Two more offerings from my gypsy purse collection from this week. They have been put away since the house move, nearly two years now, and it has been great to get them all out and really look at them. I have even decided where I am going to hang them all now (but first there is a lot of redecorating to do!) Although I have spent hours staring at these beautiful little works over the years, turning them over and using a few of them - they make lovely colourful phone bags - I have been amazed at the difference between just looking, and actually going beyond looking to make a drawing. So many secrets have been revealed in their tiny stitches, so much joy in their colours, seeing how they were made meticulously by hand, and discovering minute decorative motifs I hadn’t really noticed before. It is so true that you never really know something until you draw it. It doesn’t even matter if you think you can’t draw and you aren’t happy with your work, the process itself does something to your brain, and you get to know your subject in a completely different way (sometimes literally inside-out).
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! I began working on drawings in Procreate this week, based on and inspired by my collection of gypsy purses. I must have started the collection in or around 1995, when I used to go camping in the Cotswolds to get out of London, and discovered a wonderful shop called Cargo in Cirencester. It was filled polished wooden floor to white ceiling with Indian artefacts and textiles, with a special basket of colourful embroidered, woven and appliqué purses. I had developed an obsession with Indian artefacts years before as a student in Edinburgh, combing Cockburn Street Market for Mysore soap, embroidered cushion covers, cheesecloth blouses and batik printed maxi skirts (I can still smell the fragrances now) - so this wonder of a shop in Cirencester became a treasure trove for me.
I have a very deep affection for my little purses which I hope to convey in the drawings, with attention to details such as tiny stitches and unexpected decorative motifs. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Some more pareidolia from the pavements of Comely Park in Dunfermline - this time, some sea monsters and curious little fish. The fractured nature of rain shadows left in fissures suggest weightlessness, which is why these are turning out to be underwater or floating in air stories - anywhere which allows creatures to take off, and not to be tied to the ground. I have been taking lots of photos of summer flowers, too, with the vague idea that at some point I may start a 100 days of flowers project on Instagram informed by them. I know, my 100 cats only reached day 50, but that was because I thought it would take 100 drawings to develop a character I needed, and he was so fully resolved by day 50 I had to get on with illustrations featuring him. This time, I thought I might build a useful catalogue of floral inspiration for patterns and illustrations to take me into winter; sometimes it’s wonderful in the darker days to have a blast of summer.
On the other hand, I respond readily to seasonal change, so who knows where it could go - snow poppies? Ice crystal honeysuckle? Frozen rose? Thanks for visiting, see you next week! At last, I am starting to edge my way back into work. It looks as though our Perthshire house sale is on again. At the weekend we had a great visit from friends we haven’t seen since before lockdown. The household suddenly settled into a more regular regime, and all of a sudden I found myself with some time to work in the afternoon yesterday and today. Sometimes it’s hard to drop back into the swing of work. Re-opening projects which have been lying for 5 or 6 weeks can be daunting - what was the train of thought? How did I do that? - it can be overwhelming. So, I always find the antidote in a good dose of pareidolia to loosen up! The other day it rained hard overnight, but in the morning the sun was up and so hot I knew it would be drying the pavements in the park leaving picturesque watermarks. On our daily walk with the dog I took snaps with my phone which are proving to be a mine of inspiration ... ... Here we have, top: weird sun-god creating constellations from the sea, and above, a hiker. Below are the original snaps I took in the park. I nearly forgot to mention, I got a new stylus this week: I bought an Adonit Dash3. I use an old iPad (2014, 2ndGen) as well as a Samsung Galaxy mini phone, and an iPhone. This stylus works brilliantly on all. Previously I had two Heiyo styli; the first one was about 18 months old when the on/off switch cover fell off, following the plug charger cap which fell off almost immediately after purchase. I replaced the stylus with a new one, and that suddenly stopped working after just two months; I literally put it down to go to fetch a cup of tea and when I came back it had just stopped working. Nothing had changed on iPad. I switched back to the old one, which for all its faults worked fine for a couple of months until it, too, suddenly stopped working in mid-project. Tech support was infuriating so after some research I got the Adonit Dash3 and it is excellent! Smooth, instantly works etc etc. Nice nib for drawing and writing. Should have done that when the first Heiyo failed. Note and NB!!: it doesn't work on iPadPro.
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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