A pony emerged from the photos of crumpled up leaves on the pavement I took a couple of weeks ago, and quickly turned into three ponies in a field. At first I had them standing on a speckled green background, great colour combination, but it wasn't gelling particularly well with me. To be absolutely honest, I wasn't really feeling it at first and found it difficult to get into this. It was rather disappointing, because I had been looking forward to allocating some time to making some pareidolia drawings again; I had been going so strongly with it last time and having a lot of fun on a roll with it. Perhaps the new photos didn't inspire the same creative charge, or perhaps it was because at first I couldn't remember which Procreate brushes I had been using which made it all look a bit wrong. Maybe my mood wasn't the same as before, which I think may have been the most likely explanation, as I found my thoughts being drawn towards this little illustration of a yellow bear I made four years ago. I never did anything with this work, I didn't post it anywhere, just quickly named it Yellow Bear, filed it away out of sight, and forgot about it. I found it unsettling at the time and had to force myself not to delete it. This was probably because at the time I was heavily into developing a way to make patterns without automated software on my iPad, and this bear staring out at me lit by flashlight suddenly came out of nowhere. I remember it happening at around 5am on a cold, dark March morning (it almost created itself) and it sort of scared me - these things happen, all part of the creative process.
I discovered I still had the bear illustration a couple of years later, after I had forgotten all about it. I have taken the odd look at it now and again since, and wondered why I had almost discarded it. Maybe I just wasn't ready at the time, confused by the different ideas which emerged in the work, and simply taking myself too seriously. Today I'm so glad I didn't delete it, because now I have decided I really like my stary yellow bear and sought it out for inspiration this week. It wasn't until I set the ponies on the same background as I used for the bear that something began to happen and they came to life; I'm now thinking that instead of the crayon-like drawing style I was using previously for pareidolia drawings I might prefer to work in the same way as I made the bear. It would be quite a different approach to making pareidolia images, perhaps more in line with my feelings at the moment. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! I have started some pareidolia drawings from the recent photos I took of crushed up leaves on the pavements, but first of all here is a design tweak which lifted this pattern of shapes. I rounded the top edge of the green shape in the middle of the two images above - left is the first draft with a flat top, right is the rounded version which did so much for the pattern, making it less rigid and giving it some bounce. Compare the look of the pattern now with the older version in previous posts. The image below is all the layers of patterns in a Procreate document made visible all at the same time - I find the intense collage effect exciting. The shapes take on a thin tissue appearance, and the whole effect is like confetti in a heap. Thanks for visiting, see you next week!
Before I get into some pareidolia inspired drawings from last week's photos, I just wanted to explore a few more colourways on these patterns. I felt deeper, richer themes may work well with the woolly feeling of these, and bring some warmth into the chilly days of early February.
By the way, it is just glorious to get a glimpse of light before 6am when astronomical dawn happens now - by the time I get to work in the mornings next week, the sun will actually be rising. Bring on the spring and all its happiness! We have had some frosty mornings which left interesting deposits once the ice had melted away. I have seen lovely suggestive images in the residue - I'm thinking some new pareidolia drawings might be on the way!
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! |
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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.
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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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