Summertime, and the living is easy

Well, it ought to be. But alas this month life hit me with something of an enormous great thud. Without going into tedious detail, it was all rather awful for a little while. But, luckily the big light at the end of the tunnel looms ever larger, (and Marks and Spencer cakes help an awful lot too). 

So, onto this month's missive and the sketchbook of choice this time around belongs to Frances. Now, I don't know Frances that well but I know she is rather partial to a Celtic knot design or too. Having seen a couple of lovely designs in her sketchbook, I decided I couldn't quite match the intricate Celtic knottery and decided to go with a pageful of flowers instead. Also, with all the rather hellish nonsense going on, I knew I wouldn't be able to spend as much time as I would have liked on this one.  

A seasonal display.

So, not wanting to disappoint, I had a good trawl through the archives and came upon a page of mixed summer flowers that I had completed a little while ago. I loved working on this page and knew with all the colours and shapes Frances might quite like these in her book. Rather than just a simple cut and paste job, I decided to work them up a bit with the addition of some dry brush work, to bring out the details a bit more. This also gave me the chance to see how the addition of Ox-gall liquid to the water would affect the paint. It worked a treat, and really helped with the flow of the paint, particularly when painting the 'Summertime' lettering. Highly recommended and great thanks to renowned artist Fiona Strickland for the tip.

The 'touching up' palette.
With the addition of some Winsor and Newton Ox-gall to the painting water.

As always, I added some of my typography flourishes, (well, I can't help myself on that) just to give it all that final personal touch. Flourishy and fluttery, I hope you like it Frances.

A gorgeous pink for the May / June entry

A size 0 brush, a steady hand and some Ox-gall work a treat.

The Ox-gall really assisted in getting the sweeping arches smoothly round.

Here's a quick edit. Recently I wrote a piece about our exchange for the Society of Floral Painters.

Catching Up

Time is flying by so quickly lately that two months has gone by and I haven't updated the blog. I shall do two months in one go.

The month of March was for Francis' sketchbook,coming from Ireland via Anglesey and I knew that Francis liked Celtic designs. I have a book by Courtney Davis full of lovely patterns so I got drawing some of these. My garden was blooming with many crocus, so very springlike.

Then on to April and Shevaun's sketchbook. I was already painting scaly male ferns and I am always taken with the architectural shapes and fresh smells of the fern crosiers; like newly mown lawns. My studio brimmed with them, all different species, shapes and sizes.

I liked how Ida had used black paper to make her painting of daffodils sing, so vibrant. So I got out the gouache and painted a shield fern on the black paper. These soft ferns are just like furry caterpillars, curled up and snug, then unfurling in the warmth of spring.

A few more sketched ferns and some writing, in welsh and english completed April.

Frances Sketchbook

After a lovely time with Shevaun yesterday discussing paint and painting I have managed to finish my first page in the sketchbook.

I enjoyed doing these pages as the little daffodils made me feel that maybe spring is round the corner and we will get some warmer drier weather soon.

, now to start thinking about what I'm putting on Shevauns pages in her sketchbook which is a bit daunting when I see the beauty of her work in the flesh as it were......

Well it has taken me a long time to work this out but I hope I have it right now and this is the correct blog for the sketchbook exchange.

I have at last managed to get my Title page finished, also the inside front cover. The capital F is taken from a manuscript held in the National Library in Paris, the Echternach Gospels,which I adapted by replacing the letter A in the arms of the F with the rest of my name.

The Title page  which I wanted to look like a stained glass window is a mixture of Celtic design and a kind of Art Nouveau. It is meant to represent a daffodil, tulips and shamrock all very stylised. I couldn't paint the piece as the paper I used is too light, so I did it in coloured pencil using Faber Castell Polychromos ones.
I hope to complete the first spread of pages this coming week, so that the sketchbook can go on to Doreen.
I have found it interesting and a challenge as I have to fit this activity in around my botanical illustration course which I had got a bit behind with due to mislaying my paint brushes. However I hope to be better organised for the future so that I don't need to panic about finishing dates. It will be a bit unnerving to have to do work in someone else's book but also lovely to see the different pieces first hand and up close. I'm looking forward to the rest of the project.