Halloween costumes and some drawing

Celestine has been thinking a lot about her Halloween costume lately so we drew up some ideas.  Here she is modelling an array of spooky outifts:

My favourite is the cat costume. Which is yours?

I also did a 3d version of the cat costume to see how it would turn out:

I have discovered a new love for pencil over this last year or so. I used to always outline everything in black pen but now I'm finding that whenever I go over a pencil drawing in black pen it seems to lose its charm and liveliness a bit. It's all very well but it leaves me in a bit of a conundrum about how to colour drawings in.  Putting colour on pencil drawings doesn't seem to work either. Hmm.

Anyway here are another couple of drawings. They were done on Tuesday at a drawing session that I like to go to. I find it's good for helping me to keep practicing- otherwise I find I just never get round to drawing actual things that aren't stylized or from my head! 

The black line one took me about a fifth of the time the pencil one did! Black line has always been my default medium. I think that is starting to change now though... I love the depth you can create with shading. I know it is possible to create that too with black line but i really love the way pencil can be reeeeally soft or really quite dark and black. I like the way you can make things look very wispy and ghostly with a pencil. Also I like that the line is variable- something you can't get with a fine liner pen.

Anyway that's all for now. At some point today I am going to try and make one of the Halloween costumes in real! Miniature size of course.  I tried to make one last night, a red and black witches tutu (which I will show you soon!) and now there are trails of tiny black tulle triangles all over the house.  There's something about tulle, tiny bits of it kind of grab on to your clothes and then drop themselves everwhere...

A Woggle of Witches

Here come Halloween picture book number two!

I'm not sure how well known this book is in America (from what I've gathered on the internet it seems to be quite well known) but I'm pretty sure it's not one that a lot of people have seen in England. I had never come across it before until a few months ago anyway. 

This book was a case of have-to-buy-it-immediately after I first discovered it.  I love anything a bit spooky and witchy and this book ticked all the boxes.  Broomsticks? yes, pointy hats? yes, dark spiky forest? yes, big round yellow moon:? YES!

I would describe this book as visually poetic.

I love the way all the witches look identical and swoop around in formation like synchronized swimmers. Synchronized witches!

the story follows the witches as they wake up in their forest hammock beds, have a feast and then fly off into the sky where they swoop around for a bit. Then they happen to bump into some children dressed up as Halloween monsters:

'Let's get out of here!' they cry
All quivering and quaking ,
they leap on their brooms,
and slant towards the sky.

Have you ever come across this book before? I'm so glad I did!

A quilt for Celestine

Celestine likes reading Peter Rabbit

Celestine was tired of sleeping in a sock so I made her this nice patchwork quilt to sleep under instead.  I thought it would be nice to make it sort of seasonal so there are lots of reds, oranges and yellows in it.  Celestine likes it so much that she is demanding we make another Christmassy themed one for December. I said: 'I expect you'll want another one for spring and then another one for summer too!?' and she said: 'Yes please. I like to have a selection.'  

Not demanding at all!

patches all laid out in order.

Celestine likes to help out.

the finished article!

goodnight Celestine. (really she's just posing here. As soon as this photo was taken she jumped right out!)

stars, stripes, leaves and flowers.

What do you think? Happy Monday everyone!

This Weekend

The older I get the more I seem to appreciate nature.  I wonder why that is.  When I was younger I didn't seem to be so fussed about it and I used to hate being dragged out on walks by my parents but now I choose to go out on walks (or at least the dog chooses) and I love them! I find the beauty of nature really inspiring.

This weekend Henry and I went to one of our favourite places to walk and I took some snaps. I am getting much better at remembering to take my camera with me everywhere I go now.  I find it's a really good way to train yourself to constantly have your creative 'eye' out.

Henry and Barney

 The clouds were really beautiful on this day. They were all puffy and fluffy like white candyfloss. 

Oh and Celestine came on the walk too of course. Only managed to take one decent photo of her though as she kept running away down rabbit holes to explore.  Like Alice in Wonderland.  Here's a picture of her poking a little pool with a stick.  It was such a small little pool made from the roots of a tree. It had acorn cups and dead leaves at the bottom of it.

How was your weekend?

Celestine's autumn walk

Celestine tries on a new style of autumn hat 'does it suit me?'   :   looking at a small snail hidden in the curl of a leaf

natures autumn rainbow

Celestine enjoyed walking through the crispy orange leaves and kicking them into the air.

red red red

The other day Celestine put on her shiny yellow coat and took herself out on a walk. It was a particularly nice walk because the sun was out and shining through the red leaves and across the wheat fields.  Celestine enjoyed it very much.  She walked through the forest and along by the river and had tea with one of her tiny friends who lives in a secret hollow tree. They ate cinnamon buns and drank cinnamon tea.

Su Blackwell: The Fairy-Tale Princess

One word: WOW!

Yesterday Henry and I went to Oxford partly because Henry has never been to Oxford before and I wanted to show it to him, and partly to see my Grandmother who lives there.  One of my favourite things to do in Oxford is visit Blackwells bookshop because I always discover something new and exciting in there when I go.  This time was no exception!

I have been a fan of Su Blackwell's work for some time.  I am as you know very interested in 3d/photographed illustration and she does it so beautifully.  I am always charmed and amazed by her paper sculpted scenes.  When I saw this book sitting on a shelf in Blackwell's bookshop my jaw literally dropped.  I had no idea that she had illustrated a picture book! All I had ever seen of her work before were isolated pictures on the internet.  I was entranced!

Here are just a few little scenes from it. There are bigger, double page scenes in the book too but they wouldn't fit in my scanner...

'The Fairy-Tale Princess is a lovely, heavy, 96 page, illustrated book.   It features seven fairy-tale princess stories: Cinderella, The Frog Prince, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Princess and the Pea, Snow White, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty.

It's a fascinating book. I was lucky to be able to take it home with me yesterday as my bank account is still recovering from Turkey so Henry bought it for me for Christmas instead. He's taken it away again now (boo!) so I will have to wait until Christmas to look at it again.

So yes that's that.  I wasn't expecting to review any books that wern't Halloween-y this month but I couldn't resist this one!

We had a lovely time in Oxford. Henry liked it as I thought he would.  We both said that we would be quite happy to live near Oxford sometime in the future. It is a beautiful city.  Have you ever been there?

Above is the Radcliffe Camera and below that is a replica of it we saw in a shop window- made of cake!

We stopped in for a cup of tea at my Grandmother's house before we went home. She got out some photo albums and we looked at lots of old pictures. It was very interesting. I especially enjoyed seeing a picture of my Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather who I don't think I ever even met. It's funny seeing pictures of people you are blood related to so far in the past and who you never even saw- especially if they are a direct line to you.

On the right is my Grandfather who lives in America and the other two are his parents, so my Great Grandparents.  The one on the left, my great Grandfather was Claude Muncaster who was a real proper, sort of famous artist! here's one of his paintings. He liked painting boats.

Anyway that's enough for now I think! Hope you have a good day! xox

Pink rabbits and more Celestine

I'm quite conscious of the fact that I haven't blogged about any actual artwork at all lately.  The problem I'm having is that most of the artwork that I am doing at the moment is for publishers/clients and so I can't really put it on my blog until its published- hence nothing to show you! (though if you do want to look at my artwork I have made a 'categories' section (look right) where you can find it under 'my work')  

Here's a little sketch though so you can see the kind of stuff I'm working on at the moment (although it doesn't actually involve rabbits, this was just an experiment to see which outline worked best!):

I can't wait until I am able to show you the stuff I have been doing.  It might be a little while though so you'll have to stick around! ;)

For now here's another post about Celestine.  I know she's rather clogged up my blog lately but I have been feeling extremely crafty and inspired lately and can't stop making and sewing tiny things!  There's something about the turn of the seasons that always makes me feel more creative than at other times of the year. I don't know why, maybe it's that kind of intangible fizz of excitement in the air that you get when the season starts to change.  Do you find this happens to you too?

Here's Celestine in her favourite black dress with the gold glitter collar and new black shiny boots. Goes well with the striped tights don't you think?

And here's some photos of that pink cardigan I wrote about a couple of posts ago. Celestine refused to be photographed wearing it though- said it didn't suit her complexion. She can be quite a vain little thing.

'salmon pink really isn't my colour!'

see how small they are!

gotta love those tiny buttons

boots for Celestine

The sum of her wardrobe so far hanging on the mantlepiece

Well that's all for now folks! Hope you have a nice evening-  what's left of it anyway.  I'm off to eat some crumble! xox

Vampire Boy's Good Night

As you will probably know by now, I have a great love for children's books.  I especially love halloweeny/spooky/gothic children's books and I thought it would be nice to showcase some of my favourites here this October, in the lead up to Halloween.

Let's start with Vampire Boy's Good Night by Lisa Brown.

I discovered this book one day in London whilst browsing in Foyles book shop and immediately fell in love with it.  I just adore the illustrations. To me they are spooky but also comforting- kind of like the Addams family!

The story follows the little vampire boy called Bela who goes with his witch friend Morgan to see if children are real.  They stumble across a load of children having a halloween party and who are all of course dressed up. This leaves Bela and Morgan wondering 'are they REAL children?'...

Don't you just love the atmosphere and detail in these pictures?  The sun going down behind the black spindly gate, the endearing little vampire waking up in his coffin, the sleepy butler with a plaster on his neck....  definitely one of my favourite halloween picture books I own!

What are your favourites? I am always really excited for recommendations of children's books I may not have heard of!