ILLUSTRATION

WATER COLOUR PORTRAITS

ILLUSTRATION FOR THE POST BOX RENEWAL CAMPAIGN

ROAD TO DEMOCRACY ARTWORK

Photoshop illustrations.

PORTRAIT OF SOL PLAATJIE

I created this portrait of Sol Plaatje by building up words from his book ‘Mhudi’ to form the highlight and shadow areas of his portrait. ‘Mhudi’ is remarkable because it is the first novel written in English by a black South African. The book was ready for publication as early as 1920 but it was only ultimately published in 1930 by the historic Lovedale Press after a long struggle to engage a publisher with favourable terms.

Photoshop illustration.

Above is the original photograph I used as reference in creating the artwork.

ICONS OF CHRIST PANTOCRATOR AND THE VIRGIN HODIGITRIA

Icons are not "painted" but "written" because the Orthodox consider making icons more a form of prayer than art, and they believe the iconographer's hand is guided by God.

I've written these icons in the Novgorod style. There is a specific order in which the different parts of the icon is applied. First, the outer frame is painted to close the icon off from the surrounding world. Then the image is applied in layers of egg tempera and lastly the 16 carat gold foil is applied to the halo and/or the background.

The colours used have meaning, for instance, red symbolise humanity and blue symbolise holiness. That is why Christ Pantocrator's outer robe is blue, signifying His holiness, and his inner robe is red, signifying his humanity. The Virgin Hodigitria's outer robe is red because she is human but her inner robe is blue, symbolising her holiness.