Flyrate

This wonderful KnitTheCity flyrate has been keeping me company since I rescued him from the pouring rain on Sunday May 2nd. He formed a part of the yarnstorm leading to the Pirate Castle at the Camden Crawl, and had lots of fantastic companions on the Saturday: regular pirates, mice, and fellow flyrates. When I returned to Camden on the Sunday he was all alone, and soaking wet, so taking him home seemed a good plan! He is also been a great reminder of happy times and companionship which has been so valuable to me over the past couple of weeks.

Pause for reflection

Not a lot of useful drawing and painting has occurred for the past month or so, because I have been very pre-occupied with urgently rearranging some day to day living arrangements. Drawing has continued, which has kept my eye and hand co-ordination up to speed, but not of the kind of quality I'd want to share!

This pause has given me an opportunity to reflect on the contents of my various portfolios, and I have realised that in my efforts to be consistent in what I am displaying, I have lost some key elements of me as a person from the work - the guitar-playing rock chick who is a Very Important Fan of the London Roller Girls, and a proud knitter member of Stitch London. So, now experimenting with some new work to add.

Artist's impression of me as a coin

Some fellow creative pals and I visited the medieval rooms at the British Museum, and the talented and lovely Chichi has produced these drawings to commemorate the occasion!

Sneak preview of box and humpties

I suspect that I have not learnt to do photography properly before because there is so much to consider that I overwhelm myself with information.

Here is the box: I will be on familiar territory converting this into a lightbox, wielding measure, pen, knife, tape and tracing paper. So much so that I have even dreamed up an improvement on the design! This photo taken how I usually do: find some reasonably good lighting in my flat, and adjust shooting distance to get the image framed nicely.
I did something similar here, with this sneak preview of the new members of the humpty clan.

Photography to do list

Photography is rather a mystery to me still: sometimes my photos are stunningly good by accident, but mostly lack lustre. I have had loads of feedback now that my photographs of things I've made to sell on etsy, etc do not do justice to the items in real life. So.. I need to make a concerted effort to learn to photograph small items better! There are lots of good photography tips on etsy, so I am starting with some small non intimidating steps:

1. Make a light box. I've got the materials - carton, tracing paper and tape, and good instructions.
2. Learn what the settings on the camera mean.
3. Experiment by snapping the new humpties as I usually do, and then following instructions from etsy article.

Wish me luck!

Easter Bunny

It is a glorious day of spring sunshine and showers, so I have been out for a walk to my favourite Finsbury Park . Look who I spotted scurrying among the daffodils: a tiny Easter Bunny! She also spotted me, and climbed higher for a better look, before running off again, I know not where. Maybe to find her friend The Easter Bunny - the one who delivers the chocolate eggs. Happy Easter!

Where did the time go?

It is amazing to me that it is more than a month since my last blog post: where did the time go? I know I have been extremely busy with a lot of very tedious paperwork of a financial nature! Fortunately the end is in sight for this now, and there will be time once more for normal creative endeavours.

A tale of two scarves

Whilst access to the internet has been tricksy (required a visit from ISP, plus a new modem to fix!), I have completed the knitting of two scarves! The top one knitted in double-quick time - less than two days, because I was very intrigued to see how the shaping worked: the scarf is assymetrical and fastened with the padded heart, which surprisingly was the first part to knit. I used this pattern by Kate Gilbert from the Twist Collective. This is a present for a special little girl.

The second scarf is the wonderfully warm, simple lace stripes (which automatically create the chevrons) that I knitted for myself from the Fifteen Knitting Kit that I wrote about on 1st December 2009. I was spurred on to complete it by the exceptionally cold weather this winter!

Drawing at Kew today

I was surprised to find I had made 24+ sketches today. The Palm House ones are the best - probably because I was at least warm. Kew provides good opportunities to draw school children, too, who seemed to be enthralled by the tropical plants.
Although I thought I was going to Kew to draw plants, I discovered the amazing Marine Life display in the basement of the Palm House, which is inhabited by seaweeds, corals, and fish! It was an amazing chance to draw a living plaice, and to be stared at by the animals. Seriously, they were all coming to the glass of their tanks to peer out at me - maybe they are bored?

These are my newly knitted wristwarmers aka fingerless gloves, specially completed in time for my planned trip to Kew. I made them from lovely soft Colinette jitterbug yarn, using Fishtail wristwarmers pattern designed by Alexandra Brinck. They certainly help for keeping my fingers warm and flexible enough for drawing out of doors in the bitterly cold weather this January!

Illustration Friday - "Clumsy"

A bit of Illustration Friday fun! I began sketching out ideas for adults being clumsy, but almost inevitably, a child crept onto the pages of my Moleskine, along with this snippet of story:

"Little Peter is upset because Wolfgang has clumsily knocked over the paint water - all over the picture Peter was painting!"

Cards "Seconds"

The snow has gone now. Very pretty indeed while it lasted, and also very slippery, so I am relieved to be able to walk around once again without fear of injury!

It's very much back to focussing on work, both the creating of new images, and learning how to make and sell things I have designed. Interesting, enjoyable and challenging in surprising ways all at the same time. An unforseen consequence of the learning curve with my greetings cards is that I now have some "seconds" of my "dragonflyclef" and "in theory" designs: these are cards which have not folded as neatly and cleanly as I would like, so I am offering them for sale at half price. If you are interested, please email me for more info.

Snow Legs

This was the pretty sight which greeted me on Wednesday morning! We do get snow every winter in the part of London where I reside, but it is usually a fleeting visitor, staying no more than a day or two. This winter is taking a different tack: thick snow in the week before Christmas, and now again a gorgeous and treacherous blanket of snow and ice seems set to be here for at least a week or so. So, adapting to life with snow has led to changes in wardrobe: regular foot ware outdoors is now my glamourous site boots + some neon pink leg warmers hastily purchased in local shop. Truly, the 80s have returned: that was apparently the last time we had so much snow in London, and also the last time I wore leg warmers!
I figured that not only humans in this part of the world are unaccustomed to such extended cold weather, so have put out some seed and fat balls for the birds, having first been very careful to remove the nylon netting these are sold in because the birds can injure their feet in the netting .

In my sketchbook, I am playing around with stick figures in the snow!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! This is the time of year when for remembering successes and high points of 2009, and dreaming up goals for 2010. As well as things I think would be wonderful at the start of the year, amazing new opportunities occur in my experience. 2009 was no exception: particular highlights being:

• that thanks to encouragement to pursue finding some knitting companions from http://www.emmamccann.blogspot.com/, I became a proud member of Stitch and Bitch London !
• For planned goals, with help from Treacle Toffee and Paintgranny I set up my etsy shop : )

Essential work, making gifts and dealing with life amidst the rare heavy snow in London very much took over my life just before the Christmas holiday, hence the lack of completion of my blog advent parcels : ( Equally, my severe shortage of time prodded me to experiment with making my Christmas card by using a drawing from one of an existing series I have been working on - the twelve days of christmas - and adding a layer in Painter to incorporate a touch of colour. Then mis-reading the printer's upload instructions led to my shrinking the card, with the happy result of increasing the Victorian feel! All of this is encouraging me to complete the series by September this year, so that I can offer them for sale.

advent: Parcels day 15

Today's parcel contains a hand sewn gift : )

advent: Parcels day 14

Inside this parcel is a lovely knitted present for a dear friend!

advent: Parcels day 13

A weekend of making presents : ) Mr Reindeer seems happy about this!

advent: Parcels day 12

More wrapping, too : )

Advent: Parcels day 11

Hugely busy making presents at the moment!

Advent: Parcels day 10

This is the "Secret Santa" present I received last night. I had a sneak peek, or to be precise, full look, modelling and posing for photos!

advent: Parcels day 9

Ooops - a day late! So busy this week, and yesterday was not anywhere suitable to paint. Here is the wrapped "Secret Santa" pressie I knitted for Stitch and Bitch London's Festive party last night.

Advent: Parcels day 8

I love tying red bows on presents! Today I have also been tweaking photos in my etsy shop, with some help from from lovely friends Red Flannel Elephant and Treacle Toffee .

Also found time to check out Moo's advent calendar .

Advent: Parcels day 7

Something hand-made for a sister! The Christmas tree has come indoors ready for decorating, too.

Advent: Parcels day 6

Making a parcel of a favourite : )

Advent: Parcels day 5

Another oddly shaped package: maybe all will be revealed on December 25th!

Advent: Parcels day 4

Whoops! Yesterday's parcel got painted but not posted..

Advent: Parcels day 3

Advent: Parcels day 2

Another unusual package shape!

Fifteen knitting kit

This painting is of the fab Fifteen knitting kit that I was delighted to win in a competition run by Stitch and Bitch London! It is a limited edition kit, containing lovely pink and grey wool from the sheep that supply lamb to Fifteen's restaurant. Naturally, I had to start knitting straight away, then paused to set up the kit as a still life to paint. The kit is very well thought out: as well as the three balls of yarn, there is a pair of gorgeous wooden knitting needles, and a choice of five knitting patterns for items that the wool could be used to make. I'm making the lacey scarf, and very much enjoying the knitting of it, so can recommend the kit as a fab special present for someone who loves knitting, or wants to learn.

Advent: Parcels day 1

The first day of advent and I am painting my advent calendar again this year! This year I am making a lot of presents for people, which is resulting in some unusual parcel shapes and which I think will be fun to paint : ) There is a clue on a previous blog post about the contents of this package!

Percy The Pigeon

Another little creature: I have had fun making Percy the Pigeon from a knitting pattern I found on the anti-bullying campaign's website www.bullying.co.uk. The delightful knitted Percy was designed by Alan Dart, and is based on an illustration by my lovely friend Sarah Miskelly for Anita Hunt's book "Matty-boy and The Secret Pigeon Racket" . A very worthy cause: bullying wherever it takes place makes life so miserable.

Black Cat

Crochet is not something I do often, and then I came across an amigurumi pattern on Lion Brand's website for this little black cat, and could not resist!

Twelve days of Christmas 1

This year's Christmas card design will be based on the traditional rhyme of The Twelve Days of Christmas, in part because I keep receiving requests to print the entire set up for sale! I've been working on the series for a few years, and this is the only colour version of designs I have drawn originally in black and white pen and ink. So far, the designs have been very classic and not connected with any particular period in history because the ones I have completed have been birds and the five gold rings. This year I fancy tackling some of the people, so will need to choose what historical setting to use!

First studio

Second thing in the morning, after I have done my "morning pages" (from Julia Cameron's excellent The Artist's Way) I do some random drawing. This is me, aged about four, I guess: I used to sit between the sofa and upright piano with all the pencils I could find, and draw for hours! The lovely striped cardigan was knitted for me by my granny: there is a family tradition of crafts, which I have followed.

Thinking about Christmas already

This year I am excited to have two Christmas cards for sale for the first time. You can buy them from my etsy shop - see shiny new button on the right!

Bonfire night

Happy Guy Fawkes night! This drawing is the result of twenty minutes scribbling first thing starting out with no particular idea in mind, other than that today is November 5th. Simple and rough, and I think evocative. (It is brilliant having the scanner easily accessible again)

Don't forget to keep animals indoors, and turn up the tv/music to drown out the loud bangs that frighten them.

Pumpkin Advenutre

This halloween was my first time ever making a pumpkin lantern, and pumpkin soup! It was great fun - doing the research for recipes, then finding out how to carve out the pumpkin; and then realising I could toast the pumpkin seeds, too, to make a yummy snack.

Naturally, all of this activity found it's way into my sketchbook!

Ravatar

It has been a while! Restoring my home and studio to a useable state post-builders is taking far longer than I had anticipated because I am using the enforced movement of my possessions to reconsider where to put them. This is probably a good thing.

Today, I made the scanner accessible again, so can show you the water colour "ravatar" I painted to use on Ravelry*: a dragonfly shape cunningly fashioned out of a circular knitting needle and yarn!

* Ravelry.com - an on-line community of knitters, crocheters, etc

A Hooray and a peacock

Hooray and hurrah! The scaffolding shroud cutting out the day light from my flat has been removed after seven gloomy weeks. So now I am in the midst of finding everything I need to get on with painting/life, having put it all "in a safe place" for the duration of the building works.

I was not entirely idle, though: I drew this knitting peacock for Creature magazine's special "End of The Road Festival" edition - the brief was perfect for me, so I had lots of fun doing the drawing : )

Gardening August 2009

My flat is in a state of chaos (hence the lack of paintings!) due to the cyclical decoration of the outside of the building: the scaffolding all has to be taken through my flat! Plus takes up a lot of the side area where the pots shown here usually live. So this August is a lost cause for gardening in itself, but I do like the colours and textures in this photo of the disarray : )

Innocent smoothie hats 2009

I've knitted little hats for Innocent's big knit for the last few years, and had company making this years first three in the form of my knit pals in Stitch and Bitch London and Innocent's own staff. We all had a fabulous evening of knitting, cake and smoothies at Fruit Towers for the launch of this year's campaign : )

More Womad

Here are a couple of pen and ink sketches from Womad:

Womad and builders

Hello again : ) Painting is somewhat difficult at the moment due to omni-present builders and scaffolding making everywhere gloomy and with dark shadows across painting desk. The good news is that they have almost finished their work, and it will look great when complete!

In the meantime, here is a watercolour sketch I made at Womad this year:

dragonfly sky

My blog has been languishing neglected recently while I focussed on learning how to use etsy's software to set up my new etsy shop , for which this painting is the banner! So much to learn, and very exciting.