Firstly, my very talented friend Beth (or Westie to me) came over for a creative weekend. She has very kindly photographed my latest creations for me. I have been working on some insect jewellery. I've always loved curiosity cabinets and specimens in museums, so I decided to have a go at creating my own 'specimens'. All of the insects in my jewellery are printed copies of my original watercolour illustrations so no living critters were harmed in the making of these!
The jewellery will be appearing in my Etsy shop very soon, but in the meantime, here is a sneak peek. My photography skills are shoddy at best, so a huge thank you to Beth for doing such a wonderful job!
Red Admiral Pendant
Ladybird Bracelet
The second part of my inspiring weekend was going to see Emily Smith live at The Artrix in Bromsgrove. This was a surprise Mother's Day present for a very unsuspecting Mum, despite me playing the 'Traiveller's Joy' album every single time I saw her for over a week!
We actually discovered Emily Smith and her band in quite a bizarre way; when we were at a Patty Griffin concert last year, the two people sitting next to us mistook me for her. Sadly I had to disappoint them as I don't have a Scottish accent and can't sing a note in tune! We were so curious about her though, that we looked her up and loved her music!
We had a fantastic evening and I thoroughly recommend going if you can catch the rest of the tour. The Artrix definitely wins our prize for best wheelchair facilities and friendly staff. They really couldn't have been more helpful. We're already planning our next visit!
I love the storytelling in folk music and now have a newfound appreciation of surprisingly cheerful murder ballads! Here is 'The Twa' Sisters' from a different performance.
Here is a little video of 'Traiveller's Joy' taken on my phone last night:
To top off our perfect evening we even got to meet Emily and her husband, Jamie McClennan, who were both lovely!
This month I discovered a book called 'The Bible of Illuminated Letters'. It's a really interesting resource because you can find out about the history of illuminated letters and how these have changed over time, but also learn step-by-step how to create your own.
I didn't have all of the inks and materials to hand so I just had a go at sketching a few of the examples out. I then did some speedy colouring with good old felt tip pen.
Ottonian 'K'
Gothic 'Q'
Neo-Classical 'E'. I think this style of lettering is my
favourite.
Whenever I teach drawing to children, I always make sure that nobody uses a rubber. I think, especially in your sketchbook, the best way to learn is by making mistakes and drawing over your work until it looks the way you want it to. To prove that I practise what I preach, I've included a sketch of a deer that I've altered. I began by sketching a deer skull and then added the features to it. If you look closely, you will see that I changed the position of the nose because it was initially too low.
Unsurprisingly, I have some new books, so March's sketches are going to be all about anatomy!
I am definitely an autumn/winter person, but even I am looking forward to some sunshine after the amount of rain we've had over the last few months.
Today I've been very excited because it hasn't rained!! There have even been patches of blue sky and moments of sunshine. Woody and I decided to make the most of it and see if we could discover any signs of life emerging from this soggy winter.
I hurt my back this week so haven't been able to spend as much time down the workshop as I would like to. Instead I have been learning new skills on Skillshare (a definite favourite of mine).
I am nowhere near as confident on the computer as I am when using good old fashioned dip pen and ink, so I decided to have a go at Introduction to Photoshop: Fundamentals for Beginners. I found the course incredibly useful, particularly for creating image templates. Meg Lewis breaks things down really clearly, and the final project is to produce your own mood board and colour palette using images sourced from Pinterest.
I was inspired by Stevie Nicks' 'Rhiannon' and all things witchy and magical for my mood board. All of the images used, and their original sources, can be found on my Pinterest page.
Another of my Christmas books from Harvey (he really is annoyingly good at buying presents), 'Sketching from the Imagination: An Insight into Creative Drawing' by 3D Total is a fantastic resource for artists or an insightful read for anyone interested in how artists produce their work.
'Sketching from the Imagination' features 50 different artists, working in both traditional and digital media. Each artist has written about how they use their sketchbooks and why sketching is important to them and their work.
This is the sort of book you can dip into to look for inspiration, or read as a whole. I chose to read the whole book because I find it fascinating to learn how different artists work. This was also a particularly useful book for my sketchbook challenge this year. I picked up so many tips from the artists, such as the importance of sketching every day to develop your work, basing imaginary creatures on existing animals to develop sound anatomy, and keeping your sketchbook a 'safe place' where you are not afraid to take risks.
My favourite artist from the book was Jean-Baptiste Monge. I really enjoyed reading about how he creates his mischievous faerie characters. He has a book of his artwork on his Etsy shop, which I am very tempted by at the moment!
I thoroughly recommend this book as an excellent resource that I know I will be dipping into regularly.
I must admit, I've found my sketchbook challenge a lot more difficult to stick to than I'd expected. Although I haven't managed to do something every day, I have been pretty close. My aim for February, is to do something every day.
My beautiful Lisa Parker sketchbook
Some of my many notes I made when reading 'S.' this month
I am completely addicted to Skillshare courses at the moment. If you haven't come across it before, it's a website where artists and designers can upload online courses to teach you new skills from Photoshop to starting a fashion business. Like most creative people, I find it hard to enjoy learning something new if a course is too rigid and prescriptive. I like to learn the basics and then have the freedom to play and experiment so I can find my own way of doing it. Skillshare is perfect for this because you can watch online videos at your own pace and complete course tasks if you want to as well.
I decided to have a go at a calligraphy course this month, partly because of the New Year sale, and partly because it will be a useful skill for one of my projects this month. I am ambidextrous, but write with my left hand, so I often find that this makes me quite clumsy. My initial calligraphy attempts in my sketchbook were very blotchy and smudged, but as I began to get the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. Calligraphy is definitely something I would like to continue practising and I feel some more reference books may be added to my collection in the coming months!
A rather messy early attempt!
Progress!
I have also been drawing some very quick stag sketches for my own reference, and also to work out what I would like my next exhibition piece to look like.
My brother, Harvey, gave me 'S.' by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst for Christmas. I knew that he'd been really excited about the book he was currently reading, and had bought me the same one, but I wasn't expecting such an exciting and unusual reading experience.
'S.' is physically beautiful. It comes in a black box with a seal that you have to cut to get to the book itself. The book inside is the real treat; a perfectly aged replica library book awaits you. The pages have been yellowed and, I have no idea how they did this, it even smells like an old book. The spine is sewn (a proper book!) and there is even a library sticker and stamps showing when the book has been borrowed inside.
Not only that, but tucked between the pages (which is why the book needs its case) are various postcards, photographs and hand written letters that enhance the story. There is even a map drawn onto an actual napkin! The cost of producing this book must have been incredible! I can't believe how reasonable it is to buy though.
The book inside the 'S.' case is called 'The Ship of Theseus' and has been written by the fictional author V. M. Straka. We learn from the forward (written by his translator whom he worked with over many years) that this was the final book Straka wrote before his mysterious death. The translator admits that not all of the pages of the final chapter were recovered and that he has completed the book for the author, so we don't know how much of the book is truly Straka's work. Nobody, not even the translator, knows the true identity of Straka and this has become the subject of many conspiracy theories and academic debates.
As you can see from the trailer, the book is full of annotations. These annotations are a series of conversations between two people who are trying to solve the mystery of who Straka was, before another academic rival does. There may also be other parties involved in trying to solve, or cover up the mystery, which builds a lot of suspense throughout the annotations. To add further complication to the book, the discussion between the two people is not chronological. There are 4 of 5 different conversations which are dispersed throughout the book, so you are constantly getting a sneak peak of what is to come.
'S.' is definitely not a light read. There are so many layers to the story that it is often hard to keep track; In the novel you are wondering who the mysterious S. character is, as well as searching for clues to Straka's true identity, you do not know how much the translator has altered the original manuscript, or how reliable his frequent footnotes are. On top of that, you become very attached to the two people having the annotation conversations about the book and want to know whether they solve the mystery unharmed. The fictional websites referred to by the annotators are actually real websites, so you can become fully immersed in the story and the theories.
There are a lot of different ideas online about how you should read the book, from reading the entire novel first, without looking at the annotations, to reading it all in one go. I fall into the latter category, and found that the most enjoyable way for me to read the book was to read a double page of the novel at a time, and then read the annotations before moving on. This is partly because I am very impatient and couldn't resist peeking at them! I think whichever way you choose to read it will alter your reading experience, but it will definitely be the most unusual book you've read for a while.
This is not an easy read to dip into for a few pages before you go to bed. I'd say you have to devote at least an hour at a time to it for a satisfying read. 'S.' is a bit like 'Lost' combined with a mystery novel, with a hint of 'The Jolly Postman' (who doesn't love a book full of postcards and letters?). There are some very dark scenes in the book, so it is definitely only appropriate for adults.
'S.' is such a clever book with so many names, layers and clues, that I suspect a lot of it went over my head in the first reading. I finished reading the book over the weekend and still don't feel like I have all of the answers yet. Definitely one for a re-read soon! Even though I don't fully understand everything, this book gets five stars from me for sheer beauty and such an immersive experience. I think, with the rise of the ebook, this is the direction that physical books should be heading. 'S.' is available as an ebook but I think this would completely take away from the work of art that is the book itself, so I recommend you get the real deal!
