Jessie Lilac Blog

I'm back from Cambridge, had a lovely time, saw beautiful architecture, ate delicious food and got lost on the way home and ended up in central London! I feel quite inspired now after my trip and have ideas jumping around in my head. I can't blog very much this week but will be back on form next monday when the schools go back. So until then, here's a little sketch.

I'm off to Cambridge today for a few days, never been there before so lots to discover! See you when I get back :)x

A face drawn without planning or thinking. The end result is then a surprise to me and then I wonder why she looks so engrossed in her thoughts! I left it at an early stage of just one layer of watercolour because I liked the shape of the brown hair against the purpley blue background. Can you see the ghost of my 'header painting' floating above her head? It's on the same piece of paper, that's why! (I took the advice of you kind bloggers who suggested I use good quality paper for sketches.) Here are 3 watercolours I've listed on Ebay that will finish on sunday. The price for each is only 99p so if you like a bargain then CLICK HERE to find out about them in more detail, or click on the painting titles to take you to each of their individual ebay pages. Balloon Lady Precious Bike This is an illustration I did for a biker's magazine. Wedding Dance This one was the first design I did for my daughter's wedding, so if you know of someone about to have a b

On saturday I met the lovely people from the Cristus Gallery in Folkestone. They came to collect my big acrylic paintings to take them for an adventure at the sea-side! (The first 2 paintings of the slide-show are mine.)

Look at me - two posts in one day! I've just finished this for Illustration Friday so I thought I'd post it straight away!

Can you see something on my mantelpiece? Have a closer look... It's a wedding invitation for my daughter's big day in August. She asked me to design it for them so of course I had to include Mavis her cat too. If you look really closely in the top photo you can also see me taking the picture, which I've only just noticed!

I've been very strict with myself and selected just 3 colours to make little sketches with. Each picture used a different 3 though. I'm not that strict! And here are some life drawings from this morning... I took some coloured pencils with me for a change. They were the cheap sort and I couldn't rub them out so any mistakes had to stay! I didn't have a pencil sharpener either, so this in last one I had to change colours each time one wore out. It's true! Here's to a happy weekend.x

I went out last night and Paolo was brilliant! CLICK HERE if you'd like to enjoy a moment of his brilliance. I've changed my header. I was getting annoyed by the old one, wanted a picture to go with the writing, so I did a little sketch of a cartoon me. Then I painted the one you see in the header and it wasn't as good. Shall I tell you why? The sketch took me minutes and the finished one took much longer. Why does this always happen? My quick sketches are better then the fussed over ones every time! Now comes the question, "Why don't I use the quick sketch instead?" Answer : Because I wanted my extra special header image to be painted on lovely thick expensive watercolour paper! Problem : Thick expensive lovely watercolour paper makes me freeze and become self concious. Answer : (please help!)

After admiring artist's work on Etsy for some time and as a happy Etsy customer myself, I was inspired to open my very own shop . I'm very excited because I've had my very first Etsy sale. Yay! On this positive note, I thought I'd list some more of my watercolours. Here are a couple of them and if you'd like to see more that I've newly listed today, just CLICK HERE! :)

After my dose of nature at the weekend, I've been inspired to paint some little flowers designs. I love colour and pattern so this was fun to do. The top sketch is an idea for a new header. I'm not sure if it should be a child or a woman and I think this is evident in my drawing! :D This is a painting of mine on canvas called 'Headland' and it's going to be included in a summer exhibition of my paintings in the Cristus Gallery in Folkestone, along with other artists. You can also see at the gallery the work of a lovely artist and fellow blogger Julie-Ann who paints beautiful angels!

Sometimes the only thing that can heal a rubbish day is to get out into the greenness! An added bonus was finding these lovely deer. I crept up slowly so they didn't get frightened, although once they spotted me they did stop chewing and began to give me the eye! Aren't they beautiful? Colour and nature, a day of healing.

I really wanted to do last week's Illustration Friday but I ran out of days! This friday I painted this as soon as I saw the new word, it's not friday today, it's saturday but I think this is the quickest I've ever submitted!

If you're familiar with my work you'll know I'm Colour Crazy and overdose on it probably far too much for a lot of people's taste. I just can't help it! I remember an art tutor saying to me that my paintings were like "everyone shouting at once"! Today I thought I'd try a different approach. Instead of following my instinct with no particular plan of which colours are suitable, I decided to try a few little sketches using only 3 colours for each. Oh my goodness what will -power was needed. Once I get my brush loaded with luscious colour it's like a drug! But I've now got a newly found love for paynes grey. Who'd have thought it? I don't really have the Three Colour Blues. Today I have control and restraint... and I kind of like it! :)

I had projects to be getting on with yesterday but didn't feel very inspired, so I just doodled on the page (above). I find this helps to loosen up and not be selfconcious about drawing. Later, browsing through a favourite magazine (that I buy once in a while for a treat!) I saw this lovely yellow dress. The blue lamp was also inspired by one I saw on another page, this time it was the colour that grabbed me! I added the imaginary table and flowers afterwards. Of course I wouldn't ever copy something outright unless it was for fun! Ok then, I'll tell you the name of the magazine. It was Country Living :)

I'm thinking of ideas to illustrate a magazine article about food. There's an anecdote in it about throwing blue mashed potato out of the window...or did I imagine it said that? Here's a first sketch.

A film my son Jared made one afternoon for school, starring my youngest daughter Carenza. You get to see my house and garden too! I was half way through decorating the bathroom when he filmed this so didn't get the chance to tidy up, in fact I didn't even know he was filming until we watched it a few days later! Excuse the title, it must be teenage angst. ;)

I get fired up after a weekend away, ready to start work again, raring to go. Mentally that is, until I sit down to begin and realise how much there is to do and go into a panic wondering what to do first! Here's a doodle I did yesterday.

I enjoyed last week's 'Drop in and Draw' so much last week, I decided to go again this week. Not as many of us there this time and we drew accompanied by the recorder lesson in the music room next door! They were obviously new to the instrument, I shall leave it at that. Have a lovely bank holiday weekend, they say sun is on its way!