paintings prints and stuff

St Ives.  An illustrational one as a workout for a commission. I need to do a large one of this beach for my daughter - a very overdue Christmas present! Keeping track of those buildings and trying to distort it a little to make it wrap around was not the simplest!  The big version won't be identical as it will evolve a life of its own though it will be similar - but she wants the family on the beach 'recognisable and flattering of all of them', while showing all the buildings etc .....!!!  No pressure then. This is small, in the S&B Delta sketchbook, A5.  On this latest trip to Cornwall I used watercolours, pencil, coloured pencils, oil paint, ink, conte, gouache and more on various pages.   It works with them all :>)

Pirate map Really busy with lots of projects and painting.   This is a one ticked off the long list - a pirate map for my grandson.

Tangled undergrowth, a sketch done with the Sketch Club app on an ipad This App was highly recommended to me and I'm so glad.  It has all sorts of features that I want - the ability to use layers, to import images done in other apps, layer options much like Photoshop, a good range of marks including some of Mr Doobs , (a free online app that you can use on a pc) and more.  It really is a very versatile one.  There are good options on resolution and file types.  It's extremely easy to use, very intuitive. The ability to work onto images done in other apps (or of course your photos) extends the creative possibilities enormously. Below is an experiment with drawing in lettering, not a great drawing but it demonstrates the fluidity with which the writing moves.  This has lots of potential in images and design.  I input the words happy birthday and then simply treated the text like line, to draw the flowers .  They repeat endlessly.  Cool?...

Taken with the thermal image option on the ipad   A preliminary look at the apps for art and photography on the ipad that I've experimented with so far, some were deleted as rubbish but I didn't keep track of the names,  though I know Glaze was one, sorry!   ....... OmniSketch  A free app. This one was a lot of fun and my grandchildren enjoyed it as well (aged 2 and 5).  It is a little like the Mr Doob Harmony programme for pc I've shown here before, with interesting marks working on algorhythms. I really enjoyed experimenting with the way the marks interacted with each other and the difference that speed and pressure made.   The colour palette was a colour wheel , so lots of choices and the ability to choose close colour or tone, creating a reasonable amount of subtlety in finished pieces. The symmetry option was good - finished images sometimes felt as though they would work well in embroidery or stained glass or as a repeated...

Merry Christmas A Christmas doodle in Derwent metallic pencils on their black sketch pad - yes another with the items they sent me : : >) I'm having fun working my way through their products : >)  at the moment all is in a trying-it-out-in-small-things-stage - I'll manage some larger works after Christmas.

Feathers, Derwent Studio pencils, approximately 7 inches square  detail   Derwent have given me some of their products to experiment with and review, so I'm like a child in a sweetie shop.  : > ) Some I have used for a long time but some are new to me.   I remember as a very small child visiting their pencil museum and my father explaining how 'lead' pencils were actually graphite - and owning coloured pencils made by them.  In those days obviously just the basic range - not the artists ones I choose now.   I can't remember a time when I didn't draw.   One of my earliest memories is posting scribbled 'letters' to my father when I was 18 months old and he was away in Gibraltar with the RAF. Here I've been taking a look at their Studio coloured pencils      The above study of feathers was done with a limited range of colours - unfortunately scanners and cameras find pale colo...

|Onwards ............

and F - I did have a union jack there but it was too fussy, so simplified it to the cross of St George. The end is in view ......

  And E

Now on to B - so many more to go and so little time! and the original with the print and added text - with typo - it should say big banana not bit! Only 24 more letters to go plus the covers, plus the putting it together with the writing in Publisher, plus the printing, plus the binding ..... no pressure then. And the original rough ideas sketch

I spent some time working on the illustrations for the book for my grandaughter, for Christmas, today.   It's a mix of watercolour, pen and coloured pencil.  And  I suddenly realised the rate at which I've got to work to get 26 letters plus covers, plus put the book together in time .....  I think I'd better get on with it quickly ! I think primary teachers will frown at some of the phonics - like the aeroplane and auntie C.   Some of the words like avaricious are aimed at brother Sam, who is very articulate and will enjoy the big words.  I wanted to bring in lots of family things  and thinking up enough items for the letters isn't the easiest! This is the A4 sketchbook with the original sketch below and above is a trial print of the page as it will appear with added text.  You may be interested in the working out ideas sketches here and here  .   Other illustration projects can be found by searching under the tag Illustr...

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?

Another very very rough sketch for Lucy's book Another very rough sketch. Lots of words added to the list of possibilities but any ideas welcome as nothing is fixed yet - everything is a the very fluid, sketching out and thinking through stage, With other books that I did for Sam they were around a theme - him on holiday or playing football etc - this one is a bit different and so I'm needing to plan how I put it together a little more.

   ABC for Lucy, illustrated book, Rough initial page layout - subject to many changes! I've been managing small amounts of time for more 'serious' painting - but the little bits of time here and there, while busy with other things,  I've been working on ideas for a book for Lucy who will be one at Christmas. I thought I'd make it a little dual purpose and appeal to Sam (age 4) as well as he'll be learning to read any time soon. Drawn in an A4 sketchpad, several of these to a page, done leaning on the steering wheel of the car while waiting when I was taxi for family to various appointments, so they are very rough and merely getting down thoughts and ideas of how it will go. I didn't have my list with me when sketching but here is what I've got so far: A - apple, angel, aardvark, apricot, anteater, ant,  auntie B - blue, butterfly, bed, ball, boat, bear, bee, banana, boy, big, bouncing, batman, books, buzzing C - crimson, cat, cot, carrot, camel, c...

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.

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 :>)

We had a new arrival over Christmas :>) My daughter had a little girl - after a scare with possible swine flu and a second emergency Caesarian. I haven't been down to see her yet but hope to get down as soon as possible

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 ...