Ginger and Non-GingerCat

Circe

2006-05-01T19:07:00.000+01:00

At the launch of the CIRCE manual last week, I was drawing on my handouts (as usual). I liked the original version of this, so I reworked it in Freehand. The pig's expression worked particularly well.

Jimmy

2006-04-09T19:11:00.000+01:00

I've been working on my pencil drawing more - probably because I have a class studying portraits. This was Jimmy on a Friday evening, in the boarding house. He had a sore throat, but he didn't want to give up and go to bed.

Life of Pi

2006-03-09T19:15:00.000Z

My Year 8 class are reading this book at the moment. Inspired by the wonderful artwork shortlisted by the Times for their illustration competition, we have had a go at producing our own cover designs. This is mine.

Chalk on black sugar paper.

The Egg

2006-02-09T21:39:00.000Z

My illustration for the collaborative Blogstory!

Christmas

2005-12-20T18:17:00.000Z

Happy Christmas!

Friday evening

2005-12-03T22:33:00.000Z

Friday evening boarding duty at school is a good time for a little quiet drawing, if the model will sit still! This was drawn with a propelling pencil on photocopy paper.

Blue Cat

2005-12-02T18:56:00.000Z

This blue creature was supposed to be a repeat pattern for a silk bow tie - I was using those printable silk paper thingies from crafty computer paper, but I didn't get the print colours or the cutting pattern quite right and ended up chucking it out. I still haven't managed a successful silk print - the last one went fuzzy and the black lines spread out. The picture was made with Expression3. I should spend more time learning to use it properly...

Epic struggle

2005-09-05T21:27:00.000+01:00

We've spent most of this summer wrestling a severely overgrown garden into submission using the best Amazonian slash-and-burn techniques. This evil privet thing wouldn't die when it was chopped down, but fought back against saws, forks, spades, chopping implements borrowed from next door and the moat we dug round its roots (uncovering a good three dozen bricks in the process). The picture represents its final surrender, just after it rolled out of the trench and just before I fell flat onto it. 85% of it is still squatting malevolently in the bonfire patch, charred but unpleasantly solid.

Another step into the Unknown

2005-09-04T19:05:00.000+01:00

Back in the spring, I joined up to Beth Berst's collaborative print project, where 12 artists were supposed to make a print with the theme found:in japan, send 12 copies to her, and she would turn them into a very limited edition of 12 handmade books. The finished book is now online on her website here.
I found myself involved in a fascinating process, which I could share with the children at school over the summer term, as they worked on their own printmaking. They particularly liked the bits where I went wrong...
Although I meant to pick a sensible and intelligent theme, I ended up with Godzilla and his noodles. I did have to do some serious picture research to check exactly how Godzilla differs from any other large reptilian monster.
I've done some woodcuts before, but only tackled single-colour images. Sorting out multiple blocks was interesting; I never quite got the registration perfect. I used cherry ply and a big, solid craft knife. Until this project, I've always used the sticky colours sold for lino printing, and This time, I experimented with watercolours and flour paste (only it was wheat not rice because I was too impatient to start) and some gel stuff I found at the back of the Art room cupboard, and I printed onto the soft paper used for chinese brush painting. The print above is a trial of the main block.

Pencil study

2005-07-29T20:33:00.000+01:00

This week's topic on Illustration Friday is 'Ageing'. I remembered this pencil drawing of my Nona, my Italian grandmother, that I did years ago, when she was 95. I particularly liked the faraway expression.

Painter IX at last

2005-07-27T21:58:00.000+01:00

My new Painter IX software arrived at last, and I've been trying it out. There are two sets of watercolour tools which is confusing, and they don't behave quite as I'd expected... This is my first shot, a painting of my daughter. I used watercolour, with a pencil underdrawing which I've rubbed out. I need to spend a lot longer experimenting with these brushes and how they interact.

More scene painting

2005-07-05T20:12:00.000+01:00

I've not had much time to do anything over the past week or two other than stuff for 'Guys and Dolls', our school production. Costumes, all sorts of props (including the puppet here), and the images for projection. Again, all done with Painter 5.5. This one was the most complicated. It's based on a whole lot of photos from the 1940's, mostly from the New York Public Library site. I used a black pencil line, then painted each bit with watercolour and rubbed out the drawing. All the text was floated over the top then dropped in when the watercolour layer was dried. I think this one took five or six hours to do. Anyway, it worked!

Black and White

2005-06-23T21:49:00.000+01:00

This is my (very last-minute) submission for Illustration Friday. It's the image from my poster for our 'Guys and Dolls' production. It's done on black scratchboard, and the white version has been inverted via Photoshop. Now all I have to do is finish the costumes and get on with the scene paintings. Digitally, though.

New supply teacher?

2005-06-15T20:48:00.000+01:00

This is Senorita Banana, she is from Havana. She is a prop for our school production of 'Guys & Dolls', and has fetched a few funny looks from the children, travelling from room to room under my arm, in pieces or trailing unstitched body parts... She does now have legs, at least.

Digital Scene-painting

2005-06-05T20:21:00.000+01:00

I've been spending time over half term learning to paint scenery on the computer ( when I could wrest the computer away from my daughter and 'Age of Mythology', that is). This is one of three scenes for a play to be staged at the Theatre Royal this week, and they are to be projected - back projected? I'm not sure how, but I'll find out when I take a busload of children to see it tomorrow night. It had better work, because I'm doing the backdrops for our school production of 'Guys & Dolls' later this month... It's supposed to be a street in 1940's Lambeth.

The Bigger Doughnut

2005-05-29T21:07:00.000+01:00

This week's submission for Illustration Friday - based on miniature dramas regularly observed in the school dining room. As we are on half-term, I have had time to work on it properly! It's entirely done in Painter; I scribbled the original sketch with the 2b pencil, cloned it and redrew it with the Pen and Ink brush. Then I used watercolour brushes over the top.

Hot Day

2005-05-27T22:30:00.000+01:00

It was a boiling hot day at school yesterday, and therefore the heating decided to come on full blast. All the doors and windows were flung open, wilting children were sticking to their chairs, while I bravely tackled the arcane mysteries of various different boiler rooms... And then we found a huge dead rook in the fountain, that needed to be surreptitiously removed in a bucket. All that excitement - lucky it's half term today!

Penguins

2005-05-23T22:44:00.000+01:00

This was the best I could do for the 'Aquatic' theme this week - better than last week, though, as I never managed to produce anything at all. At least I posted CJ's drawing (from the Art lesson where I was at home ill - the Illustration Friday topic kept the whole class happy!) The penguins were part of a project I was doing to print onto computer-printable-silk, but I couldn't stop the inks running. I think you need washy colours on silk. Black lines print perfectly well on cotton, but not so much use for making a bow tie. Still a lot of experimenting to be done here, I think.

The Rooks ! The Rooks!

2005-05-12T22:26:00.000+01:00

A sight to make the most hardened Head of Games quake - the rooks descending on the cricket pitch to peck holes in the turf. And they sit there laughing. I ferreted this out of my files as a submission for 'Mischief' on this week's 'Illustration Friday' topic - after a week of The Inspectors, I haven't had time to draw anything new. This is done in Flash, and was part of an animation where the rooks flew down. I hadn't got to the pecking bit yet!

The Paper Mountain

2005-05-04T20:49:00.000+01:00

We have an inspection at school next week, and at the moment, my only ambition is to stay on top of the rapidly proliferating heaps of paper...

Second thoughts on the Worm-Eating picture

2005-05-02T20:39:00.000+01:00

I've been fiddling about with this painting - the hair and eyebrows weren't right. Light brown hair is so difficult to capture. The reluctant subject, who is even more fussy, did say that I'd got his T-shirt right, at least.

Daring

2005-04-27T22:00:00.000+01:00

This week's contribution to 'Illustration Friday'. I set the topic as a challenge to one of my Art classes at school, and this was one of their suggestions. One of the less disgusting ones. The ones which weren't revolting featured cliffs, which I can't draw...
I've set up a blog for one of my pupils who's particularly keen, so it will be interesting to see how he tackles the same themes.

The Monster in the Underwear Drawer

2005-04-24T19:29:00.000+01:00

The Recycled Monster
This is my creature for April's Month of Softies. I made him while my daughter was clearing out stuff from her wardrobe over Easter. His top and bottom half are T-shirts, his tongue is a swimsuit and his mouth is made from a pink underwired bra. I couldn't get him to look at all menacing or evil, so he is obviously the other kind of monster.

Reinvented

2005-04-20T23:04:00.000+01:00

Junk Birds
We're back at school this week, and I haven't had either a minute or an idea for the 'Illustration Friday' topic. I did find a photo of these chaps stuffed in my desk drawer and decided that they might qualify. They were 'reinvented' from plastic milk bottles, cardboard tubes and cornflake boxes. Oh, and I think the pelican's pouch was a bit of sheeting.

The Final Pea

2005-04-12T16:24:00.000+01:00

Alone

This week's contribution to 'Illustration Friday', on the theme 'Alone'. It's done entirely with Painter 5.5, using watercolour brushes (which are my favourite). I'm sure there are a million clever things I could be doing with Painter and other programs too, but I like to work in watercolour and ink. It's just a pity that version 5.5 isn't great at woodcut/scratchboard effects.

Ant Drawings

2005-04-08T20:21:00.000+01:00

Ant Drawings

A couple of people wondered what an ant drawing might look like - so here is one. Still not exactly as I had intended; it's really difficult to make mandibles expressive, especially as they open sideways rather than up-and-down. When I'm drawing cartoons I tend to try out facial expressions myself (not entirely on purpose) but insect jaws I can't manage... The two ant larvae are arguing about whose turn it is to sit in front.

Last-minute picture for Illustration Friday

2005-04-07T17:41:00.000+01:00

Travel

I've been trying to think of an idea for the theme of 'Travel', and I decided on an ant drawing. Drawings. None of them would behave properly; the ink version, the pencil ones I drew in the back of the car, the three I started on the computer. So I binned them all and came back to an illustration I did for the second Minimus book. I liked the way the sailors' expressions came out. I share their sentiments about boats and rough seas.

Sheep Watching

2005-04-02T14:15:00.000+01:00

Sheep watching

Just back from a few days near the Wye, camping in our little blue van and being rained on. I spent a lot of time looking at sheep in the rain, and finding them looking back. This is a drawing done with a mapping pen and Indian ink, while I was teaching a class about Henry Moore. It's a lot like the sheep who was staring at me over the fence on Friday morning.

Crowded

2005-03-27T12:56:00.000+01:00

Crowded
This is my submission for Illustration Friday. It's entirely done in Painter (version 5.5) and based on memories of a lot of crowded buses in London and Bury St Edmunds. I thought of drawing a Noah's Ark picture, but the anteater's expression wouldn't go right so I changed tack. Click on picture for full-size image.

Picking a daisy

2005-03-23T21:37:00.000Z

Picking a daisy

We've just broken up from school for Easter after a couple of unexpected spring days, and the daisies are starting their annual battle with the school mower. This was one that got away. I used Expression 3 and a crow quill brush for the line drawing, and watercolour brushes in Painter for the rest. I've submitted this one to Illustration Friday (another step in the dark!)

2005-03-20T22:19:00.000Z

Finished at last!
I've been working on these with one of my classes since last summer, and we finally put them in position this Friday, in front of the whole school. They are modelled on two of the boys, and made of chicken wire, wood and plaster bandage. And now they're leaning on the parapet over the Robert Adam porch, waving to the world.

2005-03-18T21:52:00.000Z

Sharon, my Essex Girl

Essex Girl

2005-03-18T21:27:00.000Z

I'm sticking another toe in the water...a submission for the Month of Softies. This is my interpretation of 'Self-portrait of the Artist as a Young Child' - I'm an Essex girl by birth, and Sharon is a proud representative of the species.

2005-03-16T21:33:00.000Z

Sheep drawn with Painter

What am I doing here?

2005-03-16T21:11:00.000Z

The empty screen is worse than the blank piece of paper (especially when it's only empty because it has eaten my carefully-composed first post...). At least I can fill the paper with scribble and drawings, and usually do. I intend to fill this space with drawings and some scribble. I'm a teacher, an illustrator, a messer-around with computers. I'm learning as I go.

2005-03-16T20:13:00.000Z

Non-GingerCat and GingerCat take the stage for the first time.