final hats

I've finished making this year's batch for the Innocent smoothie hats fund raiser. You can see hats made by others here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bigknit2007/pool/.

Other news: I've been tagged - more about this later on.

Beautiful Days

I'm enjoying my summer holiday doing some of my favourite things: time by the sea, lots of drawing, and watching live music! The photo - taken on mobile phone - is of The Levellers, taken yesterday evening at Beautiful Days, a fab festival at Escot in Devon. I also saw Willy Mason, Afro Celt Soundsystem, K T Tunstall, The Rumblestrips, and Dub Sound System.

still knitting

I am still rather focussed on knitting and crocheting smoothie hats: today I made another bobble, and a crochet butterfly for the tops of two of them! However, I also cleared a whole load of stuff off my painting desk, and did a tad more to the painting in the photo ; )

More hats especially for Toby

I've not done very much drawing at all since my last post: all I have done has been sketching out ideas for knitting! Most of them have been stitch ideas for the smoothie hats, but some are for another project which will be shown soon. Knitting rocks! It's being a real pleasure to re-connect with a favourite hobby since I learnt how to knit when I was six years old. Toby Attrill (www.naturalattrill.blogspot.com) asked me about the size of the smoothie hats, so I've put one onto an empty smoothie bottle to demonstrate. The downside of the hats project is that I don't enjoy making the pompoms to put on the top. Maybe I'll make some more crochet flowers, or even tassels.

bracelet, drawing and hats

A delightful gift arrived from Toby Attrill (see naturalattrill link): a fab pearly green and white bead bracelet!


At life drawing today the model was wearing shoes with very high heels - and she is tall without. Quite a challenge to get the proportions for the drawing right.

Here are the first couple of smoothie hats I have knitted for the Innocent Age Concern fundraiser: I'm very much enjoying being creative with them, and may have cheated a little by using crochet to make the pink flower!

Innocent Village Fete

I've been to the Innocent Village Fete today: http://www.innocentvillagefete.com/. Wonderful weather, and very enjoyable. I contributed a flag to the longest bunting in the world, and saw some great live music, especially Seth Lakeman performing on the tiniest, cutest stage - see photo. There was also some gothic morris dancing, games like quoits, and a knitting tent. I'll be making some more knitted hats for smoothies for Innocent's Age Concern fund raising: I love knitting anyway, and the hats are tiny, so lots of opportunities to make something creative quickly : )

Under the sea

I've noticed quite a few seaside or under the sea type ideas creeping into my sketchbook over the past few weeks - eagerly anticipating forthcoming holiday in a week and a half. The page on the right was inspired by something I saw on tv, and I think it has potential to be worked up further, so watch this space1

an update

A life drawing from today, to prove pencils have not been entirely absent from my hands! Drawing is so satisfying.

Migraine and stress have kept me away. However, summer is back, and I'm feeling loads better. The roses opened out beautifully, and their colour was wonderful - hard to capture on film.

holiday snaps

Holiday at home this time, and I am learning how to use the digital camera as a holiday project. Here are some early successes, using the autofocus setting!

Watch this space

The last week has been extremely busy, and mostly in very enjoyable and nice ways! A highlight was seeing Midlake http://www.midlake.net/, The Dears, Kissing Trees and Stephanie Dossen on Wednesday evening as a part of fab cd label Bella Union's 10th anniversary celebrations. (They also have the wonderful Howling Bells: http://www.howlingbells.com/). Very kind friend Lorna (http://www.lornaart.blogspot.com/) has loaned me a digital camera, so experimenting with it. New photos will be appearing here soon.

delightful pressie

Today I received a very delightful present: a crump brooch!
Handmade by Sarah Miskelly - more here: http://magicalmiskellaneous.blogspot.com/ I'm very thrilled!

Another couple of pages from June

Here are another couple of pages from the week away in June. I'll scan something more recent in the next day or two!

back here again

Finally, here is one of the pages from my trip to Suffolk last month. I particularly like the action pose in the middle of the page of a friend clipping a box hedge!

I've been away

I've been away for most of the past week, and now I am catching up with housework, blogging, etc. While I was away, I did make a little time to do some sketching, and will post some later on. In the meantime, I can report that I have a new drawing pen for out and about - looking forward to trying it out today!

Sewing is fun

When I was idly doodling in my sketchbook yesterday morning, I found myself drawing some new pieces of fabric all ready for sewing into something lovely. The inspiration for this came earlier last week from a friend showing me some gorgeous materials she had bought from www.reprodepot.com. Then I remembered my plan to use the rest of the pretty pink butterfly fabric (from the pump bag I made for one of my nieces) to make a new cushion cover: so here it is all finished! I'm glad I used some time yesterday to make it - sewing is such fun.

The "pomp" bags

I collected some photos today, and among them was this picture of the "pomp" bags I made last August for a nephew and two nieces. My sister said I could start a sideline in making them!

What I've been up to

I've just begun working on the colours for the cat and stars - features a tiny amount of Winsor & Newton's anniversary "smalt" watercolour!

Amazing that my last post here was 12th May! A couple of events have interupted my regular posts here: firstly, I changed internet service provider, so have been spending hours updating my email contact details. Secondly, and far more exciting, I was preparing for and attending an interview to do an MA in Children's Book Illustration. Now I'm waiting to hear whether I've been accepted - I'd forgotten how nerve-wracking that part of the process is. Anyway, fingers crossed.

foxglove

This wonderful foxglove is growing in the blue pot alongside the little fig tree! I am always so thankful and impressed by the way plants flourish in my garden - there is always something fabulous to look at, in spite of me not devoting much time to it.

lily of the valley

I like to have fresh flowers in my living room, and this week I came across a delightful little pot of lily of the valley: Beautiful, isn't it? I am planning when it finishes flowering to plant it in my garden, hopefully to bloom again in next year. This will be a challenge, because the garden faces south, so does tend to be far too hot and dry for the kind of growing conditions lily of the valley prefer. In the meantime, it is so pretty, I will make some little sketches of it. 'Shame pencil and paint can't capture the delicious scent from the flowers ; )

A couple of water colour sketches

As a treat at the end of the life drawing sessions, I like to do a quick watercolour sketch of the pose to capture the colours! When i was regualrly going to life drawing a few years ago, I usually did the whole session in watercolour, but at the moment I am working on my use of pencil for light and shade and tone. The bottom sketch was made using what proved to be a manked size 8 sable brush that used to belong to my mother - it does not hold it's point when wet, so next week I'll be using my size 6 traveller's brush again.

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

A special message:







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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.