 2010.

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Mondoodle 11-10-2010

By elise | Published: October 12, 2010

Why hello there. So I tried to draw another girl yesterday and while I couldn’t make her very happy, I could at least make her a good gutsy character. I’d say the girls are here to stay. Yes, a few more boys will creep into the mix, but I couldn’t give up my little characters. They have too much to say!

Not sure how good the home-made bat-drape wings are for aerodynamics… But every superhero has to start somewhere.

Drawn on Tuesday 12th October in the studio. Mondays just keep being crazy!

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Mondoodle 04-10-2010

By elise | Published: October 4, 2010

I was trawling through photos of our cat (and others) this evening on my return from Uni. Partly because I wanted to see what reference shots I had of our feline friends, and partly looking for inspiration for a Mondoodle. And so I came across one of our cat, taken through a window, after he had accidentally gotten himself locked on the wrong side of a door. Which is totally unheard of in the pet world. ‘What?’ You say. A pet that manages to rush unerringly to the least sensible side of a door? Simply because it opened? Never.

And yet it happened. And the look of dismay was so good that instead of rushing to let him in, we rushed for the camera. Which might, just might, make us bad people. We let him in after that. I’ve shifted the context to a rainy puddle-strewn day and a ever-shrinking rock. Just because it makes for a little jeopardy.

Mondoodle drawn at 9pm in the lounge, warm spring breeze blowing outside, Monday 4th October, 2010.

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Market Sunday hooroo-hooray

By elise | Published: October 1, 2010

Back to the Convent I go with a smile on my face. Sunshine! Gardens! Magnificent!

I love living somewhere that has all the seasons but winter’s gone and I’m really ready for some sun now. And on Sunday it will be daylight savings to prove that we’re swinging around into a sunnier spot in the universe. As always, the Collingwood Children’s Farm is just next door, there’s great bike riding along the Yarra, and we’ll have food aplenty with the bakery, Japanese, lovely Lentils and the hidden Handsome Steve.

We’ll be in our big rooms at the river end of the main courtyard (to the right of the bakery). And of course I’ll be painting! Market runs from 10 – 4pm on Sunday, at 1 St. Helliers St, Abbotsford.

Step out with your friends, shake off the winter blues and have a lovely weekend.

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Advice: drafting and reading aloud

By elise | Published: October 1, 2010

Next installment taken from email Q&As :-)

Now we all know that picture books will be read out loud to kids. So this means that it is absolutely vital for writers to read their work out loud as they draft it so we know how it sounds. However, even that is not fool-proof. Read on:

We all develop tricks for reading our work out loud as writers. We slur the right words, say bits quickly or slowly, mispronounce things that need to rhyme… Which is great when we’re doing a book-reading to an audience but tells us nothing about how we’ve actually written it.

You absolutely have to get someone, hopefully a few someones, to read your work to you out loud, uncoached and uninterrupted. It is only then that you’ll know if all the things you thought were in there, actually are. If they aren’t, take notes. You can fix it.

Fast bits can use fast words. Try short sharp words like slip, trip, skitter, hop, pop… with few syllables or long round vowels. Look for fun quick patterns like “quick as a wink”. I love the difference between slide and slip – is the action long or quick?

For slow bits, sentences can be longer, more tricky to say, with longer vowels and words that force the reader to change their pace. All around the soft slow snow drifted…

Bad rhymes can always be fixed with a rewrite. Never ever leave a bad rhyme, thinking no one will notice or care.

Don’t write a sentence around a word that rhymes!

Look for the sentence that captures what you need then rewrite that until it works. Be prepared for it to take a long time to get it right. Rhyme should never be a distraction – it should make something a joy to read.

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Mondoodle 27-09-2010

By elise | Published: September 28, 2010

Here are a couple of quick sketches done out in the street with a little bit of watercolour put on later.

It’s lovely getting to draw people when they’re not looking. I’m actually very shy of doing this very often. I know it’s important to practise but I’d hate people to feel embarrassed about it. And I really don’t want to seem creepy. And I’m a woman! I can imagine it being more fraught for men who want to draw kids out in public. There have been a few times that I’ve gone out to parks and needed to get reference pictures of children playing. I don’t want to do the telephoto lens from the bushes thing, so I’ve actually taken business cards and talked to the parents there to see if they mind. I know I should be able to photograph people in public and not worry. But it’s really about being sympathetic to people. I’d be interested to know what kind of experiences people have had with this. Often I just use Google images, and waste hours trawling for the right angles!


Drawn out and about on Rathdowne St, Monday 27 September 2010. Watercolour added on Tuesday morning.

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Mondoodle 20-09-2010

By elise | Published: September 21, 2010

We went in to the Mercy Hospital today for my 20 week ultrasound with the sneaking suspicion that we would be seeing two boys on the screen. And we were absolutely right… clear as day, squirming and headbutting each other. Nothing can go wrong there!

When I got home it was time to finish my sketch (Mondays are proving difficult) and as soon as I started sketching it was clear I had to do a little girl. Now… yes, she’s looking a little grumpy. Which wasn’t intentional. But I found I just couldn’t make one look happy when we’d just found out we were not having a girl. So they’re going to have to keep coming alive in my drawings. Which is pretty easy really, because in my mind they are so real and capable of anything :-)

Drawn in the lounge in front of the heater on Tuesday 21st September 2010.

Expect to see a lot more boys in future though!

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My prints and cards at Liberty of London!

By elise | Published: September 18, 2010

There’re things afoot… Read on! And if you’re in London and can see it – please let me know!! I’d so love to be there. Hopefully someone will take some photos.

2010 London Design Week sees Roger la Borde, the innovative design and publishing group, celebrate its 25th birthday with a creative pop up installation at design emporium Liberty which launches on 18th September.

Since it was founded in 1985, Roger la Borde has sought to bring high design values, style and quality to its cards and stationery, using renowned artists, talented illustrators and creative designers. To tie in with the birthday celebrations, it will launch its first collection of stylish homewares alongside a collection of limited edition prints from some of its best known artists, celebrating the art of illustration.

Alongside this Roger la Borde will launch a new range of stationery from a collection entitled Petit Sauvage. Petit Sauvage is the result of the company’s passionate commitment to hand drawn illustrations and the desire to champion idiosyncratic design.

Artists such as Rob Ryan, Elise Hurst and Su Blackwell are gaining international acclaim for their work – there will be original artwork and limited prints by them that demonstrate their ability to cross boundaries in terms of innovation.

…Australian Elise Hurst is an artist and illustrator who has won several awards for her work which is fairy tale in style, with delicate drawings of people and animals in a dream-like setting. Roger la Borde will be presenting a collection of enchanting notecards using her illustrations, tied in a bundle using string and sealing wax, and notebooks. Limited edition prints from Elise will be on sale at Liberty exclusively…

Roger la Borde will be at Liberty in the Carnaby Room from 18th – 30th September.

http://www.londondesignfestival.com/events/roger-la-borde-0

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Spring is springing, and there’s a market on Sunday

By elise | Published: September 17, 2010

This weekend is market time again at the Convent. It’s spring and the grounds will be bursting back into life with every passing week. I’m looking forward to looking out the window at that magnificent tree!

We have our usual spot to the back of the courtyard and, in the spirit of new beginnings, I just may start a new painting.

Come along and say hello. And don’t forget the lovely places to grab a meal there, especially the little Japanese place between Lentils and the Bakery. Great coffee, beautiful food… what more can I ask?

Sunday, September 19, 10 – 4pm

Maker’s Market

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Magnifique minis!

By elise | Published: September 17, 2010

What is it about little things?? My favourite books as a kid were the smallest ones I could find. The Beatrix Potter series were excellent, a books called Paddy’s New Hat was brilliant, but the crappy little thumb-sized books we once got in a Christmas cracker were best. From memory the stories weren’t good and the printing terrible… but I didn’t care, they were wonderful to hold.

On the weekend I was in Sydney for an ASA meeting and I arrived with a little time to spare. So I wandered along the street until I came to the Hill of Content bookshop (in Balmain) where, to my delight, I found these…

They are the Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak (published by Harper Collins) comprising of: One Was Johhny a counting book, Alligators All Around an alphabet, Chicken Soup with Rice a book of months, and Pierre a cautionary tale in five chapters and a prologue. I just realised I’ll have to photograph them with something to show the size. Haha – you just can’t tell they’re so titchy… about 10 cm high I think.

But there’s more!! I just found out about these on the Orbit blog… they are beautiful, tiny complete versions of the Moorehawke series and those black and white ones… are my covers. They were put together by an artist called Nyukaa and they look magnificent!


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