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Yippee! It's done.  ©VincentCavanagh 2022 That's right folks! After a month's worth of inking and going cross-eyed at various reference photographs, my 2023 Calendar: WYD Lisbon Fundraising edition is now available to buy. Contact can be made via Email or Facebook Messenger.
Pricings for the calendar are as follows:
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WYD Lisbon 2023 and a Calendar.  ©VincentCavanagh 2022 So, I'm hoping to go to World Youth Day in Lisbon next year (2023) and at the present moment it is almost assuredly going to be a miracle of the Holy Spirit that my local diocese makes it happen/gets us there (long story not worth boring others about).
The pilgrimage route being taken by said diocese is effectively (for this artist at least) a "Grand Tour" through Italy, starting in Venice, then visiting places such as Bologna, Florence and Assisi to name a few, and staying in Rome for 3 nights, before flying to Portugal for the actual beginning of WYD week in Lisbon, at the start of August, 2023. November has been a month busy with colouring some of the Inktober 2019 images in preparation for printing my 2020 Calendar. There is still a few more hours of work to do on it, but I hope to get it to the printers early next week. So here are 2 other Intober images, the black & white version followed by the colour version. The theme for Day 5 was Build  And how can you build without ACME?  The theme for Day 6 was Husky  That is a plaintive, husky cry for help! But did you expect such a building project to end any other way?  Now, back to work, to get the 2020 Calendar finished.
If you want your own, get in contact before I go to the printers because we only do a single print run. Inktober for 2019 is almost over, apart from the drawing I am working on now, there are only 2 more black & white Socket Head drawings to go. It has been a worthwhile personal discipline, but whether it has had any additional value remains to be seen. I doubt I will attempt it again. Here are a selection of 5 drawings from the series: From Day 15, theme 'Legend'  From Day 16, theme Wild  From Day 17, theme Ornament  From Day 22, theme Ghost  From Day 24, theme Dizzy  The rest of them you can see on my Instagram (@cavanaghcreative), Twitter (@VJCavanagh) and Facebook accounts.
Most of November wasn't spent at home, nor near a keyboard, so keeping up with the 52 Week Illustration Challenge required extra effort. The theme for Week 43 was Slow, and who better to help us slow down and appreciate the finer things in life than Mr Snail?  For Week 44 the theme was Everyday Object, and I chose a lamp but reversed the usual black on white to be white on black.  With Week 45 we had the rather interesting theme of Moustache, and since there are so very many styles to choose from I used 4 of them to remind us of that diversity.  There was even more ideas to choose from when it came to the theme of Quirky for Week 46, however since I was feeling a bit like my brain was out to lunch (in a huff) this was the result. Maybe you can relate to it too?  The theme for Week 47 was Pinata, something you try and poke holes into to make the good stuff come out. Sometimes we poke holes into the windmills of our dreams too, but the results are not as sweet.  Stay tuned to see if I make it to the end of this illustration challenge.
I will need to do something completely different next year.....if you have any constructive suggestions send me a message via the Contact page. It dawned on me that I was swiftly running out of time to update the blog before the month of October ends. So here it goes.... The theme for Week 37 of the 52 Week Illustration Challenge was Contrast. With this one I tried to contrast short and tall, slim and stout, happy and sad, bright and dark.  For Week 38 the theme was Free Spirit, and this was one of those times when the meaning is clearer when the opposite is also present.  The theme for Week 39 was Wrinkle. Where do we notice most wrinkles? Around the eyes. So here are wrinkles around the eye of an alien looking animal.  Of the many things to choose from for the Week 40 theme of Brazil, I looked to the iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer that overlooks the great Brazilian city of Rio de Janiero where World Youth Day 2013 was held.  With the theme of Solar System for Week 41 I had a bit of fun. Did you know that solar systems need a bit of expert robot maintenance every so often? Replacing the light bulbs in the suns etc  The theme for Week 42 was Childlike, and I tried something different with this one, by retaining the pencil sketch and not inking over it, and adding digital colour washes. For so many people flying a kite brings back happy childhood memories.  It seems a bit weird that each one of these had digital colour added, but it happens like that sometimes when both time is limited and access to drawing/painting space on the dining room table is limited.
Indeed it is. But onward we go.... Week 31's theme was Bunting, and this happily coincided with a commission based on the Mum and Dad dinosaurs from the Welcome theme near the end of last year. But this time the egg was open, and a baby girl dinosaur could be seen, and the bunting above had her name on it. For Week 32 the theme was City, and this image was born after a few days of trudging around North Sydney, with the impression of a city and no recognisable landmarks.  The theme of Crayon for Week 33 took me in the opposite direction - back to nature. Crayon isn't a medium I use by choice, but it seemed like a good idea to take a stroll down to where the ocean meets the shore and to draw from life.  What to draw for Week 34's theme of Sheep stumped me for a while until my father used a phrase about his commuting experiences that I could visualise. There is quite a corollary between the experience of sheep being herded onto trucks and taken off to the abattoir and the many people who get onto crowded trains everyday to get to work.  With the Week 35 theme of Mistake it was a whole new experience deliberately doing mistakes rather than having them happen naturally and trying to rescue the results. A mistake, of course, is not perfect.  By the time Week 36 came along, a little of my pre-grief mojo was returning, and Frame was the theme. Many framed things only make sense when viewed from a certain direction.  If the locals are starting to dust off and begin reassembling their Christmas lights it must mean that it is time to think about getting my 2019 Calendar together. If you would like to order a copy, contact me before December hits, because I usually only do a single print run.
Continuing with the weekly challenges, without the moral support of others doing the same, has been hard work, especially during these early stages of grief. But onwards I plod. The theme for Week 26 was Homeland. For this I decided to do an ink-scape cross-section of the elements that make up home turf for me.  Week 27's theme was Puzzle. In this one someone is lost in a hedge maze, and is trying to use the 'Marco Polo' game to attract someone to help navigate to the exit by sound.  With Week 28 came the troubled theme of Climate Change, where so much confusion reigns, and yet the conclusions remain the same.  Normally with a theme of Meadow for Week 29 sweetness and light would be the order of the day, but what looks so nice from the viewfinder can be a whole different story at ground level.  The theme for Week 30 was Futuristic, so instead of doing something Jetsons-like or Star Trek-like, I went for something that has been promised to happen in the future Phil 2:10-11 where every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Each kneeling person embodies the colours of their national flag.  More weekly themes await their turn...so onwards I continue to plod.
The good news is that I made it, completing an image every week according to the #illo52weeks themes for 2017 as well as the bonus Christmas image - and each one was done within the weekly time frame. The not so good news is that there's lots of doubt over whether the Challenge will take place in 2018 - although a list of themes for 2018 has been released. So here's my work for weekly themes 48 through to 52... Week 48 was Africa. For this one I used ink only and a photographic reference of an animal from Southern African called a gemsbok, which is a type of antelope.  The theme for Week 49 was Purple, and as it was Advent, an Advent wreath seemed appropriate.  Week 50's theme was Window, and this one has echoes from a long running ABC-TV children's show that used windows to introduce adventures.  Shopping was the theme for Week 51, and I needed an idea that would make me smile. Maybe some of you will relate to one or other of the protagonists.  And for the lucky last for 2017, the theme was Celebration. Nothing quite beats the elation of welcoming a new member into the family.  And that's a wrap for 2017.
2018 has begun, may it provide all of the open doors and opportunities that 2017 sadly lacked. To tell you this story, you have to meet Suzanne first. Here she is, a well known local hairdresser. What's new is that she is now running her own salon, after being either an employee of another salon or doing home visits for many years.  Here's her salon website page http://suzannessalon.weebly.com/ and the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SUZANNESSALON1/ (You will notice how very proud Suzanne and Louise are with the results of their hair colouring talents.) Anyhow, in her travels Suzanne saw this image (below) and had an idea.  She wanted something like this on her salon wall too, so she asked me to do it. The first step was working on the computer and using Adobe Illustrator to produce an image that could then be reproduced freehand grid-by-grid.  As you can see, this print out got a lot of use. Once Suzanne was happy with the size and placement on the wall, I got busy with a pencil, ruler and set squares to align the grid and then start the image.  It gradually took shape...  And looked a lot better once the no longer necessary grid lines were removed. Now onto the painting stage...  It was a different experience painting on a vertical surface rather than a horizontal one. To keep the edges and points as sharp as possible I made use of good quality masking tape. That's the blue masking tape you can see below.  And here it is, finished but for the removal of a few pencil marks that will come off easily from the 'wash n wear' paint background.  It was something completely different to what I normally do, and it feels good to have overcome all of the new challenges that came with it. Of course I'll see all the errors in it, and never be completely happy, (that's life as an artist), but hopefully Suzanne, Louise and their customers will enjoy it for many years to come.
Thanks Suzanne for trusting me with this project. |
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