Elysium Rain

Australian Adventures

2010-12-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been 6 months since I last wrote in this blog; the time has gone soo fast! Now Christmas is approaching I am currently in Cairns (north Australia). Since starting my journey in Sydney I have visited numerous towns, met loads of fabulous people, seen a symphony at the opera house, visited numerous zoos, discovered beautiful beaches, tried eating kangaroo, seen deadly spiders, caught a taipan, held a koala, seen a shark, ridden on the amazing Scooter Roo tour, gone whale watching, seen dolphins, and even held a salt water crocodile! I can safely say I am having the time of my life!

Not forgetting art side of things, I held a market pitch at the Cairns craft fair on a Saturday air-brushing paintings of planets, animals and sunsets. This is something i'd been wanting to try since seeing street artists in Brisbane. Considering this was just my 2nd try I received great feedback from everyone and sold a decent number of paintings, I was completely covered in paint by the end of the day but it was worth it. I also designed someone a dragon tattoo and painted two giant watermelon signs for the farm I worked on in Mareeba. After completing 2 months of seasonal work (and saving up some dosh) I've booked a flight to New Zealand and will be flying on the 3rd landing in Auckland where a friend and I will be hiring a campervan to travel round the north and south islands, eventually ending up in Christchurch. I can't wait!

VIVA LA VIDA!

2010-06-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

This will be my last blog entry for a while.

Like the seasons, my life has undergone some major changes. Doors that were previously closed are now open and I feel the urge to try something new and exciting. My Spanish summer will be cut short as I journey to Australia (arriving in the middle of the winter) to try a years working holiday (which I might extend to two providing I survive the three months of seasonal work). I can honestly say this will be the biggest thing I have ever done on my own, that if I don't try this now then I probably never will.

My adventure starts in Sydney, possibly heading up to Cairns later on in the year. Updates to the website shall vary depending on my access to the Internet and software. I hope to continue working on my art and fantasy novel.

One of my last paintings in Spain using acrylics and pastels and some miniatures and commissions.

To new food, culture, koalas and Skippy - Adios España and G’Day Australia !

Spring has Sprungith!

2010-03-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

The Spanish Fallas has come and gone and Easters on the way. For those of you not familiar with the Fallas please check out http://www.fallasfromvalencia.com/ I highly recommend the Falla’s in Valencia – incredible craftsmanship, time and skill goes into making these sculptures but the ones in Valencia are by far the grandest - it seems such a shame to burn them!

Arty bits
My entry piece for the children’s illustrator’s competition at the London Book Fair.

There wasn’t really brief for this (at least I couldn’t find one on the website ?!) so I based my theme on Once Upon A Time - the starting point of all classic illustrations. The idea was to have the characters almost coming alive and falling out of the book, even the letters seem to be making a dash for it as the dragon and the knight battle it out and the book catches fire. I was pleased with the result, unfortunately I didn’t win the competition, but at least I have another picky for the old portfolio.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been working on some private, miniature commissions. As you can see, my commissioner’s have quite an imagination!

I’ve also made some updates to the miniature section - http://elysiumrain.com/TeenyTinyCreations.html

Hope you all have a happy Easter and enjoy the holiday!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a super Christmas. Here is the latest card from Alex and Friends and an enlarged version of the spot the difference for those of you still looking! You can put that magnifying glass away now lol.

There are 12 differences – have fun trying to spot them!

Last but not least, some of the latest miniatures I’ve sold on ebay. To see more please follow this link to the updated miniature section of my website. http://www.elysiumrain.com/TeenyTinyCreations.html

Thank you everyone for your support and continuing interest in my work. Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year to you all x

Christmas is coming!!!

2009-11-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

I’ve made some (rather time consuming) improvements to the website. Amazing how fast the time goes when you’re working at the pc! Most of my illustrations can now be enlarged so please look out for the L next to the sample images.

Managed to finish the Christmas card (the forth Christmas card instalment) for Alex and Friends (image will be posted after Christmas)

You can buy these lovely cards (along with the Alex and Friends birthday card) from the Alex and Friends website, http://www.alex-and-friends.co.uk/acatalog/cards.html.

A commission for a friend of mine of her families two cats, painted with acrylic and pastels. The most challenging part was actually the background because of the extreme contrast between the two cats; I had to try for something neutral/easy on the eyes. I’m quite happy with how it turned out; I hope my friend is too.

Plates, plates and more plates! I’ve taken quite a liking to painting these. I’m now focusing more on animal themes, some wolf plates are up for grabs on ebay – don’t miss your chance because these will not be repeated!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OOAK-Miniature-Wolf-Plate-by-Teeny-Tiny-Creations_W0QQitemZ280424800630QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Dolls_House_Miniatures?hash=item414a9ee176

Halloween and Holidays

2009-10-14T06:18:00.000-07:00

With Halloween approaching I have been painting (and baking) lots of spooky miniature plates.

And the not so spooky ...

The Teeny Tiny Creations section of my website has been updated.

http://www.elysiumrain.com/TeenyTinyCreations.html

Here are some links for plates still up for grabs.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ooak-miniature-Tudor-Rose-Plates_W0QQitemZ280409585907QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Dolls_House_Miniatures?hash=item4149b6b8f3&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ooak-miniature-Fish-plates_W0QQitemZ280409578047QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Dolls_House_Miniatures?hash=item4149b69a3f&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

There’s a new Alex and Friends Christmas card in the works that will hopefully be finished by the end of the month. Here is a link for cards already available to order from Alex and Friends. http://www.alex-and-friends.co.uk/acatalog/cards.html

More paintings and miniatures coming soon!

LOTS of Art and Crafts

2009-09-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a summer! Like every summer out here my paints (unlike myself) have spent the last several months chilling in the fridge. Yep, you read that right; my paints (mostly my solid watercolours) have a lovely habit of melting in high temperatures. Never the less I somehow managed to do the following –

Activities for the National Honey Show - http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/

Until now, I knew very little about beehives, the brood, the super or the number of frames involved in storing honey, one things for sure, I will never see a jar of honey in the same light again!

For those of you wanting to know more, a photographic Inside a Beehive book is available through CMI Publishing with 9x7inch frame by frame photos of bees and their beehive. http://www.constructive-beekeeping.co.uk/ Cover illustration - you can imagine how long it took to paint all of those bees!

A bit of a contrast to the bee scene, I finished a painting of some butterfly koi.

We had koi when I lived in England, very beautiful and calming to look at.

I’ve recently updated the website and added a new art section - http://www.elysiumrain.com/Art%20and%20Activities.html along with my new Teeny Tiny Creations - http://www.elysiumrain.com/TeenyTinyCreations.html.

Miniatures will up for grabs on ebay later this week.

Busy Bee - Poppies, Plates and Pens.

2009-07-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

Art and Crafts … well, mostly crafts. I have been busy making birthday presents and celebrating my own birthday as well!

For my ma's birthday present I wanted to make something in memory of the puppy we rescued. We only had her for a couple of weeks before we found out she had internal problems, that no amount of love, time or money could help her. She had two weeks of affection and I thought it would be nice to make something to remember her by – esp for my mum, who mentioned framing a photo of her. I had the idea of a wall hanging, something based around the puppies name – Poppy. Unfortunately I couldn’t find an oval frame to use as a base (their always rectangles!) so I bought a plastic mirror to use instead. Actually it worked really well - I decorated the outside with clay poppies, covered the back with clay and painted a portrait of Poppy on some watercolour paper. Hopefully mum wont see this online before her birthday in August <<

It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever painted, partly because she was so young I found it hard to paint the detail I normally would with older dogs, but mostly because of the subject matter. I decided to draw her at about 6 weeks old instead of 5 so her features look a bit more developed (or how I’d imagine them to be). I’m quite pleased with the final result and I hope mum is as well.

I’ve had a couple of commissions for the pens that I make. One was of a falcon -

Also, (and rather random) I've painted some miniature plates for dollhouses (ebay of course!). They seem to be selling well and attracting a lot of attention. Everyone is asking me if I use a magnifying glass – believe it or not, I don’t use anything! No glasses, no magnifier – nothing but my own eyes. My sight is awful far off, I have glasses but surprise, surprise, I never wear them. My sight is, and always has been fantastic up close. I even had to scan the plates because my camera couldn’t pick up the detail!

I plan to commission these and place photo's on my website as soon as i can.

Apart from the art i wanted to mention that earlier in July we had some crazy weather! I thought they were tornados until someone corrected me and said they were waterspouts … hmm, it doesn’t have quite the same impact does it? "Run! A waterspout is heading towards us!" as opposed to "Run! A tornado is heading towards us!" Oh well, waterspout it is, even if it does conjure up images of a garden hose >> ho-hum.

Behold – the dreaded waterspout!

Parades and Pens

2009-07-02T03:56:00.000-07:00

Phew - What a week it’s been! I spent the entire weekend with a friend face painting for the Moors and Christian’s parade in Benissa. It went really well considering I only had a couple of hours to practice four different designs!

In total I painted 40 people.

Overall the parade was a spectacular success, and I was very proud to be able contribute to it.

To find out more about this festival please visit this link - http://www.spain.info/TourSpain/Reportajes/0/Moros+y+Cristianos+el+espectaculo+de+la+historia?Language=en

Now for some more photo's. Lots of birthdays seem to take place in June/July and I decided to get creative.

I made Val (CMI publishing ltd) a couple of pen toppers based on the characters I illustrated for the book Alex and Friends.

Made from air-drying clay and soft Mohair, I was really pleased with how these came out and of course, Val liked them too.

The Alex and Friends activities are now available for download at http://www.alex-and-friends.co.uk/acatalog/Downloadable_Activities.html

Where does the time go?

2009-06-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, it’s the 22nd June already!

I’ve added some FREEBIES to the site! Four different types of desktop wallpaper –

Link - http://www.elysiumrain.com/Free%20Desktop%20Wallpaper.html

The Wild Side (the one with the wolf) is one of my newer ones – the others are from around 2001, Dark Woods (the beige background and the black trees) is my old favourite. I actually painted this using tea bags and ink! I think I was around 17/18 when I did this – it was my first illustration that I uploaded to Epilogue.net and it really got the ball rolling with my career as an illustrator.

What else have I been up to? Well I’ve been working away on my book – still lots to do!

I plan on updating this blog again next week. This weekend I’ll be face painting with a friend in Benissa for the Moors and Christians parade – lots and lots of people need their faces sparkling for this, and we’ve only a few hours to do them all. It will be the largest number of people I’ve ever painted so I’ll defiantly put some photo’s up ... when I’ve recovered!

More soon!

May - Accomplishments and Animals.

2009-05-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Yey, I've finally finished the painting I started two years ago!
A scene from one of the chapters of the book I’m writing- Alex and Raúl are resting by the stream after a long and tedious trek through the forest, unaware they have ventured into the territory of Mortikye the wolf. Their presence is not welcome…

I’m really pleased with how this turned out considering I did'nt rough it up and more or less painted it as I went along.

I’ve updated the sculpture section of my site with some photos of the pen toppers ive made and sold on ebay. – http://www.elysiumrain.com/Sculpturedpens.html

Val and I have set up a calendar of the picture book 'Alex and Friends' on lulu.com – http://www.lulu.com/content/lulustudio-calendar/alex-and-friends/7079356
We hope to another for the second book when its finished.

And last but by no means least, a little bit for Fi-Fi (not my choice of name lol), my hamster who passed away today.

She was by no means the friendliest critter but she was definitely the cutest. Will miss you lots Fi-Fi mouse X

2009-05-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to those who’ve recently joined my blog! Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

So what have I been up to? Well in truth I’ve not accomplished a lot because I was sick with flu for what felt like the entire month of April but that aside, I did manage to try my hand at sculpting.

Just silly little gimmicky pens but they went down well with the people I showed them too so I thought what the heck – plonk them on ebay. The first batch sold rather quickly and I’ll update my website with photos of the rest as soon as I get my hands on the camera.

Also, I’ve recently joined http://www.amateurillustrator.com/ - This is a handy little site for artists, both pros and beginners. And I quote for those of you wondering about the amateur part -
“We named our site 'amateur illustrator' because the original and true meaning of the word is to do something because you love doing it.”

That pretty much sums up why I do what I do … of course, the fact that it was free to join up had nothing to do with it >>

March and April going-ons.

2009-04-07T01:15:00.000-07:00

Finally, I’ve created a blog! I had planned to do this back in March but ... I’m still trying to work out where that month went - the time has flown by!

The latest book for Alex and Friends is coming along well, my publisher Valerie recently attended GESS in Dubai. The exhibition was opened by a Sheik and I was very pleased to hear a copy of the book I illustrated for Alex and Friends was bought as a present for a girl aged 10 and boy aged 7. Overall the exhibit went well and you can read more about that on the Alex and Friends blog - http://cmipublishing.blogspot.com/

Lately I've been working a bit more on my own fantasy book - still a work in progress. The intro is more or less finished and im now ploughing through chapters four and five. When will this be finished? I’m hoping somewhere around early 2011.

Around all of this i'm still trying to salvage the lost data from the PC after having a virus attack a couple of weeks ago. What ive learnt -

* Never save anything as a .Tif (instead of tiff). The files go corrupt and are inaccessible there after.
* Invest in an external hardrive - goodbye cds! Goodbye faulty USB sticks!

That aside, enjoy the holidays and ... Happy Easter!