bloowabbit

Sunday, 4 December 2016

ABADID 4...Going Xmas crazy in my planner

Well, it's the Christmas season and there's an excuse for going sticker-mad in my planner. Over the last few months I've watched countless YT videos of layouts and hauls and resisted the temptation to buy. Even the amazing sticker kits from the US I have said 'No' to (the shipping can be pricey). Instead I settled for UK shop Plannable Designs on Etsy - love Melissa Holland's colour themes and velvety matte stickers, nice to write on.

I bought 3 full kits for December and a smaller kit for January. And I don't regret a single peel-off, stick-down penny.

The first kit is called 'Swirling Snowglobe', gentle hues of blues, green and pink. Some of the full boxes and little things (plannerspeak) have the coveted 'glitter' effect which is on trend in the sticker world.

There's even a sticker with the words 'Life is like a snowglobe, sometimes things turn out prettier once they've been turned upside down'. (Do pageant contestants walk on their hands?)

The second kit is called 'Peppermint Latte' and I wasn't sure about this set although I ended up preferring it to any of the other December kits. Raspberry red, turquoise, stone and pink.

The sticker with words reads 'Peppermint Everything'...

I have a friend who has always smoked menthol cigarettes and in a bid to transform regular cigarettes into menthol she bought a small bottle of menthol crystals from the local chemist in which to dip them. It worked. But the bottle cap unscrewed inside her handbag and the crystals spilled out. Even after cleaning out the handbag she didn't realise how absorbent tampons are...I'll leave the rest of the story to your imaginations. So no, don't peppermint everything.

The third kit is called 'Skating in Central Park', lilac, teal, lime green and pink. It's full of delicately drawn clip-art which is put together very nicely.

The sticker with words reads 'Dreaming of Skating in Central Park'. That's an image used in many films and is one of those Christmassy scenes. I dream of being able to skate and if I could then Central Park would be on my bucket list of places to go.

The fourth set which I've used in the January section of my planner is called 'Break the Spell' and has purple, dark red, grey and pale gold. These stickers are all about Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I love them because Melissa has created the original dark version of the tale upon which the new film is based. Disney has a lot to answer for by dumbing down and sweetening the great historical fairy tales that have scary bits in them. Read 'The Uses of Enchantment, The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales' by Bruno Bettelheim (child psychologist).

There's a sticker with words which reads 'I want adventure in the great wide somewhere' which I presume is a quote from Belle and which isn't a bad attitude to have.

Beautiful stickers and a well decorated planner. So now I've no stickers left and already I'm having to resist Etsy. I do have white printing sticker paper and I could look up Victoria Thatcher - she does free downloadables... there's a nice retro kit I've my eye on... (sounds of printer warming up and scissors opening and closing)...

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.

Saturday, 3 December 2016

ABADID 3...My sister Kay

Some of you are aware that my big sister passed away last month. She was 12 years older than me and I remember her coming home from art college in the 60s. She studied Silversmithing and Jewellery and then went on to train as a teacher.

Sometimes she'd bring home treasures from the city, things to make art with, stories or treats like Shake-A-Pudd'n. The box was complete with tall paper cups, lids, long spoons and pudding mix to which we added water and then danced around shaking the mix before letting it set. Funny, the moments you remember.

She became an art teacher and taught me at school which seemed strange at first but I soon knew I was lucky to have her as a teacher. Kay put so much thought into her classes and how her students might complete their work. We learned to recognise art and design in everyday life and she instilled an appreciation of art in those she taught.

Determined to improve our confidence she trained our A-Level class to life draw, in sessions lasting an hour, then half an hour, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, all the way down to 5 secs. And then she took us schoolgirls to the market on a busy Monday. There we sat drawing the moving people around us. I felt empowered, an artist, able to catch real movement in seconds.

It was Kay who stood up for me, persuading my Mum that I needed to go to art college too, rather than the academic course selected for me. And she was at the end of a phone throughout, helping me with questions I had about art and about living away from home in the big city.

Each time I had an exhibition she'd buy some work. Each time I'd make her something her face would shine with delight. Each time I wrote a short story she'd enthuse. It was the same for anyone who was creative. Always encouraging, always believing in the best of us.

When I was completing a City & Guilds Embroidery course and undertaking a gratis commission for her as a final piece I asked her for some ideas on what item she'd like and what colours she preferred. I didn't just get an email with a few pointers, I received an entire folder in the post packed with information, colours, shape, size, texture and form. Attention to detail.

As we got older our friendship strengthened. Phone calls lasting at least an hour long. We'd discuss life, the world, the universe. We'd chat and we'd laugh - a lot of laughter. Her sense of humour was boundless.

Little Big Sis...
Sister, Teacher, Advocate,
Mentor, Patron

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

Friday, 2 December 2016

ABADID 2...IDPWD & iDA

image of www.un.org

Since 1992 December 3rd has been United Nations International Day for People With Disabilities (IDPWD). And this year's theme is 'Achieving 17 Goals for the Future We Want'. This year also coincides with the anniversary decade of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with DIsabilities (CRPD).

It's unfortunate that in the UK disability currently equates more with 'shirking' than celebration, even so soon after the applause and coverage of the 2012 Special Olympics. From the Inspirational Porn surrounding the Special Olympiads to the Disability Hate Crime rise of over 41% in 2015 there seems to be a huge difference in attitudes, neither of which promote a healthy culture for a disabled person to exist.

image of www.adf.ie

If one of your goals as a deaf artist or artist with disabilities is to develop your work then an application to Arts & Disability's (ADF) iDA Grant Scheme might help. The scheme opened this year on November 22nd and closes on January 9th at 12 noon. Guidelines and application forms can be found at the link. For any other information not found on the website you can telephone (028) 9023 9450 or email at info@adf.ie

IDPWD info:

YT video - Karni Liddell, 2016 Australian patron

UN website - IDPWD

Awareness Days website - IDPWD

Time and Date website - IDPWD

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

ABADID 1...Blogmas, Vlogmas, Doodlemas...

ABADID...A-Blog-A-Day-In-December. Yup, need a challenge to get me motivated again. And A-Blog-A Day-In-May worked, kept me posting regularly for almost 7 months. Looks like blog-a-days help get me focussed.

I feel my challenge will fit in nicely to the spirit of Blogmas, or Vlogmas if you're into making vids, or Doodlemas if any of you choose to take that challenge (YT vid linked below). Some blog days will be arty, some more Christmassy. I've already begun to plan out themes, checking with my daily planner to see what I'm up to this month. There'll be some crafty topics too for what's Christmas without handmade stuff. And the most important thing will be to pre-write and take photos beforehand where possible.

I posted on my fb Bloowabbit page about Sea Lemon's 'December Doodle Challenge' which might just get you drawing. She adds a downloadable/printable calendar grid with the daily themes written in. Each box is such a small size that I challenge even the most 'I can't draw' people to have a go. Plus Sea Lemon invites you to post your images via social media with the hashtag #sealemon so she gets to have a look. Have fun!

Sea Lemon YT video: December Doodle Challenge

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

Friday, 18 November 2016

day 19 & day 20 of illustrating Sinead's writing...

Although not in time for the Event at The Guesthouse the final two days of Sinead O'Donnell's writing from her residency are now illustrated. I really liked Sinead's writing, a quirky mix of fact and fantasy. It was nice to get back into that mode once more.

Day 19

Day 20

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

Monday, 14 November 2016

Mini Art Books 2

Back in May I wrote a blogpost about about little art books I make and recently I felt the need to make a few more. I like the mix of art and craft involved. The artworks are more doodle-quality but that suits them I think.

The images are made on plain, folded A6 cards and then glued back to back to form a simple book. A cover and spine is also glued in place.

Alcohol and watercolour markers were used to colour black line drawings which in turn were drawn over rough pencil sketches. The figures took shape at the pencil stage and the stories unfolded. For the 2nd book I didn't have a good quality marker in dark blue (low stock) so I used a dark blue-grey Sharpie for the night sky. I also used a bluebell Sharpie to go over lighter bands of colour that I felt hadn't worked and a peach Sharpie added shadow to the figures in yellow. White gel pen outlined the figures.

I then promptly splashed my cuppa over the front of the book and had to dry it out and then first-aid it...

mini art books - May 18th 2016

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page

Tuesday, 1 November 2016

Four Bunnies of the Apocalypse - redo

I had been drawing a lot of different genre last year, bunnies included. So when I saw illustrations of the Four Horsemen I in turn created Four Bunnies of the Apocalypse. No doubt in some other wabbit universe they may well exist in the pages of bunny doctrine. I liked some of the doodle, Pestilence in particular, but I felt that the others needed a lot of work. Plus, I didn't like the background at all.

At a sale in Bradbury Art I picked up an A3 Bristol pad - this piece was going to be twice the size of my normal work, epic proportions. Loading the doodle version on my laptop screen from which to work and listening to the 6th series of Star Trek/Deep Space Nine I began to sketch. The bunny figures would remain in the same positions although I added a little more depth.

War and Pestilence stare at the viewer. Famine and Death look to their left, Death extending his hand as though to mark someone or something off page. I researched the four words war/famine/pestilence/death so that I could base this fantasy upon reality. Researching this was difficult and I became very aware of these four things being part of our modern world, not things that have faded into ancient history.

War's ears are stockier, blunter than those of Famine's which are more wispy, almost insubstantial. With Death's skull I used a lot of artistic licence, his ears are skeletal and his two front bunny teeth are evident. I'm glad War has a large round shield - every opportunity to hide arms and hands should be used.

Brown pencil outline. Having tried out some Letraset inks I wanted to use them for the background but as they had been tricky to work with I decided to block out the figures with masking fluid. Just in case the fluid lifted the brown pencil I tried a practice piece and I'm very glad I did. I'm not sure if the inks alone seeped under the masking fluid or if the masking layer was too fine or if the dispersal agent I sprayed was the culprit but it resulted in an utter mess. Plus, the mask tore the surface of the paper.

Perhaps the absorbent quality of the Bristol Board is why the masking fluid didn't work - watercolour paper doesn't present any problems. As I've already drawn out the figures in detail onto the Bristol Board I'm forgetting about using the masking fluid for this project.

First layer of colour, mix of Copic Ciao, Letraset Promarker & Letraset flex. Overlaid colours in background (which would have been easier if I could have masked out the figures) and will work further on that with Copic blender refill and a range of blues.

More layering of colour and darkening of Death's cloak. The Copic blender refill had arrived so with drops onto the paper and also using a fine paintbrush to apply circles of blender I altered the background to look less like banding and more organic. I didn't like the lines of dark blue but when I tried knocking that back with the blender I realised I'd used Letraset Aqua Markers which weren't alcohol based and didn't react to the blender. I decided to overlay alcohol markers and hope that by working on them with the blender fluid and a paintbrush that the lines might then look softer.

Finally I outlined the figures in black fineliner 0.1 unipin and added some pale grey shadowing. I used a uniball Signo white gel pen to lift the edges. I also added some white gel pen in swirls to hide those dark blue lines but it just looked wrong, so I went over them with a Letraset flex marker in Pastel Green which diminished them. It's finished but I'm not sure about it. Doing the background without masking off the figures was difficult - as I was working on A3 sized paper I couldn't scan the line drawing into my laptop as a back up. Perhaps I need to think about a larger scanner.

Too much time passed between completing the drawing and working on the colouring. I found some impetus had waned. Really pushing myself enabled me to finish the piece. I felt that Pestilence looked too pink but I couldn't bleach him any more than I tried with the blender fluid. And to be honest, Death's eyes look like fried eggs and War's boots look a little camp. I may work on this again in the future as I like the idea.

Bloowabbit facebook page

bloowabbit Instagram page