September!

Sorry for the silence here on the blog - I've been having a lovely little holiday! I continued to draw however, but couldn't upload due to lack of signal - which was quite nice to not being able to think about it. 

I'm back now however and have been working away on ... brace yourself... Christmas printing. My Christmas cards are currently at the printers and I have everything crossed that they will come out just as I hope. Now might be a good moment to sign up for my newsletter (link somewhere on the left there...). 

But before we go Christmas crazy - would you look at the Autumn colours that have crept into the palette all about us.. as demonstrated by my good friends; Hawthorn, Blackthorn, the Blackberries, Beech masts and cases and conkers.

I don't really have a favourite season... but do have a soft spot for Autumn... 

Customers

A day late due to lack of Internet but...

Day 31 | #MarchMeetTheMaker is #customers

I'm working on these spring studies at present, soon to turn them into products for customers to buy. 

It'll be a watch this space I'm afraid as quite what these will be is work in progress!

I've really enjoyed this challenge, thank you @joannehawker for devising it. Lovely to meet so many makers this way!

Colour and Texture

Day 26 | #MarchMeetTheMaker is colour and texture...

Recent pictures have shown lots of my work and the colours used. The texture mainly comes from the paper and so is very subtle.

So today is a photo, not of my work but the inspiration.

While thinking about this yesterday and tree gazing (as I do) I was struck by the colour and texture found on the same larch twig. The old and the new, side by side.

I have a twig in a jar of water awaiting drawing...

Milestone

Day 24 | MarchMeetTheMaker is Milestone

I wasn't sure what to put for today as it's still so early, but I think it might be my first commission as Alice Draws The Line. 

This is something I'm currently working on and triggered the spring modern botanical illustration studies I've been doing. I know most have appeared on here already but here's a short flick through the sketchbook to show them together.

Inspiration

Day 15 | #MarchMeetTheMaker is #Inspiration 

There are lots of pictures I could post for this. It was almost this picture of the sycamore I took yesterday...

It could be of artists, friends and family that inspire me. Words and humour are also up there as sources of inspiration.

However I settled on this, a fairly ordinary subject- brambles and their friends on a woodland floor.

The woods, nature and the predictable yet awe inspiring seasonal changes that happen all around us inspire me. I notice something new each year and am regularly fascinated by the often overlooked detail in the 'ordinary' subjects.

Alice in Action!

Here are links to two short clips of me drawing some Blackthorn this afternoon (both on Instagram)...

Blackthorn Part 1

and...

Blackthorn Part 2 

And this is the end result...

Raw Materials

Day 6 already of #MarchMeetTheMaker and we are looking at Raw Materials.

Here is a picture of the table the other day when I was working on drawing buds. I had been collecting them from different species as I saw them and keeping them in water at home to draw. 

The initial drawings are done straight into the drawing a day book, as a study, drawn in pen and coloured with watercolour. I can then scan them and use them all together is designs using the computer. I'm also working on a couple of bigger pieces and am collecting seasonal studies to work into the final composition of these. 

March Meet The Maker

Today I stumbled across a hashtag on Instagram that sounded like it might be just right for me to get involved with. Let me explain - over on her blog, illustrator Joanne Hawker (http://www.joannehawker.co.uk/) decided to create #MarchMeetTheMaker 

She writes; After getting a little frustrated that I couldn't find an Instagram Challenge that I wanted to take part in, I decided to make my own instead! This is how #MarchMeetTheMaker was born. 

This challenge is to help small businesses such as myself to tell the story behind the brand. It also aims to give an insight into the face, process and hard work that goes into creating all of the beautiful products we have to offer.

(see it all here)

So, for the month of March, she has suggested the following:

http://www.joannehawker.co.uk/2016/02/marchmeetthemaker-instagram-challenge.html

Being a brand new small business I thought it might be a really useful exercise for me to participate in. I'm not sure how far I'll get but here it goes! 

1. Brand Image

I have chosen to use my hand lettering, using my dip pen to write 'Alice Draws The Line' and my illustrations of cones to be my brand image. This works best as my website header (above) and e-mail footer when I use it in full like this...

It is a little Larch cone, a Black Pine cone and a Douglas Fir Cone (working left to right from the left!). These I drew at Christmas for one of my Christmas Card designs (which you can see here!) and I like the fact that it combines my love of both the woods and illustration.

However, the long thin brand image doesn't suit all formats so, on my shop image there is a reduced-cone version! I'm working on a version for my Instagram and Twitter accounts. 

Spring is Springing

I love this time of year as everything slowly turns green and comes into leaf. 

For my Drawing A Day this week I've been looking at different tree species - drawing their buds as a sketchbook study. I'm a bit of a tree geek and love how you can play detective and work out which trees are which. At this time of year the buds are one of the ways to identify the species (as well as the bark, remaining seeds and silhouette). I'm hoping to draw a few more this week and build up my collection. 

I also really like being able to tell what time of year it is in my Drawing a Day book when I flick through - maybe one year I'll manage to do a whole year as a nature journal...

Here is the process...

These studies are the starting point for another project I'm working on... but that's for another day!

A new range

I've started working on a new range of cards that combine my love of trees with my love of illustration and hand lettering. At present I'm affectionately referring to them as my TreeGeek range. This is one I've been tinkering with today...

Joining the dots

I can vividly remember sitting in the careers room at school, being asked what job I'd like when I was older. I wasn't sure. I was told to have a look at the helpful A-Z of Careers poster on the wall above the desk and say which ones appealed...

I looked through them all and read out three that interested me. The careers man asked me to go away and have another think.

After A'Levels I did an Art Foundation course, I loved Art and it gave me some thinking time before making a career commitment in the guise of a University course. At the end of this great year my tutor decided I was destined for Mixed Media Illustration... I decided Education was where I was heading, and that I'd keep Art as a hobby (although I was very tempted by a degree in Calligraphy, my favourite wild card at the time).

I'm now 11 years into my career in Education, more specifically working with children, young people and adults in woods through Forest School. I love it. Being outside is part of me. It doesn't feel quite right if I haven't had my daily dose of fresh air. Checking in on what is happening outside, where we are in the year, what is growing, blossoming, coming into leaf or going over. 

Illustration has remained a hobby throughout. I have done a Drawing a Day for several years now as regular blog readers will be all too familiar with! Now however, with a change in my hours at work, I've decided to see where the illustration can go. 

So, I'm going to join the dots and combine the two... here goes!

And finally... I'm braving the world of Facebook, do 'like' my page 

An old friend

I drew this dear old Hedgehog years ago (probably about 10 years ago), but he still appears now and then if there is a special message to be delivered like this one.

Did you know that we have just finished Hedgehog Awareness Week 2015? 

Summer

Summer has flown! Here are some sweet peas from June. They are still flowering in the garden now.

New stock!

A lovely new larch cone

Sketching under an Olive tree

I'm pretending I'm back in Italy by uploading some of my sketches from my trip last month!

This was sketched and coloured in sitting under an Olive tree. I then had to flap the book about a bit in order for it to dry while walking back!

Olive groves

I went to Tuscany in half term. It was lovely. There were Olive groves, they were lovely.

Digging

A few weeks ago I popped home and while I was there Dad was doing some digging. We put a few potatoes in (I was allowed to help in my sisters absence!).

Over Easter both my sister and I were at home and so she resumed her role and I resumed mine - supervising with my sketchbook!

Spring is springing!

I love this time of year - I look for new signs of Spring everywhere . Today I was excited by new Elder leaves, one Red Campion in flower and Hawthorn coming into leaf! The world is slowly turning back to green from brown. 

2014

Apologies for the delay in updates, but fear not... the 'Drawing a Day' continues into 2014! I decided to carry on as I really enjoyed my daily drawings last year.

I have a lovely new sketchbook. It is one that I bought last summer at Art in Action, and have been saving since.
It is slightly smaller than last years book, which I hope may mean it can fit into a (large) pocket and venture out even more than the last one.
It also has much thicker paper, which I only realised on the 1st January, when I finally allowed myself to unwrap it from its cellophane. This discovery has enabled me to use watercolour and ink in a different way to the last book - it dries much faster (absorbs better) and doesn't seep through to the previous / next page in a distressing manner.

I have been experimenting with some black ink in a water brush, for quick application of shading or... general greyness!
The little black dog seemed a good place to trial it!

- this was particularly exciting as I found the £20 in a handbag that I had just decided to give to the Charity Shop. I thought I'd better just check the pockets before saying goodbye to it, and just as well I did - 2 IKEA pencils (!) and a £20 note. There was also a receipt in there, that was dated 2008, so I have a feeling these had been lurking there since then too!

Oh my!