FROG - ACEO ink sketches

A few drawings from today. These frogs are created with black gel-pen on parchment card. They are ACEO size (art collector / swap cards 2.5x3.5inch). They show 4 different species of frog.

If you had to choose one which would it be???
Sometimes when I sell an artwork I ask the buyer why they chose it and the answers are always fascinating, usually to do with a personal association with the creature that the image portrays. I believe what makes the best art is portraying what the artist has personal experience of and a connection with, whether that is a creature, a scene, an emotion, or a philosophy. Art is a visual language and while these spontaneous, light hearted little sketches are not pretending to be great masterpieces but rather little comments on environmental awareness .

Bug ACEO insect

Bugs and beetles have different anatomy. A true bug has a proboscis for sucking sap or blood whereas a beetle has a jaw for biting. This is a bug found in the vine in my back yard in NSW on the east coast of Australia. I think it is what is called an Orange-bronze bug. This image is only small, printed as a miniature 2.5x3.5 inch artist card. It was created digitally by painting with a pressure sensitive electronic pen directly onto a computer. The colours are applied to a dark surface allowing the base colour to show around each section to create a similar feeling to a traditional hand coloured block print. Im enjoying creating these miniature artworks featuring larger than life creatures, little glimpses at a macro world that surrounds us everyday.

giant FLY - miniature ART

...Left click image to see full size...

"Why on earth is she painting flies?"
"If you've seen one fly you've seen them all!"

I read somewhere that there are hundreds of species of flies. I have personally noticed that the more you look the more colours and varieties you start to see. The little black house flies as art subjects do get a bit boring but if you go out into the long grass in summer you can find some pretty metallic colours. Aussie native flies don't like to come indoors, from what I've read they are the ones that go crazy at the windows trying to get back outside. Flies are an important ingredient in the ecology food chain, and I reckon they make pretty impressive miniature art works. These are all ACEO's (Art Collector Cards measuring 2.5x3.5 inches). Hhhhmmm can you still refer to them as miniature when the subject matter is actually painted a few hundred times larger than the physical object.

Baby Guinea Pigs

...Left click images to view full size...

Calysta and Pippy had 3 babies last night.
I guess Im gonna have to make a few guinea pig artworks.

Cassowary - Ink drawing

Don't ya just love cassowaries.

Huge birds that look like they belong in the dinosaur age, running around at the bottom of the rainforests. They also make me think of the Pachycephalosaurus because of their amazing crown. I also think of the animated movie 'Fern Gulley' when I think of the cassowary.

This is my tiny ACEO drawing of one. My daughter saw it and said it is the first time she has seen a cassowary look pretty. If you've never heard of them before look them up, an interesting species...

FROG - Tutorial

...Left click image to enlarge it...

This is not really a tutorial but rather a selection of screen shots of the image at different stages of completion. The image is created digitally by drawing/painting directly onto a computer with a pressure sensitive pen and digital drawing tablet. Although it is using a relatively new art media it has still been approached in a traditional manner. This is one of the many frogs that frequent my back yard. I love the pose, how he's energy is all coiled-up ready to spring.

Frog - Miniature Ink Drawings

Occasionally it is nice to revert back to pen and paper drawings. These are two out of a handful of drawings I did tonight.

They show two of the frogs that frequent my yard. The first is an Australian green tree frog on the fence, the other is a common brown tree frog on a bamboo wind chime that hangs outside among the vines. This is a favourite feeding spot as the chime is positioned under a fluorescent light that attracts insect.

The drawings are only small ACEO size, which are the size of baseball trading cards 3.5 x 2.5 inches each. The drawings are similarly styled to how I used to create lino prints, perhaps they will eventually be the beginnings of larger works. I enjoy line work and the challenges it presents. I'm thinking that a larger scale and adding colour could create some lovely bold results.

But for now they are tiny initial sketches and I will be selling them as original art collector cards on eBay as soon as I get around to uploading them.

Cameo Art

A little side-step from my usual animal themed art. I created a cameo. It is presented as a postcard size image on high quality artist paper and will be sold with an 8x10 inch mount ready for framing.

Spider Art - Wolf Spider in Progress

This is a portrait of a Wolf Spider. His patterns and colours allowing him to camouflage into his natural environment. Often a large spider it is not considered dangerous to man. It is one of the most common species of spider.

This nature artwork is available through Hexagonal Mandala. It was created as a digital art work, produced directly onto a computer using a pressure sensitive pen and digital drawing tablet. The finished art is sold as an A3 archival print on high quality artist paper. It is a lovely example of Contemporary Art and Australian Wildlife Portraiture.

The techniques for creating this using a digital media were similar to those of using more traditional materials. The drawing's detail was gradually built-up by layering scribbles of colour and tonal variations to produce a detailed surface texture.

I have uploaded a few images that were saved during the making of the wolf spider to show its development. Perhaps you will find them interesting.

Left click the image below to see it full size.

Bird Photos - in the park

(left click image to view larger version)
A small selection of the photos taken by Di Mathews of Hexagonal Mandala during "a day at the park". These were taken with a canon 1000D digital SLR. The park is a small one in Telarah near Maitland NSW. It isn't much to look at, just a small area off the highway that has a lagoon, not many trees and heaps of goose poo, but it does manage to attract some interesting water birds. These images might eventually become resource material for future artworks.

ACEO Bird Art - Magpie Portraits

These are my 3 latest miniature magpie portraits available through Hexagonal Mandala.

We currently have a small group of magpie that visit our back yard for hand feeding every evening. The love to eat minced kangaroo meat. These portraits are of those birds. They are created by digitally drawing directly into a computer using a pressure sensitive pen and a digital drawing tablet. They are currently available as limited edition ACEO (3.5 x 2.5 inch) collector cards or as postcard sized images on super gloss paper.

Spider art - Huntsman

This Hexagonal Mandala artwork titled "Said the spider to the fly" was hand drawn/painted by Di Mathews directly onto a computer using an electronic pen and digital drawing board. All of the detail and textures are built up with tiny scribbles of colour.

This is a portrait of a huntsman spider, there are over 100 species of huntsman recorded in Australia. Huntsman don't make webs but rather chase their prey. Their main habitat is under loose bark of trees.

This image is approximately 11x16 inches and printed on high quality artist paper.
(left click image to see larger version)

Todays Renders

Three little digital art images created today.