Jessie Lilac Blog

I've had a very busy weekend with family and travelling so I'm sorry that my giveaway announcement is a little later than promised! Thankyou for all your lovely comments telling me which print you'd like to win. I'd love to send you all the print of your choice but there has to be one winner, and the name picked out of the hat is: Donna Maria Lynn  Well done Donna! As you can see I've been having more fun in my sketchbook with my new Tombow pens and Distress Crayons. The nibs of the crayons are quite thick, like a lipstick but I find they come into their own when used as a background. When they're dry, I like to draw with a black pen on top. The Tombow pens work very well on top of the background too. We had a long journey to make on Sunday so we decided to stop at Glastonbury for a break on the way home. It's been quite an action packed few days. My youngest son was flying back to Spain, my eldest son got engaged and we accepted an...

  It was such a warm and sunny Sunday today, we decided to go out for the afternoon and found ourselves in Lacock. It was so lovely to see so many colourful flowers still in bloom at this late part of September! I remember it was here that I saw the very first snowdrops of the year too. Definitely a good place for growing flowers don't you think? I'd love to live in a house like this with the beautiful leaded windows and stone window sills.  It will only ever be a dream but that's ok, I like to dream. :)  We walked around the gardens near the Abbey enjoying the sunshine, noticing how most of the crops are reaching the end of their growth. It was a lovely warm day but it still felt like autumn, maybe it's the smell, or perhaps the unique light of September that reminds us that Summer had gone? I wouldn't say no to having this in my garden either. :) This beautiful creature was there too enjoying the garden and no doubt relishi...

  Hello! It's a very sunny day again today and I've had a busy family filled couple of days. It's lovely to be able to sit in the garden and enjoy the flowers that are springing up everywhere. One of the pots of flowers that have caught my eye lately is the one with verbena growing in it. I love the way the flowers grow in clusters together. I like it so much I was inspired to paint my next painting featuring them. Here it is: It was fun drawing all those little flowerheads! I've listed this in my Etsy shop if you'd like to have a look. :) Sitting in the garden took a different turn yesterday because I had a bit of an accident with the deckchair...! OOPS! I couldn't move for ages because I was laughing so much. Enough time for my children to take a picture! Have a lovely weekend and I hope it's sunny where you are too. I won't be sitting in a deckchair any time soon! x x

Here's another pencil drawing that evolved as I drew. I started with the eyes and formed the face around them, the cat asked to appear on her shoulder and the hair arrived last of all! If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know how unusual it is for me to work without colour so it was inevitable that a tiny spot of colour would end up there too! My next one is very likely to have a little more colour than this. :) After all that dark rain yesterday the sun is shining here today, have a good weekend!xx

I'm setting myself a little project to keep myself drawing regularly. I'd like you to join in if you'd like to :) Here's the deal: I draw a face on a regular basis, and post it here and you give the person a name.  You know how people suit their names? I know there might be the exception occasionally and let me tell you I used to hate my name when I was young. At that time no-one had heard of the name Jessica and I had to repeat it over and over again to people who would then give me a strange look and ask where it came from and was it made up. Well just for the record, my mum named me after a character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice  so not that new! Today there are loads of Jessicas throughout the world so I don't feel such a freakshow any more! ;) The painting above is my first person in this series. What do you think her name is? The name that I think fits her the best will become the name of the painting and I'll keep an album...

What's happened to the weather? It's raining and windy and my gas was switched of all day yesterday so it was cold too! This little sketch popped into my sketchbook from my windy head. I finished this painting on canvas above a few days ago, it's called 'Safe Harbour' and soon after finished the other painting (with the bird flying a kite) too. I didn't have a name for it until the end and I decided upon 'Summer Breeze'. That was a day when the sun was still shining but the wind was beginning to stir. Summer Breeze sounds quite soothing doesn't it and I quite like the song of the same name. :) That guitar intro takes me back to being 13 before teenage angst really set in! Windy and rainy it might be but my latest painting is filled with a peaceful setting of pattern and colour. I like textures and the effects of different painting techniques and I'm trying to balance randomness with pattern. Not an easy ta...

This week is the word is 'whiskers' and so I painted cats! Brown Cat This one above is the image I'm submitting to Illustration Friday. He has some fine whiskers doesn't he? I didn't know what colour to paint the dress so I decided to make it patterned and had a lot of fun making up this design. :) Tiger Lady Both these paintings are now listed in my Etsy shop . Please click on the individual titles to take you to their details in the shop.  I've used watercolour paint and acrylic inks. The blue background of the one on the left has metallic shiny blue paint, so lovely to use! Hmmm...I think I might be tempted to change my Avatar again. What do you think? ;) A few days ago I noticed that my Bloglist had disappeared from the side panel of my blog! I've put a new one up and I've tried to remember everyone but if I've forgotten or left you out please tell me. :)

Stripey Grey Cat Illustration Friday this week is the word 'Tree' and as trees are one of my favourite subjects I had a lot of fun making this painting! I made some more ACEOs with cats and here they are.. Love Cat Shy Cat Each of these are ACEO size,   2.5 x 3.5ins. (that's 64mm by 89mm) and are painted on strong watercolour paper ready to frame as a picture for your wall or for your ACEO collection.   You can click on each of the titles to take you to the details of the paintings. Have a lovely weekend! :)

'Shy' for Illustration Friday. My white kitty in the picture is too shy to tell you her name. I was like that when I was a child. I used to hate adults asking me, especially having an unusual name like Jessica, I found it excruciatingly embarrassing! Who'd have known it's become such a popular name nowadays? Of course I like having that name now and don't mind in the least being asked but that doesn't actually happen very often any more. I've had a busy few days painting owls and cats but I haven't forgotten that I've promised a give-away really soon! I shall be back :)

love alters not when it alteration finds  The quote above is from Shakespeare and to me it means that true love will always remain regardless of the changes that life brings. My enchantment with the illustrations of Arthur Rackham has 'altered not' since I was a small child!  For me, he really does create the best witches of all, in fact it wouldn't surprise me to learn he invented them! ;) Shall I remind you how fantastic they are? He's the master of witches isn't he? Or do you have your own favourite witch artist?  I'll love to know!

It really does feel like the end of summer.  Although the weather is still sunny and warm, the shadows are becoming longer each day. There is a magic in the air, an aura of expectancy. Do you feel this? With this new seasonal energy I feel the need to tackle things that need tackling, like this painting. It's one I finished a while ago. The other day I was sorting through my watercolours for sale, when I came across it and realised a few more finishing touches were needed. Do you ever do this to work that you thought had been finished? I'm much happier with it now and I've relisted it for sale on Etsy . To see more details, please click  here.

No words today. ~  sight ~

Awareness is a choice. I'm still enjoying a more subdued pallette of colours (for me.) I did limit this to two but I think another one wanted to get in on the act, must be a couple of accidental splashes of paint from an earlier drawing. The little splash peeping from behind the tree looks like a pink heart doesn't it?! I wish I'd noticed it before, I could have put a sweet little face on it.

This is the last of my posts for 2011 and the word this week is ' Highlight' . My youngest daughter saw me drawing this and asked me why I had to draw 'creepy' pictures. It's not creepy is it?? It wasn't my intention! I've had many highlights this year but if I'm to recall the highest highlights of this year it would be moments when I've felt love.  ♥ Because love is the most important thing of all. :) ♥ I'm off to celebrate my birthday and I'll be back soon with my new year's resolutions. See you then! Jess xox

My illustration for this week is in watercolour but after seeing my girls cutting up magazines at the weekend I thought I'd like a go too, so here I've combined a watercolour painting with a little bit of collage! Talking of 'my girls'and 'separation' (not for long though, going to see them soon!) my eldest sent me this picture of her with her own little girl getting ready for christmas. A little angel, just like the one below. Not really. (!)