Week 2 of Drawing August

I expected that the second wek would be easier, but it turned out to be just the opposite! Winter flu and deadlines; leaving in the dark, in the rain, and home in the dark and rain. Late winter, gahhh.

But there are some interesting drawings anyway!

August 8

A quick duty sketch while going home, unwell. Southern Cross Station, a place I have often wanted to draw. Inked a day later.

August 9

I posted the serious one on the challenge site, but let's face it, I prefer the silly one myself. Pen, marker pen, pencil.

August 10

Still unwell but up to drawing the clutter on the table at night. Pen, marker pen.

August 11

Drawing Button Hill for the first time. Very windy and cold, the horses did not want to talk to me. Large vista, double page. Pen, pencil, marker pen.

August 12

A beautiful big bowl of lemons, given to my husband by a colleague. Lemon cake! Lemon curd! Their colour is so vibrant it warrants breaking out the watercolours. First time in a year! Pencil, pen, watercolours.

August 13

I drew this on the 12th but painted it on the 13th. Happy with the dark bowl, but feeling very rusty with paints in general. 

August 14, 15 

Lots of mental images of early spring on the farm. Drew it one day, inked it the next.

Looking back from the end of the month it seems like it's not a bad effort even though this was probably the lowest week of winter.

Up next, spring...

Drawing August

'One a day, every day.'

'Little and often, that's the way to move a mountain.'

It was just luck that I stumbled over Drawing August, the one-a-day twitter challenge. Luck in the blogosphere, because it was DesignGirl who contacted me one day, out of the blue, and asked if I would like to join their regular sketching group -- 'Do you still go out and sketch, your blog hasn't been updated for years.' she wrote. >ouch< Though I think her actual words were much nicer than that. 

Over the next few weeks I thought about her email a lot. I saw the notices come and go - 'we're sketching here', 'we had coffee there'. And I really, really wanted to go. But I haven't drawn for too long, it's terrifying, my pencil hand is so rusty it might as well have dropped off. I was busy, but not so busy that I couldn't find the time. And so the need to get back to drawing grew, gradually. I knew I had to go.

Another message from the group told me about this 'thing called DrawingAugust...' The deal is, a picture a day, tweet it with the date. We all get to share what we are doing. 

I needed a good hard kick in the seat of the sketchbook, so I said, 'sure, I'll join in' - nevermind the book manuscript deadline and the rest of my life this month, 'sounds like fun!'

So I am drawing again. Here's the rough sketch for August 1:

I like it better than the final, which I have temporarily mislaid. 

If you're interested to see the wealth of what's out there, check Pinterest or Twitter and search for #drawingaugust -- I promise you, you'll see some fabulous art, and what a variety of it there is!

B

Plats du Jour

I picked up this beautiful cookbook in a second hand bookshop last weekend.

Front and back covers 

I'm shameless. I bought it simply because I love the cover. Both front and back. Plus it was $4. And it's full of basic classic French and Italian dishes, with a very few Eastern and Northern European recipes, too. 

Thankfully, no photos frighten the reader with bilious coloured late-50s carrot flowers and piped mousses, yet it's clearly written for a British public who were just getting an inkling about Continental food (published 1957). 

But that's not what I bought it for. I bought it to read and enjoy the period piece it is. And for the illustrations, because they're just plain gorgeous.  

David Gentleman is the illustrator. I knew it was a bit of a classic cover, but I hadn't realised what a famous illustrator Gentleman is. His long and varied career has covered illustration, poster, book and stamp design. Apparently, he's one of the UK's most prolific stamp designers ever. I couldn't find a lot of his other work online (book illustration is mainly under-represented as art), but there's this nice collection of Gentleman's works in the Tate.

Gentleman draws hairy-armed men on bicycles with swags of onions, but he also depicts the cuts of beef and how to cut a schnitzel (across the garin of the meat, in case you are wondering - which Marcella tells us means the meat won't curl in the heat, of course). He draws hunters standing around with a dog, and the kitchen range, and a variety of lovely things I'll scan and share when time permits.

Clarity of line and good humour. But not too cute. I love it. (The wine was nice, too.)

Note to self: buy a bigger sketchbook

 

Sometimes it's annoying when you hit the edge of the page. 

Still painting, still sketching. Stomping the streets, sketchbook in hand. 

This is the first layer of watercolour for a portrait I scribbled tonight. It might stop there, as it's so delicate I rather like it...

Don't go on a date

... Where I can see you.

Or you might get scribbled.

As seen from my unobtrusive stool in the corner of the window. I couldn't work out why he was slumped so stiff in his chair until they left the cafe and I saw that his arm was in a sling. Not fun for Christmas!

Oh, and happy new year!

Looking and thinking and thinking and looking

The thing about out and about sketching is that it's hard to start. Daunting to sit there in full view sketching people as they pass by. I keep waiting for someone to challenge me for capturing their likeness, but increasingly I'm realising that they just don't give a damn. Or don't notice. Yippee for me, as I sketch away in the corner!

Now that we're on holiday, I've been out and about doing some more drawing. Yesterday (Boxing Day), down to the shops -- not to score bargains but to draw the bargain-hunters themselves. It was ripe pickin's!

After diving in, a few tries and it gets easier. The lines come more easily and they remind me of what I saw. It's learning to look as much as learning to draw.

Here's an early drawing from my second or third outing with sketchpad in hand. I'll share some of my more recent ones, too. Big scanning session yesterday, and now there's loads to show.

Excuse me, but I'm at the winebar

I'll be the one in the corner, quietly sketching the crowd as the bar staff serve wine and nibbles.

I'll be the one starting tentatively (oh what if someone sees I'm drawing and takes offense?) - So I'm the one who convinced my husband to come with me, not just once, but several times. (Hallelujah for free wireless hotspots!)

I'm also the one who draws tight cramped little drawings at first, sip, sip, and then looser lovely lines, sip, sip, slurp, and then great wild whacking scrawls half-imbued with the fumes of the nice sauvignon blanc or the sangiovese.

Yes, it's true folks: there's a limit of one glass for a reason.
I definitely can't drink and draw.

Some days the paint just muddles

... and puddles, and goes grey and bloopy. (That's a word).

So, some days I draw instead. Here's a recent scribble. I was wishing I could go to the market more often, but when it was done, I was surprised that she didn't look like she was having a grand old time.

Wonder what's up with her?

B

Away...

Painting!

I was struggling with the concept of a post a day, when I realised that the thing I really wanted to be doing was a painting a day. Just like my friend Eileen's been doing with dedication and charm! So I've been just over there at the table sploshing and splodging and trying to learn. Here's one of the efforts.

This was painted after a quick late night sketch from a photo we took in Malta a few years ago. I had a lovely time flicking through photos in the album and thinking about that trip. Bright memories of pale yellow stone houses baking in the sun, dark shaded alleys, cyprus trees and the most delicious honey and fresh-baked bread I've ever tasted. 

Memory lane is fun, and memory lane with scribbles and paint splots is even more enticing.

Flashback Friday portrait

One of the magazines I love to read is called History Today. We get it from the UK on subscription, and it's chock-full of images and articles about interesting times and people. I love reading it for the unexpected things I'll find.

This is a drawing I did after a portrait miniature in the last issue. He's my Friday flashback.

Looking and thinking, travelling to some summer

I've been playing out in the wide world, looking at the colours and thinking of pictures and creations. As usual, getting away reminds me of who I am and of all of the images and ideas, colour and creations I want to be part of my life.


Travel opens possibilities. It wipes the veneer of weekly, daily, monthly work and routine out of my head and reminds me that life is short and is here to be lived to the full. Bloom and fade: celebrate and burst with colour.


The things I see make me want to draw all day, paint all evening, dream all night.

I did do a little painting on this trip, and lots and lots of drawing. Constant doodling. I made the commitment not to worry if it was any good; just to do as much drawing as I could. Even though we're back and the wind is wuthering (and we've got the traditional post-air journey sniffles), I'm doodling most days. It feels great.

And this is one of the photos from the trip that I find most wonderfully, richly satisfying.


Doesn't that just make you tingle? They look rich and full but pokey and prickly all at the same time. Can you see how big these barrel cacti are? I purposefully poked my toe in the bottom of the photo so you could see just how bloody enormous they are. I imagine if you sat on them, they'd pop. Or slump. (And poke billions of little cacti-holes in your delicate derriere.)

These photos were all taken one sunny fine day in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as I went around the botanical gardens and sculpture park. Big thanks to my lovely host, Jennifer, for suggesting it -- somehow I never fail to find inspiration in a great garden.


Especially one with vistas like this that remind me of the summers in Canada and big fields of wildflowers.

Now all I need is a big floaty dress and a sunhat. (Too bad they lost my luggage and all I had was my Melbourne winter black. But that's all forgiven and in the past now, right?)

Ahh, holidays. > dream <

Sleepy Sunday

Ribbon that's good enough to nibble...

Sweet stitching, working on a project I can't show you yet (she reads the blog), drinking tea with a lovely friend while kids go wild on an old pogo stick out in the yard. They're popping up and down on the path and they occasionally hit the grass, where the pogo plug takes out a round ball of grass and dirt. Surreptitious looks at us inside, pretending we don't notice as they quietly pat the grass and dirt back into place. Nice kids, her pre-teen and a friend.

I've had a headache all day and it puts me in a dreamy space. Not unpleasant, not really, apart from the ache and the way things sort of -shift- as I look at them. Won't be on the computer for long.

But what I have been doing is astounding me with the beauty of what people create. Look at this.

Illustration by Finnish artist, Hanna Konola - whose quiet little people are deceptively simple.

And this, also by Hanna Konola.


And so many things at the Buy Olympia site - such as

- Papercuts by artist Nikki McClure, who inspires and delights with her intricate and quirky 1930s-looking papercuts of people, trees, and the world.

- Or these gorgeous cards from Jill Bliss and Saelee Oh. How tempting to order up big and have them delivered to my North American address, for happy hopping all the way home with me...

And planning for travel. I've been researching gorgeous crafty destinations in the Seattle area, as it turns out I'll be there for the weekend, the weekend after next.

Hunting online for markets, studios and interesting places. Finding out about neighbourhoods (seeing as I choose the hotel, I'm choosing one somewhere near a good market, right?) And great suggestions would be welcomed! (I've never been there before and so it's a solo craft adventure while Mr Tacc admires aero-planes.) I find a weekend on my own in a new, foreign city inspires me with equal parts anxiety and glee. Excitement at exploring; fear at not knowing how things work and where they are, but mainly concern that I would miss something WONDERFUL, AMAZING, FANTASTIC.

Do you get like that at times, too?

On my desk

I've forgotten what day of the week we do this, but this is a recent picture painted and drawn with a crafty soul in mind.

I wanted to paint it as if the sun was shining through the tree and it was a brisk spring day. The house was in a photograph of -- San Francisco, I think. I look at this and see how far I still have to go -- but a lot of distance covered, too. Halfway towards a goal and walking steady.

Inspiration and some aspiration have been coming from UPPERCASE today. Have an explore. I'll be showing some of my favourites this weekend.

--

Just joining in My creative space for the first time in months! Much more gorgeousness over at Kootoyoo.

Learning to fly

... with little baby wings.

I once had rather a nice boss, who recognised just how frustrating was the place we were working. Every time we accomplished something against all the odds, she used to say: "Just baby steps. Little baby steps." Every little forward movement was celebrated with that phrase I'd never use. "Little baby steps!"

So here I am, trying out my little wings on the tasks and ideas for the children's book illustration course, and thinking and writing every day, and so it comes to mind. A silly phrase, but so true. Taking little steps - or flops and flutters and bounces, in my case - towards something fun. I don't know what it is, but I hardly care. I'm having fun!

boing, boing.

(In other news: I got stuck in the lift again at work today. Popped out for a coffee, to get back in three broken lifts, ran up six flights of stairs; tried every floor all the way back down again, only to discover that all the doors were locked. And after 25 minutes? Ended up at the ground floor again. Cold coffee.)

bing, boing, bong. CRASH.

Out and about

This drawing is not by me, but it encapsulates what is going on over here. A bit of skipping girl artistic life being gleefully skipped through. If that's fair to say. Now that I've been captured by a cold and forced to sit still, I can tell you a bit about what's been going on.

Lots of drawing!
I started my children's book illustration course last Saurday, and enjoyed myself enormously. Since then, I've been drawing every day. Everything from good old mundane things (traffic lights, rubber boots and a pot of anchovies) to wild characters (a dragon on a trampoline).
Also surreptitious drawing of fellow-commuters on crowded trains. One of them clearly paid me back by sharing their germs. (Atchoo!)

Lots of editing
Since I took on this job over six months ago, I've seen quite a few titles onto the page and off to press. The fun part is always choosing the designer, working on the design, getting illustrations (if the book needs it) and seeing the whole thing come together.

Last Friday, there was a little bit of dancing around our offices: the book closest to my heart came out and it's FAB! Super-fantastic material, great cartoon illustrations, fun design and the coolest program for kids to make and analyse videos. If you're a teacher, you need one of these. I've seen a lot of educational books, but don't you love it when one of them falls together so perfectly?

Lots of thinking
I'm still working on the Artist's Way program. This week, I'm supposed to avoid reading, to allow me time to let my own voice come back above al the words, words, words that fill my life (life, life - it's like a song!)

How does an editor not read? I asked myself this question with much incredulity and some angst. Well, very effectively, as it turns out. The funny thing is that my boss commented today on how I am hauling butt this week (not her words). The secret? Write contracts, briefs, emails and harrass people by phone. Next week I'll read.

Lots of organising
My passport expired. My tax returns were a mess. My bookshelves were dusty. My shoes in the closet were in a heap.

Did you notice the past tense? I'm getting to it. It's all going away.

Lots of sneezing
And finally, a cup of Lemsip and a little sit down. Sorry I've been away.

Spoonflower fabric

Last weekend, I posted pictures of the first (and my favourite) of the three fabrics I got printed by Spoonflower. Here are the rest of them, and some thoughts about the process.


When I first signed up for Spoonflower and resolved to try it, I became frozen by the limitless potential. (What to do? Oh, what to dooo?) Sound familiar?

I explored what others were doing, and I hunted through all the contests on their blog (quite addictive, if you like voting each week on a favourite fabric design!)

It seemed that there were so many possibilities:
- Should I use it to print large swatches of my drawings onto fabric?
- To print computer-generated ideas?
- Or to transfer my existing (black and white) drawings directly onto fabric in quantities and width of yardage that it just wouldn't be feasible to do on the computer or with a stencil-cut screenprinting process? (If you were around last year, you may remember the glee and enthusiasm about stencils and screenprinting).

I sat down and thought about it, and I decided that the only way to go forward was to do a test. I like telling myself that spending money via Paypal is a test. It makes it feel so noble and elevated.

What I was testing with this batch of fabrics was the colour matching and the effect of different sort of designs. I chose three designs: one with a strong drawn black outline (the teapot), which I had coloured on the computer. The other two were scanned versions of my farmyard stencils, which started to look like a lot of fun when I repeated motifs and played with the placement.

Repeats
It took quite a while, fiddling about with the file to find the best proportions for a repeat (white space on one side of the image turns out to repeat across the fabric). Well, yes, of course it does -- but I found that the repeat was not quite what I expected, and half the fun of the process was tinkering about to get it settled so that I liked what I saw. So, for the folksy village fabric below, in the end I had a long, thin file, with each element in a line, staggered, and lots of white space to one side. When it repeats, it just looks like openly-spaced images across the fabric breadth. Hmm.

I had a small sample of the flying birds print, from a stencil. This one wasn't fancy: just one element, repeated across the fabric in a half-step format. I mucked about with the scale, and what I have got is small birds, perfect for button covering, badges and brooches, or for applique. I only ordered a swatch.



Colours
I had done some reading, and I was forewarned that the colours will be less intense on the fabric than on-screen, and also that the reds have a tendency to shift. I pumped up the colours on all of the designs, and I'm glad I did: the teapot fabric design on-screen is quite strong, but in real life it's lovely and soft, without the colours being flat. Big tick in the box for that one!


The village fabric, below, originally was designed with red, blue and green -- but the fabric turned out a very fine orange, blue and green in real life! Initially startled, I have come to rather like it. (Even if the apples do look a little poisonous.)

If I were serious about this, which I'm not (yet), I would get a colour chart printed, with its number references on each square of colour, so that by formatting my final artwork by colour I would have a real, live piece of fabric to match it against. -And I'd know what I'm getting.



There's quite a lot of discussion about this online, and I found it useful, even if the colour calibration of the machines themselves at Spoonflower is subject to change. There's some excellent resources on the Spoonflower blog's FAQs pages.


The verdict?
I quite enjoyed the slight uncertainty about what I would get. I sure ripped into that package when it arrived, a mere 7 days later! I wasn't investing in a lot of fabric or expecting to match it to existing projects or ideas, and so a certain degree of colour shift was fine by me.

As for designs? I feel that the strong outline of the drawings works best. No point translating one fabric printing medium (stencil) into production: better to play with drawings, colour them on-screen, pump up those colours, and take the risk.

I'm working on my next batch of designs as we speak... Surprised?

Drunkard's path

No, I'm not talking about me. Or anyone else for that matter! It's the name of this quilt pattern -- a classic red and white design from sometime at the end of the 19th century.

The photo was taken by Mr Tacc some years ago, when he was invigilating an exhibition on quilts from Canada and the UK. Needless to say, we talked about that show endlessly, and as he had plenty of time to look at and think about the quilts, he had lots of interested questions to ask and ideas to discuss.

I remember this quilt because I loved the clarity of the red and white scheme, and the way that the simple repeated shape (quarter circle on square) became complicated and fascinating when you looked more closely. It sort of weaves and dances. Drunkard, indeed -- I think it's just someone having fun, or a kid in a candy shop, or me at Haigh's chocolates (isn't that the same thing?) Looking everywhere at once.

I'm thinking about drawing a lot and reminding myself that in order to draw, you have to look. So pardon me if you come across a gal in the street, giving an intent stare at passers-by, clouds and the sky (today I was taking photos on Collins street at lunch). It's just me, and I'm just looking.

Good colours

Today's good colours were the muted tones of autumn. Tinny grey sky, dark green leaves and the spots of colour from gumtrees in bloom. I love this time of year.


We stopped at the most excellent cafe for a couple of cappuccinos and some chit-chat. Chocolate croissants appeared, and disappeared almost as rapidly. The dog had his own special bowl of treats.

But what's this? Something in my pocket...

Could it be, a cafe-themed piece of my own design Spoonflower fabric, carefully tucked in a pocket for an on-location photo shoot?


Could be, could be....

Sign up

I've signed up for that children's book illustration course.

Hurrah!




One sign fits all
Originally uploaded by neil-san

Good morning, baker boy!

Here's one of the characters who showed up in my sketchbook last night. I reckon he's apprenticing in specialist petits fours pastry techniques. Don't you?