Jessie Lilac Blog

Over the years I've tried out all kinds of mediums and I don't think I've ever settled on just one or two absolute favourites but I have a feeling people who have seen my sketchbook pages over the past year might think differently? Anyway, the top picture you see here is an acrylic background with a stamped pattern and the drawing done in Posca pens. Here below are a few of my most recent paintings that I do on a daily basis in my little A5 Moleskine sketchbook. Let's see what my current fave mediums are. This one has a background of FW inks with Posca pens on top. The white flowers and the bird were done with a Liquitex paint marker.  You can't see the lovely shininess from the photo, but these are my Spectrum Noir brushpens. They are lovely and glittery. I also used some cobalt blue watercolour because I don't have many of the Sparkle pens and I felt the picture needed an extra colour. Here's another Sparkle pen painting, the onl...

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...

 Some sketchbook pages to share with you on this rainy day. I go through phases of drawing a lot, playing with different mediums and seeing what comes out. It's a pschologist's challenge! ;) That's all for now. :)

Illustration Friday's word this week is 'lesson'. While I was painting this picture, one of life's lessons sprang into my mind: Always look for the good. :)

Warning: gale force wind.

I had a lovely email this morning from a lady that bought my painting The Tree Pose to hang in her sister's yoga studio. The Core Balance Yoga Center can be found HERE. I love to hear where my paintings end up and this is particularly exciting for me because it's travelled all the way from the UK to Missouri! Before my very busy weekend began, I had a nice life drawing session friday morning. The reddish brown drawings are using an Inktense pencil with a little bit of water for the shading. I had to be a bit braver using that because once it's there you can't rub it out! I did a couple of quick studies in black ink too at the end of the session. I like the way these drawings have more strength than the pencil ones, what do you think?

Happy Weekend to all!

I could have done a painting on the traditional Halloween theme but for some reason this image evolved on the page! I find it spooky, do you? ;) Do you remember my recent give-away? I've now listed the postcards on Etsy and they're only $2.50 each. I had them printed by Moo from my original paintings on canvas and they've done a great job! To see them please CLICK HERE .

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I had so many ideas for this week's word but an excuse to draw three birds? Well I couldn't pass up on that could I? :o)

This is a new picture I did today that began as an idea for Illustration Friday but I wanted something else in the picture so I'm working a second one. I'll post it here as soon as it's done! Here's a journal page of doodles and a quote I came across this morning that made me want to write it down!

I've been having fun using Gel pens but before I show you that, here we are (I'm holding the camera so you can't actually see me!) in York. We walked a little way along the City wall but it was only a little way because my fear of heights took over. I never used to be like this before I had chidren, it's quite a nuisance I can tell you! That's the beautiful Minster you can see in the distance behind. We couldn't leave without visiting the Yorkshire Dales too. The air smelt so divine, so clean, so fresh. The cows were in no hurry to move out of our way! This bird flew away shortly after I took the picture and if anyone out there reading this knows what it might be called I love to know. :) I said I'd show you my gel pen pictures and here they are. After drawing, I added water which transformed them into a water colour type effect. I had great fun doing this, so much fun in fact I went out and bought a whole new set. :) Here below are two pictures using the ...

Thankyou for stopping by to see what I've been up to! :) As you might have wondered, I've not been home long enough to do any blogging recently, so I'm glad you're here today so I can show you where I've been. We had a lovely walk in the Malverns with my brother and neice. (She's the small one.) A beautiful place and I surprised myself by getting to the top of the hill which let me tell you was not on my planned agenda! We stopped in Tewkesbury for a lovely reward for all that walking. A delicious piece of carrot cake and milk shakes. Cup of tea for me. In between my adventures, I've been making some little paintings using my Inktense pencils . I love their rich colours which spring to life when you add water, great fun! We had a boat trip along the river Dart last week too. They served free cake and tea, a trip to do again I think!

Sometimes I like to make little paint sketches using whatever mediums I'm in the mood for. Sometimes watercolour, and a little bit of coloured pencil, This one is a base of pink acrylic paint, then drawn on top with a gel pen, then I used my Inktense pencils to colour in the hair and flowers. I've also had a play in Photoshop combining 2 pictures together to make my new header. I used this one, and this one, this one above shows what it was like before and this one is after. Much better I think! (Or should I make that moon lighter...hmmmmm.......)

Some more sketchbook pages. I'm currently working on new illustrations for the Britchop magazine, so you can imagine these doodlings are nothing to do with it! But if I tell you that I've been drawing a wasp then perhaps these aren't so far fetched!