Inspiration

Hello, poor, neglected blog! Although I don't have any of my work to show at the moment I have still been busy, creatively. (I promise!)

I recently spent a very inspirational day with the goodly folk at the Little Angel Theatre, where I did a course in Writing For Puppetry. It was a brilliant day, and I met some really talented, fabulous people. Most excitingly, I met the lovely Imogen Di Sapia, who has recently started up the Bright Moon Theatre Company. Being only a stone's throw from me in Brighton, we really hope to work together soon! I am planning to make a new puppet, which if all goes well will make her debut on Halloween night…

Yesterday, I went to ELCAF, the East London Comic and Arts Fair. I have missed it every year until now and kicked myself, but at last I made it, and very splendid it was too. Although I have never made a comic/zine it's something I really want to do. Comics people are so lovely, I find, and it was nice to see some of the people I have only so far seen online. I bought a comic by the super talented Isabel Greenberg, whose book The Encyclopaedia of Early Earth is one of my favourite ever books. I also bought one of Philippa Rice's lovely books - she is as nice as she seems in her book! I really enjoyed seeing Viviane Schwarz doing cat portraits of people…was far too shy to get one myself though! Finally I went to a talk by Jillian Tamaki, which was so great…I just want ALL of her books, right now!

My only regret of the day was NOT buying this absolutely scrummy toast plate...

 

I kept going back and looking longingly at it but I didn't have much money and had only planned on buying books, and was all confused to suddenly be desperate for a plate. I was a fool! I want it so badly! It's made by Charlotte Mei, who I very much wish had done a hard sell! (But was far too nice for that!)

In other news, I recently applied for a job which involved having a one and a half hour Skype meeting. This made me realise that I am in fact hideous and haggard, and am very thankful that my friends and family have stuck by me despite this.  

Best Friends

It's been a dramatic and stressful weekend, mostly spent watching over Bea, our Beagle, who suffers with a horrible condition called Beagle Pain Syndrome. She had a relapse of this after being spayed. However, thankfully, her recovery was just as sudden and we are now back to constantly thwarting her life's work (getting into the bin, and escaping from the garden).

Despite her being very naughty, we love Bea, and of course our other dog, Poppy, who is actually the best dog who has ever lived. My little sketch today is of two characters in a book I'm working on, Rupert and Celeste. Best friends.

On a roll

Couldn't resist drawing this woman from the Jeremy Kyle Show. Scanned it in whilst waiting for those all-important DNA test results.

Drawing From Film

At the end of a truly nightmarish day, featuring too many social workers, not enough seats and an escaped beagle (don't even ask) I went along to my first session of Drawing From Film in The Depot, Lewes. A member chooses a film which everyone watches (with wine!), and the film is paused several times throughout for everyone to sketch. The pauses vary from 3 to 7 minutes. It's very exciting. Of course the results can be disappointing (see below) but it's such a useful and fun exercise. The film this time was Stranger Than Paradise. As usual I concentrated on the people and ignored all the backgrounds. I really do annoy me.

I was at home today thinking I just can't wait for the next one…and then realised I could actually draw from the telly too. I used to do this when building up sketchbooks for my uni application. Combining my love of drawing with my guilty secret - a love of trashy TV - I drew this handsome fellow from Judge Judy. I gave myself 17 minutes…and still not a background in sight.

Lino Print

I've been busy working on lots of things lately, but none of it is in any fit state to post as yet, so meanwhile, here's a little lino print I did a couple of months back. I love printmaking and wish I could do more of it! But it has to compete with illustration, puppet making, parenthood, housework…and it invariably loses.

In other news I recently did a workshop with the lovely Isobel Smith, which was fab. I came away with a three-year career plan. (And the day involved lighting candles in the forest!)

Movember!

Don't say I don't keep my promises! My brother in law will be colouring his splendid tache blue very soon…don't forget to donate here for men's health.

Remember Movember!

I know, it seems all I ever do these days is ask you for money. This will be the last time for ages, I promise. But please consider dipping into your pockets to help the health and wellbeing of our lovely menfolk. My brother in law Peter Harrison and his workmates are currently growing fine facial hair and  hopefully raising lots of dosh as well as looking very suave.

If they reach £500 by 28th November they will be dyeing their moustaches blue…this just has to happen.

Donate here. I will post a tache-themed bit of artwork in the next few days. Merry Movember!

Ice Bucket Challenge

I thought I had escaped the Ice Bucket Challenge…just my luck to receive a nomination now the weather has turned cold! The Mister also received a nomination. We really didn't want to be wasting water by slinging it around so instead here is our much drier contribution…

We both have experience of caring for people with Motor Neurone Disease, through our work, and it's  a truly horrible illness. The Mister and I donated today. I hope the extra funds and awareness raised with this campaign will help to find effective treatment. 

I know my artistic friends are often snowed under with deadlines, but should Jo Empson, Kate Walter and Abbie Stanton fancy doing a watery doodle, I for one would love to see it!

I know there is a Twitter er.. thingy for Ice Bucket Doodles, too, so I am sure there's plenty of inspiration there.

Text ICED55 £10 (or whatever amount you choose) to 70070 to donate to the MND Association.

Dragon Tales

Check out Jo Empson's blog for a fab account of our puppets' exciting day out at Wychwood Festival!

Bench Mark

When my son asked me why benches in bus shelters were so narrow and uncomfortable, I was forced to explain to him the depressing reason for this - to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them. Benches that can't be sat on are now commonplace in our cities.

This mean-spirited attitude has reached new levels with the advent of homeless spikes. How proud the person must be who first thought of these disgusting little things. What a great way to address the problem of homelessness.

As Alex Andreou said in the Guardian this week, it's a sign which reads "Not even this patch of earth. Not even for the night."

If you thought things couldn't get any worse, this spiked bench was designed by artist Fabian Brunsing. The spikes temporarily retract when a coin is inserted. An installation with a message, I'm sure.  A message completely missed by officials of Yantai Park in China, who thought it was a great idea and apparently installed them there. How long until they appear here, I wonder?

It's incredibly sad that human beings are deliberately depriving other human beings of places to rest.

But. For now, there is still happiness and laughter to be found on benches.

Wonderful.

How to Make a Dragon

I've been busy making a new puppet for the lovely Jo Empson, and thought I would share the process with you. (And me, as I sometimes forget how I did things!)

I was to be re-creating the head of the dragon from the above illustration (copyright Jo Empson), from her picture book "Never Ever", to go with the girl character I made last year.

I decided to make this puppet using the "foam and fleece" method, as is used for the Muppets. Most of the puppets I have made before were either fully textile, or papier mache, but as this puppet needed to be large I thought this would be nice and light, and also look bold and child-friendly.  So - here we go!

1. First, I assembled my chosen studio companions.

(For future reference, note to self - try to choose companions that don't poo on the floor. Bea, I'm looking at you. Don't think I didn't notice, because I did.)


2. I made a pattern from paper for the puppet's mouth plate.

3. I cut the mouth plate out from cardboard. This isn't the best material to use actually - some kind of plastic would be better but I didn't have anything large enough. Then I covered the cardboard with red fabric. I used a kind of wincyette because that's what I had, but a lot of puppet makers use felt. Also most people glue the fabric to the board or use self adhesive felt. But I find sewing less scary as it's undo-able!

4. I made a black "hole" and a pink tongue from felt and glued them on. I used fabric glue…but more about glue later.

5.  The mouth plate started to crease, so I strengthened it by gluing on some jersey fabric, painting on fabric stiffener, and adding a piece of card.

 You can see above that at this stage I made some foam finger holes, because I intended this to be a glove puppet. However, later on it became clear it was too long and weighty to be worked with one hand, so I removed them and made hand holes instead. Here I also started the top of the head by putting the mouth plate on a piece of 1" foam and drawing round it with a large border to allow for shaping it.


6.  I started putting notches in the foam to sculpt it. The black line you can see is the size and shape of the mouth plate.

7. Then I glued the notches together using the hot glue gun. I did the same with the bottom jaw afterwards. (The bottom jaw is 1/2" foam.)

 Throughout all these pics you will notice a range of different glues which I bought and tried and failed with during this process. I even glued my own hands with Gorilla Glue, which swells up. (And, NB, doesn't stick foam). It made my hands so sticky that I couldn't sew afterwards for ages. I used so many chemicals trying to get it off I think I actually took the top layer of skin off. I tried Copydex and PVA, but settled on the hot glue gun which does stick foam very well.

(Most painful place to burn self with hot glue gun? Crook of thumb.)

8. Now to cover the foam with fleece. Die hard Muppet makers use Antron Fleece, but this is just ordinary polar fleece, available online. I draped the fleece over the foam, pinned it in place and made pleats where necessary to smooth it out. I intended to cut away the excess and join the edges. But eventually I decided to sculpt the pleats into nostrils, which you will see later.

Online there are many tutorials and tips for sewing fleece to foam. Some people make a pattern from other fabric, transfer it to fleece and then sew it inside out. As this puppet is quite quirkily shaped and large, I just trimmed and stitched as I went along.


9. I sewed the mouth plate to the fleece. Some puppet makers glue it in. I used a kind of whip stitch. There are several stitches you can use including "Henson Stitch".  Fleece seems to be quite forgiving and the stitches do sink in quite nicely. You can fluff up the stitched line with the tip of the needle and this hides them even more.

10. I was using polystyrene balls for eyes. It's possible to use ping pong balls or fishing floats too. I drew the pupils on with a Sharpie. I then made a strap with fleece to sew onto the puppet. Then with another semicircle of fleece, I made eyelids which I sewed on.

 You can see the nostrils here too.

11. Now for the final embellishments. I made teeth by cutting out foam, covering it with white fleece and sewing them in place.

12. Then, I made coloured spots from other scrap fabric, and a couple of spikes from 1/2" foam covered with red towelling. I glued on the spots using fabric glue and sewed on the spikes.

Voila! And here he is in action at the Wychwood Festival. The children certainly seemed to like him!

I used plenty of websites and books to help me with this process. I will compile a list of them and put it on the side (if I can work out how!). Puppet making is fun!

Albert

Here's a cover I designed for an e-book. It's just pencil, as part of my attempt to keep life as simple as possible.

I am today mourning the loss of Albert, my lovely little apple tree, who yesterday was savagely murdered by the Mr with a strimmer. He hasn't officially been pronounced dead yet but The Internet tells me that as the bark is damaged all the way round, it is inevitable. My buddleia was also wiped out.

Goodbye Albert, I used to enjoy talking to you and watching you grow, and I am sorry it had to end this way. You never even got to make an apple.

Healthy Eating

I've been thinking about our family diet, and decided that it falls short of healthy. Trouble is I don't really have the time or money to prepare everything fresh and from scratch. So I'm going to hire a chef to prepare delicious yet nutritious meals,  and personal trainers for all of us.

Not really. I'm just going to have to make more bloomin' effort. Sigh.

Nurse Nancy

I was sitting here thinking, and suddenly The Four Marys popped into my head. It was a strip from Bunty, one of the many comics I read as a little girl. If I remember rightly all the Marys went to a posh boarding school but one of them was working class (she must have got a scholarship). 

That got me remembering Twinkle, which was the highlight of my week as a five-ish year old, and featured a strip called Nurse Nancy. Nancy had the life of my dreams, seemingly spending all her time mending dolls and teddies and putting them in nice little beds. Not to mention her very impressive uniform. 

Nancy must have made a deep impression on me, because my first job after leaving school was in a Dolls' Hospital. Disappointingly though, there were no uniforms, or tiny beds.  

(Also I am now married to a real, live nurse). 

In A Flap

Here's a little snippet of something I have been working on. Very,very slowly I might add.

The last few weeks have mainly involved coursework to do with fostering, so it was nice to get into my studio today and do something which had nothing whatsoever to do with the Children's Act (1989).

Items not completed on my "to do" list today included starting a dragon puppet, planting two periwinkles and cleaning the bathroom.

One Year On

My sister Linda took this photo on the beach in Spain this morning. A sunrise; beautiful like our Mum was.

High Five!

Sorry for my long absence! After probably the busiest couple of months of my life, (during which I became the Mrs of The Mr and we very happily acquired a new addition to the family) I finally dusted the cobwebs off my studio door handle and went inside! This is just a little illustration I did for our fostering agency. More to come.

How are you, anyway?

Doodles and Pooches

My dear friends Sandie and Kate came over today. Illustration is a solitary activity and that suits me fine most of the time...but when you feel a bit stuck or stale it's just the ticket to get together with someone creative to get the inspiration flowing again! Here's a little character I've been developing.

Kate drew the new addition to our family...Posy! She is a rescue dog and is very timid at the moment, but very pretty I'm sure you'll agree!

Yet another bird...

 I've only ever used Photoshop to clean stuff up etc; but since getting a Mac (secondhand but I love it!) and a scanner/printer, I've been able to try out using it more creatively. It's been fun! I'm looking forward to using these birds for a new project. I've got another one involving people too...I just can't not draw people! During my MA, we had to do an observational project and some of the group would go to any lengths to avoid drawing people. But I was the opposite - I had to be forced to put them in a setting of any sort!

More Birdy Love

Been doodling birds of my own for a story I'm developing.  More to come soon hopefully!

Also, on the bird front, check out Nicky Fijalkowska's blog, Knit For Victory, for details of Worthing Bird Art Trail -  including her wonderful knitted birds (yes that's KNITTED birds - how much better can life get!?) which are currently on display in Worthing's Wool Bar, Warwick Street.

Must fly!