paintings prints and stuff

more sketching with omnisketch and close up detail I think some of the earlier doodles would have worked well as stained glass windows with the light glowing throught them - this one I see as an embroidery.  If I had the talent I'd have a go at doing one! What do you think? and thank you for the app suggestions, they've been extremely helpful. And as a teaser - Derwent have got a really gorgeous new product coming out next year.   I can't tell you about it but I'm going to get to play with it :>)  I did have a really quick secret go when I was demo-ing at the NEC in October and LOVED it!  The hitmen would be after me if I told though :>D

Friends came up with this caption for this one - what do you think?  Maybe you have to be a 'certain' age to remember chips wrapped in newspaper! Or Cod and chips they said .... not cat n' chips and this was an alternative Robyn suggested for yesterdays picture - snappier? what do you think?  any other ideas? and then there is this image that needs a caption  AND .......   Those of you who follow our group blog Watermarks may remember us starting up.   I had the initial idea but the other founder members were brilliant at getting it up and running. We initially kept it very small but with committments and other artistic subjects, it has slowed down a little.   We've decided to open up to a few more people who particularly enjoy painting water in all its incarnations - all those delicious reflections, waves, eddies ....... If you are interested in joining us leave a message on the blog or send an email to our address (on the Water...

Playing with ideas for a card competition - This is madame when she was young, playing in a waste paper basket.   I'm looking at the photo part of the competition as the artwork side is very very simplistic and graphic and not 'me'. The font needs playing with and making more interesting I know - that's just to get the idea down. Captions aren't easy!   any thoughts?

My daughter rang me this morning - no pressure - she said.  But could I do a party invitation for her to email for Sam's 4th birthday party, to send to friends mums - by tonight please ? So here it is - no time for thinking around or reworking. The drawing is in coloured pencil and the writing was done in Photoshop, a line at a time so I could position it closely. There is a bit more below this with the venue, date, time and RSVP stuff. He is going as Batman - evidently :>) )  So tomorrow I'm hoping to PAINT.

I've been working on a catalogue for the small group of friends I meet up with once a month. It's to be used for a proposal for a group show at a really good venue. The introduction page Not quite finished - but this is pretty much how the pages will look - one each, one large image, statement, small image and contact details/web addresses (which I've removed here). I'm waiting for a couple of images and statements. It is A5, will be on heavy paper and will be wire bound for ease of page turning. I wanted to keep it very simple, the covering letter etc does all the talking, this is just a flick through, who we are and what we do. Mary our secretary will do those - my responsibilites are catalogue, posters, publicity. What do you think? The rather long winded name of our group pre-dates my membership and that of several of us - we sometimes think of changing it but we've built up a reputation under that name, which makes it difficult ..... and then there's the ...

Catalogue design in progress - my page and the cover in progress I'm busy at the moment creating an A5 catalogue for our small group for an application we are putting together. We'll each have a page for a statement, one large image and 3 small, plus contact details/website (blurred here) Text is grey. The grey squares will show the other members work when finished. I may change my images, it's yet to be decided. I'm using Publisher I think I may have it ring bound but haven't quite decided yet. To ring bind or staple? (and I haven't got a long arm stapler) What do you think? I want to keep it clean and simple. Comments welcome :>)

Sam and his Auntie walking on a windy beach on a cool day, but still the colours are beautiful watercolour, coloured pencil and pencil I've done another illustration for the book, of Sam and my younger daughter - yet to go are my husband, his dad an more of his mum. It's not fantastic but it does catch my daughters brisk walking and Sam's windswept exuberance :>) Now to think about the text to go with it .......

Lino cut ready for printing I felt like having a go at another lino print yesterday and got the fish above cut. It's just a fun graphic one, stylised, no observation at all I'm afraid, unlike Jeanette , who is doing a series of gyotaku fishes. Though I did remember from wildlife programmes that fishes are often reddish underneath and silvery on top to camouflage themselves from predators. Rather than leave the lino the oblong shape, I decided to cut around the fish. Lino scanned and the image cleaned up This one is simply playing with transparent layers of colour This one involved applying a gradient colour in a lower layer, erasing the white background and painting colours on a layer below the fish, allowing the colours to shine through. I find that simple traditionally printed lino cuts don't suit my work so I'll use oil paint when I have time to experiment with printing this one. Then I'll be able to use a mix of colours. I think it would work with 3 or 5 of ...

I'm taking a bit of a break as I'm so busy with family and friends - back soon. The T shirt, book and snowman themed pressies went down well :>)

This was the final version of one of my cards. Below are links to those who designed their own and left links in the comments for me: Maree had the lovely idea of raising money for an animal charity with one of her card designs. Jeanette did this lovely and very different card Billie wondered what would happen if Santa's cat, who was scared of heights, hitched a ride :>) and then designed another funny one - how many Persian cats have I seen with faces like that! Gesa produced this elegantly minimalist card Sarah produced this lovely Advent Calendar that opens a new window each day and a Winter Solstice card Ronell produced this delicate arrangement Maggie made a 3D celebration! A creative and inventive lot I'm sure you'll agree Katherine did an interesting round up of free online art cards from various galleries and don't forget the fun snowflake cutting programme for the child in you at Christmas :>) if you made your own card and I haven't listed you, j...

card layout for printing on paper What happens if at 7am you realise you've forgotten to organise cards for your class (who are lovely so not what I'd want!) - I like to give them one I've designed but I hadn't yet done it - and today was the last class of term and we were going out for Christmas lunch afterwards. 8>O Publisher to the rescue :>) I used on of the Sam illustrations and as I had no card left, printed it on paper and folded it twice. It worked ok :>) Folded and signed as they came off the printer and done in time :>) You can use word but it's not quite so easy to get the spacings right - it's really easy with Publisher. You can see the blue guidelines I set - these don't print. I am so disorganised at the moment and juggling so many things. Juggling is not one of my talents. Hospital visiting ends today though with the patient getting parole - I'm off to collect him in a couple of hours. That should take some of the ...

I've just designed a mug for my son-in-law for Christmas with zazzle, featuring thjs digital image of my daughter. I originally created a couple of versions of this image - one in colour and one in a limited palette. I mixed a photograph of my daughter and her belongings (much manipulated) with a section of a Dante Gabriel Rossetti painting. You can see the coloured version below. She is the one on the left. I continued the mirror image theme, with 3 repetitions, the middle one flipped, so that it wraps around the mug. And .... to go with his snowman book that I wrote/illustrated for Christmas, I've put illustrations from it onto an apron that Sam can wear for painting and a Tshirt. Let's hope we like them all! I haven't ordered anything like this before - if I'm happy with the quality I may think of opening a Zazzle shop. Sorry I've been absent for a while - family health problems cropped up again with a lot of hospital visiting - hopefully ok for now, ...

I;ve only had a very little time this week for painting and I haven't photographed it yet. Here for the time being is a slide show of Sam's Christmas present book - the cover and illustrations in order. As before, the blue lines and dotted lines are publishers guidelines and text boxes, which won't print or show in the final. My printer is having a nervous breakdown and I haven't been able to print it yet.

front and back cover design for Sam's book NB It's a screenprint, the guidelines and text boxes obviously aren't in the final print I've been working further on 'the book' - sheesh it takes some time - scanning and then building it in Publisher - and the working out with a little torn pages mock up just how the pages work and what number is opposite/on the back of which. A definite left brained activity and not my strongest point! The writing is provisional and needs polishing - I definitely need some more practice at this. centre pages I decided to only show Sam. their cat and the snowman, Mum and Dad feature as off stage voices only. It kept a simplicity to it and concentrated on the main characters. What do you think? I used the font that I created from my handwritin g on a fun programme and the snowflakes from the fun snowflake-cutter-programme - nothing is ever wasted is it? :>) I might have another go at a font - a little less higgledy piggl...

Sam ready to go out in the snow , illustration in pencil, watercolour, coloured pencil and with a digital border. I've been working on the illustrations for the book for Sam for Christmas. I had to wait an hour at hospital yesterday and made a start on the line drawings, adding some more this morning and adding colour this afternoon, after scanning them (in case I made a pigs ear of them when adding the colour :>) ). line drawing done whilst waiting at hospital and watercolour + coloured pencil + digital border - ready to add to book Their cat weaves in and out of the action throughout. Now I have to start assembling them and brushing up on the storyline in Publisher. After this I may get the current painting finished - I hope. c&c welcome :>) and any advice

I've thought of a couple more ideas for Sam for Christmas to extend the snowman theme an illustrated story about him building a snowman fuzzy felt snowmen (- and cats and dogs) I bought a little travel fuzzy felt set off ebay and the felt shapes aren't particularly exciting (it was cheap so no problem) - the tin and board are nice though. So, I thought with some felt pieces I have somewhere in the deep dark recesses of some cupboard or other ( where????) I could cut some snowmen shapes and hats and scarfs and stuff and some cat and dog shapes to go with them. Interchangeables ears and eyes and bodies? Now off to finish a painting ......

These are the snowmen blanks painted. They are only just above an inch tall and I don't ' do' neat! It wasn't easy - coloured pencils didn't work well on this wood. They worked brilliantly on the Russian Doll blanks last year . It's a very different, coarser grain. I used acrylic and felt pen and I'll give them a few coats of varnish for protection. I hope Sam likes them. They will match his Christmas card. The blank shapes from ebay: Now back to finishing 2 paintings in progress :>) and heaps of marking and paperwork :>(

Zig Zag card - 'paper dolls' snowmen I played with the 'paper dolls' cut out idea for the snowmen and did the rough design above for a card for my grandson - it looks quite cute standing up, zig zagged, and hopefully should appeal to a 2 year old. Dawn, work in progress: Finished :>) Dawn is finished and delivered for the exhibition but the photos I took (in daylight) are hopeless :>(. The warm colour of the clouds is totally bleached out and the blues aren't coming out right :>( I'll have another go with flash at the exhibition and see if it works out better. No amount of photoshopping will make the current ones show it anything like it is :>( And remember the Russian Dolls I did? Well this year I've bought some little wooden snowmen to work on - I'll give them to Sam along with his card and he can add them to their Christmas tree. I plan to decorate them rather like the card - flowing stripey scarf and carrot noses. I found the bla...

old Christmas card design, Vivien Blackburn Christmas Card Challenge I thought it might be time for a new challenge? Do you design your own Christmas cards? or fancy doing it for the first time? If so, please post a link to your design in the comments as you design them, and I'll do a round up of your designs and a link to your blog at the beginning of December :>) - you've got lots of time. I usually design a card for me to print out each year but also do separate hand made ones for painting friends and family. There is something special about cards from friends who have created their own. Tips and ideas: 160gsm card will go through most printers and is strong enough to stand up. Collage is great for personalised cards as it's quick and the simplicity can have a real impact and a contemporary edge. Watercolour paper is of course perfect for those wanting to use w'col. Doodle ideas in a sketchbook or scraps of paper and then work out the best and simplest ways ...

Serengeti Carpet, digital image, Vivien Blackburn This is an earlier version of the image shown in the last post. Sadly the original file is lost to a past computer breakdown. This is a scan of the one print I have left. My daughter has another. It's about A4 in size and printed on Rosapina printmaking paper, which works as beautifully with computer inks as it does with more traditional printing inks - not as lightfast of course.