Stop Making Excuses and Avoiding the Issue - Start With Red.

Today, like Monday I am trying to do anything but this - 

The excuses are endless.

Here are some of them.

I'm just looking for some inspiration on the computer.
I'm just waiting for the kettle to boil again as my tea has now gone cold.
Daisy has taken all the pencils to school- I can't do it then, -
Oh yes the one and only pencil left in the house is by the computer.
I need to clear my paints to use the dinning room (I do but that is a week away)
I see something about paper cutting, I then need to do more research - because that is what I should be doing or I would like to do,  I then buy a book on it anyway (despite trying 3 years ago, failing miserably)
I need to think and work out another story.
(Secretly I wish it would make me tidy up instead - but it hasn't - yet.)
The painting part is too much and too hard

So - Someone said to me yesterday, just get on with it there are no excuses - just do it the easiest possible way. It is true of course and so I have started with red and now I've started it doesn't seem so much, so hard or overwhelming.

Now for the next colour, yellow.

Mimi and Itchygritt Page 1, 3 and 4

One hot, sweaty summer’s night Mimi couldn’t sleep.

(Pg 2: 
She snuck out of her bedroom and crept quietly down stairs. She didn’t want anyone to hear her so she tiptoed into the kitchen and very carefully opened the back door.)

 Luckily the stars lit up the pathway as she ran to her most favourite place on Earth. 

She gazed at the moon.  

It was like she had never seen it before, all big and yellow.

Suddenly she heard rustling of leaves. 

There was definitely something there.

What was it?

Pg 3 and 4 as a double spread.

(The gaps in the pictures are where the text will go)

Happy Valentines Day

Mimi and Itchygritt.

 It has been a while..... So I have been backwards and forwards on an idea of a couple of picture books of Mimi in Itchycoo where she meets a troll called Itchygritt.  It has been something that has been changed many times in the past 4 years but has been left on the shelf ready to go for at least three months. So I thought - It is now or never! It's all there, it's just the getting on to start that is the hard bit. Now I have it doesn't feel too overwhelming. Above is the start of the beginning pages where Mimi and the Troll are in colour while everything else is black and white. When they find themselves in Itchycoo the pages are in full colour. 

 It's trying to snow here.

At the bottom of our garden you can just make out Daisy and Iris's wooden house - 
You can also just see something similar in the drawing where Mimi runs to her favourite place on earth!

 So I've got the sketches and I've cut the text and glued it on.

Now I'm trying to put it all together -

 This is slightly different - 

More like a wordless picture book where children can make the own stories encouraging creative thinking and writing. There will be a glossary and a list of questions to help the creative juices flow!

Speak Little Black Sheep!

Sometimes accidents or mistakes can result in positive outcomes.

 - Everything happens for a reason, (My mum would say) 

Even if it is very differcult to see or understand at that moment in time.

 This painting is spontaneous as pattern and shape come into play by little more than a doodle. There are no plans, it just happens. Now that it's done I like to look, to try and find what it is I can see, similar to how you  search for shapes in the clouds. The trees were there before from an old picture of Mimi in Itchycoo where she was sitting waiting for her rainbow seeds to grow and they do, when she cries and her tears nourish the soil. There is a hint of this in the acid bright colour but also from the shape of the zig zag red / pyramid which echoes the shape of the bend in from Mimi's legs, the red that was her dress and her tears that have now become a waterfall. In the right hand corner it looks like an eye - big brother is watching! Above this are figures of eight's that are entwined that look like music. A little higher up is the mistake. The paint seperated and started to drip, normally this would have been painted over but I decided it will stay because it reminded me of a lost little black sheep. Following the dark blue that almost arcs away from it there is a sharp blue zig zag. This reminds me of a side profile of  a beak belonging to Donald Duck- the ark becomes his voice as he speaks on behalf of the little sheep. I then came onto thinking how there is often a black sheep in the family and this is telling that person to be strong, stand up and believe in yourself. The sheep  is also hidden and insignificantly small. That's how I got my title.

Here are some details.

Here you can see the side profile of a beak that arcs up to little black sheep.

Big brother watching!

Alien Paint Stacks!

Something bright and cheerful for the weekend.

 I've posted these before, I still can't help but love them.

I guess it is laziness - due to never washing my plate after painting.

I think this is a years worth.