Jessie Lilac Blog

 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...

I've noticed that there's been a theme of head and shoulders happening in my artwork lately.   I had some little wooden egg cups that I painted with colourful ladies. I loved adding the gold paint and glitter to them! They make lovely little trinket bowls!  I sold both of them within a day and I'm so very happy that they've found their new homes. When I'm painting, I often go from one painting to another to let each of the stages dry. During the painting of the egg cups, I drew a page of ladies with black hair and an art journal page using a swatch of curtain fabric for a background. The egg cup ladies are still having an influence with this one too I think! I'll leave you with this beautiful textured tree trunk. Have a I mentioned I love trees?  See you again soon! xx

 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

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 adore colour but I fancied just using a black pen for this page.  It was my brother's wedding on Saturday, maybe I was thinking about what to wear? ;) Another drawing done in just black pens. I've been doing a bit of home decorating recently and I guess that's why the house appeared in my picture.  We had a great day on Saturday, a registry office ceremony in the morning, a Buddhist ceremony in the afternoon and festivities until late into the evening. Here's the happy couple after the morning ceremony. It's been a very busy weekend so it was lovely to relax by going back to my knitting the next evening. I simply love this yarn! It's Simply Soft Paints by Caron. I love the rainbow stitches on my needle! I'm making a little cardigan and I'll show more pics when it's done. This week I'm going to be jumping out of my art journal and onto a canvas board. I've been working solely in a sketchbook this year which has been ...