Jessie Lilac Blog

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

When I sit on the sofa in the evenings to watch TV, I can't just sit there I need to do something at the same time. Are you like this? I'm making a cardigan at the moment in navy stripes. Yes navy stripes are getting everywhere, not just my drawings! For those of you interested in knitting you can see my progress on Ravelry . :)  Most of my drawings are finished very quickly and I tend to use a black Pitt pen and watercolour but today I felt in the mood to do a pencil drawing and what better place to get lost in the process than sitting on the sofa! It began as a simple doodle but I kept shading and shading until it became a whole page drawing! Here's the finished drawing. It's rare for me to draw with just a pencil but I really enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll do it again. :)

Do you ever sit down and draw a face and then look at it afterwards and wonder who it is? When you draw a face without thinking about it and letting it happen on the page, it could be a reflection of yourself, your own feelings? It could be someone I've encountered recently and how she came across to me? I need a few days away from it to come back, look at it again and she'll reveal herself to me. What does she say to you?

I went to a life drawing session this morning. I've not been for over 2 years so I was a little nervous, wondering how I'd get on with drawing from life after all this time.  I got on fine as it turned out and the group were a bunch of friendly people including a couple of familiar faces that I remembered from the times I used to go before which made it much easier to feel as though I hadn't been away too long.  Some of the poses were short 10 minute ones and some were longer 30 minute ones.  I felt as though I was back in the swing of it and had a nice time. I shall be going again!  But next time I must remember to take a rubber! (eraser)

Yesterday's life drawing. Today's sketchbook page.

Are you ready for lots of pictures? I hope so because today I've got lots here to show! I've spent most of this week inside my sketchbook. I have a commission to do which I'm very excited about but first I need to build up to it by playing around with a few images. Now I've shown you my little sketchbook, here are a couple of pages from my life drawing one, showing this morning's drawings. She was a new model and very nice to draw. This week's word for Illustration Friday is 'Cultivate' and as I had already started a picture along those lines (see top sketchbook photo) I thought I'd finish it off and post it as my submission. And here it is..... I've got another idea too so I might even post that one too! Stayed tuned..

Even when I think I've checked my typing for errors, I still manage to let typos slip through the ( butterfly?) net! That's because my head feels like this. This morning was life drawing and luckily for me, I didn't need my brain to draw. Sometimes that's the best way, to disengage it for a while. I have no trouble disengaging it, it's the engaging bit I'm struggling with right now. Is it me or do other creatives have the same problem? hmmm....might just be me then.. No, that's not me, I'm not the model, I'm the drawer. Can 'drawer' be a word for someone who draws or just a place where you keep your socks? (If you're tidy that is and if you indeed have socks.)

It's Friday, my life drawing day again and here's two I did earlier. I was very brave and used an ink pen on the second one - no rubbing out! Have a lovely weekend whatever you're up to. :)

This morning was the first life drawing day. A very cold day it is too and I felt sorry for any life model who had to take their clothes off in this weather! Joy of joys one of my favourite models was there this morning and with the heater on in the room you could almost forget it was winter! Have a nice weekend! :)

Here are some life drawings I did this morning. She's a lovely model, I do hope we continue to have her until the end of term. I'm going to do some more to my buddha today before that light disappears!

Friday morning at my life drawing session and the model got the start time wrong and turned up half an hour late so one of the group posed while we waited for her. I really enjoyed drawing his face. Then she arrived, was kitted out in drapery and staff and off we went. She's a great model, keeps beautifully still and has amazingly long hair which I lOved to draw! Well worth the wait. :)

Here's a sketchbook page that evolved through listening to the radio. Certain words jumped out at me and became part of the picture! I like the way that words added to a drawing automatically create a relationship between the two and give the overall picture another layer of meaning. Life drawing this morning and we were lucky enough to have a pregnant model to pose for us. She was a fantastic model, kept really still and those curves! A joy to draw. That fore-shortened leg was a challenge, but I like challenges!

A morning of life drawing resulting in some sketches. Some quickies.... some longies.... and morphing the 2 together to get this! Curtesy of The magic of Photoshop . Happy weekends to you!

I've just come to the end of my sketchbook, the picture above is the last page. The pretty lights in Paignton at the end of the day yesterday. She's not playing a sad song on her violin, endings always mean new beginnings don't they? I love to choose new sketchbooks and this time I've gone for a square format with a nice hard cover and lots of pages. I have my usual problem of being too scared to start it! I used to be like this in school when I was given a new exercise book in a lesson. The first page would have perfect writing in it because it semed so precious and new and I didn't want to spoil it. Same now, every sketch every drawing that comes into my head doesn't seem good enough. How very silly. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be attacking it very soon! Meanwhile, here are a few pages from my life drawing sketchbook I did this morning.... And talking of endings , don't forget to check out my new listings of my paintings for sale HERE. Have a ...