Blog posts


September 2019 - Industrial Nature Sculpture
August 2019 - Abstract Mixed Media
June 2019 - Paper Tube Sculpture
April 2019 - Rock Painting Extravaganza
January 2019 - Mini Shelf Pole
November 2018 - Painted Gourd
October 2018 - Matryoshka Doll Wall Hanging
September 2018 - Garden Pole
August 2018 - Mosaic Garden Sphere
June 2018 - Rock Houses
January 2018 - Art Can Happen Anywhere
November 2017 - Negative Space Painting
August 2017 - Altered Books
May 2017 - Annoying Cat
March 2017 - Costumes and Props
February 2017 - T-shirt Mania
January 2017 - 52 Week Illustration Challenge
December 2016 - Wonder Woman Fleece Hat
September 2016 - Lonely Chair Stop Motion
August 2016 - Sponging Rocks
May 2016 - Creating art with kids
April 2016 - Pew pew pew
March 2016 - Garage Band
Febraury 2016 - Stikbots Videos
January 2016 - Cross stitching zombies
December 2015 - Monster Mobile
November 2015 - The Reversible Seal Hat
October 2015 - Hallowe'en Maker Month
May 2015 - Avatar, Harry Potter and Shopkins


May 2016 : Creating art with children.


One of the most rewarding things I have realized is teaching children and helping them turn their artwork into so much more. The kids delight in seeing their doodles taken beyond the paper they drew it on. They delight in seeing their suggestions drawn (most of my hybrid animals doodles on my doodle page are suggestions from kids) or see themselves incorporated into an piece of art. "Bananaman", "The Safety Detectives" , "Rain and Piper's Yellow Submarine" and the "Digimon Poster" are all creations I made to please kids. I draw on my children for inspiration and artistic challenges.

Last month my daughter Piper and one of her friends drew a character each which I then scanned in and took into illustrator. I used their doodles to create line art which we then took into Photoshop for the kids to add colour. My daughter coloured her character "Soar" in with the paint bucket tool and I added in some shadows and a quick background to make the character pop.

Her friend Sasha had a more complex vision for her character "Aphor". She wanted the colouring to be similar to a space nebula. Photoshop, being the wonderfully versatile program that it is made it easy to use sourced stock art photos of nebulas and drop them into the character outline. She then added colour where she wanted and we created a simple star field background for the background.

After we had finished, we printed the characters out on transfer paper and ironed them onto T-shirts for them to wear. It was a HUGE hit. They loved being able to wear their own artwork. I hope to do more of these projects in future with the kids and their friends. It is a great way to introduce them to photoshop and to dream beyond just the piece of paper.

Another series I co-created a while ago required the kids to draw anything they like which then gave me the challenge of incorporating their doodles into a series of odd postcard-like pieces. These three were done by my daughters and my niece.