Jessie Lilac Blog

There's a good reason for my quietness here over the past couple of weeks. So much has been happening, I don't know where to start! I'll begin with last week, when I was immersed in a new illustration project. It involved drawing men. Now those of you who are familiar with my paintings will know that this is a rare thing indeed and at first it felt quite a challenge to me. I've done a lot of life drawing in the past so when I started to draw a man's form instead of my usual lady ones, my memories of life drawing came flooding back to help me. They're almost finished but sometimes work has to stop while life events take over doesn't it? Two BIG events took over the beginning of this week. On Monday, Youngest Son had his graduation ceremony at Birmingham University. He's a primary teacher now, working in Devon. Tuesday saw the birth of Ruby Rose, Middle Son's new baby daughter. It was a bumpy journey into the world for...

Do you like to doodle? One of my new year's resolutions is to doodle more and last week I managed a doodle a day.  This one was done with my black Pitt pen.  Prismacolors are lovely to sketch with, the colours are juicy and you can press as lightly or as hard as you like to get varying textures. So many to choose from, it was satisfying to stick to just the blues for this one, with a hint of orange. :) Fineliner pens are nice to use because their points are thin and fine, great for patterns. And another done with my Pitt pen. You might have noticed a set of colours peeping at the top of the photo? The lovely bright colours of my new set of Inktense sticks that I had for Christmas! They're so big and chunky, after playing with them on this small sketchbook page I think I need a larger area to work on next time. My sketchbook is A5 size. I like that size because I use it as an art journal or visua...

 At the end of my last post I promised to return soon with my new year's resolutions. They've been brewing in my mind for a very long while, too long I've put these daily tasks off. Even my enormous turn of the year on new year's eve (it's also my birthday) didn't jumpstart me into action. I thought some magic in the universe might do it for me but no it didn't. So it's down to me then is it? ;) Ok here we go: No.1:  exercise I used to do this a lot and I remember how much better I felt when I did it regularly. No.2:  stop using my body as a dustbin I do. If it's in the house and it tastes nice then it has to be consumed. By me. My clothes no longer fit comfortably and I don't like being uncomfortable. No.3:  do yoga I've done yoga on and off for most of my life since I was 17 but over the last year or so it's been off. All the time.  No.4:  doodle   I only usually only doodle when I'm on the phon...

Happy new year to you! The Christmas holidays have whizzed but so quickly in the frenzied way they always do but each day filling with the future's happy memories.  Brixham looked particularly beautiful in the days between Christmas and new year, soft afternoon sunshine lighting up the harbour. Then came my birthday on new year's eve! A day out in Cornwall was the plan and the first stop was the river Fowey on Bodmin Moor. The riverside trees wore their magical coat of glowing moss, so beautiful. Just along the road from there is the place called Jamaica Inn . It's just as I imagined it would look from reading the novel of the same name by Daphne Du Maurier. After a hearty meal the coast was calling me so we headed out towards Padstow. I hadn't been there for years so the Rick Stein 'takeover' came as a surprise! I'm sure he only had one restaurant when I was last there. :) I love that blue woodwork on the...