This Week

This really happened, and I thought I'd do a little cartoon for a change. Might make it a weekly thing - unless nothing happens to me of course!

Illustration Friday - "Cracked"

For the "cracked" theme I thought I would do a little illustration from "Bluebeard", where the girl is given an egg by her new husband and has to keep it perfect. But afterwards, I re-read the story and realised it's not an egg she is given at all, but a key. I'm cracking up I tell you!

It's just gouache and ink on a bit of brown paper.

No Willpower

It's been a stressful, busy and tiring few weeks, with family problems, a new job and the Open House all jostling for time and attention. I woke up this morning feeling really drained and achey!

Today is my usual printing day, and my first thought was to give it a miss this week and try and chill out a bit instead. But then I thought, "Well, it won't hurt to just pop in and collect my work." Then I thought, "It would be silly to just go and collect my work without taking a few prints off of my new plate." Then I thought, "If I don't prepare a new plate I'll have nothing to work on next time."

So I ended up staying about 3 hours, printing this and adding chine colle, and buying three new pieces of steel...


...my name is Liza and I'm an etchoholic.

Open House

Here are a few images from the Open House! You can click to enlarge all but the top two - I don't know why!

A 1920's Toy Theatre.

A fab automaton made by John Alden. It's called "Square Dance"!

Part of John's collection of wooden toys made by Yootha Rose.

My Curly Locks doll.

John's fabulous dolls house, created by him and his late partner. A real labour of love!

A lovely pendant of Karen Rayner's,

and just a small part of her work.

Here's my corner.

A Happy Event...any time now!

It's that time again...when the Peregrine Falcons nest on top of the Brighton tower block. This year the webcam is up and running as usual, so you can check and see if the eggs have hatched yet here!

Disasters narrowly missed and retching on the bus

Well I start my new job today so wish me luck! I have to admit I haven't got off to the greatest of starts - as I was on the bus to Brighton yesterday for a merry printing session, I got a phone call asking where I was - I was supposed to start yesterday! I felt sick with awfulness (in fact, I actually retched). But checking back, I found that they had typed the wrong date on my letter. I hadn't noticed the day at all.

After changing buses, I discovered that everyone in the local area had seemingly decided not to wash for 3 weeks and then join me for the rest of my journey. Pleasant. Retching on the bus twice in a day - that must be a first.

The lovely, odour-free people at BIP cheered me up as usual. Remember my Manatee print? My first ever etching? Well I thought I'd add aquatint to it last week and I thought it was a disaster - the plate went rusty within seconds of coming out of the acid. But I cleaned it off with Brasso and it turned out really well...
In fact I'd like to make a story around these two.

Anyway I should be dressing in my smart yet casual clothes. Bye!

Studying People

It's the Brighton Festival at the moment and as I mentioned in my last post I'm taking part in an Open House. I'm in the house of the lovely John Alden, who doesn't seem to have a website (I must ask him why not!) but who makes the most fab automata and miniatures and is also a hive of information about toys, and art and craft. Also at the house, showing her scrumptious enamelled silver and copper jewellery is Karen Rayner, a Bishopstone artist who has a studio near mine and is very talented. We have had quite a few visitors so far but unfortunately not many seem to have brought their wallets with them....


Anyway after leaving John's house today I had a coffee in Sainsburys cafe and did a little bit of sketching. I've noticed when I'm out sketching that the vast majority of people seem to look very stressed and miserable. The woman on the right side was doing a crossword and she really didn't seem to be enjoying it at all, she was holding her head in her hands at one point - I was getting quite concerned. I was disappointed that the woman at the bottom didn't stay long enough for me to draw her. I like drawing larger people.

These I did a few days ago - the left was on a train, the bottom right was at a bus stop.

Drawing standing up is difficult!

I've thought of something positive about the theft of Brad's car. It means I get more trains and buses, which means I sketch more. (I'm sure that's no consolation to Brad!)