 I had a wonderful time at Saint Spyridon College last week for Book Week, sharing my creative journey, my illustrations and best of all, drawing imaginary creatures!! The students were wonderfully creative and came up with so many exciting ideas, from Megalodon's to 5-headed Hydra's, combining llama's and cheetahs and even at one point taking inspiration from a cactus for their creature designs!
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 In the second week of the July School Holidays, I was very excited to be involved in an online workshop facilitated by Unley Library. Normally this would have been a face-to-face workshop, but due to the current restrictions, we had the opportunity to explore some exciting new options and created a series of instructional video's titled 'Drawing Dragons', followed by a live feedback and demo session on designing imaginary creatures. The workshop was wonderful and the students that attended were very enthusiastic and adapted to the online format with ease. It was great to see all the wonderful creatures and designs that they came up with!  Although the workshop was only available on the day, the 'Drawing Dragons' videos are still available to watch HERE.
A few weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to interview local South Australian artist Gabriel Cunnett and talk about his illustration career, practice and experiences. I absolutely love Gabriel's highly detailed illustrations, where you can get lost for hours looking at all the design and narrative stories built within. This was an amazing opportunity to hear about his recent projects and gain some insight into the different illustration fields that he has worked within, particularly his work as a muralist. Please enjoy the full interview below and i'm sure you will enjoy his incredible artwork as much as I do!
Cat Sidhe is a cat from Celtic mythology and represents the Letter 'C' in the Animal Alphabets 2020 Mythical Creatures Challenge. #animalphab "The Cat Sidhe is a fairy creature from Celtic mythology. It is described as being all black except for a small white spot on its chest. It is said to haunt the Scottish highlands, and it is believed it could steal a dead persons soul by passing over the corpse before it was claimed by the gods." - excerpt from Animal Alphabets.
Set at midnight to the light of a full moon, the black phantom cat sits atop the Celtic marker stone, surrounded by a field of nocturnal flowers, glowing in anticipation for the ghostly deeds to come... The best part about holidays is the chance to explore new places, meet new people and explore new cultures, and our summer's holiday to Japan was the perfect mix. Now when I say summer, it was a scorching 35 degree C day when we left Adelaide and arrived in -2 degree C, so perhaps a winter's retreat is more apt! Although filled with the usual tourist jaunts, days filled with snowboarding (it was, after all, a snow trip) and food, oh so much delicious food, I was able to sneak some art in there too. An afternoon of sketching in the snowfields (based on experience, I did have to hike my way up a very steep slope with my board at one point, eek!), a trip to the incredible and awe inspiring Studio Ghibli Museum and Teamlab Borderless Digital Art Museum in Tokyo and a shopping spree to the Sekaido Art store - the BIGGEST ART STORE I HAVE EVER BEEN IN - 5 floors!!!!! Should have brought a second suitcase! I had a wonderful time last week teaching the Intro to Digital Painting Workshop at Unley Library. We had a wonderful group of 12-16 year olds who were so focused on their designs that 3 hours just flew by! We went through the basics of Photoshop, learning how to use brushes, layers, masks and a bit of photo bashing for good measure. For many of them, this was their first time using a digital drawing program and a drawing tablet/wacom and they all did an absolutely fantastic job. I had a wonderful morning working with the year 6 classes at Walkerville Primary School to create our own creative creatures!! From Dorangodillo’s swinging through swamps, to the Mugsalug’s living on the dark side of Pluto and Donka-fly-aroo’s patrolling grassy islands, we discovered new creatures and their incredible worlds!! I had an absolutely AMAZING week at Trinity Gardens School for Book Week! Stretching over three days, we ran workshops for classes from reception to Year 6, exploring all things SPACE - from creative rocket ships made from bubbles and fairy floss to Aliens that ate corn chips and were made of plants. One class was so inspired, they created a poster of The Spaceship race, showcasing all of their wonderful designs and ideas! 
From narrative stories around conservation, where our hero was a fish that could breathe air and our villain whose domain was pollution, to the wacky and quirky - flamethrower noses, laser eyes and skeleton armies - creative ideas were flying around the room quicker than Superman!!
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Lauren MullinderLauren is an Adelaide based artist, educator and children's book illustrator. Archives
August 2020
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