In which I talk about the joys of painting, drawing, knitting, cats, music, living in London, and whatever else takes my fancy.

Saturday, July 22, 2006


'Been busy this week, sorting out paintings, drawiings, etc for my sale tomorrow. Amazingly, I have already sold a print of one of the dragonflies! This is an old drawing of my feet, but pretty typical of the kinds of sketches I do in idle moments whilst listening to cds. (Today's is The Album Leaf "In A Safe Place" - highly recommended.)

Monday, July 17, 2006

finally success with scanning




Having grappled for what feels like weeks with scanning, I've finally succeeded in making some scans which bear a reasonable resemblance to the originals, so here is the celtic cat watercolour again, and a portion of the watercolour chart I've completed today using the bijoux box of paints

Thursday, July 13, 2006

More on Pinkty

Today I've not had much time available for drawing, although at lunchtime I worked more on Pinkty using pencil, to figure out how to make him more solid looking.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006


Whoops - that's not the eccentric peas! Here they are:

Eccentric peas


Today, I have had the techy here to sort out anti-virus software tangles on both Macs. And I have also begun making another watercolour chart: this time for the Bijoux box of 18 colours, partly so I can re-acquaint myself with it, and partly to practise drawing little squares! More scanning practise, too, of the celtic cat - still not cracked it, though. The thing which has worked is doing a 1 hour sketchathon challenge in Painter, with brief of 'Eccentric".. mine is peas!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Today: tried out drawing Pinkty with some children - think he works as kind of adult human size. Also been experimenting with drawing with my left hand: got the idea of trying this because my reading glasses case came apart yesterday, and could not fix it with my right hand, then mended it easily with my left one! Plus I am completely cack-handed with a computer mouse using my right hand. I like the quality of the lines drawn with my left hand. May post some tomorrow.

Monday, July 10, 2006


Today I have finished making water colour chart, and completed a rough water-colour version of celtic cat to try to scan more accurately. These colours are more lifelike, and I am not entirely satisfied with colour scheme, or scan quality.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Not done any painting or drawing since Friday. Yesterday was taken up with a combination of going to the Rise festival in Finsbury Park, and seeing some good music, including The Duke Spirit, Common, Sway, and some excellent Kurdish bands; along with final rehearsal, sound check, then first performance as a guitarist with a couple of friends, at another friend's 50th birthday party. Back to painting tomorrow!

Friday, July 07, 2006

Yesterday did a little work on fleshing out a character I've drawn for family cards, etc for many years, but now want to make cnetracl character in children's book(s), and need to work out size in relation to people. Interesting to think about.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006


Today I have been experimenting with scanning a drawing, printing out the scan, then begining to colour it using watercolour. Here is the work so far..

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Today I have been out earning £s, but did find time to work out what next steps are for children's book(s) I am working on. Looking forward to tomorrow, when will be working at home all day

Monday, July 03, 2006



Hmm. I am sure I wrote a post on Friday - must have forgotten to publish it! Anyway, has been an eventful few days, with London Sketchcrawl on Saturday, which was great fun; plus a visit to A&E for treatment for a sting yesterday. The antihistamines are leaving me groggy, plus finger is still very sore, so proper drawing not happening today. Here are a couple of the sketches - one from A&E, t'other from the sketchcrawl