Jessie Lilac Blog

(white and blue ink drawing, with a blue acrylic background applied with a knife.) I've been having trouble getting back into my creative groove this year. I have been painting, but not as much  as I used to. I've started going back to life drawing from the model each week which is all very well but it's the drawings that come from my own head that I'm having a slow time with. Today I had one of those 'Lightbulb Moments' when I saw this  and as a result, decided that I'd like to make a little drawing each and every day. I won't make any rules as to what it should be, or the medium used because I know that too many rules will scare me from doing anything! My aim is to make one small drawing each day without thinking about what it'll be, using whatever medium I feel like at the time, or have to hand and to just let the image come out on the page. If you'd like to join me in drawing each day and posting, you'd be very welcome, or if yo...

The word for Illustration Friday  this week is 'Wings' I had this sketch (on the left with the butterflies) that I'd painted a while ago and thought I could make it into a bigger painting. And so I did. Here it is: It'll be for sale quite soon in my shop. :) The snow's gone now and the sun came out over the weekend. The family had a busy day with everyone helping to tame the hedge and the next day we went out for a walk in the nearby woods and some very interesting things were discovered. Look closely at the picture and you might see some faces staring back at you from the taller trees! The carvings were made some time ago and a lot of the detail had gone but if you click here you can see earlier pictures that were taken in the past (not by me) showing more of the carvings on the ground. When I looked it up on Google I discovered that people had experienced some spooky experiences occurences there: "Over a six ...

I went to a life drawing session this morning. I've not been for over 2 years so I was a little nervous, wondering how I'd get on with drawing from life after all this time.  I got on fine as it turned out and the group were a bunch of friendly people including a couple of familiar faces that I remembered from the times I used to go before which made it much easier to feel as though I hadn't been away too long.  Some of the poses were short 10 minute ones and some were longer 30 minute ones.  I felt as though I was back in the swing of it and had a nice time. I shall be going again!  But next time I must remember to take a rubber! (eraser)

Here's a little acrylic painting I did yesterday quite quickly and stuck it in my sketchbook. She's looking a little melancholy but I think you'll understand why if you came to visit here then. The text that's underneath I cut from one of my birthday cards, maybe a slight contrast but I liked the happy words. :) and  rather think it's a good motto to have for a birthday don't you? We can't always spend every day doing our favourite things, especially if we have so many that even if we were able do our favourite things, they wouldn't all fit into a day anyway! One thing I like to do is to spend time with friends and today was one of those days. Today I've been getting my paintings ready for the exhibition that I'm taking part in soon. My friend who's also in the show came over to my house and we had a nice morning together talking about painting and families and lots of other things we have in common. We delivered our pa...

Many of you will know Gretel Parker from blogging or you might have bought her wonderful artwork in felt or paint in the past.  On 21 January, Andy Macauley, Gretel's sweetheart and life partner of 21 years died unexpectedly. Andy was her world and having lost both her parents when she was a child and having so siblings, she needs much support from her friends at this terrible time. If you think you could help in some way please click here  and if you would spread the word through social media, that too will help Gretel. Thankyou kind people.xx

There's so much darkness around, it comes from every direction. People hurt eachother and end up unhappy as a result. You want to be happy, yes? Then choose to see the light, it's there shining for you.x

'Sedna' for Illustration Friday . There are many stories about Sedna but the common theme is her lack of fingers. To find out how, you're just going to have to read the story. ;)  I feel a lack of fingers in this weather, it's so cold, they seem to be numb a lot of a the time! It didn't stop me making a snowman though did it?! Do you like his curly hazel hair? :)

 These were taken in my garden yesterday. While most of the country was covered in the white stuff it seemed to missed here completely. Even this primrose that I've shown you before  here  hadn't seen any frost since I last showed you it in November. That snail hadn't finished it off either!  Spring really looked as though it was beginning. Bulbs are shooting Snow? -  it seemed very unlikely. But at last it's arrived, so here are the obligatory snowy pics of my back garden today! No longer looking like a messy wintery flowerbed, now nice white fluffy pom-poms!  See that nice smooth white patch on the ground? How could I resist? ;)

First of all I want to thank you all for your wonderful ideas for my disaster of a cardigan from the last post. I have some lovely ideas now, you are a clever bunch, thankyou!xx If you're a regular visitor here you'll know that I've kept sketchbooks for many years. When I was at college I found them a bit of a chore and didn't enjoy them very much because they were filled with course projects. I know many artists hardly ever use them (and you could be one of them!) but it was only when I started to use them for my own enjoyment and not necessarily for the eyes of others that I became what I can only describe as essential to keeping creative thoughts flowing for me. I'm going to show you a few completely random pages from a couple of years ago. I could show you more up to date ones but I have a feeling I might have already shown them here recently. :) Amalia from Pencils and Fireflies was kind enough to ask me to take part in her ' sketchbook show and tell...

I don't normally like having pictures of me here on my blog but in this case I need to show you and it's easier than trying to describe it, so here goes. Do you remember my lovely cardigan that I took several months to knit? Well it had a bit of an accident in the wash. So. I'm knitting a colourful cushion cover to cheer myself up. It's quite fun to do because I'm making it up as I go along and the yarn is cheapo acrylic, not pure beautiful merino. Like my lovely avocado and buttercup cardigan. (Anyone need a tiny 'felted' avocado and buttercup winter warmer for their small dog, or rabbit, or baby?) A Happy(ish) ending... Since the cardigan I've also just finished this scarf made with pure wool. I'd better be careful with it hadn't I?! ;)

Hello dear reader, I hope you've had a lovely festive time since I last saw you. It's been a while since I've been here hasn't it and maybe the longest ever blog break I've ever had!  It's been a very eventful christmas/birthday/new year time for me. We had singing and playing, baubles and glitter and family meals of every description, We had days at the sea-side with the youngest of the clan and present opening with the older ones too. I'd rather like shiny glitter around me all the time wouldn't you? I do have fairy lights that I keep up all year round, oh yes and of course my collection of fairies that were probably designed for christmas tree decorations but they've never reached the tree because they hang permanently from a kitchen shelf. I think it might perhaps be a step too eccentric to have a christmas tree up all year as well? (Yes, it is, isn't it.)  Don't worry, you'll be relieved...