Blog Archives

28 OCTOBER

10/28/2019

This year's poster for the run-up to Folktale Week, starring Binky the cat

Yes, Folktale Week on Instagram begins one week today!
Time has flown since the prompts were released and I haven't done anything for them yet, but I made this poster for the occasion. I love the opportunity to invent weird little creatures and have the license to mix them all together to suggest or tell stories of a folksy nature.

The tall green figure which crept into the work I thought of as Long Lankin at first, but Lankin was a murderous fellow who stalked the moors in search of victims. Lankin failed the job interview for this illustration, but an equally long character with lop-sided grin, head in the clouds, wouldn't say Boo to a goose was perfect. I thought he should get married, so I made him a bride! She stands with her bouquet under an oak tree inhabited by another one of my creatures from last year's Folktale Week: a luminous, glow in the dark, green thing, which also appears in the poster.

It is such fun how these creatures come about, and once they creep in they are there for good in my stories! They seem to introduce themselves. The other two cat-like figures in the illustration came about from my bedroom curtains. Prone to idle gazing and pareidolia, about two weeks into the 100 cats project, I saw cats all over them, revealed by morning light glowing through the figured cloth.

The 100 cats project, incidentally, will continue; it had to go on the back burner for a while to make space for the Artobotic machines project, specifically work for the Brexit Art Machine which was on a deadline for the end of the month. Looks like we've had an extension to that now!

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

More can be found on Artobotic vending machines plus pics of the work I have been making for them at The Weekly on my Heather Eliza Walker site.

20 OCTOBER

10/20/2019

A poster I made last year in the run-up to Folktale Week

I didn’t manage to get any new illustration work done this week, my focus being on making more confused flags for Artobotic vending machines, especially the Brexit Art machine. Because it is time sensitive with only 11 days left to go (apparently Britain will still leave the EU on the 31st of this month), I had to set the 100 days of cats project temporarily aside in order to prioritise Brexit themed art. When I get back to it, I will be incorporating 100 days of cats with Folktale Week, telling my stories for the prompts with cats!

Folktale Week starts two weeks tomorrow, so I thought it would be interesting to look back on what I was doing this time last year. I want to make another “Folktale Week is Nigh” poster next week, so I pulled last year’s from my archives. It reminds me that a year ago I was working exclusively in Procreate on iPad because our house move was in full swing, and my new work space wasn’t yet functional. I could work anywhere at any time on iPad, even when travelling or in the dark.

I enjoy mixing things up, who doesn’t love the play and experiment of collage? The main difference between now and then is that since March I have been drawing and painting by hand again. When I was working on patterns in the spring, I found Procreate to be great for cleaning up and ‘cutting out’ hand made elements. It feels natural to use a stylus for drawing around edges with the eraser tool, freeing hand painted images from their paper background to set them into transparent layers. Last week I combined hand painted cats and trees with scanned collage elements and digitally created images. I made the alphabet I use for text in Procreate, too, basing it on Goudy Old Style (my favourite font when I worked as a graphic designer).

It’s such a glorious mixup, exciting and playful with endless possibilities - I predict I’ll be making more illustration work with these techniques in future!

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

P.S: Confused Flags development can be seen in The Weekly at my HEW website

13 OCTOBER

10/13/2019

Folktale Week is only 3 weeks away now, my favourite week on Instagram! This year’s prompts were revealed on Monday: Home, Secret, Path, Smoke, Darkness, Key, and Crown. It kicks off on Monday 4th November, and I can’t wait to see how everyone interprets them.

The organisers have given us plenty of time this year to think about the prompts and get busy working ahead of time. I decided not to do Inktober this year in favour of making time for Folktale Week. I prefer to have a more or less clear month to schedule a daily post for Inktober, but this month is proving busy on every front, and there is such a thing as an Instagram challenge too far! So, Folktale Week wins, and I will be doing it with cats as I am still in the middle of the 100 days challenge. I may run a bit late with my Folktale Week work this year, but that doesn’t matter; just joining in, having fun with the prompts and seeing Instagram bursting into life with everyone’s wonderful fairytale work is what it’s about for me.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

6 OCTOBER

10/6/2019

Folktale Week 2019 is upon us! It hasn’t actually started yet, but the build-up is a busy and exciting time. It begins tomorrow when the organisers announce the prompts which are shared instantly by everyone, and all participants work in secret on their pieces. Then, on November 4th, Instagram will transform into a week long explosion of colourful folktales when everyone starts posting their work. It’s global and spans all time zones, so each day is a 24-hour celebration as artists from all over the world make their posts. The variety of work is breath-taking: last year saw illustration, photography, papercraft, cosplay, modelling, embroidery, felting to name but a few!

Folktale Week will be running on Instagram November 4 - 10. Fancy joining in? Search #folktaleweekand #folktaleweek2019 to find the talented developers who initiated it last year, and look out for the prompts tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

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Welcome to my illustration blog, where I share what I have been up to during the week.
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 - about 40 of them during her 94 years of life.
Currently I am working on illustrating a children's book, pattern making, and of course I can't resist a good Instagram challenge such as Folktale Week or Inktober.

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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Instagrams
HeatherElizaWalker
Binky_McKee

Redbubble Shop
BinkyMcKee

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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 ...