 I am still ploughing full steam ahead illustrating a children's book, which presents a dilemma when it comes to publishing work on social media: naturally, it is totally against the rules to share work for a book before it is published, but in the mean time you want to keep your social media accounts live. I can, however, share spin-offs from my illustrations without revealing characters, settings, titles or themes, while at the same time building on work for the book. This is what I have been doing on Instagram, and this week I chose a cat themed week in the wake of folktale week (which I thoroughly enjoyed!) So here are my cats from the week, I hope you enjoy them. I am also still clearing up my work room following our house move. I am taking a few days' holiday from Instagram whilst focusing on the book and sorting my work space. Thanks for visiting, see you next week!  Folktale Week on Instagram! Here are the interpretations of the prompts I made as Binky McKee for the event, reading clockwise into the centre: Small black cat heralding in the week Forest, Day 1: she listened carefully to the trees. Magic, Day 2: Philippines folk tale of The Boy Who Turned Into a Stone. Witch, Day 3: the recent graduates were the worst! Ghost, Day 4: the Green Lady of Pitreavie Castle, a local tale in my home town of Dunfermline. Insect, Day 5: an African American story. God was tired after creating the world, all the plants, and some of the animals. The flowers were complaining of loneliness, so God snipped bits off them and created butterflies, which to this day still accompany the flowers. Mirror, Day 6: I illustrated my own story for this one: Nobody believed the mirror worked, for it remained blank and impassive during the day. However, at night it threw back into the world everything it had seen. That day it had collected only flowers and filled the dark with scents wild and exotic. Animal, Day 7: The little red fox sat every evening at the edge of the wood, waiting patiently. Centre: my post for sharing the prompts, 10 days before the event. For more details, please visit my Instagram Thanks for visiting, see you next week!  Folktale Week on Instagram took place this week. It was a wonderful week of Instagram being taken over by illustrators and their amazing interpretations of folk tales! Lots of interaction, discovering incredible talent and making new friends and chatting! Here are some of my interpretations of the prompts: day 1, Forest; day 4, Ghost; day 5, Insect; and day 7, Animal. For more details on Folktale Week, do visit Instagram where I have links to the organisers of the event who had incredible vision and worked hard to bring the illustration community together and encourage artists to interact - it was a huge success for everybody who took part! Thanks for visiting, see you next week!  This week I discovered I really like working in close-toned stripes and had a bit of a 1970s revival, plus at the weekend we began an exciting project rescuing period stained glass windows which my Dad saved from the house across the road in the 90s when it was modernised. We are rebuilding them for a window in the house with a Space Invaders theme, this is the first digital mock-up using pieces of original glass - it should be great when it's done! 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. Given that, I have no idea how Doggie with his dead-pan expression became my avatar instead of a cat - something to do with popularity on Instagram and lots of jokes with him! 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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March 2021
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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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