Jessie Lilac Blog

When I'm not painting, I love to create with beautiful coloured yarns. It's such a joy for me in deciding which colour to use next while I'm making, it's a bit like how I paint too.  I could make these colourful crocheted blankets for ever and ever but if I did that then my house will be so filled with them I wouldn't be able to move 🤣  so I've added a new section to my Etsy shop. Please  CLICK HERE  to see. They're very easy to wash and dry in the machine and lovely and cosy too!   They make great picnic rugs or as a throw for the bed. ********  So in painting news I've been enjoying using watercolour. Here are the latest pages from my sketchbook.  This one was done in watercolour along with a black pen. Same again, watercolour but not quite so much black pen action this time. The veins of the leaves were done with a white Uni-ball Signo pen. I tried it first with a white Posca but it di...

I'm getting back into using my watercolours again. I love how they flow on the page leaving behind tide-marks. Some people call it 'cauliflowering' in the sense that it's unwanted. But me? I love it!  I don't live near any shops so a trip to the big city is far and few between. Exeter was looking lovely when we had a brief visit there last week to buy table lamps for the bedroom. At the weekend we went to Saltram House , it was cold but still nice to walk around the gardens. What a magical looking tree this is. 💚 Have a great week and I'll see you again soon. xx

I'm going through a coloured pencils obsession at the moment. 😊  This painting was done using my set of pencils from WH Smith that I've had for many years and I've added a touch of watercolour. Let me show you my process... The pencils don't have the names of the colours on them but the one I used for the initial drawing I would say is similar to a burnt sienna. So I drew her out lightly with the burnt sienna pencil. You can see my faint outlines at the bottom of the picture where I've mapped out where I want her dress to be. If you draw very lightly you can (almost!) rub out the lines if you make a mistake. I then darkened the lines and added some shading, all with the same pencil. The next stage I added blue pencil spots to the dress. The blue watercolour wash was put on afterwards. You can do this because of the waxiness of the pencils, it acts like a resist as long as the watercolour wash isn't too dark. Then I drew in ...

Ok so I'm back! I'd thought I'd like to have a go at Illustration Friday this week. The topic this week is 'women'. So here are some women! I've often been asked why all my girls in my usual artwork look the same, well I thought here's my chance to have a collection of all sorts, both young and older. It's probably one the one strangest illustrations I've ever done so I'm not sure yet whether to make this into prints for sale. What do you think? 😊 Hope you have a great week! Jess xx 

Summer's such a lovely time for colours! I took the photo above at a local National Trust property, Coleton Fishacre in Devon. Quite often when I visit here I don't go into the house. When I first used to come here many years ago, the house wasn't open to the public but when it was, I was one of the first to have a look around. We had to wear what looked like plastic carrier bags on our feet to protect the newly finished flooring. I'm very pleased to say that's not the case these days. The house was near to closing for the day so we had a speedy look around the lovely art deco rooms, not much time for photo taking I'm afraid. But I did take a quick photo in this room. I love wood and the beautiful wood on these chairs was just gorgeous. The garden there's pretty lovely too with my favourite summer flower, delphiniums. ♥  ♥  ♥  Such colour! ♥ I'm told these are called Penstemon. ...

Hello Spring! It's finally here and what an entrance! A glorious warm sunny day today following the excitement from yesterday of the solar eclipse. It must mean that new starts and changes are afoot don't you think? My paintings seem to have changed with the lovely sunshine. What do you know? I've found myself painting flowers again. (close-up crop) (side view showing the deep sided canvas) Here's my new painting hanging on the wall. I love my purple walls. :) It's called 'Morning Revelation' and measures 12 x 6inches, which is 30 x 15cm. It's painted on box canvas (I think some people would call this gallery wrapped canvas?) and the sides are 1½ inches, or 4cm deep. As you can see above, it's ready to hang on the wall, no need of a frame. Please click here to see all the details. :) You might have noticed my blog banner is now sporting this new cheery painting. I thought it would be perfect to welcome in the Spring...

I haven't done the Illustration Friday challenge for a while and when I saw this week's subject 'Beard' I thought it's too far out my comfort zone to tackle! As you probably know, my painting subjects tend to be female and so it won't surprise you to know that this is the first beard I've ever painted. I came back to it today and with only one day left to submit, I thought why not?! He looks quite thoughtful doesn't he? Maybe he knows his beard has got out of hand and needs trim? :)

Thankyou so much for your kind comments in my last post! I've had quite a busy few days and not much time to keep up with posting so this one will hop from one subject to another as I show you what I've been doing. :) You might have noticed the top picture of the gorgeous poppies? Well a lovely friend of mine Peri Taylor had already discovered this beautiful field and as it wasn't very far from where we live, a trip there was needed as soon as possible before the blooms had gone! Let me share their dazzlement with you. There's always one! ;) So different to all the others but equally as beautiful. Aren't they lovely? I've never seen so many up close like this before, it was a rare treat. art journal page The summer Solstice is a time when we go for an evening walk somewhere special (but not too far away) with my brother. This year we went to place called Coaley Peak.  The weather was perfect and after both o...