gardening project days 6 and 7

Hooray! I've been able to upload these two images : )

The pruners are antique: they came from my Grandad, and I have seen identical pair in a museum of gardening. They are the best: I've had modern pruners, which have not lasted more than a couple of years, unlike Grandad's which still do sterling service in my garden : ).

The flower pot was knocked over sometime during the winter - probably by a squirrel! Fortunately, the geranium, or to be strictly correct, perlagonium, is very forgiving, and will recover now I have replanted it.

Gardening project day 6

Hmm.. Well, I have another image ready to post, and blogger won't let me upload an image at the moment!

gardening project day 5

This is the winter flowering jasmine, which brightens up dull December days with yellow flowers : ). At this time of year it needs to be pruned, and I can never remember how to do it! I'll have to ask gardener and cartoonist Chichi http://chichiparish.blogspot.com/ for some advice.

Gardening project day 4

A lovely facet of tidying my neglected garden is discovering hidden plants like this tiny violet and the muscari hyacinths : ) The violets have arrived on their own, and the tiny hyacinths have migrated from where they were originally planted by me. It is so rewarding seeing them - a definite encouragement to go outside and do more tdying.

Gardening project day 3

Here is today's new illustration: next step in the garden is some serious pruning and weeding! Fortunately, local council collects garden waste separately for turning into compost. (Bonfires are not allowed where I live). I also had another go at tweaking the colour balance from yesterday's illustration: this time using Photoshop's "curves" function, which has worked a lot better.

Gardening project day 2

Well, today's is an experiment in re-sizing the image, etc in Preview instead of iphoto! Anyway, stage two for me in gardening is to dream up what I'd like to grow: basil for sure, and some cornflowers : )

Gardening project day 1

Here is the start of my project for April: gardening! I have a tiny garden, and it is currently in a disgracefully neglected state. I'm hoping that focussing on painting gardening images will focus my mind to taking action in real life out doors. Plus I love painting plants, etc anyway.

new spring wardrobe day 9

Here is my final addition to my fantasy new spring wardrobe: a highly essential hooded mac for the showery days! I'd love a grey blue coat, with pink lining, fish tail hem, and a dragonfly embroidered on it : )

I've already thought of a fab new blog project for April.

New spring wardrobe days 6, 7 and 8!

I had a lovely and exhausting weekend away over easter - seeing lots of my family, age ranges 5 to 80! It was fun seeing them, but the travelling was a nightmare, thanks to engineering works. Anyway, it has taken me a few days to recover, so that although I started painting the lovely pink cardigan on Tuesday, twas only completed today. In fact, this is an example of wanting to have exactly the same thing again: my beloved pink cardigan is rapidly wearing out - I keep finding new holes in it! The jacket is soft, dusky blue cotton, with more of that wonderful hearts print cotton for lining - and it is fully lined with this - none of the awful shiny polyester they seem to use for sleeve lining these days! The pretty skirt would ideally be silk crepe de chine, proper 1930s style : )

New spring wardrobe day 5

Here is my new denim skirt! Lovely soft denim, with a large scalloped hem, bottom 3 " lined with the same pretty and soft pink dotted cotton as the waist band!

New spring wardrobe day 4

The rock chick side of me wants a new U2 t-shirt: one that is navy blue, with a scoop neck line, instead of the throttling high ones customary on band t - shirts! Organic, fair trade cotton, of course..

New spring wardrobe day 3

A new t shirt! Lovely seagreen organic and fair trade cotton, with delicate silk chiffon cap sleeves and edging : )

New spring wardrobe day 2

Today I decided on some lovely silky mid-blue stockings; a pair of soft grey knee length socks with sea-green dragonflies on them; and some snuggly pink cotton socks with a crochet top for those evenings when I am at home and it is too chilly to go bare foot!

New spring wardrobe day 1

Here are first items: new underwear! The pattern on the cotton fabric of the "dotty" set would be tiny hearts - see the bottom corner. This set of undies is girly days. The other set - blue'grey denim type - is for "rock chick" days : )

here is the missing address

Both blogger and Firefox are giving me grief, so the link to Catherine's blog got missed out of previous post today: http://www.scatterboxtwo.blogspot.com

13th March 2008

I've decided on a theme for a mini-series until the end of March: with spring coming, I want a whole new wardrobe! A virtual one will have several advantages: I can choose exactly what I like, regardless of whether it is available in the shops this year; I won't need to worry about whether it fits (especially an issue in the case of shoes for me); plus of course, a fantasy wardrobe will cost a lot less. So watch this space..

Thanks for all the lovely comments about "sleeping beauty"!

Here is one of my favourite blogs:

I love the things Catherine makes, and am already the proud owner of a fab blue bag : )

New project

Well, I have been feeling that something is missing from my life since I completed "sleeping beauty", and am looking for a new story to tell here - maybe Sinbad the Sailor, if I can work out a picture sequence. In the meantime, I have begun a new project of painting 100 ethnic kids. Here are the first five:

Sleeping Beauty Day 25 - the end

Sleeping Beauty Day 24

Following the prince's kiss, Sleeping Beauty wakes up!

Sleeping Beauty Day 23

Day 23 of "Sleeping Beauty". The prince's kiss awakens the princess. Pondering about the kind of kiss, I decided that a kiss to the hand would be the most appropriate, given that they are strangers to each other!



Here is one of the Edmund Dulac nocturne experiments: getting somewhere with this now - the key seems to be to build up the blues with very thin washes and layers of colour (not all blue!).

Sleeping Beauty Day 22

The Prince has discovered the door to the Princess's bedroom.

As I reach the end of this story, I am wondering what to choose for a theme for my next blog project: there is something very reassuring about starting the day with a definite, small quick illustration to paint! Also, the fact that I am telling a known story pushes me to paint images I might otherwise shy away from; )

Sleeping Beauty Day 21

The story of the princess sleeping in the castle for 100 years has captured the imagination of the prince so much that he is determined to make a way into the castle to see for himself.

Sleeping Beauty Day 20

100 years later, a prince arrives in the country, and the sleeping castle is pointed out to him.

Playing with Painter

Generally, I paint my illustrations the old fashioned way, using real water colours, paintbrushes and Fabriano paper because I enjoy painting, and know how to get the results I want. However, I am also enjoying learning how to use Corel's "Painter" and a Wacom tablet to make images, this being an example of a half hour doodle. I have an on-going wonder at what else ipod's could do, given the chance ; )

Illustration friday: Theory

I had thought that "theory" would be really difficult to think up an illustration for, then this morning I was reading "Vogue", and came across mention of a shop called Theory, a remarkable coincidence! That led then to thinking about shopping, and how overwhelming all those rows of "how to" books can be..

Sleeping Beauty Day 19

A thicket has grown around the castle over the 100 years. I enjoyed thinking about how to depict the passage of 100 years with the entire castle under a benign spell of sleep. It seemed to me that with no people going in or out, wild life would take over.

In spite of appearances I'm not asleep

In spite of appearances, or rather non-appearance, of the next Sleeping Beauty, I have not personally gone to sleep for 100 years. In fact, I have been enduring migraine, followed by the side effects of the anti-migraine tablets. The former prevents me from seeing properly, and the latter interferes with me hand/eye co-ordination! Thankfully, I'm back to normal health now, so painting will be happening again : )

Sleeping Beauty Day 18

Well, the princess has started her sleep for 100 years. I once slept in a similar bed in a Frech chateau, although the curtains and wallcoverings were all dark red!

Sleeping Beauty Day 17

Sleeping Beauty Day 16

Recuperation took a tad longer than I had hoped, but today back to paintbrush wielding as normal! It made me very happy to continue with all the various projects, including "Sleeping Beauty". I've always preferred the version of the story with a little old woman spinning in the attic, who had not heard the king's decree about burning all spinning wheels. Thus the teenage princess's natural curiousity and the little old lady's desire to show her how to spin combine to fulfill the fates cast on the princess by the fairies.

The weekend was a busman's holiday

Well, I've been away for the weekend to see my dad and other relatives. Very nice in lots of ways, but was very much a bus man's holiday for me because of various buildings related issue. Then I had a 4 and half hour journey home, thanks to railway engineering works, so today I am chilling out, and hoping my enthusiasm and brain are back in place tomorrow ; )

Sleeping Beauty Day 15

In a rush today, so i'll just say I am activley experimenting with blue "nocturnes" now : )

Sleeping Beauty Day 14

Fifteenth birthday for the princess:

Another image I am currently working on - bulbs which grow in my garden painted from memory. I do love watching the days grow longer, and bulbs appearing at this time of year : )

Today I am mulling over an idea for a painting in blues inspired by Edmund Dulac, who I think was in turn inspired by Whistler.

Sleeping Beauty Day 13

Here is the latest in the "Sleeping Beauty" story - the king thinks he can avert the evil spell by having all the spinning wheels burnt:


I added more paint to this dragonclef because when I had the earlier version printed, it came up very insipid:

Finally, yesterday I went to see the fabulous exhibition "The Age of Enchantment": http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/exhibitions/default.aspx. Highly reccommended! I was so excited to see more original illustrations by Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac and Aubrey Beardsley.

Sleeping Beauty Day 12

The twelfth fairy softens the wicked fairy's spell. It felt right for the queen to be holding her baby for this one - protection.

Sleeping Beauty Day 11

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Here is the wicked gift!

I've also been painting dragonclefs again - here is one:

Sleeping Beauty Day 10

Oh dear, I am somewhat behing with this story. It has been a trying couple of days, and today I am under the weather physically - all my own fault for eating something yesterday that I know I shouldn't. Also, I lost my sketchbook in central London on Sunday, so have been forced to try to remember all the rest of the images I had planned for Sleeping Beauty, and noting them down in my brand new sketchbook.

Anyhow, this image has been completed for a day or so, and I am working on the next one. Depicting the wicked fairy part of the story is proving an interesting challenge - it is very rare for me to paint anything other than happy pictures!

Sleeping Beauty Day 9

Here is today's : )

Sleeping Beauty Day

A dastardly migraine kept me away from my paints for a few days. Fortunately, I am much better now, so here is the next in the Sleeping Beauty series.

Sleeping Beauty Day 7

Fairy gift number two : )

Sleeping Beauty Day 6

The first of the fairy godmother gifts for the princess : ). This week is going to be such good practice of drawing fairies!

Sleeping Beauty Day 5

Something else I am working on at the moment: I think it would make a nice greetings card, possibly for Valentine's day. It is also playing around with an idea I have for a later Sleeping Beauty illustration.

Here is today's image for The Sleeping Beauty: a golden place setting for a fairy : )

Sleeping Beauty Day 4

Painting today's image has been a real challenge! Getting a recognisable party into 1.5 square inches.. Otherwise today i have begun playing around with ideas for Valentine's cards, and reviewing my portfolios.

Sleeping Beauty Day 3

Sending out invitations for the party to celebrate the birth of the princess.

Sleeping Beauty Day 2

Here is the new baby princess

First painting of 2008: Sleeping Beauty

I LOVED painting the advent calendar each day so much that I have been thinking about how to do something similar for January, and naturally my mind turned to children's stories! "Sleeping Beauty" resonates a lot for me at the moment, so here is the first illo - 'hope you enjoy ; )

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I am still on holiday, and being delightfully indolent - no painting yet this year! Pen and pencil have found their way into my hands, and I am dreaming up a Sleeping Beauty idea, so watch this space.

Also planning to go to this exhibition, which looks fab: http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/exhibitions/default.aspx

Society of Secret Fairies Twelve Days of Christmas

Here is the delightful package I received from secret fairy MaryBeth (http://marybeth494.blogspot.com/)! The perfect gifts suggest she has been delving into my blog, and her garden themed re-write of "the twelve days of christmas" is a really imaginative idea. Impossible to pick a favourite - the cheeky little frog, lucky ladybird, Mrs Tiggywinkle and the gorgeous dragonflies will all be found homes in my flat when the Christmas decorations come down on January 6th.

Thank you so much, MaryBeth : )