Laura Mallaghan Illustration

Hello hello hello. Just a little blog of my new ideas I like to chat about. 😁 As you can see the sketchpad that I had sketched, a sneak peek of my new ideas for painting! This one is big, like 2 times bigger than I usually paint. It's different but I think I'll be having fun. Hehehe. I will start doing this project possibly in May, after a few paintings I planned to do when I don't have a lot on my plate! But at the moment, I'm searching for smooth and thick papers to use for painting, once I have them, I'm good to go! Besides, I'd like to thank my work friend who inspired me to go big on painting. Thanks, Rina! 😆

Pondering through the window as the darkness come, finished my painting for the day. I have been thinking about the summer, having longer daylight, a greener front garden and warmth. Last night, the daylight went at 6.50-ish, we are getting closer to the long daylight! Meaning I'll be continuing to illustrate until 8pm for my relaxing times. I actually prefer natural light to work on my arts, better to see all the small details and colours. Do you agree? 😅 As you see my painting of rabbits I'm working on, you will find out on the next blog! Leave a comment below what you think it'll be! 💡

So, I spent my Sunday last week painting that special pansy, that's from my home garden, bright orange with broken purple. As I call this That Special Pansy, so special is because it's so rare to see this particular pansy with broken colour. The purple supposedly filled the whole petals, from the back, and this somehow just like that. Here's the genuine pansy from my home garden, back in this summer. Here's also the full orange pansy close by. Lastly, here's a full video in time-lapse. Mesmerising as usual to watch the process in this speed. Hehe. Thanks for taking the time to watch and read, and have a lovely Sunday! 😁

Happy Halloween! Today I'm in a spooky mood so I did a drawing this morning.  I call this 'Dead Tree'. I saw the tree from the field when I was walking with my foster dog a while ago, I looked at it and thought, "This looks good for Halloween", then I was inspired to have this tree for my Halloween illustration/drawing. This drawing is mixed media, I used colour pencils, watercolour paint and a fine-line pen. I like how all these branches curved in, toward the trunk. Also, I like the numerous twigs on branches as it looks more details. This tree looks like it has been dead for many years. Being on the hillslope that has rabbit burrows, definitely not the best place to grow, even it was planted by the warehouse developer, I think, along with all these small trees as you can see behind the dead tree, and it has been the same for many years, not grown any bigger as they thought these supposedly trees would've been. Anyway, to end this post, here's my foster d...

Yesterday I heard it was International Rabbit Day, as I'm a rabbit lover/obsessed, I thought I join in! So here's a very cute lop-eared rabbit. I did a quick paint with watercolour, although I have drawn this few months ago so that saved me some time, and I was using the old traditional Japanese brush I had since in college, even I have not used it for many years, I thought to use it for a quick paint. Halfway through the painting, I thought it looks messy, I ended up changing the brush size, from Japanese brush to fine detail brush, as I was adding some details in the hope of clear it up. Now it looks soft, better than I expected! Before I finish the post here, here's my foster dog, he's an Akita, interested in my painting. 😆 Have a lovely Sunday and thanks for reading! 😊

A cute pot for the pretty plant! It was for my little sister, she owns some indoor plants in her room and she wanted a small pot for one of her plants. She luckily found a small ceramic pot in our garden, sat on the low wall at the end of the garden along with other plant pots, with few bit of cracks, scratches and paint peeled from the inside, but she doesn't mind as long as it's the right size. Looking at that plain, glossy cream mucky pot I thought, I could make it pretty. I asked her if she wants some bit of decoration on it, and she approved. I gathered some ideas of what sort of motif to decorate, I remembered that she likes all sort of foxes, I went for the red fox! I have sketched some fox poses, the positions on the pot, some details to add. To add it in, I have used some image references for fox body positions and faces, which helps to a variety of choices. Drawing the fox faces I still find it tricky, I got frustrated afterwards then thinking it doesn't have to b...