Jessie Lilac Blog

This has to be the quickest I've ever done Illustration Friday! It was fun to do! :)

A massive thankyou to all you lovely people who helped me make a decision about whether to change my header. I think you can see the final verdict! :) You've all been amazing and I'm very grateful. :) The very talented Cathy Nichols is hosting an event on her blog called FOUND ART FRIDAY and I thought I'd join in! The theme this month is 'Big Love' and the idea is to experiment and have fun without much constraint. I'm quite a messy painter and get covered in whatever I happen to be using, so it's been a long while since I've been brave enough to use my black ink. The trees had to evolve according to which way my brush (accidently) made a mark so there might be more branches than I anticipated!

First of all let me show you the painting I did yesterday. It started out as a doodle, then I decided to colour it in with shades of green. But this isn't what I need an opinion on, it's my new header that I can't decide what to do with. The first one below is how it looked originally..... .....then I added more to it. Which one do you prefer? I'd be really grateful for your opinion, it's so difficult for me to be objective abut them. Thankyou! :)

Yesterday I finished these paintings as well as the one in the last post that was for Illustration Friday. You might have noticed I used this one for my new profile picture. It reflected how I was feeling, I'm going through some changes in my personal life at the moment and it's not easy to accept change is it? Looking at it fresh today, I might add some more to it, I think the background needs livening up a bit. This one is a little sketch I did in my moleskine. The moleskine is still a new kind of sketchbook for me but I'm growing to love it!

I enjoyed drawing the birdcage so much for the last Illustration friday that I thought I'd draw another one for clumsy ! I used my Inktense pencils for this and I'm gradually discovering how best to use them. They're not that great for large expanses of colour, like the grass and sky, but very good at solid small areas if you want a bright colour. I wasn't happy with the texture I ended up with on the grass so the sky's done with good-old watercolour!

The Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Charles Vess. The author Neil Gaiman says "This is the kind of book that comes about when a friend phones you and says, "I'll be having a baby in a month. Would you write her a poem? A sort of prayer, maybe? We call her the Blueberry. . . .birth to a daughter? I wasn't going to let it be published, not ever. It was private, and written for one person..." Some of you are daughters, or have daughters so take a minute to hear this lovely poem by Neil Gaiman . The illustrations are by Charles Vess and if like me you're a fan of Arthur Rackham, you'll also enjoy reading about the process of making his wonderful illustrations. I can't help but notice the similarity in style! Lovely!

After having to rush back home to fetch a second umbrella because the first one refused to stay taut, I arrived at the life session and put the new umbrella in my bag. I've no idea what happened to it while it was in there but when I came to use it on the way home it refused to stay up and repeatedly collapsed onto my head like a venus flytrap. I had to hold it open with 2 hands which is no mean feat carrying 2 bags as well. In fact it was in such a state there was a great big hole near the centre letting the rain in anyway! It's now in the bin. 10 minute pose 10 minute pose

Oh there's no stopping me now with my wilderness pictures is there?! This one started out as a doodle and I kept adding to it until I ended up with this wild garden although I must say it's much neater than mine! The top picture is a flamenco dancer on her day off. I've had quite an emotional week one way or another and this emerged from my feelings.

I enjoyed drawing those trees for the 'wilderness' of Illustration Friday so much I just had to draw some more! I have some paintings for sale on Ebay that will finish on saturday, They start at only £4.99 and are original watercolours of mine, so if you'd like to take a look, please click HERE .

I did enjoy this week's word for Illustration Friday . My perfect excuse to draw lots of trees!

Have you seen the new Avatar film yet? I didn't think it was my sort of film if you know what I mean but everyone that I knew that had been to see it had gone back to see it again, so I was intrigued to know what all the fuss was about. I did enjoy it! Other news: Here's my illustration of a cat drinking cider in the latest edition of Britchop Magazine. Now to get to work on the Illustration Friday topic. The word is 'wilderness' and I have trees on my mind already........!

My scanner is working hooray! Now I can show you my last 3 pictures more clearly :) I've listed some of my watercolour paintings on Ebay and they come to an end on saturday. If you'd like to have a look, please click HERE . Enjoy the rest of the weekend!xx

I had my first guitar lesson of the year last night. I'm learning flamenco, slowly and steadily, I don't practise as much as I should but it's just for fun so I don't beat myself up about it too much! This morning was the first life drawing session this year too. I enjoyed it very much and took this photo of my sketchbook. I'm still without a scanner so I hope you can see it clearly enough.

I think this one speaks for itself! I still don't having a working scanner so I'm having to photograph my pictures at the moment. I'm still playing in sketchbooks and not making finished pieces so there's no panic just yet! Look at my delicious box of Inktense pencils I had for christmas! I love the strong colours but the colours on the ends of the pencils don't correspond to the colour they produce on the paper so there was only one thing to do! This was fun, needed no brain (mine seems to be on pause at the moment) and I now have a useful chart that I can refer to for ever, or until it falls apart or gets tea stains all over it. Right then, what colours shall I choose for my next picture? Hmmmmmm.

I thought this was quite an appropriate word for some of us this week with all this snow! It was very exciting at first to have everyone home on a school day but today they're back and I must say it's nice to have the space again to get on with my own things! I've given my Etsy shop a new lease of life and will be adding these 2 ACEO's later on this morning. I do like drawing birds!

Spiral in The Sky Welcome I have made good use of being snowed in this morning and spent the time listing 2 new paintings for sale on Etsy ! These were both originally inspired by Illustration Friday so they might look a bit familiar if you've visited me before! Click on the titles to take you to their details. I'm hoping to start putting more items in my Etsy shop soon, now the new year is underway!

Here's a photo I took of my table where I do most of my drawing. I love to see lots of pots with pens and pencils and brushes and even if I don't use all of them every day, it's nice to have them there ready for action! This was a sketch I did this morning, the background was another painting that had been painted with blue acrylic. I scanned both of them into the computer, with the intention of collaging the sketch onto the blue background in Photoshop. You see I know it can be done, but evidently not by me. Not yet anyway! :/

Yes, me too! Lots of snow back again after the christmas break this fine morning. The weather stick told me so. And the view out the window might have had something to do with it too! The book? One of my christmas presents was this wonderful inspiring book called the Art of Lisbeth Zwerger. She's one of my favourite illustrators and it's obvious from her work that she too is a fan of Arthur Rackham. An all-time favourite of mine :) Just look at those amazing pictures! I love it, I love it!

I must get to grips with Photoshop this year. Maybe I should add it to my increasing list of new year's resolutions? I like a painting to look like it's hand drawn but once I start tidying the edges digitally, I never know when to stop. I could end up tidying away the whole picture and then would I be!? Luckily, my lack of Photoshop skills has prevented it in this case, so here you have it ( almost!) warts and all. :)

I had the most magical day on my birthday. All my family stayed in an amazing house in Lyme Regis and while I was out enjoying the locals sights and shops, they were busy making secret plans for a special birthday meal for us all. The Mermaid Shop was for me, like stepping into a piece of heaven. I could have stayed there all day! Look what my daughter bought me! Do you recognise the print? Clue...it has a Moonlight and a Hare! My eldest and youngest being busy bees in the kitchen. While I sit excitedly awaiting the feast. As a final surprise, they'd all made me an album of photos, each child had added their own pictures and comments and I shed lots of tears looking through it! We played games until the hour came when it waas midnight. Time for the fireworks and to wish everyone (I think the whole of Lyme heard us!) a happy new year! It was the best birthday I'd ever had.