Dreams and Doodles

Tomorrow the wonderful new Stampington  publication, The Coloring Studio will be launched. 




I am so happy to have one of my illustrations featured in this great new colouring book that is much more than just a colouring book. Everyone who knows Stampington will know how gorgeous their magazines are; full of the most inspiring art and innovative techniques.

Today I thought I'd show you some of my other illustrations. These are copyrighted so please don't copy them but I do hope they will inspire you to draw some in your own style. Next time I will do a step by step on how you can start to doodle some illustrations of your own.

So here are some of mine...
This first one is an illustration for a wedding invitation. It is hand drawn in black ink.

 This one is a diorama of the Owl and the Pussycat in a little mint tin. Again drawn in ink and layered.

And these next ones are textile designs. They are drawn in black ink onto painted backgrounds.

Tomorrow I will show you how to start an illustration of your own with step by step photos. I will also be teaching this very soon so let me know if you'd like to be added to my mailing list for illustration, journalling, gelli printing, handmade felt or altered books and tins. You know you'd like to have an ARTY new year! Perfect for your New Year resolution for 2016.

Alice Fox final day

On the last day of the course Alice left us to develop our own ideas from the techniques we had learned. I loved this because it gave us the chance to make the work our own and each person came up with such interesting ideas.

I loved the waxing of papers and fabrics. I'd wanted time to play with encaustic techniques for ages but could never find the time to cover a surface and find an iron to use with wax and to just play with a new technique so this was such a great chance to do just that.

I'd loved the way that the beeswax made the papers translucent and that we could make the layers bind together as one. This technique also enhances the textures and colours of the papers and fabrics and makes them glow!

I used some of my favourite papers and fabrics from the past few days to make a tiny book 3" tall. I love this range of fantastic marks that have been made on these surfaces. 

I waxed the pieces by laying them onto parchment paper on the ironing board, sprinkling them with beeswax pellets, placing another piece of parchment paper over the top and smoothing over the layers with the hot iron. 

Easy! Why didn't I try this before? Definitely doing it again!

In the photo above, the top piece is eco dyed cartridge paper on the left and rusted embroidered fabric on the right.

In the photo below you can see printed tissue paper which has been bonded with wax to some rust dyed habotai silk.

I used buttonhole hole stitch to edge some of the pages. 

You can see some of the reverse sides and other pages in the photo above. Look at the print that was made by a rusty old nail! and the rusty lace.

I added vintage bone and MOP buttons and a bone fish counter with needle woven details. I also stitched across some of the pages. The stitch really complimented the waxed pages and matched the binding stitches which bind the little book together. I'm going to make more of these little books!

Thank you Alice for such a fab course! I loved every minute.