The Thames

Today I found an excellent place to sit - so I'll be doing more sketches of this view. The photo facing the same way was taken on my mobile phone

Here is the first of my Thames sketches - it has been proving a challenge to find somewhere to sit in the shade, and still be able to see the river!
This is the longest pose from yesterday's life drawing session.
'Amazing how quickly time flies past - I am surprised that it is over a week since my last post here. I've been busy life drawing, and beginning to make quick sketches of the Thames near Hammersmith in lunchtime breaks.

Happy birthday

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cat with stars

It's been over a week since I posted here - life has been very hectic, with being away for a brother's 50th birthday, a friend to stay, finishing my application for MA, then having a migraine. 'Back to normal now, though, and I am planning to take this idea further.

another life drawing

This is an old sketch I did on holiday in Rhodes quite a few years ago: I like the way the depth of the sea shows, and also I want to make sure I do plan in some proper holiday for the summer!
Back to work this week, after my holiday, and it was life drawing first! This is the small watercolour sketch I did at the end of the session as a "treat" - mostly in life drawing I am working on improving my perception of tone and light and shade.

pretty plants in my garden

I've been doing some more tidying in my garden today, but made sure I took some time to enjoy some of the pretty things blooming this easter!

another cat with stars

This is a new idea (probably a card design) I 'm working on. My obsession with trails of stars is the result of studying the most gorgeous Edwardian evening dress by Worth, which used to be on display in the Victoria & Albert museum. It is peach coloured velvet, with silk chiffon sleeves, and silk chiffon edging around the hem beaded with trails of stars! I did a sketch of the hem detail one time, and will see if I can find it again to post here.

Otherwise today I have been gardening: it is such a joy to see jasmine, lemon geranium, and fuschia survived the winter under their old foilage, once I trimmed that off today. Also very pleased to note that my baby fig tree has some figs growing on it.

wind blowing stars

Today I have been painting in the cat surrounded by stars using a variety of media and gel pens. Great fun! The musical accompaniement was Laura Veirs, and a snippet of her lyrics "wind is blowing stars" seems to really fit the picture.

lack of hand and eye co-ordination today

Yesterday I had a migraine. I always forget that it takes a couple of days to fully recover: I'm noticing today that my eye and hand co-ordination is poor, and that I have the concentration span of a gnat! At least I've dreamt up my idea for the Real lllustrator's Phrase book now, even if I probably won't be painting it today... it's too frustrating to not get the marks exactly where I want them.

I have done a bit more weeding today, too.

gardening project

I am on holiday now until after Easter - hooray! One of my plans for the break is to blitz my tiny garden, which is a mess at the moment. The weather forecast is good this week, and I have made a start on pulling up the russian vine shoots, bind weed, etc which invade the garden from the railway embankment. I was delighted to discover that I now have violets growing and bloomin, along with the forget-me-nots, and tiny grape hyacinths.

In drawing news, I've received the Real Illustrators touring phrase book, so looking forward to drawing/painting pages of that. 'Just choosing a few words from the text.

Top 10 albums

Ben Grubb (see ben's blog) has set the challenge to publish my favourite 10 albums of all time on my blog, so here is today's list, in no particular order:

1.The Joshua Tree - U2
2. No Coda - Pearl Jam
3. Gedida - Natasha Atlas
4. Change of the Century - Ornette Coleman
5. Solid Air - John Martyn
6. In A Silent Way - Miles Davis
7. Aman Iman - Tinariwen
8. Monster - REM
9. Californiacation - Red Hot Chili Peppers
10. Hejira - Joni Mitchell

I thought it would take all afternoon to figure out, but has taken approximately 15 minutes!

In other news - life drawing again this morning, so will post something when I have scanned

the paint brush holder my mum made for me

It is the anniversary of when my mum died, so I am feeling reflective and a bit sad, and very thankful. My mum made me this paintbrush holder: being very thrifty and practical she made it from window blind fabric samples and recyled elastic! Pink was my choice of colour. The loose paint brushes belonged to her - she had a great time going to art classes in the last few years of her life, and I enjoyed talking about painting techniques, etc with her - about the only area of life in which I had many more years of experience than she did.

another life drawing

I went life drawing again this morning, with dubious results. Of the 6 drawings I did today, I think this, which is one of the 5 minute "warm up" sketches is the most successful. 'All good practice anyway.

Otherwise, I was most excited to receive issue 17 of ImagineFX at the weekend: one of my favourite magazines, combining illustration with fantasy and science fiction.

cat hiding with added shadows

After some very helpful feedback on the cat hiding illustration, I have added more and bolder shadows to the image. Doing shadows is something I find a quite of a challenge, because I see line and colour, not tone and shadow generally. However, this is a skill I want to improve, hence my current focus on shadow and form in life drawing.

It's great that today is such a lovely sunny day, and so enjoyed painting the shadows. Today's bright light is showing up the spiders webs and dust, so thoughts of spring-cleaning are very much to the fore.

Illustration Friday: Hide

Last Friday's Illustration Friday topic was 'hide'. Purely coincidentally I was already working on an idea for an illustration about a cat who hid under the sink! So this watercolour illustration will fit both.

Life drawing today

This morning I went life drawing, which is such brilliant practice with looking carefully, and drawing what I can see, not what I know! I'm also especially focussing on light and shade at the moment, because that's not what I generally see first. The pencil drawing took about an hour, and the water colour sketch from the same pose was 5 minutes work.

sculpture from 30 years ago

I was asked today about what type of sculpture I made when I did my degree in sculpture 30 years ago (Gosh doesn't time fly!), so thought I would post a photo here from my degree show. 'Apologies for the poor quality - it is a scanned Polaroid print. 'Does give an idea of the work I was experimenting with at the tme, though.

a couple of things I've made recently

Most of the drawing I have been doing for the past couple of weeks has been while I have been out. There is a reason for this, which is that my living room is still in a state of chaos, having been re-arranged to allow for tests of gas boiler, etc. Everything is ok, but I want to vacuum thoroughly before I put furniture back where it should be, and am waiting for new part for Dyson. Hence I can't currently sit at desk I use to paint and draw at! I've been continuing going to life drawing sessions, and also scribbling down ideas for urban fairies, and for the next Pinkty book. On the tube last week I made this 5 minute sketch, which I think is quite good for 7.30 am.

The bracelet I made a couple of weeks ago: yes, I am rather obessessed with dragonflies!

Naughty me - not keeping blog up to date

A certain someone told me last night that having difficulty remembering my new log-in for Google version of my blog was no excuse for not keeping my blog up to date! Mea culpa, indeed.

Well, I have not disappeared, and have been doing life drawing, sketching on tube, etc, and will scan some to post here soon.

another caffe nero sketch

I spend a fair bit of time in Caffe Nero these days, and I'm often tempted to draw people sitting nearby. This sketch was done in Hammersmith one lunchtime.

Appears to have worked

The upgrading seems to have worked. Now I just need to lodge my new log-in details into my memory!

I have not put a new picture here for a while, so here is an idea I am working on: urban fairies

Upgrading blog to Google

This is a test post, as I have upgraded my blog from the old blogger to Google,and I always find doing this type of thing mega-confusing!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Ladysnail, and have come up with the following 6 weird things about me:

1. My ears don't match, which I only realised when I was set drawing ears for art homework at school!

2. I hate roast potatoes.

3. I like brussels sprouts.

4. I once spent a month living in the jungle in Hawaii.

5. When I was a kid - 3 or 4 years old - I used to enjoy licking the backs of the plaster flying ducks which adorned my bedroom wall!

6. I knit in the continental way, having been taught this by my mother, who in turn had been taught to knit by an American lady, while they were both on a boat trip to Denmark. I've never learnt to knit English style, and used to get into trouble for knitting (very well) continental style at primary school.

Now I'm off to tag 6 people's blogs

Housework today

Today I have mostly been catching up with housework, which is a good thing: I'd had a nasty sore throat/cough type cold since the begining of January, and not been up to doing it for a couple of weeks. I have also had a good idea for this week's Illustration Friday topic of 'super hero'. My thinking on this was a bit stuck to start with, then overhearing someone in Caffe Nero this morning saying the Joe Sample (from The Crusaders) is their hero, got me musing about my own guitar heroes. Watch this space!

Asparagus soup for portoflio

Well, so far my plan to work on mock-up pages for editorial portfolio is going well. Here is a crop from the asparagus article I've been painting illustrations for. I took liberties with the page layout in the magazine article so I could have a large space in which to put a soup bowl! 'Don't suppose the orignal illustrator had that luxury.

Today I also bought some OHP sheets so I can make separate pages with the text for my chilren's story to overlay on the watercolour spread later in the week. I enjoy learning how to do new things.

working on portfolios

I've made a plan now for illustrations for my portfolios I am going to work on each week until the end of March. This feels interesting: I have so many ideas for pictures that I tend to spend my time getting all the ideas down on paper/computer, and then run out of time to follow through to produce finished pieces! So in order to focus my mind, I have made a very simple chart showing which 2 illustrations I am to work on each week - one for general illustration portfolio, and one for children's illustration portfolio or my children's books. The point then will be to look at the chart each day to remind myself. So far, so good: yesterday I was painting some asparagus images, and drawing a spread for the children's book ready for painting. Today I had much less time available, but I did do another half hour of painting the asparagus; and a bit more writing/designing of the next book on my tube journeys.

Illustration Friday: Buzz

Here is my first (very late) contribution to Illustration Friday! Last Friday's topic was 'Buzz', and having come up with this idea, I've run out of time to work it up beyond the sketch stage at the moment. 'Will do so in due course: the plan is to import the sketch into Painter, then work on it with digital watercolour. I wanted to participate this week as a good start to the new year. As anyone who knows me will be able to confirm, I really struggle with learning how to do new technological things, and Illustration Friday has had me mystified for months. Fingers crossed this works.

Best laid plans, etc

Since my last post here, life got in the way somewhat, so in spite of my wonderful plans to fill a small sketchbook by the end of the year, did not do so. Things are looking up now, though, so here is one of the sketches I did manage to do!

Xmas tree

I've been mainly focussed on preparing for Christmas, and winding down from work for the 2 week holiday. Here is my xmas tree. I'm setting myself the same challenge I did last year of filling a small sketchbook with sketches by the end of 2006! Have a very happy Christmas

3 french hens

Here is the '3 french hens' Christmas card at last! I'm gradually working my way through the 12 days, but not in sequential order. Each year around October, I get an idea in my head about which of the 12 days I want to do that year, then start drawing out ideas for the card design, in keeping with the previous ones. I enjoy doing something very Victorian-looking: years ago I worked for Smythson, and had a wonderful time looking through the scrapbooks they had kept of old Victorian and Edwardian cards.

The whole thing

The ginger cat I posted on Monday is an extract from a cd cover I made for a compilation. The cd has arrived with the intended recipient now, so here is the whole picture:

A bit of a tease!

Well, I got through an entire week last week without having a relapse of the lurgy! So today, I have been catching up with painting. Here is a small section of what I have been working on - the full thing will be posted later in the week.

More planning

Well, I am in mega-planning mode at the moment - which means tons of ideas for next steps, and not much actual painting or drawing is getting done! Quick sketches, though, which I may scan and post. I did go to a very wonderful exhibition of illustrations and cartoons at the Chris Beetles gallery in Ryder St, London, S W 1 - ranges from Arthur Rackham to Nick Butterworth.

More drawing on Tube

Today I discovered that a couple of months of colouring my dummy Pinkty book on the tube, has given me a steady enough hand to actually be able to draw reasonably well in transit! So, this morning some fairly serious figuring out of cd cover design. Then quick sketch at lunchtime. Then more work on new Pinkty book on tube on way home. Cue happy person.

ideas in progress

I have been drawing over the past couple of days, although I defy anyone else to make sense of my visual notes! When I am working out ideas, especially for black and white drawings, I make the skimpiest of marks to try things out. so I am not posting any of them here, just saying that I have been working on: "three french hens' Christmas card design; a cover for compilation cd, and the next visual story for the next Pinkty book.

some sketchbook drawings

Here are some recent sketches from the sketchbook I carry around with me: I've been using the same size drawing pens without thinking much about it for a few years, so I thought it would be fun to experiment with using different ones again! I like the lively effect on the pages.

Feelings of digital achievement

I've been reflecting on how much I have learnt to do with digital imaging in the past year (I always do a kind of annual review around my birthday!), and this point has been very much brought home by the ease with which I have been able to 'virtually' sign the plaster cast of a broken foot belonging to a friend from an illustrator's forum. This time last year I would not have known where to begin, let alone done the whole thing in about 10 minutes using my mac and Painter! appreciative of all the help I have received from friends in learning these skills, too.

autumn leaves

The colours in the autumn leaves are looking wonderful now in the very urban parts of London I'm in most days. I snapped these on my mobile phone today, partly to see how successful this is. Later I saw some even better ones while I was on the bus: sycamore shape, golden edges, and peachy-orange middles.

"Three french hens"?

Today I have been trying to find out exactly what "french hens" are. This is something I have been pondering since I decided 2006 would be the year for the "three french hens" Christmas card in the "Twelve days of Christmas" series. (In previous years I have done "two turtle doves"; "six geese a laying", "seven swans a swimming" and "five gold rings".) It seems there is not actually a particular variety of the domestic chicken called a "french hen"! This means I can draw whatever type of chicken I fancy doing. It will, however, definitely be black and white. Here is "six geese" to show the way I am approaching the design.

Time I took my own advice

This is "cold remedy", which is a quick sketch I made in Painter when I began to learn it last year! My cold is lurkering around, and everyone who talks to me tells me how ill I sound - I keep hoping I'm better, as I do feel more well than I did yesterday. In the meantime, I have been perfecting my 'link making' skills, and also watching lynda.com tutorials.

Making links

Well, in the past week I've been to the dentist and had a bad cold. Today, I am feeling much better, and planning to have another attempt at making links to this blog. First step is to buy new ink cartridge for printer, so that I can print out a coloured example showing the text bits I'd missed from the code that Fes made for me.

aoi portfolio set up

Today's news is that my aoi portfolio is up and running! http://www.theaoi.com/artist/claretovey

These are the 'trial tomatoes' I bought at the farmer's market today: I love the colours, and they reminded me of the mediteranean coloured ink rough I posted here. The boiler has been replaced, so central heating is working again, and I am having a grand tidy up of my drawing desks.

kitten mischief

This is another old piece: unusually for me, the finished artwork is in coloured pencil. Thanks to the magic of iphoto, it now looks good on screen

assembling aoi portfolio

The boiler replacement saga continues, which has totally disrupted my flat, ho hum. Prospect of the new one being installed next Friday. In the meantime, I am scanning work, etc to put into my shiney new aoi portfolio, which means re-visiting folders I have not looked in for a while. I discovered this lovely summery rough I did for a potential job, and wanted to post it here

attempting to make links

Today has been rather a write off so far as working has been concerned, due to complete disruption in my flat to enable new fridge-freezer to be delivered and old one removed. The good news: new one is masses quieter. Only constructive thing I have achieved today creatively has been to assemble using spray mount the dummy book I am colouring on the Tube. I am pleased about this because it will make the book easier to work in.

I have also been on a bit of a mission to try to figure out how to make links to other blogs, and think I may have succeeded in making links to paula bowles and chichi parish. 'Won't know for sure until later. If the links do work, I will add some more soon.

Update on Pinkty book

Today I've been working some more on tube journeys on the colour themes for my Pinkty book: it is amazing to see how adding colour to the dummy book pages is bringing the story to life. My skills in wielding colouring pencils on the tube is improving by leaps and bounds, too.

my favourite working area

Today, so far, I have not done any drawing or painting. I thought I'd like to show a photo of my favourite working area in my flat: lovely turquoise and pink desk, complete with watercolours, Wacom and G4 laptop. Actually, when I am doing watercolour, I put a plain plywood drawing board onto the desktop, too, then set the paints up on that. Having first moved the laptop well clear! Scanner, and printer are in different parts of the room.

sketching at lunchtime

This is the result of a 20 minute sketch made at lunchtime today, after carrot and spice soup, before shopping for oatcakes!I'm pleased that I'm sneaking more drawing into my days doing housing stuff: I also worked more on the colour scheme for Pinkty book on the tube

Plans for 'the owl and the pussycat'

After mulling over the gold-green experimental watercolour I did on 1st October illustrating Edward Lear's'the owl and the pussycat' going to sea, I now want to illustrate properly the entire poem. So today I tracked it down. 'Not sure what a 'runcible spoon' is, but will find out! At the farmer's market yesterday, I actually saw quinces on sale, so will buy some next Sunday to draw.

Trialling colour schemes on the tube

Life has been somewhat stressful for the last couple of days: the lack of central heating has finally go to me, along with the saga about getting the boiler replaced. Now I know far, far more about part L of the building regs than I ever wanted to. Consequence has been not much time for drawing or painting. However, I have experimented with working on my children's book on the tube journey across London, and discovered that I can use coloured pencils and a printed out dummy to try out colour schemes. I am very pleased.

thinking about drawing a sea of tents

At lunchtime, I did a little more work on a children's book idea. The double page spread I was dreaming up today involves a sea of closely pitched tents at a music festival, which should be great fun to draw and paint in due course. As ever, I was being over-optimistic about how much could be achieved in 1 day, too!

3 french hens

Today I have begun sketching out ideas for this year's Christmas card, which will be another in the black & white series based around one of the 12 days of Christmas. Previous cards in this series have been: 2 turtle doves, 5 gold rings, 6 geese a laying, and 7 swans a swimming. This year, I want to do '3 french hens'. I need to research exactly what french hen is!

new paint colour

Yesterday I treated myself to a new watercolour: W&N's 'green gold', after it was highly recommended by Lorna and Maya. So today I have been experimenting! The urban fairies pencil doodles I started while I was ill: inspired by admiring Cicely Mary Barker's fab flower fairies, and musing about what kind of fairies would live in London. The 'owl and the pussycat' (who went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat) has been on my mind all morning, so it seemed a good plan to take that as a theme for a limited colour experiment. Only 3 colours were used: french ultramaring, permanent rose, and the green-gold. I'm liking the effect

While I've been ill I've done more on this tapestry: worked out how to do the lettering! When I have finished the other side, which is similar only without the lettering, and will have a blue border, I will make them into a small cushion.

Life has been most exciting since my last post: a private view, Sketchcrawl last Saturday, and meeting U2! I've also managed to catch a nasty virus, but on the mend now, and will be posting pictures soon - if not drawings, then photos of me at U2 book signing last week. Drawings will be appearing again before too long

Back from travels

I'm home again, after a few days in Suffolk. It's good to be home, and likely to stay in London for at least 6 weeks. I'm looking forward to focussing on work again - while I've been away, only had time to do some sketching. Next Saturday, 23rd September, is another Sketchcrawl day, so hoping to go out drawing then, too. In the meantime, here is a drawing from the last one!

I'm still finding life extremely busy, and likely to be so for another couple of weeks, so scanning work has not been top of my list of things to do! However, I did scan this last week: it is an old piece, but I still like it, and still do black and white in a similar style

I've been so busy for the past couple of weeks getting the Pinkty dummy ready to test out on small nephews and nieces that I forgot to post updates here! They all liked the book very much, so now will try it out on children who don't know me. 'Will also scan and post some new sketches tomorrow.

holiday sketch

I'm mostly focussed at the moment on making a dummy of children's book to test out on nephews and nieces. In the meantime, here is a page of sketches from my holiday last week

new banner for blog

Today I've been making a new banner for my blog, and working out how to post it!

Here is a painting I made for a compilation cd cover this week. Watercolour, and yes, I still wish I went to Womad! My friends and I are in the painting, and the band playing is Tinariwen.

At last, a post!

I've been having problems loading the 'create a post' template for several days - incredibly frustrating! However, after 8 minutes of waiting it appears to have worked. I am on holiday, so here is a drawing from Womad in 2004 of the wonderful Tinariwen warming up before a workshop on Sunday morning. Wish I'd been able to afford to go to Womad this year. 'Consoled myself by going to see the excellent Howling Bells.