In which I talk about the joys of painting, drawing, knitting, cats, music, living in London, and whatever else takes my fancy.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Knitting while life goes on

Life sometimes has a way of throwing a large spanner in the works, so that even the best made plans have to be re-jigged. Hence the lack of painting! There have been some good times amidst it all, mainly adventures in knitting, which is somehow easier to do than drawing when I am distressed.  The photograph shows my haul from iKnit Weekender: some gorgeous New Lanarkshire blue yarn for a shrug, 2 mm circular needle, and most importantly Hedwig and three bat stitch markers from The Bothered Owl.

I also helped out Stitch London with knitting sheep and plarn bugs at Prince Charles' Start Garden Party To Make A Difference : fuller explanation and photos here! It was great fun, and I was astonished to meet Brian Blessed (who can knit!), plus catch sight of myself on the edge of news items about the event.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Goth seaside Day 4 Version 2

Here is version two of paddling at dusk! I am much happier with this painting than the previous one: her proportions are better, and I prefer the way the skirt is bunched up.

I've got one more idea for this mini-series of illustrations, so that will be here in the next day or two. Then I'm going to be doing an "Alice In Wonderland"/"Through The Looking Glass" project.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Goth seaside Day 4

It proved surprisingly difficult to paint this one: the problem for me has been getting the proportions right with her feet hidden in the waves! Not to mention the sea breezes blowing her hair. For this painting I could definitely imagine the sensations I associate with paddling in the sea, but then found this hard to translate into paint. I'm going to have another go to see whether I can catch better what I want to depict.