New Beginnings... Well, Almost!

I didn’t realise how long it had been since I had written a post on here. It has been two years, bear with me, my writing is going to be super rusty. My last post was about my Arts Council Funding, I was feeling so motivated and creative on the back of my year long project, and as the project ended, I was already halfway through my EFT training, which was also really exciting and inspiring, but looking back, I realise I was also a bit knackered from throwing myself into new things, I also caught Covid for the first time, around the same time. I then still needed to work through my 30 hours of EFT practice throughout the following year. 30 hours doesn’t sound like much, but it is one heck of a learning curve. I did quite a lot of practice hours as swaps with other training practitioners, which meant an hour as a practitioner and an hour as a client, so as well as learning a lot, I was simultaneously processing all my own baggage at the same time, which could be quite intense… it was quite the ride, not regrets though, I now have a tool and a skill that can really help to support others as well as myself, and I’ve met some wonderful people.

It has now been a year since I became accredited as an EFT practitioner, and that year has also flown by, I started 2024 by taking another EFT course – PTT (Picture Tapping Technique), which as you can imagine, really appealed to me, it was a lot of fun, but my focus also shifted to selling the house. It was already on the market but at the end of 2023 we decided to change estate agents (if you ever think that isn’t worth doing because they are ‘all the same’, maybe reconsider, it made a huge difference for us).

2024 has seen me: trying to fit in a few trips to the theatre or to see bands with my friend before I moved away, find a buyer for the house, travelling up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed to look at houses, having an offer accepted on a house in Berwick, losing a buyer, finding a new buyer, spending far too much time rifling through boxes of nostalgia, selling the house, saying goodbye and leaving Conford for the last time after 9 years, and now waiting for my purchase to go through, while I stay with family in Norfolk.

There has been a lot of excitement, a lot of stress, a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls, a lot of waiting, and a lot of living with boxes. I have continued trying to create in between the viewings and the packing, and the planning and organising, but it has been tricky, and now all my art supplies are in a storage unit somewhere. I am choosing to believe that everything happens when it is supposed to, but boy, has that been challenging at times. I’m trying to relax and enjoy the time I have right now, because before I know it, it will be moving vans and boxes all over again, but in reverse, emptying everything, and a new chapter will begin. Part of me doesn’t dare think about Berwick, not until I am actually there and moved in, it has been a long, long, road to get to this point, I often thought it wasn’t going to happen, it was like everyone else was living at a normal speed, and I was frozen in the space I was in. Even now it feels so near, yet so far.

I have a list of things I want to work on once I have paper, paint and desk space again. The website needs a serious overhaul, it is so out of date now. not quite abandoned but close enough. The last two years has seen me play and try various things out, I’ve found myself drawn to bright colours and patterns, but there is definitely more work to do before I can get the site up to scratch. I believe everything is happening as and when it should, and that is okay, it is not up to me to question it, it is just my job to start creating at full speed again, and hopefully I’m on my way to doing just that, soon-ish.

October 2021 - Hello Again & New Folksy & Society6 Products

It is hard to believe that is has almost been a year since my last blog post. My last post was full of Inktober 2020 illustrations, and, as I type this I’m around half way through my Inktober 2021 illustrations. In some ways it is like the last year didn’t happen, it has just simply vanished, and in other ways it has been a long, hard, slog. I think, as I reached the end of 2020, and we started the New Year under lots of COVID restrictions and going into another lockdown, I felt like everything was put on pause while we waited to get vaccinated. It felt long, and I simply didn’t feel like writing blog posts – I’m sure a lot of people felt the same way. Then, as we progressed further through the year I had to face some personal difficulties, and as I’m not someone who can act all cheery on the internet if I’m not actually feeling it, I didn’t say anything at all. Things still aren’t sorted for me personally, that’ll take some time, but regardless of how I’ve been feeling, one thing that hasn’t changed, is that I haven’t stopped drawing.

I’m one cover design away from my second ‘rough’ picture book dummy being finished (‘finished’ doesn’t mean full-colour spreads here – it is rough). It is a wordless story about a robot, aiming to encourage slightly older reluctant readers. I like the idea of a book being accessible to any (sighted in this case) person, even if they struggle to read. The structure of the narrative is slightly more complex than a traditional picture book, so it still feels like you are having to read and interpret the story - just without words. I wonder if I would be told it is too complex for younger readers? But, what I always find fascinating about little kids, is how often, when ‘they’ tell a story, there is very little structure, their stories jump around like dreams, and while I think structure in books is important, I’m wondering if kids would be as baffled by a more complex structure, with multiple characters, as adults would think, or would they just take it in their stride? I think it would be interesting in find out.

I’ve also recently reopened my Folksy shop and my Society 6 shop. My Folksy shop is currently only accessible to those in the UK (postage and tax to other countries has become pretty expensive for the time being) and it is selling some of my handmade polymer clay jewellery, (I’ve also made all the polymer clay beads used in the jewellery).

I am now also selling a small selection of greetings cards featuring 5 of my woodland animal illustrations. I can’t decide on my favourite – I love the squirrel’s tail, but the badger is so much fun and the mole looks so sweet! I’m really pleased with them all, so I’m planning on creating more illustrations using the same characters.

For anyone outside of the UK interested in my illustrations, there is a wider range of animal friends (10 characters) available in my Society 6 store on a variety of different products (if you click on a product, others products with the same design will show up at the bottom of that particular product page). People in the UK can purchase from Society 6 too, but watch out for postage and tax, I have no control over these things.

I hopefully won’t leave it another year before I post again, I plan to fill you in on a few things that happened in the year that wasn’t, and I’ll give you a rundown on Inktober 2021 once it is complete. 

Take care and I’ll be back soon. x

Hello 2020 – Recent Work and Christmas Book Haul – January and February Update

I’ve just had a quick read over my last blog post, and December 2019 Dawn was so looking forward to getting her teeth into the New Year! Little did she know that she would see 2020 in with some crappy throat lurgy that forced her to swallow liquid Nurofen because she couldn’t face swallowing tablets. Thankfully, after staying in bed for most of New Year’s Eve and taking children’s medicine, I managed to make it to our friend’s house in the evening, and then stayed up until 2 am. I’m not saying it was the best idea as far as my health was concerned, but I didn’t lose at Jenga, and I won at Cards Against Humanity (I’m not entirely sure what that says about me), and had a lovely time - I just slept for most of the next two days.

After that bumpy start, I spent the rest of January trying to catch up. I finally updated the work section of this site. I added a few new illustrations that I had been working on, removed a few older pieces and changed some of the sections around. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but I have a clearer idea of where I’m headed and what sort of work I’d like to add to it next.

Illustration-wise, I finally got around to drawing my final (for now) Millie illustration. You may remember from previous blogs, that Millie is a red-headed character that I started drawing at the beginning of 2019. Some of the illustrations can be seen in the ‘work’ section. I’ve quite a collection of scenes that show different things going on, but now I want to pause and consider writing a coherent story that the illustrations seem to be hinting at.

I’ve also been working on some more Ollie the Acorn illustrations. Unlike Millie, who started as a character illustration without a story, Ollie started as a story first, and I started drawing him and getting to know him afterwards. The only problem I’ve found with working like this, is that in my head I think I’ve already created more illustrations than I actually have. It was a bit of a disappointed to realise that I only had four and a half (one I’m not happy with which I’m ditching), I thought I had about twelve! Still that means I have a healthy looking “to do” list to work through.

As you may have seen in previous blog posts, I’ve been participating (successfully) in Jake Parkers Inktober for two years now, (Inktober is a drawing challenge where you are given a different prompt for every day of October), last year I created circular illustrations of a variety of child characters, and the year before the illustrations were based on a witch character called Hattie. Jake Parker has now decided to make Inktober more of an all year affair, by introducing Inktober 52. Inktober in October will still continue, but Inktober 52 will offer a weekly prompt all year. I love a drawing challenge, so I haven’t been able to resist joining in so far (even if I am a little behind on posting them on instagram). I’m working with a character again (I think it is actually easier to work with a recurring character during challenges because then you always have a starting point and aren’t having to pluck ideas from thin air – It is also great practice for character consistency), so far I’m just referring to him as Little Mouse. I think as the year progresses I’ll get to know him a little better, work out what his name is and what his story will be.

I’ve also been trying to edit some of my illustrations so they are ready for print. The idea is that I’ll open up my Folksy shop again (to begin with so I don’t have to start a new store from scratch) and offer a few wildlife cards, postcards and prints, but I’m procrastinating because that means spending money, which will seem like a waste if no one wants to buy them… I know, I know, you don’t know until you try.

In the December blog I also mentioned a Christmas book haul, so here we go, I’ll also have a January/February book haul but I think I’ll need to save that for another post, otherwise this blog will be far too long! .

When Paul Met Artie by G Neri, Illustrated by David Litchfield.
This is the illustrated story of Simon and Garfunkel, and while I know next to nothing about Simon and Garfunkel, I love everything illustrated by David Litchfield. I was so chuffed to receive this from one of my friends, and it is such a sweet story - I had no idea how young they were when they experienced initial success (even if it was followed by some ups and downs).

What Katy Did/What Katy Did At School/What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge
These books were such a lovely gift from my mum, they were some of her favourite stories when she was a little girl, but I’ve never read them. I really need to sit down one evening with a hot chocolate and some biscuits and get lost in them.

Family Don’t End With Blood by the cast and fans of Supernatural, edited by Lynn S. Zubernis
I only started watching Supernatural a couple of years ago, but it is a show with a huge, close fanbase, and once you start to fall into it you are lost - but in a good way. The Supernatural fanbase is affectionately referred to as the SPN family, because it feels like a warm, supportive, welcoming family, (and that includes the cast and crew as well as fans), and Lynn S. Zubernis has captured this by bringing together a collection of essays from both fans and actors talking about how Supernatural is more than just a TV show, and how, it can, in a fascinating way, bring people together and change lives.

Lights On Cotton Rock by David Litchfield
Did I mention how much I love David Litchfield???! All of his work is beautiful but the colours he uses in this book are more than stunning. It is the story about a young girl who meets an alien. It’s about friendship and family, and longing and home, and not realising how much you already have in life right in front of your nose.. It’s such a heartwarming story with such amazing illustrations.

Jill and Lion, Jill and Dragon by Lesley Barnes
These two books have been on my wish list for a long time, so I was thrilled to receive them from my husband for Christmas. I adore the illustrations, the use of colour, shape, pattern and texture, they are so dynamic, I love just sitting and turning through each page, absorbing the magic.

Ghost by Illustratus
Originally a successful Kickstarter campaign, Ghost: Thirteen Haunting Tales To Tell, is a selection of poems and stories written for a new generation of young readers, that has all that eerie timeless feel of traditional ghost stories with little twists at the end. This is such a lovely book, the illustrations are both beautiful and creepy, and even as an adult I found the stories a little sinister.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K.Rowling Illustrated by Jim Kay
My Husband buys me an illustrated, hardback copy of a Harry Potter book for Christmas, each year one is published. I then save it until October, so I can sit in bed at night over the autumn and winters months, taking my time to read it as we head towards Christmas (we also start watching the films again every October, sometimes we get through them by Christmas, sometimes we don’t). Needless to say I haven’t had a proper look at this yet, I’m saving it, but it is definitely a book I’m looking forward to reading (I’ve read it as a non-illustrated book, just not this version).

My Favourite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris
I can’t remember where I heard about this graphic novel, I think it was on a podcast, but thank goodness someone was talking about it, otherwise I wouldn’t have known it existed – both the graphic novel and Emil Ferris had sounded so fascinating to me that I had, had this book on my wish list ever since. Ferris contracted West Nile Fever and became paralysed from the waist down and lost the use of her right hand, so her daughter taped a pen to her hand to help her draw again while she was recovering. My Favourite Thing Is Monsters is what Ferris worked on while she was recovering. The whole novel, which is written in the form of a young girls diary, is drawn in ballpoint pen, so visually, it feels so fresh and interesting compared the usual graphic novel format, and I cant wait to read it.

That’s all my news for now, there are plenty more books (and hopefully illustrations :D ) to follow soon. I hope you have all had a great start to 2020.

(I have added links in the titles of the books mentioned to either Amazon or Wordery, I’m not affiliated with them, they are just places I personally buy books from online. At the time of writing this, the link I chose was the cheapest option – obviously price and stock are subject to change, so it always worth comparing different sites).