Jessie Lilac Blog

It's a special full moon on thursday. It's going to be what's known as a Blue Moon, which means that it's the second full moon to occur in the same month. It won't actually look blue though! It's also a special full moon because it's my birthday on that day and I'll be an age with a zero in it. Scary.

We went for a walk at Westonbirt Arboretum this afternoon. Very pretty but very cold! Happy christmas! Wishing you much love and happiness, with love, Jess xxx (s ee you on the other side!)

While I was doing this drawing for Illustration Friday , my daughter Carenza did this one...... This reminds me of when my younger brother used to sneakily untie my shoe laces when I was watching TV, or if I was really engrossed in a programme, he'd tie them together!

It snowed in the night and today we have a winter wonderland out of our back window! Do you remember my weather stick I showed you in the summer? Look at it today, it's gone quite droopy! Those yellow leaves on the bush look a bit odd don't they amongst the whiteness? I'm not sure if I've ever seen our christmas tree in a real snowy setting! Here's the 'fairy' I made several years ago, still just about holding her own. Every year I get her out of the christmas box she looks a bit more worse for wear. I expect she's wondering what all that white stuff outside is, having never seen it before! I've done a little bit of drawing recently, not sure if I've got time for Illustration Friday this week but I'll do my best! :)

I've bought a moleskine. I've never used one before so this picture was the first time I've used it. The pages felt quite thin, is this usual? I didn't put much watercolour on it and it seemed be ok. Does anyone else use theirs for watercolour? Oh, and by the way this is my submission for this week's Illustration Friday which is 'hatch'!

Every time I see a rubber ducky, the song from Sesame street comes into my head.

I enjoyed drawing yesterday's bunny but today it's something more serious, a life drawing from life. Today was the last one this term, this year in fact! This was a lovely model to draw, I do hope we have her next term too. I've had quite a week creatively-wise, peaks and troughs but I'm feeling much more positive now and have plans for the new year that will emerge slowly over the next few weeks. I've learnt that when you're developing your own work, it's important to stay true to what you love to do, whether it's collage, or oil paint, or pen and ink, or wahtever your favourite medium is. There are many styles I love to see in other people's work (see side bar for a few favourites!) and have tried my hand at a few but my own work more about how I like to make marks on the paper. I love to see watercolour run into unexpected shapes and textures, I love to see the flow of an ink line, I love to see an image emerge for pencil lines into something tha...

I love the Mighty Boosh so I was very excited to go to see the new film Bunny and the Bull. Not what I'd hoped, oh well, back to watching old Boosh dvd's!

I feel so much better today about my work thanks to your support when I was feeling low. This blogging community is amazing and touches our lives more profoundly than we realise sometimes. I'm very grateful to be part of it and grateful to each of you for being so lovely :) Here is my Illustration Friday drawing for this week, crunchy snow, and crunchy carrots (yes, those are carrots) and maybe hmmmm....crunchy lady? I drew this yesterday but today's drawings will be happier ones! :)

A massive thankyou to you Blogfriends who have helped me get 'back on my horse'. I was really self conscious about posting the next drawing after my last post, (sorry to be so down) so I'm fiddling about in my sketchbook and I'm throwing them out here before I can think about it! I even hope to post an Illustration Friday for this week soon too, so thankyou for being soooo supportive.xx :))

I was told some negative things about my illustrations the other day. I've had lots of positives too along the way and thankyou so much for your kind helpful comments that cheer me on! When I get rejections I take it well, realising that not everyone has the same taste, or a company already has work similar to mine but when someone says specific criticism, it hurts. The thing is, it hurts because know they're right. But it's ok because now I know what to work on. I've had a weekend in Devon. It was beautiful weather as you can see from my photos above. It's recharged my batteries, helped me to see the bigger picture and now I'm ready to get 'back on the horse'!

My last post spoke of en tangled and this one is about untangled. I've recently made a cardigan using the same wool that the pattern was made for. I say this because I usually adapt patterns to suit the vision of what I have in my mind but the most change I made to this one was to use an old button that I'd had for many years awaiting it's moment of glory! Pretty button isn't it? Since reading a post on Fairysteps , I've been inspired to unpick this old cardigan you see in the picture below that I made oh, too many years ago to remember when. It was enormous when I made it but that never put me off wearing it even though I must admit the shape was never flattering to say the least. Hey, it was the eighties, I say no more. I still love the wool, a blend of pink and purple so it would be lovely to give it a new lease of life. I hope to make something in a better shape this time. Thanks Ren! Yesterday my daughter was off school. She'd had the second HPV injectio...

A reindeer getting in the festive spirit for christmas and getting entangled for Illustration friday !