More spring photos

Inspire Me Thursday & Illustration Friday

The waters see

The waters saw

So this is eternity

Jack Kerouac

This week's Inspire Me Thursday was to create a digital image. Stuck for a theme I decided to use Illustration Fridays theme 'Under the Sea' as a starting point. I have deviated a little as it ended up being over the sea rather than under, but the underwater image I started with was a bit too busy so had to pull it back a bit. And I've finally figured out how to use the layers tool properly - hadn't realised before just what you could do! And topped with the arrival of a dozen brand new acrylic and watercolour paint brushes from my other half (it was my birthday yesterday!) I am feeling very excited and inspired so expect lots of wonderful new work over the next few weeks.... (but don't hold your breath, just in case!)

Update - here's an underwater version, still busy but it works. Creates a different atmosphere to the one above. This one I suppose reflects how I feel about deep water, the ocean in particular. I feel the magical draw that the sea has but I fear it. Being underwater is claustrophobic and panicky and I miss the stillness and beauty I know is there too.

Illustration Friday - Robot

Part of series of baby designs I'm working on.

Here's looking at you kid!

Sorry, bad joke but I couldn't resist! Can't claim credit for this gorgeous photo either as my other half took it but I just had to share it.

Illustration Friday - Spotted

This is a quick sketch of spotted tamworth piglets we saw at the Cotswold Farm Park last week. More photos and drawings to follow soon.

Easter Hols

I love this time of year, being able to open all the windows and scrub the house and start the new year with enthusiasm! This year was particularly good because I actually got to spend quality time with my son (last year I was a bit busy giving birth) and, of course, it was the baby's first birthday!

The first week of the Easter holidays we spent going out and about locally armed with sandwiches, camera and sketchbooks, the second was spent with my parents in the cotswolds where I spent my childhood. A good time was had by all and now I feel refreshed and recharged a new list of things to achieve to replace the tired New year one!

Your Planet Needs You!

This is my entry for the Your Planet Needs You project.

Illustration Friday - Spring

Inspire Me Thursday - Monochrome

Remind me never to attempt a collage like this again in PINK! Impossible or what! It's working title is 'Tower'. Whether it's finished or not I haven't decided yet but it will go away for a while before I decide, look at it again with fresh eyes in a week or two. You can see some more successful inspirations here.

Day Off

Actually had a day off and went shopping! Went round the few antique/junk shops that are still managing to stay in business and found these pretty vintage magazines and postcards. Haven't done this in such a long time and will definately be doing it again!

Mother's Day

My son, the artist, painted this gorgeous card for me for Mother's day. Inside he wrote 'Happy Mothers Day, you are the best. I will never change you even if I can'. What mum could ask for more!?

Illustration Friday - Monster

Inspire Me Thursday - Think Big!

This week's Inspire Me Thursday was to think big. Most of my collage pieces in particular are quite small, rarely bigger than A4 size. This little collage is no bigger than a playing card and I always wondered if I could paint a bigger version of it. So this week's project was the perfect opportunity to find out. The canvas measures in at 19 x 16 inches, not big to some people but might as well be a football pitch to me! I didn't try to reproduce the original exactly, just used it as a starting point and let the new one go it's own way.

See other inspirations here.

Post

Look what I got in the post today! I never admitted it but I used to collect stamps when I was a kid; only the pretty ones of course, but I was fascinated by these tiny little works of art with their frilly edges and unusual language and currency. They made our own British ones look kind of dull in comparison.

The other day, my mum had seen on TV a girl pulling apart a cocktail umbrella which instantly brought back a childhood memory of finding and unwrapping a cocktail umbrella. Inside she found a tiny rolled up scrap of chinese newspaper in the middle and thinking how exotic and beautiful the writing had seemed to her, a mundane thing like newspaper from the other side of the world. Looking through these stamps she sent me today I too was instantly transported to my childhood, back to the scruffy little stamp shop my brother and I used to visit on a Saturday with our bits of pocket money, scanning the little glassine bags that were attached to the walls. I can remember the smell of the paper, the filtered light coming through the dirty windows, the old man sitting behind the desk. The excitement of finding a packet of stamps that caught my magpie eyes and knowing I had enough money. Going home and rearranging my album to fit them in. Sad I know but in the noisy techno-bound lives we live in today we forget to appreciate these trivial things. I wonder if my two button-pressing-mad angels will remember their childhood with such nostalgia at simple pleasures or whether it will go in such a computer aided blur they miss what's going on around them.

I'm glad I kept my album as I found a use for some of the more ordinary ones in my collages, which is where these newly sent ones will probably end up too, but now I am thinking I should show my boy, remind him there is a real world out there with ordinary people using stamps like these and reading newspapers we don't understand!

Oh yes, and I got some umbrellas too ;0)

Inspire Me Sense-less

This weeks Inspire Me Thursday challenge is to produce a piece without using your senses this time. Tricky for a control freak like me but I had a go anyway. I'm not going to say anything about this one as it would make the whole exercise futile, except to say I limited my palette to pale blues and not-quite-greens, used a palette knife instead of a brush and had a random pile of pages ripped out of magazines and just let it happen. Once finished I gave it the title 'Lost', because that's how I felt doing it. Very exhilarating!

Update - Since posting this I have been sent a poem in response to this painting...

a butterfly a tear
pale blue echos the room
a memory so clear
through the window of my mind
it circles and whirls
falls to the ground
a scrap of non-sense
not lost but found

(it's beautiful, thanks mum!)

Chaos

Not much to report artwise this week, with everyone being ill there's not been much time or inclination to be creative. I have managed to have a good sort out though - cupboards emptied, clothes sorted, floors cleaned and so on. The most fulfilling part of all this was rearranging my books of with I have hundreds. It's hard for me when doing this not to get distracted by looking through them as I go, but although this means the job takes longer I have found books I had forgotten about, or hadn't had chance to look at properly. So now I start this week with not only a clean house but a busy, cluttered (I like clutter) and completely inspired mind ready to get going again!

Inspire Me Thursday - Five Senses

This is my piece for this weeks Inspire Me Thursday

The challenge was to create a piece using all five senses, see, touch, smell, hear and taste, a tricky one to say the least, especially as I have been suffering with a bad cold so two of them are out of action anyway!

After much deliberation I decided to use the photo posted last month as a starting point; I was originally going to turn it into an abstract cadence painting but I thought it might be more interesting to use these same collage techniques in a more traditional painting instead.

See - I kept the photo at a distance to prevent myself seeing the detail, just as a general memory aid as I wanted the painting to be about the feel of the place and the moment in time as I remembered it rather than just being a faithfull reproduction of the photo.

I started with a pale blue background and filled in the main colour areas ready for the collage sections. Touch - The paint was applied with a dry brush and stippled and dragged across the canvas, giving a texture feel. Once dry the collaged tree areas were glued on and these are smooth and glossy in contrast.

Smell - as I said before my senses are not at their best at the mo and I certainly can't smell anything around me whilst painting but at this point in the painting I can already remember what it was like to stand at that spot the other week, to smell the mustyness of the leaves and decay of the winter and then to feel the warmth of the sun and know that spring is on it's way.

After adding more collaged strips of paper to give the impression of branches and to adhere the trees to the painted 'leaves' I added dried black tea leaves to the verge areas to suggest fallen leaves. Hear - they even made a similar scrunching noise as I crushed them between my fingers.

Taste - I would like to say here that I enjoyed a nice cup of tea made from the same tea leaves but it might as well been a cup of hot water. Oh well! Once dried I finished the painting by going over the tea leaves with a dab of burnt orange and developed the tops of the trees, the final result is at the start of this post.

I really enjoyed this challenge; I've never combined techniques before and I can see this being used again in future pieces. Check out how others have been inspired this week here.

Mirrormask

I had the pleasure of receiving a parcel from my brother the other day containing 2 books from Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean - an early birthday present. Absolutely gorgeous! I have been a fan of Dave McKean's work since college and now he's made a movie, can't wait to see it!

Illustration Friday - Insect

My favourite insect - a butterfly.

Illustration Friday - Tea

We have gone back to my darker college days for this one as the boring white mugs in my kitchen cupboard didn't inspire me at all! This is from a tarot series of 72 cards (and I used to drink an awful lot of tea to get me through the long nights finishing work), this one being the ace of cups. A tenuous link I know but it is a tea cup, and it's nice to compare the old with the new.

Self Portrait - Exposed

The last time I attempted a self portrait in paint (there are a couple of drawings lurking somewhere) was over 10 years ago at college, and I never finished the face. Why? Because I didn't know how so gave up. Drawing facial features I could do, painting them is a whole other ball game. So when Inspire Me Thursday announced this week's project as a Self Portrait one I thought I'd try it again. I have painted a couple of portraits of other people with varying degrees of success over the last few years so can I do my own likeness?

For someone who prefers to be the other side of the camera taking a decent shot of myself was a challenge in itself (and no, I'm not showing you!). Once I settled on an image I was vaguely happy with I set to the painting, oh and speed is of the essence here as I need to finish it today and I have to entertain the baby so the pressure is on. I'm using acrylic paint on canvas board. This is the first stage with the main areas blocked in over the background colour of Rose Madder.

Next stage while the paint is still wet I add a mix of white, viridian and gold to the background to balance out the painting - red with strawberry blond hair don't sit well! I also start adding shading to the face and neck. Now we wait for the paint to dry...

Next I start to fill in the features and continue to sculpt the face, also start to add the highlights to the hair. Once I am happy with the hair colour I will adjust and finish the background to compliment it. At the moment this is close to how I look when I get out of bed, my darling boy calls me a scarecrow - charming! Not quite finished yet though...

So here we are, hair brushed and make up on ;0)

and although it still needs a bit of work as I can see errors I am pretty pleased, not bad for a days work. My mum should recognise it at least!

Wishy Washy

Well I lived with the other one and I decided it was too wishywashy, nice for weddings but not me!

Masthead

Tried the crocus image from below for the masthead above - works beautifully as a repeat image, but whether I like it or not is another matter. Will live with it for a few days and see!

Illustration Friday - Song

This is the first painting in the Cadence series I started last year (there is another one here). As I've mentioned previously I have a love of pattern, also a love of colour and music and the definition of the word cadence describes this exactly-

Cadence -1. a fall in the pitch of the voice, esp. at the end of a phrase or sentence. 2. intonation, tonal inflection. 3. the close of a musical phrase. 4. rhythm; the measure or beat of sound or movement.

- so these paintings are my attempt to capture this, a visual song if you like.

Crocuses and Daisies

One thing I have always loved is pattern, especially oriental ones. What I hadn't realised is that they have a name - Chiyogami. And what's more there is a blog on the subject - Chiyogami Monday. And playing around with my software today I realised it had a tile/pattern feature so created a pretty little digital tile of crocuses and daisies brought back from the park today. I never use my software for more than resizing photos for the web so it's fun to see what it can really do! It isn't, of course, a proper pattern as I've used a photo but it has sparked off lots of ideas for wedding designs as well as paintings. And maybe if I have time I might even try my hand at a chiyogami pattern as well!

Spring is in the Air

It's half term this week so with the eldest at home we decided to go out for a walk through the woods nearby. It was late afternoon and the sun was shining quite low through the trees creating this magical warm haze, really felt like spring is on it's way! I'm glad I actually remembered my camera this time as although I am hopeless at keeping sketchbooks (especially with children to cope with) a camera is a good way of capturing moments like this and I can sit and work from when the kids are in bed.

It didn't occur to me until I got home but this pic has a line not disimilar to my cadence paintings, time to get another canvas out I think!

Illustration Friday - Simple

As you have probably gathered by now most of my work, the collages especially, are quite busy affairs. This one however was an conscious attempt to simplify things a little, to see if I could finish a piece without covering the whole of the surface with imagery. Less is definately more in this case!

Valentine

One of my valentine cards for a client - I've tried to steer clear of the usual red hearts and roses so chose a soft pink and cream with vintage elements and crystals, very romantic!

Best Advice

This is my entry for Penelope Dullaghan's Best Advice project titled 'get a good night's sleep!' I'm an 8 hours a night girl but with 2 little ones and work and house and other life stuff I am having to survive on about 5. Of course the baby of the house keeps disturbing me all night then has the cheek to sleep during the day but being as gorgeous as she is I can forgive her for that!

Illustration Friday - Glamour

Progress

Another thing ticked off my list, putting a shop page on my portfolio site. There's only a few cards on there at the mo but I will also be putting on paintings and collages and prints over time.
My main card site is still work in progress but we will get there!

Illustration Friday - Cats

A sharp contrast from last week's! But this kills two birds with one stone as I'm in the middle of designing images for kids cards (the website is nearly finished - watch this space!) and I've been wanting to learn how to use photoshop for more than photo's so after seeing the tutorial from Copper thought I'd give it a shot. It was a quick sketch scanned in and coloured digitally using layers. Should have cleaned the lines up a bit but I was in a hurry to see the final result. I'm getting quite excited by all this as before I thought drawing was drawing and digital was digital but have realised I can use both, and include collage too.

Must seem obvious to most illustrators these days but when I was at college over 10 years ago computers weren't used at all, so to me this all new!

Illustration Friday - E is for...

Evil... ha ha ha haaaw....

Was sorting through piles of old work and came across this golden oldie, which was inspired by a gothic horror story based on the ghost Banquo from Macbeth (I think - memory is not what it used to be!). What is interesting is how 'nice' (for want of a better word) my work is now, all soft pretty blues, greens and pinks compared to a few years ago when everything was a lot darker and richer. Not sure if it's a result of having children and I've unconsciously censored myself (in terms of colour as well as subject matter) or I just generally got to a stage in my live where I just needed to shed a skin and reinvent myself. Who knows. Good to look back though!

List Update

Well I am slowly but surely ticking things off my list, the most important ones being to finish both my websites. In case you are wondering I have my portfolio site (which has a link on the right) and my card design site which was very outdated and needed a facelift. I've never really had time before but my maternity leave gave me the chance to start afresh. I'm a bit over schedule though so now I have to focus on finishing them. Hence the need for a list as I was getting too distracted by other things.

So I have finished tweaking my portfolio site ( I think) and all I need to do is add more paintings and illos and a few things to sell on the shop page. I am still working on the card site, lots of boring code to deal with here as I am customising an open source script for a proper shopping cart and payment thingy - yay! I've then got to go through all my card designs from the last 4 years and chuck out the ones I don't like/don't sell, update the ones I do like/do sell and come up with a load of new fresh ones. This my take a while but will be worth it in the end. My old site made money but wasn't very efficient and was looking tired, I also got fed up with getting paid after I did the work and had to chase invoices, with this new site I get paid first and can keep better track of things.

Here is one of my revamped wedding designs for the card site, I'll add the link when it's finished!

Illustration Friday - Sea

I wanted to do a proper little collage for this but as time isn't on my side this week I thought I would have a go at a quick digi one using scans of older pieces I already had. Not the best piece I've done but a good exercise!

New Year's Resolutions

The dreaded list is done. I decided not to go down the usual route of writing all the things I would hope to do and never actually manage but instead wrote all the things that actually need doing. Boring I know but a lot less disappointing. I can tick everything off as I go and pat myself on the back for a job well done instead of having a constant reminder of what I didn't do. (Resolution no. 1 - have a more positive attitude.)

That's assuming I don't lose the bit of paper first. (Resolution no. 2 - be better organised.)

Hmmm. (Resolution no. 3 - less thinking more doing.)

(Resolution no. 4 - no more resolutions!)

What to do first?

Well so far I have resisted the urge to write the obligatory list of 'things to do in 2006', but as I have spent the last two days doing everything that isn't constructive and nothing that is I think I might just have to do one, just to give this new year a bit of direction. Start as I mean to go on and all that!

Christmas was a dizzying rush made worse (or better) by Kamal getting a small but significant part in a musical for which I had to chaperone, so I had less time than usual to prepare for the occasion. Christmas cards were written but not sent, plans to make christmas goodies/decorations/mess with the kids went out the window, let's face it, a domestic goddess I am not!

But I have to say this has been the best Christmas yet. My failings aside we have a beautiful new member of the family who explored for the first time the joys of crinkly crunchy wrapping paper and twinkly decorations that are just perfect for bashing and chewing, (toys? who needs toys?) and Kamal has taken part in something that can only be described as magical, and we have shared it all with our friends and family. This is one Christmas I will remember for a very long time. The christmas cake will have to wait until next year!

Illustration Friday - Blue

This is actually a piece created last year titled 'Moments in Blue'. Apart from the obvious colour reference it has a nostalgic feel, envoking... well I'll leave you take from it what you will!

Christmas Card

With the last of my jobs completed I can spend time with my little angels preparing for Christmas. First I needed to have a clearout and tidy up and came across the wacom pen and tablet I was given a couple of years ago but never touched, figured it was time to give it a try.

Most of my work is done traditionally, either using paper or acrylics and inks, or a mixture of the three. But I have always adored and been fascinated by digital work although I just don't have the patience to create any myself. (Whoever thinks computer generated art is easy or cheating ought to try it themselves - it isn't!). My son was looking over my shoulder while I was plugging it in and it wasn't long before I was edged out off my seat and my digital pen hijacked! My boy is only 6, soon to be 7 but he took to it like a duck to water. I, however find it very difficult to use. I know it's only mind over matter and I am determined to stick with it. The card above is my first recognisable pic. Only used vector shapes, will have to leave freehand til another time but it was a good start.

Here is my son's masterpiece - I think he'll be making his fortune before me the rate he's going!



and here is a tracing he did of his school photo. Genius. (but then I am biased!)

Better late than never

Well despite my best intentions my journalling ambition went right out of the window! That's what you get for trying to do everything when you have a beautiful new baby and a living to earn. Something's gotta give.

Only four weeks left until Christmas and all the big jobs are done so hopefully (and I say hopefully, usually when I say things like this I find an email in my inbox that changes my plans) I can indulge myself and my children and be that domestic goddess I know is in there somewhere! And perhaps find time to finish my websites and be ready for the new year.

We can live in hope...

Sudden Light

I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before, -
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall, - I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?

DG Rossetti
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Going round in circles

It's always difficult to put into words what I do visually so hopefully this journal will help - me, if no one else! I'm also reluctant to explain my work because I would rather people take from it what they want and not necessarily be influenced by what inspired it. Then again I'm an illustrator and words are crucial to work as they conjure up the images in my head in the first place and I would love to be able to vocalise that to other people, because like it or some do ask.

Basically my head is a jumble of contradictions and fretful descision making and for me to get work produced sometimes I need a clear out mentally (and physically - I'm always spring cleaning whatever the time of year). So bear with me if this journal starts off a bit sporadically but I've come to the conclusion it's better to just write something, anything, than waste time trying to figure out what to do first!

I've started with the two main themes that are running through my work at the moment, Whispers and Cadence and will come back to them as and when the mood takes me. I was asked at a recent exhibition what inspired the Cadence paintings so will do my best with that one and the Whispers series is very much work in progress so you will see those as they develop. And I will add other projects and ideas in between all this, bit like a scrapbook and sketchbook all in one.

Let's see if I can actually go in a straight line for a change instead of dizzying circles!

Cadence

Cadence -
1. a fall in the pitch of the voice, esp. at the end of a phrase or sentence.
2. intonation, tonal inflection.
3. the close of a musical phrase.
4. rhythm; the measure or beat of sound or movement.