Jessie Lilac Blog

Hello again!  Sorry it's been a while, I've been without my laptop for the past few weeks and I can't work out how to post on Blogger using my tablet so as you can imagine, it's good to be back using a laptop again! So would you like to see what I've been doing? I've been making a doodle day in my art journal, doodling whatever happens to come out on the page. I never plan them, they surprise me as much as anyone with the imagery that comes out. Now is the time you might want to go and grab a cup of tea and come back here to settle down for a few minutes because there are quite a few I have to show you! 😁 These first few are done using my trusty Posca pens.       These are done in watercolour with the addition of black and white pens.(above pic and below) More watercolour with some black penwork. My other new favourites are my Tombow pens that you might remember me talking about in my last post.  They m...

I'm working on an illustration project at the moment but it involves more serious drawing than my usual style so a bit of drawing practice was in order! I've set myself a task of making a doodle each morning. I've also joined the sketch-a-day group run by  Ruthie  on Facebook and this week the topic is insects. I copied this from a photo of a stag beetle. I couldn't have done it from life, they scare the bejeepers out of me! It's done in pen and watercolour. Meanwhile out in the garden, I woke to a coating of pretty frost. Last winter it was so mild I didn't see any frost in the garden at all so it was a surprise to see the pretty white coating on my rosebud. Icicles are so pretty aren't they? Even the poor primroses had their share. As I write this post today, the frost has gone and believe it or not the flowers have survived! It's still quite cold but that won't stop me going to the beach. ...

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...

I'm still a-doodlin' and here are the latest from my sketchbook. Meet Lucinda :) She's rather partial to oranges, especially this time of year when they're super sweet. This poor girl has other things on her mind. I expect you can guess what!  I've decided her name is Felicity! For those of you who know me on Facebook you might have already seen I've been making cards from digital prints of my canvas paintings. These are all assembled by hand(mine!) and I've sourced eco-friendly cardstock to make them. The envelopes are environmentally friendly too! You can buy them here if you feel so inclined. :) They're available in a set of 4. These ones above are available here . And if you're lucky enough to know someone who will be having a baby soon, or has just had one, I've made New Baby cards, pink for a girl, blue for a boy. These are available as individual cards, unless of course your friend or relative has twins!...

Hello new followers! It's so lovely to have you here on my little blog of painting and stuff. I hope you've all had a nice summer. :) So the new term has started and I've actually started painting again for the first time in ages! If any of you have ever had a long break from doing something, you might know how very difficult it is to get going again. My mind has been whirring with ideas over the summer but my problem is not remembering what ideas I had and not finding time to try them out. Yes I should have written them down at the time but I didn't.  By the time I sat down to paint yesterday I didn't know what I should be painting. I think it was Julia Cameron who said to just "turn up at the page" when you're feeling creatively blocked, so I did. She also said something along the lines of "creativity is surrender not control." With these things in mind I started painting a face over a collaged board that I'd made before the s...