Sea-urchins were the theme of this week. One afternoon I felt so tired I couldn't think about work, so I settled on the sofa with iPad, stylus, and old movies on TV to doodle in Procreate's symmetry mode. I kept the lines simple and calligraphic, then offset the symmetry with non-symmetrical coloured blobs underneath. They began to look familiar and I couldn't think why as I began to arrange them into a pattern. Then I noticed I had been sitting working close to a sea-urchin shell, a treasured item for about 45 years which has been everywhere with me (read more of the story on Instagram). A while ago it broke. I was upset, but the fracture is clean and the pieces fit together, so now it sits apparently whole on the windowsill - clearly exerting an influence on my work. The first drawings were in pastel shades closer to the shell's natural colours, but I like the neon colours; they evoke a sense of mysterious, glowing creatures on a dark ocean bed. I designed the next pattern crowded with sea-urchins in jewel colours. There's enough going on in this one to satisfy even my sense of horror vacui. Thanks for visiting, see you next week ... Comments are closed.
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Welcome to my illustration and patterns blog.
I illustrate under the pen-name of Binky McKee, McKee being my mother's maiden name. Binky was the name of every single cat my great-grandmother kept - allegedly about 40 of them during her 94 years of life. I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the binkymckee. with weebly.com and it will work again. I hope you enjoy your visit! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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I keep lots of scrapbooks and sketchbooks where I develop ideas and design little creatures. Here's a peek inside one ...
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As you may know, I am also known as Heather Eliza Walker.
Click the image if you would like to find out more and visit my other website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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April 2024
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This time, take a peek into my ceramic design sketchbook. I actually made some of the mugs, but I kind of prefer the drawings! The plate designs are painted on paper plates, a most liberating process.
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These watercolours are from my pattern sketchbook. I used coloured wax crayons to resist the washes of watercolour, also home-made rubber stamps dipped in bleach then printed on crêpe paper - the bleach takes out the paper dyes.
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A sketchbook I used for mark-making with unusual objects - corks, seed-heads, feathers, home-made rubber stamps, my fingers and lots of flicky things ...
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