Rainbow-fro!

"Someday we'll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me"
(Kermit the Frog)

I am a little obsessed with colour at the moment...

I was recently hired to create a logo and business collateral for a small business selling all kinds of art and homewares. The brief made mention to water colour paint. So I went and bought myself a new water colour paint brush and set up a station of exploration and play. I made quite a delightful mess splattering colour on the parchment. I ended up with dozens of splotches and splashes and drips. Was so much fun and the end result looked great! I was so taken with the process that I have spent the last couple of nights mixing water colour creations with my drawing. 


This picture was a late night doodle to unleash the colour within!




And here is another little illustration I created last night that also mixed my water colour drips with digital drawing:

I think the above was influenced by my morning exercise under the Autumn trees here in Melbourne! I am also reading Lord of the Rings at the moment and there is mention of an Elven kingdom where the trees turn gold and hold their leaves until the green new leaves are already in place. Only then will the golden leaves drop. Very fanciful!

In keeping with this new delight of colour, I have a new design up on my Red Bubble store!
Available on t-shirts. Organic, regular fit, babies, kids, v-neck, 3/4 sleeves - all sizes, many many colours to choose from too!
Also available on device cases (phones and tablets) and stickers and cards and prints.

I call it Rainbow-fro.

You can purchase your own copy here

Tee-Lightful

"You see things and ask "why?"; I dream things that never were and think "why not?""
(George Bernard Shaw)

So I have a line of t-shirts available via Red Bubble! I thought that perhaps the best way to promote them to people is to actually buy them and WEAR them myself!

I thought "why not?" Why not literally stand behind my art and put my work out there? After all if I wouldn't wear the shirt how do I expect others to see it's value.  So I put an order in just under a week ago for a shirt with my
CREATIVE THINKING design.  The t-shirt arrived on my doorstep today in a
cute cardboard parcel with a Red Bubble Sticker and a swing tag with my name
on it attached with a little wooden peg.

It was so satisfying to put on the t-shirt - the fit was right, the fabric soft and the design - well the last one I am so happy with! With the exception of some jewellery beads (which were more crafty than anything) I have never made wearable art before! 

What do you think?
Do you like the design?
Check it out at Red Bubble - LOADS of colour choices, sizes and styles!

Lou Endicott's illustrations - T-shirts and more on Red Bubble

Here I am in my new shirt! The cheeks of the design are hard to see in the photo due to the light in my backyard, so I am attaching a shot of the design.

Puntastic!

"Puns are the highest form of literature"
(Alfred Hitchcock)

Ok, so who am I to argue with Alfred Hitchcock?
Not that I would argue.
I am a fan of the pun. In fact I have said many a time that I should be put in a punitentiary. 
Pun ALWAYS intended is my motto.

Perhaps because I have worked with kids for many many a season, puns and lame jokes are one of my ways to engage kids in my classes - "edu-tainment" my partner calls it. Rope 'em in with a laugh then see what they can learn. With kids - engagement is the first and hardest obstacle to overcome. I get to test my pun and lame jokes out on the little people - and I admit I also get some of my material from them! 

Speaking of which, last Saturday as part of a weekly drawing challenge via twitter I set about thinking what I could illustrate under the theme of "food". As I teach drama to kids all day Saturday I thought I would ask them. "Draw your favourite food!" was the first response. Which had us all talking about our favourite foods. Being a vegetarian I said that my favourite food would have to be vegetables. So that started a conversation on what I could illustrate that involved veggies. There was talk of giving them faces, making them dance, putting them in shoes or clothes and putting them with their "best vegetable friends". There was even the suggestion of "put them inside your digestive system!" Which got me laughing. One little girl with big eyes just said "Make the vegetables really funny!"

So I went with that.
And for me punny is funny.

I remembered years and years ago walking through a fruit and veggie shop with my partner. We were just friends at the time and we would always try and make each other laugh.  My partner is probably the funniest guy I know. And together we laugh til our eyes leak, our cheeks hurt and our hearts are full. As we walked through the veggie shop all those years ago we kept picking up items and making puns. A tomato was picked up "Hey! You used tomato to me!" A bag of nuts picked up "You. You're completely nuts". A celery bunch in hand waved above heads "You're my best worker. I'm raising your celery!"

You get the picture.
Groans a plenty.
We even wrote a lame rap around veggies (which I won't go into here as we have a plan to one day release it under a pseudonym complete with animated film clip - so it will go viral and we will make gazillions. You know - real dreams).

So I decided to use my love of veggies and puns as stimulus for an illustration. But I got carried away and drew three. I will bring them of course to my class next week and ask the kids if they approve.