Jessie Lilac Blog

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ........mwah ha ha.....! Ready for some scary sculpture I made back in the day? Hello new followers, you're very welcome here, I hope I'm not scaring you too much! ;) I have some drawings I did at the time too.. I always did have a thing about birds! ;) Phew! That's enough for now! I shall be back quite soon with some giveaway news for you. This blog might possibly look quite different next time you visit too. :) Happy Halloween!

Here they are, the ACEOs I told you about yesterday! As I was drawing each one, it would lead to making another and another until I ended up with 5 altogether. Would you like a closer look? Please click on each title to see more details. :) Blue Calm Peaceful Flight Plump Grey Bird Green Flight Night Sky They're all now available in my Etsy shop , all painted with inks on heavy watercolour paper and are for sale at $10 each (that's approx. £6.39). I hope you like them, do you have a favourite? Thankyou for looking! :)

I really enjoyed working on a small scale while I was making the owl ACEO so when the this week's word for Illustration Friday was 'sky' it inspired me to do some more ACEOs. Here's the first one I've finished. It's painted with inks on heavy watercolour paper and will be in the shop very soon. :) I've a few more in the pipeline and will have them to show you in the next day or so. Please come back and see!

 S omeone started walking towards me. I looked at him with his stunningly beautiful colours and he looked at me with his beady eye. "Who are you?" he said Then someone else turned up to distract him for a while so I took the opportunity of taking their photo together.  They didn't seem to mind. What a sunny weekend it was around these parts! Are you ready to see some glorious leavey colour? Then come with me through this beautiful gate and I'll show you some delights... Trees,leaves and birds in the sunshine, pretty good combination don't you think? :) I hope you get a chance to see the glowing colours too!

sketchbook page Well what do you know, I'm painting owls today.  I love owls. They're so very different to other birds with their enormous head and round body. There's something engaging about the way they look at you too isn't there? I haven't heard one hooting for a while but it's a night time sound I would love to hear again one day. I thought it about time I did a little 'portrait' of one of my favourite birds and chose to make an ACEO on watercolour paper. He's quite pretty but he's definitely a boy. He's painted on strong watercolour paper with inks and watercolour and I've just put him in my shop.  If you take a fancy to him I'm sure he'd be happy to fly to your home! Please click here for more details. :) ~~~~

love alters not when it alteration finds  The quote above is from Shakespeare and to me it means that true love will always remain regardless of the changes that life brings. My enchantment with the illustrations of Arthur Rackham has 'altered not' since I was a small child!  For me, he really does create the best witches of all, in fact it wouldn't surprise me to learn he invented them! ;) Shall I remind you how fantastic they are? He's the master of witches isn't he? Or do you have your own favourite witch artist?  I'll love to know!

a page from my sketchbook With the reminder of Halloween hovering around Blogland recently, I've been reading a book we've had lying around the house for a long time. It's called The Witches Handbook by Malcolm Bird. My eldest daughter used to love this book and   having read it in bed myself last night, I now understand why. No War and Peace for me when I'm feeling under the weather . ( Actually, that's just an excuse.) The illustrations are genius and have so much thought and detail in them. See for yourself! . This is one of the pages giving the modern day witch advice (that's you, the reader) as to which pets are the best ones to keep. I love their expressions, don't you? My favourite one is the frogs!  My daughter told me years later that she thought at the time that she really was a witch! Children are so impressionable, I wonder when it dawned on her that she wasn't? Hmm...I'll ask her next time I see her. Thankyou ...