Gearing up

As you can see I have changed the title of my blog...  I was never very happy with 'Making Marks' I just felt I had to think of something suitable and at the time that was all I could think of.  I am about to start selling some of my hand made work and will be doing so under the name 'Wild Things' (the tag line being - 'hand made things with wild things on') and so it seems a sensible idea to tie this blog in with my little business venture. 

The picture at the top illustrates the state of my little buisiness venture as it stands today though - I don't even think I could call it organised chaos could I?!!!  Guess what I'll be doing this weekend...

Just to add something a bit more creative to this post I thought I'd put up a  non-Wild Things pic that I keep working on - a watercolour of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, a place I have visited many times since I was a child.  This is a painting I keep coming back to.  It's taken from some patched together photographs of the castle and harbour, I am trying to work much more freely with the paint.  I have already made a mess of the sky and will try to rectify it at some point but its all being done on practice paper, just for fun really so I am enjoying the process:

Right I off to try to create some order out of chaos!  Chores today, creative fun tomorrow.  Have a good weekend guys! x

Consider the lilies....

Well, I have to say once again a great big thank you to everybody who took the time to leave such lovely comments after my last entry.  You have all really made me feel positive about my work and I can't thank you enough.

Here are a couple more offerings, first a study of some lilies that I worked on over a few days.  I have resisted the urge to draw over it with pen!  I think I'll leave it the way it is.

The second picture is a quick watercolour sketch I did after a visit to Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland.  It shows only a small part of the ruins but there was a tremendous storm gathering, while this tower and the grassy slope that led up to it remained bathed in sunlight.  Not sure how well I captured it but it was beautiful at the time!  Dunstanburgh Castle is extremely dramatic, set on top of a rocky crag with the most stunning beach - Embleton Bay, sweeping away to the north.  Northumberland is my favourite place ever, I go back again and again!

I have also been naughty this week and treated myself to a lovely new book, 'Illustration Play' published by Gingko Press.  Gingko Press publish some great books - real eye candy (I'm speaking with my professional librarian head on now and, as far as I am concerned, 'eye candy' is definitely a technical term in librarian speak) it's always worth keeping an eye on their web site.  I am eagerly awaiting its arrival, I shall tuck myself up this weekend with the book, a pot of tea and some good cake!

While I am here, I'd like to share a photograph I took in Manchester of some street art by Shepard Fairey.  I know anyone who lives in Manchester will be more than familiar with it but it made my day coming across it the way I did.

I think the bags of rubbish, waiting to be collected underneath it, really illustrated how tucked away it was and, of course, how beautiful the piece is.  I stared at it for ages!

I like birds...

I gave spent the weekend trying to come up with ideas for Christmas cards. The pictures have been copied from images found in books but I really enjoyed doing them. I am getting more and more relaxed with my drawing skills now, but really feel I need to loosen up quite a bit! I want to get much more flowy and free with my drawing. I try to put far too much detail in and fiddle around when I should stop.

Until I began this process of rediscovering my creative self, I had forgotten how graphic my art is. When I did my art foundation course (in the late 1980s) I focused on fine art. I feel now I should have focused on graphics. Why did nobody tell me?

Anyway, here are a couple of coloured pencil and ink studies I came up with as card ideas, I'm not going to use these but I quite like the studies anyway. I shall post the actual card design, after I have sent them out to friends and family!

I am also posting an ink and watercolour study I did of some pebbles. I love rubble! If I had been clever at science at school, I would have loved to have studied geology. But I wasn't, so I satisfy myself with a sizeable rubble collection. The picture is of fossils, pebbles, sea-glass and ceramics, found on beaches in Yorkshire and Northumberland.

When I have a minute I will design myself a better banner - the one I have at the moment is rubblish!!