Happy New Year 2016!

Hello everyone!

I want to thank you for your kindness, patience, encouragement and understanding through 2015 - all of which has been a blessing. I would like to send you all my love and heartiest good wishes for a wonderful new year; I hope it brings happiness, good health and fulfilment to all. Oh - and no hangovers! Err...oh - and plentiful - P*L*E*N*T*I*F*U*L - art supplies so we can all make some awesome pretty stuff!  Love and hugs from Shroo :) xxx

Memory Journaling - Happy Thoughts!

Hello little peach blossoms!!

Hang on.....what day is it again?.... Oh yeah, Wednesday. Thank the powers for the little computer clock thingy that replaces the need for a memory!

Aaaaaaand SPEAKING of memories (smoooooooth segue there....), I've been having some difficulties accessing family memories without being reduced to a splooshy puddle of snot so I decided to use the whole 'draw my life' thing as a journal exercise. So, grabbing my trusty pen and some paper offcuts I started doodling some snapshots from my childhood.

This is a great journaling tool - very cathartic, at least it was for me. Instead of a memory being immediately overwhelming and emotional, everything was reduced to bite-sized manageable little chunks that made me smile. Thought I'd share a few so you can see what I'm yattering on about, and maybe have a go for yourself.

This is me with my lovely Grandpa in my grandparents' garden when I was a very little girl. It's cartoony because it's meant to be an exercise in rediscovering fun, not producing a masterpiece. Instead of remembering the garden that I miss so much and being overwhelmed, I focussed on each small thing individually...the begonias,lavender, peonies and marigolds...The honeysuckle trellis with scented English roses ( I can still smell them now), the greenhouse, lawn and magnolia tree....Sunflowers, primulas and star of Bethlehem. I remembered my Grandad in his gardening jumper, darned at the elbows (and STILL full of holes) - my Grandma tried to throw it away, but he'd rescue it every time! Just like his scruffy knitted hat. And there's his workshop with all his jars of bits and bobs, and the outdoor loo! I can smile at all these things - not be drowned in that emotional tsunami.

Twice a year the circus would come and pitch their bright tents on the fields by the river. Less politically correct times, when the circus would bring exotic animals and parade through the streets. We would go and see them - the flurry of colour, smells and sounds... Although I am a sucker for a carnival, I've never much liked the circus...I'm not a fan of caged or performing animals, and clowns - quite rightly - give me the heebie-jeebies (evil things). But the PARADES ....somehow they were magical, and EVERYONE would line the streets to cheer them as they passed by.

Christmas in the little flat - me, mum and our cat (Cat-Friday). We'd make paper-chains to decorate the rooms and the hall, and every year there would be a couple of new decorations for the tree. The fairy would appear at the top magically during my reluctant sleep through Christmas Eve night and be there to greet me on Christmas morning, with a bowl of cornflakes on the table next to which would be a special present from The Christmas Fairy.

Every night mum would tuck me in to my bed with my cuddly toys and she'd read a book with me then play a cassette - usually Black Beauty or Winnie-The-Pooh (my favourites) - which would send me happily to sleep. The little ceramic house nightlight would gently glow and I'd drift off to the Land Of Nod. When I had bad dreams, she'd come in and sing quietly and stroke my hair until I went back to sleep.

It's been such a happy thing to make these little journal-style drawings and they're there now as a record of special moments. I have a feeling I'll be adding to them over time.  I'd hugely recommend giving this style of journaling a go - it's a valuable process and wonderful result. Hope you like these.

As always, thank you for stopping by! I love to read your comments and if you have any relevant questions please leave them in the comment section so that I can reply. Thank you for your recent thoughts and lovely sentiments ALL of which are very much appreciated. Sending out love and hugs from Shroo :) xxx

The 12 Books Of Christmas - Part 3 (The Last Stand!)

Happy Friday!

WOW! - Another week gone...some grotty stuff, some annoying stuff AND some good stuff, so the month's balancing out so far! Now THAT'S a relief!

Very shortly, I'm going to share the last few pages of that Christmas book, but first I'd like to share some thoughts on doing commission work and I'd love to hear your experiences and opinions if you can spare the time.   Over the years - despite being wedged firmly into tedious jobs with LITTLE joy - I have found some small time for art. When people find out that ya draw, they tend to ask ya for pictures ...mostly as favours, and because with me, like with most arty people, confidence doesn't seem to come naturally, I'd do stuff free of charge, thereby avoiding any potential upset from my 'customer'. Let's face it, once cash is involved people tend to get picky and things can get awkward, and when you're not TRYING to be a self-supporting artist, that hassle's better avoided. That being said....there are people wandering through their lives now with my work tattooed somewhere about their bodies! There are cartoons and the occasional pet portrait floating round on walls here and there..... and it brings a [nervous] sense of acievement and, yeah, maybe some pride to know that people like my work enough to have it in their lives. But I've never charged a fee for a private commission.

I've had friends in the art world tell me horror tales of private commissions that never end...the picky client with a million things they want to add or alter for no extra charge. It puts me off completely. But then there are bills to pay.... and a commission opportunity comes up - and the person asking is THE most lovely person possible......  What then? I've been asked to produce a piece of work that is NOTHING like I'd normally do. I would LOVE to be able to help, but the more I look at the plan, the more I know it's so alien to me that I will have to decline. And that sucks. Massively. I've gone through page after page of a sketchbook this week and the more I work, the worse I feel about the project. I know I'm the wrong artist for this commission and I'm going to have to tell a beautiful human being that I can't help. Sucks.

The thing is - I'm not the kind of person to take a deal or a job "just because". That seems dishonest, saying I can do a thing when it's blatantly transparent that it's so far out of my remit that it's a kind of Bizarro world kind of job - my polar opposite, as it were. A challenge, I relish...but this is not for me. I'll give it a few more days in case something 'clicks'....you never know....  I'd HAPPILY look at a brief that fits my skill set - and I need the work, so I hope some of them are round the corner.

How do YOU feel about private commissions, as opposed to the professional publisher-type gig or the gallery/shop sale? Do you look forward to them, or dread them?  Do you have criteria for accepting or declining a job? Have you ever gone ahead with one against your better judgement - if you did, what happened? I'd love to know.

Ok. That was my dilemma of the week. Kind of. Now to some colourful piccies! We were up to......

Page 9: A Fairy Went A Marketing by Rose Fyleman

"A Fairy went a-marketing, she bought a little fish;
She put it in a crystal bowl upon a silver dish.
An hour she sat in wonderment and watched its silver gleam,
And then she gently took it up and slipped it in a stream."

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This is a very special little poem as my grandma used to sing it to me almost every night that I slept at her house when I was a little girl. As I got older she used to add some little mimes and arm-dance actions to make me laugh, and it was charming - truly charming - to hear her sing it when she was very elderly, still with the silly mimes and the a cheeky "Tra-LA, tra-LA, tra-la tra-la tra-la...POM!" at the end of every verse. I can hear her singing it RIGHT NOW and it makes me smile to think of her, rather than feeling sad at missing her.

I used Derwent watercolour pencils, almost exclusively. The colours do exactly what I ask of them, which makes them a joy to use. 

I used fine line and gel pens to add detail, and Winsor & Newton gold ink WHICH, when added over a pewter coloured gilding wax and super-heated with a heat gun, makes a really deep silver/gold reflective finish... who knew? *happy face*

The die-cutting worked really well on this page. At this point I was very happy that I'd chosen to go ahead with that as an idea. I look at all pages with an eagerness to hack at them with a scalpel now!! Mooowahahaha!

Page 10: The Whale by Erasmus Darwin

..lin fact... Whales. In General. Go with me here...

I love whales.... Don't you? They're incredible creatures and I've been FASCINATED with them all my life. This page is kind of representative of whales in every genre - poetry, literature, art, movies, err.... the all-whale production of 'Cats' ..um ...something  else.....

It started with Monstro the whale in Disney's incredible animated adaptation of 'Pinocchio', who I thought was AWESOME! When I grew a little older, I read Moby Dick and that was pretty awesome as well. I then learned about the complexity of whales - you know, ACTUAL ones, not the RAARRGH ones from movies and books... Discovering that they are so intelligent, gentle and graceful just blew my mind. Then they were in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. That sealed the deal... I love whales!

I used the blend of watercolour pencils and Neocolor II soluble wax pastels, and added smooshly lovely gold ink while the paper was nice and wet, heat drying it to achieve a flowing, blended look to the water, and a more blotchy look to the whale. Once dried, I sprayed it with the Chestnut satin acrylic lacquer, then used a black gel pen on top so that the ink would stay wet enough to splodge about, which worked well I think. I like the contrast of the orangey-gold of the fish - they have a shimmer from adding Tattered Angels 'Orange Crush' Glaze, but you can't really tell in the scan...pfff..

Oh - and I had fun with the white gel pen, and the scalpel again ....heh heh heh....

Page 11: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Yes, ALL of them. This is an incredible series of books. Of course, academics will tear them apart, word by word, sentence by sentence, and try to cover up the sense of magic and beauty with the frankly BLATANTLY obvious layers of spirituality and social commentary (evident to even the dummest of thickies), yet still, it's that magic and spellbinding narrative of Narnia that captivates children with each new generation. It's a beautiful escape and it STAYS with the reader, even after the trauma of 'The Last Battle'.  Narnia and Aslan will forever be in my heart and I care not who titters or sneers - I'm richer for reading these books, for loving the characters, for closing my eyes even now and seeing the rolling green hills of Narnia and the shining spires of Cair Paravel.

This page took me the longest to do.... I imagined all my favourite scenes from all the books, but when all is said and done, it HAD to be Aslan. Again - you can't really tell from the scans, but I added gold to his eyes so that they'd catch the light, which they do in the original page.

Like most of the previous pages, I used a combination of the Derwent pencils and the Neocolor IIs, but I added them in several layers. Both can still be reactivated if you re-wet them after drying, but combining them slightly retards the process, allowing for greater freedom and opportunity for manipulation. I used Uni Pin fine liners (0.3, 0.1) to add detail, and white gel pens for highlights.

The beauty of this technique, combined with the (hoo-hoo-haaaaa-haaa!) scalpel-frenzy die-cutting is that it's not essential to add every last hair to achieve the look of a mane. I do appreciate hyper-realism as an art-form as the attention to detail is immense and impressive, but I PREFER a more illustrative approach.

Page 12: The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

This is a beautiful story about a little velveteen rabbit who longs to be real. It's a classic for good reason - an incredibly gentle, poignant and moving little book which should be read by everyone! Because I want you to enjoy the wonder of this book, here's a digital copy for you - just click the image right below .....

Did you click it? Why not? Go and click it and read it right now - it won't take you long and your life will be better for it! Go on!

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I'm assuming you've done that then? *sniffle*....another weepie! Oh I cry every time, but I love this book so much. It's responsible for everything I own having a name, though, including my computer, my printer, pots, pans, heater and even shoes! Dammit.

I used the Neocolor II soluble pastels quite copiously on this page because I wanted the colours to be vivid. I chose this as the last page because the story begins on Christmas Day.... and that's when my book was being given to mum! AHA! Also - and I only remembered this after I'd finished the page, because I'm an idiot - I did four illustrations for this book as part of my A level art exam when I was 18. Weird huh? I also went MENTAL with the Winsor & Newton gold ink again! Shiiiiiny!!!

In order to just add another layer to this page, and finish the book, I painted one last page -

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That's it then! That's the last of the book. I really hope you've enjoyed that. If you have any questions please just ask - I'm happy to help and look forward to your comments. I'm going to look forward to Sunday, when I've planned in a couple of hours to drink my coffee and look through your wonderful, gorgeous and inspiring blogs, which I've not had time to do at all this week. I can't wait to see the amazing work you've produced so far this year! Sending love and hugs out to the Universe and you too. See you soon - Shroo :) xxx

12 Books Of Christmas - Part 2

Happy Tuesday!

Well... any cause for a celebration eh? The weather here is wet and dreary, but even with the damp and cold and chill there are THE most beautiful skies to be seen and celebrated!

Yeah. I know.  So anyhoo, I thought it about time that I wrote a part 2 for that 12 Books Of Christmas - I'll still need a part 3, but I promise that's not far away.  So....where were we...? Up to page four I think......  yep. Here we go:

Page 4:Gus The Theatre Cat by T.S. Eliot

This page was painted completely with Derwent watercolour pencils - they're so easy to move around on this lovely Bockingford paper. Using the brush to take colour directly from the tip of the pencil gives a nice vivid colour where needed too. I added detail with Uni Pin fine liner pens (0.1 and 0.3),Uni Ball Impact gel pen (1.0mm) and gorgeous, rich Winsor & Newton gold ink.

Die-cutting the page added a layered effect - I like that!

I love Eliot's work, but I wanted to choose one of the poems from 'Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats' in particular - partly because mum and I both love musical theatre (yes, I know, but we do) and also because we've always had cats for pets, and this poem about old Gus reminds me of a cat we had when I was little. His name was 'Tuesday' (go on - guess on what day mum found him...) and she rescued him after he'd been abandoned (horribly) by some scumbags. She nursed him back to health, and although he remained thin and scrawny all his life, he was tough as old boots, defending his territory against all manner of invaders.... foxes, other cats...the invading undead hoardes...you know the sort of thing.

  ...hey! Where'd the cat go?!

Page 5: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

So - there HAD to be a mermaid, right? The story of the Little Mermaid was so beautiful to me when I was a child. I think Andersen's stuff is way less creepy when viewed from a child's perspective...as an adult they can be...um... a bit depressing! But then - there was the wonderful Danny Kaye, who made it all wonderful, then Disney with their sugar sprinkles and singing crustaceans and kapow! A whole big McFilet o' Fish of awesomeness! Mermaids are fabulous. I decided to give this one a golden tail and seaweed hair - and a li'l seahorse (have to give SOME nod to Ariel!)

I used the Derwent pencils to set down the base colours and then used Neocolor II soluble wax pastels from thereon in. A Uni Ball Impact gel pen (white 1.0mm) added texture and detail once a quick spray of Chestnut lacquer added a base, and I highlighted with that yummy Winsor and Newton gold ink.

I also added some Tattered Angels glaze (Mellow Yellow) to the tail and super-heated with my heat gun to make it bubble, then highlighted the textured surface with some 'Treasure Gold' gilding wax.

I cut away quite a lot of the page as I wanted to have her look like she was floating to the surface of the sea in a whirl of bubbles...kind of thing. I resisted the urge to 'Disney' her up and gave her a look of longing, which seems appropriate for the original story. 

Page 6: The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

This was done using a combination of Derwent Watercolour pencils and Neocolor II soluble wax pastels - they blend so completely beautifully it's a delight!  I was given an illustrated collection of these short stories when I was about 9 years old and completely fell in love with them. I chose this one in particular as I recited a large extract in a 'speech and drama' competition/festival thingy and my mum remembers it fondly.

This picture represents the part of the story where the little swallow, left behind to brave a freezing winter, sheltered by the glorious statue of the Happy Prince, takes flakes of gold from the statue to deliver to the poor people of the city at the bidding of the Prince who can't bear to witness the suffering that their poverty brings. It's a tragic but beautiful story. I'd recommend that you read it - and have a tissue ready for when you have a good old cry!

Detail added again with Uni Pin fine liner pens and that Winsor and Newton gold ink is just perfect for the gold leaf. Again - LOADS of die-cutting! WOO!

Page 7:The Marvelous Mongolian by James Aldridge

Yuh-huh....second only to mermaids.... there HAD to be a horsey! I read this book when I was 11 years old and when my mother found me sobbing as a result she took the book off me and read it herself ....and sobbed! Oh it's a wonderful book, written in the form of letters between pen-pals, about a wild Mongolian stallion, and a small tame pony. Read it. More tissues. You'll sob too or else you're not human and/or alive!  This, along with 'Black Beauty' affected me SO MUCH that I can't read a book about horses, or watch a film about horses without sobbing uncontrollably if anything happens to them! In fact - I'm not permitted to OWN a copy of the Black Beauty movie for the sake of my own health and sanity! Pathetic, yet true...

I used the Derwent pencils for this one with plenty of gold ink swirls to represent dust. Before anyone points it out - yes, I did give horsey a longer mane than these ponies actually have, but I like him this way - he looks more wild, so shush.

Page 8: White Fang by Jack London

Hmmm....another weepie! I'm an emotional wreck! I must have read this book a hundred times as a child and loved it more with every read. There's a darned good reason that this is a classic.

For this page, I used the Derwent pencils as a base colour agent and then Neocolor II pastels for layers. As this book was done for my mum, I chose an extract from the beginning, about White Fang as a cub with his mother and reflected it in the illustration.

 

Detail added again with Uni Pin fine liners and Uni Ball Impact gel pens.

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Ok. I'm going to leave that there for now as I have a stack of journals waiting to be bound and/or decorated and they're making me feel guilty for avoiding them! Grrr...  I'll be back in no time to finish this set of posts with the last few pages and HOPEFULLY some finished journals for Etsy. I'd love to hear what you've been up to, or hear your thoughts on these pages. Please feel free to leave a comment as it's awesome to hear from you, and very encouraging. If you'd like to have updates on new posts you might like to 'follow' my blog - just click the link in the right-hand border.

Thank you for visiting! Huge hugs from Shroo :) xxx

My New 2014 Journal & The 12 Books Of Christmas: Part 1

Hello Lovely!

Have we all been busy little bees this January? I always find it's a weird time of year with SO much to do but not a great deal of motivation...whether it's the stormy weather, or the long, dark nights, or the cold I dunno, but those warm blankets seem extra snug in the mornings! Have to crowbar myself outta them!

I have been busy though. I'm setting about re-organising my art studio/craft room (again). It's a mess after all the hustle before Christmas so I figure that instead of just jamming stuff back onto shelves, I should take a little more time and make a bit of sense of things. Makes the job longer, but more worthwhile. As my grandmother always said, "If a job's worth doing at all, then it's worth doing it well."

The reason - aside from just the simple "ARGH!" moment when I look at a mess like that  - for the intensive re-organisation is that I've re-opened my Etsy shop after my Christmas break and now I have to fill it with STUFF as lovely, LOVELY people have bought things! Fabulous! I need more journals in there, so I've been cutting and folding papers ready to get going.

LOVELY colours! I have some gorgeous scrapbook papers to add to them as well. It's good to be prepared! I've also treated myself to a brand new cutting mat in the January Sales - just £2.00 for an A3 size! Awesome!

I've made myself a new 'everyday' journal too. I had a stack of empty sticker backing cards that have been sitting in a pile for a while now, so I rounded the corners and covered the sides with designer paper scraps and hey-presto! One big ole' stack of journal pages. I used some of my DCWV Garden Tea Party stack for the covers and for the first page. That paper is GORGEOUS!

I bound the pages together twice - once with brown waxed linen thread, then again with black. It gave a really cool ridged caterpillar effect which I like a lot.  I left the 'tails' of thread - and added a few more - because I wanted to have these beads as decoration. The paper stack - as always with DCWV - gives a great selection of 'cut out-ables' so decorating is easy and fun. I just added a little shading with pro-markers and embellished with gold gilding wax to make it look more yummy.

I wanted my first page to be a happy thought so I cut out a phrase from the paper and used that - it seemed ideal!

So that's my new journal. It measures 18.5cm x 12.5cm and I love it!

Now - I promised I'd show you the first instalment of the anthology I gave mum for Christmas. The idea stemmed from the anthologies of poems and prose that I put together for 'speech & drama' exams as a teenager, all of which mum has kept. I chose poems and prose that had a significant meaning for me when I was living with her, growing up.

The book I used is a Bockingford watercolour 'fat pad', A5 size with a 140lb heavyweight paper with a cold-pressed finish. This is exCEPtional paper - it takes ANYTHING you throw at it, gives excellent texture, but also allows for detail. I'd most highly recommend! You can find them at good art stores, or online. Here in the UK I'd recommend JACKSON'S ART SUPPLIES for price and excellence of service as well as a great range of goodies for artists to drool over. I actually picked an A4 version up on ebay so you may want to check there for bargains before you spend!

The fact that it's a spiral bound book didn't bother me much as I had a plan - which I'll show you now!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA--HA! Bauble-tastic! Yup. I said in an earlier post that I'd chosen the theme of 'baubles and decorations' for mum's pressies this year so I decided that I'd add a 'bauble' to each page, and on the back I wrote a reason why I chose a particular book or poem. These were such fun to make and look really bright and pretty.

**I've promised to make some extra baubles to decorate the cover...I just ran out of time before Christmas, finishing this as I did at about 2pm on Christmas Eve, shortly before traveling to mum's for the big day!!**

I'll start at the beginning, but will split this up into a couple more posts otherwise we'll be here forever!

Page 1: The Quangle Wangle's Hat by Edward Lear. 

I used my beautiful Neocolor II soluble wax pastels and Derwent watercolour pencils to sketch and paint the page. I then gave it a quick spray of Chestnut satin acrylic lacquer before adding detail with Uni Ball gel pens, Uni Pin fine line pens, and some fabulous rich gilding effects with Winsor & Newton gold ink.

I die- cut the pages by hand as I wanted to create a layered effect throughout the book, which becomes more apparent later on.

 The back of the page has a hand-written extract from the poem - including

 

Mum used to read this to me as one of my regular bed-time books. My favourite part is the list of amazing names - "Attery Squash", "Bisky Bat" and of course "The Pobble who has no toes"! I've always loved words and fantasy and fabulous imagination. If you've not read it then Google it - it's awesome, as are the rest of Lear's wonderful poems! Excellent for kids and adults alike!  Mum reading these to me really grew my love of words and the marvellous way we can play with them!

Page 2: Sonnet #XXIX by William Shakespeare

I love the works of Shakespeare. I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but I can lose myself in his plays or sonnets and be happy. Sonnet XXIX is my favourite. It HELPS, of course, that it was recited to perfection by the divine Ron Perlman OH so many years ago when he played the character of Vincent in tv's Beauty And The Beast, opposite Linda Hamilton. Whenever I read this now I hear his voice. Awesome. 

I used the same media and techniques as with the first page, adding some Tattered Angels Glaze to the hearts which, although it doesn't show up much in photos or scans, does add a nice dimentional element to the page

For those who may wish to enjoy the sonnet - here it is:

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When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand - last one for today:

Page 3: Love Of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico

Actually, it was a pretty hard push to choose just one Gallico book as I have a love of so many. I Chose this one because it has so many layers of complexity...the story of a young girl, lost on the streets of France, who joins a puppet show run by a mysterious, reclusive enigma of a man, capable of expressing his emotions only through the characters of the puppets he works with. The book is truly (to coin a phrase) an emotional roller-coaster, as the reader follows little 'Mouche' from girlhood to maturity, finding love and friendship in the company of her adored puppets whilst fearing the terrible man who controls them. It's not a long book - you can read in a day. I'd recommend it most strongly. It had a great impact on me and the characters seem so real that they reach out from the page to involve the reader in every aspect of the tale. My favourite was Monsieur Reynardo, the fox (hence the piccy!) - cunning and devisive, filled with innuendo, but also loyal and fun.

 

Again, I used the same media and techniques, making greater use of the Uni Ball white gel pen to add the 'snow' on the fox and the pattern on the ground (which doesn't show up well on the scan but it's there - promise!) You can see the layering effect with the die-cutting more on this page, thanks to the colour contrasts:

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Okee - Hope you enjoyed those? Please consider leaving a comment - or a suggestion, if there's something you'd like me to focus on more; I'd love to hear from you! If you like my blog and would like to see more, please add yourself as a member (easy - just click the link in the right hand column!) 

I'll be back soon with more rambling and plenty more photos. In the meantime, look after yourselves, make art, be happy, stay healthy and I'll see you back here real soon! Love and hugs - Shroo :) xxx