I loved working on this last autumn with animation company Flock, who did the graphics for Lion TV's Series Two of Big Dreams Small Spaces with Monty Don on BBC 2. It's on tonight at 8pm, or here on iPlayer soon afterwards.
Looking forward to watching all the love, hard graft and heartache that went into transforming each of the tiny gardens mixed in with a good dose of Monty's cheerful interventions.
Of course, I can't wait to see my watercolours whizz by - keep an eye out for the plants in the animated 3D garden plans(which show the gardens before and after Monty's suggestions for improved designs and planting.
Above are two of my favourite elements, an olive and an apple tree. No idea whether they made it in the final cuts, but I was happy with the way they turned out. More plants to follow, now that I can share more of this commission.
Wow, what a fantastic week for my illustration! Landscape animation whizz Matt Parker over at room 60 turned my plant watercolours into 'Before and After Monty' sequences for a gardening show with Monty Don on BBC2. That's the title sequence up above there with Matt's butterfly making magic with the 4D effect.
It's on from Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. all this week.
While I love seeing my work in print, and also watching it develop on paper when I'm painting, seeing it unfold in garden vistas on TV takes it to a whole nother level, I gotta tell you.
Wow, the glowing box in the living room with my very own agaves and astilbes populating the screen!
Heh heh. I am loving that. A lot.
So much the better that it's a gardening programme featuring real people with their very understandable struggles to match idea to plot and to reality, with the ever cheery and affable Monty dropping by to deliver solid good advice and, occasionally, a hand in the digging and planting.
Nice work if you can get it, eh, being a gardening rock star? Here's a review in the guardian.
For now though, I'm happy to stick to watercolour plant illustration.
Warm and cosy and (mostly) indoors works for me at this time of the year - my South African hands have never quite been able to deal with planting onions in November.
Below, a keyframe from the series, which is how I supplied the illustrations originally.
I'm working on a lovely commission for animation company room60 at the moment, who specialise in animations for landscaping and the environment amongst other things.
The project is headed for TV broadcast eventually, but for now, the work for me is all about greens and more greens, seeing as my end of the bargain is supplying the plants for use in animation. Simple.
So fun, to have a list of plants and paint them, one by one - a meditation in the possibilities of watercolour within a limited scope. I love that I can say today I got paid for painting...moss.
As for the greens, here's a list of hardworking ones, in case you feel the urge to illustrate a garden sometime soon. I must say I can recommend it.
Hooker's green
Sap Green
Olive green
Oxide of Chromium
and plain ole' blue and yellow mixes with a teeny smidge of red or orange thrown in.
Which of the illustrations are your favourites? I think for me the page with the lilies below and the grasses. Love the grass action in the second photo. Let me know what you think, and please tweet or share on facebook if you enjoyed reading this.
