December 2019 -The Short, End-of-Year Round-Up

Well it is very nearly the end of 2019, very nearly the end of another decade, and I feel like I should be reflective… but I’m just not feeling it. I don’t believe in making resolutions, they always seem like promises waiting to be broken, I’m just itching to get started on 2020, no plans, lists of goals etc. I just want to start working.

Christmas has been wonderful and relaxing, we were away a whole week visiting family, but the first part of December was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and snotty tissues, as our house came down with the dreaded cold that has been doing the rounds. So as you can imagine, I didn’t get much in the way of drawing done and I’m at the point now where I’m really missing it, I need to get the house back to normal and get back into a normal routine – it sounds like I’m grumpy, I’m not, I absolutely love Christmas, I just feel like I’m in limbo right now.

We usually like to visit some Christmas craft markets as we head into December, but this year I had so many presents organised early that there didn’t seem much point, (we did go to one very briefly and it wasn’t very good), however we did go with out friends to Christmas at Kew, to walk around the light trail.

It was a lovely, magical way to spend an evening, and thankfully (as it has to be booked in advance) it was a dry night. I loved the tunnel of lights, the tunnel of hanging lights, the shards hanging from the tree-top walkway, the fire garden and the laser projections over the water.

I did start several illustrations throughout December, but these were the only two I managed to finish, using Pro-create, in front of the T.V. while watching Christmas films… I’ll complete the others in the New Year.

The first is a nod to the T.V. show Supernatural – Dean does like his pie! The second came from the urge to use specific colours, the neon orange, pink, green and purple. I had a vague idea the figures were fairies.

I also thought I’d share a couple of things I’d bought for myself once I had finished all of my Christmas shopping.

I bought this wonderfully kitsch tree decoration and awesome Jessica Fletcher pin (both made from recycled acrylic) from Rosie Johnson illustrates. I’m also hoping to buy this Jessica Fletcher illustration on a t-shirt in the future too!

I then bought these delightful zines/books from Joe Latham, they have such wonderful and gentle illustrations (and they arrived the very next day after ordering!). Do check out the links in their names if you fancy purchasing any of their work for yourself.

I admit this post isn’t much of a round-up, like I said, I’m not feeling particularly reflective, 2019 hasn’t been a bad year for me in the slightest, but I’m eager not to linger at the tail end of it either, there seems to be a slight sense of urgency in the air – I’m also very aware that the last two weeks of doing very little has left my brain a bit numb and I feel like I’ve lost the ability to structure sentences properly, I’m really struggling to type, and into Yoda, I fear, turning I am.

I’ll be back in the New Year with legible sentences (hopefully) and maybe a Christmas book haul (I have been a very lucky girl this year and have so many beautiful new books to share with you).

See you in 2020 friends.

November 2019

Lyme Regis. If you can spot the orangey-brown bungalow with three patio doors, on the rightish of all those buildings on the left side of the image –that is where we stayed.

November has been a strange month, I felt a bit flat after Inktober and knew we had a few more days away booked at the start of November, so I started the month at a snails pace.

We began the month by spending four days in Lyme Regis. I haven’t been there in about ten years, but not much has changed, the little shop packed with gemstones down by The Cobb is still there, as is the bookshop, so rammed with books, that it is actually hard to get in. We stayed in a modern bungalow that overlooks The Cobb, which was the perfect location for when we arrived on the 5th of November – because that is where they set off the Lyme Regis fireworks, we had the perfect view (excuse the vertical video, you can blame the husband… and he is the first to complain about vertical video :D).

We had some great weather for November, we only got caught in a shower once.

The weekend seemed as busy as any of the summer months, but Monday and Tuesday were much quieter and had just the right amount of people, you didn’t get in each others way, you could always find a seat when you wanted to eat or drink, but it didn’t feel like a ghost town either.

I loved seeing all colours and textures of coastal life.

We spent our few days pottering in and out of shops and walking up and down the seafront, it was lovely.

When we returned I decided that I would start scanning all my illustrations, as my portfolio is long overdue an update. Scanning is one of my least favourite jobs, so I had been putting it off, so I think I ended up with at least 50 images to scan and then edit. It is nearly December and I still have some more editing to do, I wasn’t happy with some of my original edits so I’m doing them again… I do like making more work for myself :D .

An image as uninspiring as scanning itself. Spot my little alebrije friend from Fuego in Lyme Regis, he was guarding my pile of illustrations that needed scanning.

I’m really missing working in my sketchbook at the minute, I think I’ve spent one afternoon with it in November, and I’m starting to feel frustrated as I’ve lots of things I’d like to be working on. I did spend another afternoon experimenting on my own painted backgrounds – it was a struggle to use the coloured pencils on it, but it was good to try something a bit different and I’m sure it’ll be useful to me at some point. In the meantime, I just keep telling myself to plod on with the less exciting jobs and eventually I can start having fun and churning out some work again.

Finally, having pretty much completed my Christmas shopping by the end of October ( I panic if I leave it too late), I may have treated myself to a few new things this month. Firstly, if you have read any of my earlier blogs, you will know that I have mentioned illustrator, Dan Berry, before, but I was captivated by his “What We Do In The Shadows” Inktober illustrations. I wasn’t familiar with either the original film or the more recent series, so I immediately went to look it up on Amazon Prime. We still need to watch the series, but we absolutely loved the film. Dan released all of his inktober illustrations featuring scenes from both the film and the series in a zine called “What Dan Drew In The Shadows” , so I had to order myself a copy – I highly recommend it, it is absolutely wonderful!

It’s me! Looking pretty pleased with myself in my new Katrina Scarf.

The other item I’ve coveted for a while now is the Katrina Scarf by The Squirrel Collective. Tessa runs her own indie business, crocheting wonderful items to either wear or put in your home. The fact that everything is made by hand, by one person, means that not all products can be in stock in the online shop, all of the time, so it is worth following The Squirrel Collective on instagram (or subscribing to the newsletter) if you want to know when things are in stock. I was lucky enough to get one of a small collection of Katrina scarves that were available in November.

That’s all for now, hopefully I’ll post again at the end of December, with one of those reflective end of year posts… or maybe I’ll just tell you about how much cheese and wine I’ve consumed (that’s actually very unlikely as I can’t eat either, but you never know!).