The mighty pomelo!

I first discovered this fruit on the streets of Cyrildene (China town in Johannesburg). Their massive size intrigued me, so I bought one even though the man tasked to sell it wouldn't tell me what they were. After describing it to my parents over the phone I have a name! We call it "you zi".

More recently I have seen pomelos (thanks for the name shop signage!) popping up in all my local grocery shops - I like them, though I can only eat about a quarter at one time. It's wonderfully aromatic, a good balance between refreshingly tart and sweet citrus flavours! You can use them in salads and savory dishes too (kind of like your pomegranates, mangoes and peaches - hooray fruit!).

Boomerang

I spent an hour last weekend throwing a boomerang around (very unsuccessfully). I can't throw. My coordination is so bad that I'm still failing after Alex showed me how to do it multiple times. Um, I guess try, try again? I was never great at sports, but enthusiasm conquers all!

Pasta a la Norma

I drew this picture imagining this playing in the background ^_^ I used to struggle with cooking aubergine, I like them, but couldn't find a vegetarian recipe that was...tasty enough? I always associated them with the taste of salty fish - that is what my Mom mostly made aubergines with - yes if you are a meat eater, try this recipe! (I think you can potentially substitute salted fish with some fish sauce). But I have finally found a great vegetarian recipe! Pasta a la Norma is super delicious! I think the trick is lots of garlic and giant handfuls of basil. Yum...

Illustration Friday: Tall

"He wore a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and a silver scarf. He had a long white beard, and bushy eyebrows that stuck out beyond the brim of his hat" - Gandalf from Lord of the Rings.

Dreamer

"Dream big Dream true"

Inspired by this photo (isn't her hair colour amazing?!)

Portraits from Hel Looks

A friend gifted me a Moleskine sketch book for my birthday (the most perfect present ever! Long coveted by lil old me but I would always gag at the price before ever getting to the checkout). It is amazing! I'm never going to draw in anything else! It also seems to miraculously play nicely with my technical pen (deemed exclusive enough for ya? Stupid pen that clogs up randomly - from paper fibers? - on regular printer paper!). Yes I love and hate this pen so much that I speak to it.

These portrait drawings are from pictures from Hel Looks, an awesome site.

doodles for charity

These are my submissions for the 1000 drawings fund raising thingy - the event is going to be next week (10 Nov). If I can get my budget in order perhaps I can go and score me some cheap art! I want to do more of those patterned paintings - the first pic is my first attempt - I didn't get the silhouette quite right, its a bit funny in places, but I like the effect ^_^

Illustration UnFriday : aeronautical rodents

I really didn't get to the Illustration Friday word "influence" this week, it was a bit of a meh word which didn't really make me think of any thing specific. I did draw this lil guy on one of my commuting journeys! Another pioneering aeronautical rodent, this time a little mouse dude who has harnessed the floaty power of bubbles!

Illustration Friday : Obsession

Aah the noble guinea pig, the only animal to have no other talents except to be choke your face cute. I have 3 and like a piggy mom of sorts, I worry irrationally about them : what if the kitchen somehow catches on fire and they cant get out? What if they accidentally eat bugs? What if an eagle (note: a eagle, not anything more common place like a cat or a rat...) swoops down and carries one of them away when I'm not looking? And all the while they are just getting fat...which I worry about too, while stuffing their faces with food (what can you do? their faces are always hungry!)

Pen and watercolour with some editing in photoshop. Please click on image for larger view.

Illustartion friday : Prennial

Fallen abit behind because of my holiday, here's a quick illustration of this week's word - I'm trying to be bolder with my watercolours...

Illustration friday: Remedy

In a bid to kick start a daily drawing habit, I'm participating in Illustration Friday.

Mushroom fairie

Flora owls

Awesome headgear :)

Some guinea pig doodles



From left to right: Tiramisu, Poe, Sylbie (who is the mother of the other two)



While we are on the subject of guinea pigs...here are some drawings of mine.

Christmas Smurfs

These lil guys popped in to visit late one night...