Eh, eh, What's going on....?

Love Bugs!!

You either love them or hate them- Bugs!

Shower Me With Love.

I.5m x 1.5m done and dusted in 2 weeks and 2 days!

Usually addiction is harmful but in this situation it has been useful. The only problem is I have another 4 to add to the series that are clearly in my head - that is another 6m worth! But today I'm having a break and going back to some colour. 

This picture is the second of the Love Heart collection. It has the familiar chain and charms that overlap the corners. The shower is of rain, hearts, diamonds, strawberries, lips and tongues and there are passion flowers that are shooting hearts, with a sea beneath. I have also added paper boats and aeroplanes although I'm not sure why. When I first drew the picture I had drawn lots of Victorian showers and taps that showered hearts. I replaced these with passion flowers. (Mainly because the taps looked too hard and awkward, my drawing looks so much better with organic shapes.) At the top had rain clouds that were being squeezed by rope. This got taken out as after doing the sea below which became very heavy the weight of the picture needed light and air - free space. (Which was also much easier and quicker to draw!)

Here are the details:

 Here you can see why I added diamonds in the shower -

My over head light inspired me!

Work in Progress, Nearly Done.

This is another 1.5m x1.5m. To go with the other one, to become part of a pair. 

I Love You Inside Out

Yey!! Six weeks later and I'm done 150cm x150cm !!

 In detail.

My mum and the kids will be happy that I've included an Iris, as there are always daisies.

 The I Love You Inside  Out - Russian dolls hang as charms from the ribbon around the heart that also write the words.

  A chain with charms surrounds the edge with more ribbon and a daisy chain.

  The idea of the design comes from the Itchycoo story in the painting

 I Love You Inside Out Whoever You May Be - 

The Russian dolls guide Mimi through Itchycoo by making the ribbon into words, other clues are inside of them when the sometimes pop open. There is a boy (who we can see fishing) She can't see him but can hear his voice in her head, she knows him already. 

Work in Progress

It is getting on, 

I'll need to make a start on the daisies, chain and charms that go around the edge.

Here is the lower left hand detail, 

flipped so you can just make out the ribbon says : Inside.

Stars are the New Dots!

So this is the start of a 150cm x 150cm ink drawing.

It takes time, but strangely it's quite therapeutic and some what addictive.

 I need some colour inners,

 I am yet to let the kids loose on it. 

I don't trust them to not go over the edges.

Daisy said it looks like something else.

I said yes it is from the Mimi and Itchygritt story.

So the stars have re-appeared.

Ordered Chaos or Just a Mess!!

And now for a fresh clean start.....

For a new 150cm x 150cm Ink drawing - But where to start?

In the Garden Relaxing in the Sun!

 This fox looks very happy!

It was only when we moved, almost two years ago that I found out that the Iris comes out in May. On Iris's last two birthday the first of many types of Iris's come into flower. 

My Paintings Have Been Spoonflowered!

I've been having fun playing around with my paintings on Spoonflower. Here are some of the results on fabric. The colour is off, quite dull but you can get an idea of what it could be like. 

Back to Painting Big!

My Canvas has arrived!

Back to my favourite size 1m x1m. 

I started sketching this yesterday and today I've started adding colour on the base layer. 

There is no plan it is all spontaneous - 

While eating Chocolate and Cheese and drinking Green Tea!

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.

Starting Something New Onto Something Old.

In the photo below (Which is hard to see I know) are a couple of canvases that I had drawn a scene from a thought of a story from Itchycoo.  Mimi is sitting in the middle of a clearing singing, spreading her love, wishing for her rainbow seeds to grow - when she cries , they do blooming into giant flowers that morph into animals in Itchycoo. This was two years ago, where my final story has changed many a time - this is no longer relevant. I have kept the trees and the shape of the landscape and the idea of the rainbow colour, but Mimi, the animals and the flowers have long gone. Bottom layer base done, now for the top.