Jessie Lilac Blog

I like to make pictures that aren't a conventional landscape, so that the ground and the sky are interchangeable, dreamlike, floating. These paintings are done using my Tombow dual brush pens, the watercolour effect is made by adding water to the pen marks with an ordinary brush. This next one below is painted in watercolours and the black is done in waterproof drawing pens. Next is a picture made with my coloured pencils that I've had for ever. They might be ancient but they still do the job!  Oh. And my black pentel brush pen and a gold gel pen. I love a bit of gold. And finally here's a cute little cucumber that Middle Daughter grew in her garden. It looks like a lemon doesn't it? It's about the same size as a satsuma and I think they're called lemon cucumbers but let me assure you they taste like a very tasty cucumber. Have a great week!xx

I've started a new blanket. I love to crochet it's such a relaxing thing for me to do in the evenings. My favourite part of course is choosing the colours! W hen it's finished I hope to have it for sale in my Etsy shop even though I know I'm going to love it myself and I'd be tempted to keep it but I have a LOT of crocheted blankets and as you can imagine I'm running out of space to keep them!   I also love the actual stitchery part of crocheting too so I had an idea of something I could make very quickly from some old jute string that's been hanging around the garage for many years. I  don't like throwing away those plastic sponges that lots of us use for washing up the dishes.  I thought I'd make a little washing up cloth out of the jute, here it is! It was really quick to make, probably quicker than it took to make this blogpost and it's good to know that it can be composted when it's worn out one day. Before I go, ...

 My youngest graduated last week with a first class honours degree in Social Pedagogy. I'm a proud mama and here's a little watercolour I did of her in my art journal when we got back. It was an extremely hot day but the setting next to the river Thames was perfect for taking photos.  I like to draw different hairstyles, this one is done in Tombow pens. This hairstyle was more challenging because of the detail but it's all a learning curve drawing something new. I loved how the cat came out even though she's missing a tail! I'm always a bit fazed by drawing animals because I've very rarely ever drawn them from life but I enjoyed painting this one. Cats are my favourite animal so that helps. 😉 💖 I think I must have been channelling Frida for this one! I like using my pentel black brush pen, it makes lovely sweeping swirly lines. It actually ran out of ink so I took it apart and refilled it with ordinary black ink from a bottle. That m...

Here are my latest pages from my sketchbook. Life's been very busy this year and I haven't found the time to make finished paintings as such but I do make time most mornings to sit down and fill a sketchbook page. If I have a gap of not doing any art for more than a week I find it reeeeally difficult to get back into it again so these pages are important to keep the creative part of my brain up and running. The top one is done with Tombow Dual Brush pens and watercolour.  This one above is an inky background with a Posca painting on top.  This one's done in the same way with Posca painting on top of a layer of indian yellow FW ink.  I was having a difficult emotional day when I made this one.  When I looked at this later I was amazed I can see in it just how I was feeling that day. I love it when art does this don't you? And finally  a more cheery one! I used my ✨Sparkling ✨ Posca pens for this, they're so fun to use you can't but he...

This week for Illustration Friday, the word is SQUIRREL.

 Most mornings when I have time I like to fill a page of my sketchbook with colour. It's become more of an art journal than a sketchbook because I'm making intuitive images, shapes and colours that come from somewhere that I'm not entirely conscious of when I'm in the process. For instance, if I feel like I need to see lime green and pink then I make a drawing using it. I sometime have an idea of making a random background and then layering on top to define areas, like with these leaves above. I then add some more detail to it with pens. Souffle pens are great for drawing over a dark area. The pigment turns out a lot lighter when it dries. And then some days I sit back and look at what I've drawn and I wonder, "Why fish?" Maybe it's the influence of the sea! I've made a short little video of some of my time in early May. I hope you enjoy.xx PLEASE CLICK HERE TO WATCH