Enough said! The prompts were released and I had such a load of fun making Staffordshire china cats announce them! I am very excited to start work on them, but of course they will not be shared until Folktale week begins on the 23rd of this month.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Yes! It's that time of year again - Folktale Week is approaching! After all the insecurity and doubt about my work last week, I made this image for Folktale Week, and it has been incredibly popular, tripling my likes and engagement on Instagram. It has had several shares, mentions and a repost. It only goes to show decisions about work should never be made in haste!
Pictured below is the piece I was on the brink of tearing up and binning; thankfully something about it made me hesitate at the last minute, because I had it to work with for the Folktale Week announcement. It was great fun to do, and I enjoy lettering in monotype because you have to do it backwards and it comes out a bit wonky! <<<<<<<<<< HAPPY 2020 >>>>>>>>>> A very happy and hearty new year to all!
I don’t usually make new year resolutions, but I made one this year and broke it already: to post more regularly on Instagram. It doesn't even have to be every single day, just two or three times a week; and here we are on the 5th day of the year, and I still haven’t done it. So I’ll make it a goal instead ... 5 Goals for 2020: 1. Finish the children’s book I have been illustrating for an author friend; I am currently working on brightening my palettes. 2. Get back to the 100 Days Project. This may or may not happen, as to be honest I had got to where I wanted to be by Day 50. I got as far as cat no.53 before breaking off to do seasonal work at the end of October. My 100 Days Project may turn into my 50 Days Project. 3. Make a zine - I have always wanted to make a zine! 4. Create a more organised work environment and find a way to keep distractions at bay. Some days all I have to do is open the door to take in a delivery, and the rest of the world jumps in at the same time! 5. Find a way to post more regularly and consistently on Instagram: better lighting to photograph notebook work, for example. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! The last two illustrations from my Folktale Week on Instagram. For day 6, Key, I made all the keys in Procreate, and used a photo of textured wall to suggest a baronial castle setting for Binky the cat detective to demonstrate how to find the correct key. I very much had in mind Miranda Hart’s Pussy Poirot, from her hilarious BBC series Miranda: “dressing pets as famous detectives” (Series 1.3. Job). The last day’s prompt was Crown, and I chose a drawing from my archives to use. I made it about 4 years ago and never did anything with it. It was a simple matter to bring it into Procreate and tweak a crown and call it “Stary Mary had the biggest crown in the land”. The beautiful warm quality comes from using oil paint on gold leaf over red bole. It creates the richness of oil painting even though it is on paper. This was my most popular Folktale Week illustration this year, perhaps because of the colours and brooding yet whimsical nature? I never can find any rhyme or reason to Likes on Instagram.
Well, I can't believe it is the 26th of November already - less than a month until Christmas! My next move is to start making cards, and at the weekend we will be getting the decorations down from the attic. I am looking forward to the cheer of sparkly lights and candles and glitter, it has become very dark here in Scotland as we creep closer to the solstice. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Folktale Week began on Instagram this week, I love seeing all the different interpretations of the prompts! This is my post for Day 1, Home: the wanderer returns to a warm welcome. This year I am working with a hybrid technique, this is a watercolour with drawn plant shapes and frosty roundels in white Rotring, with gouache colour accents. I scanned it and and worked it further in Procreate, adding the cat and a few other elements to suit.
Look for #folktaleweek2019 and follow the hashtag to see hundreds of super-talented illustrators all working in different ways! Thanks for visiting, see you next week 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! Since we passed the autumn equinox, my 100 days of cats project has taken on a positively festive feel! It wasn’t a conscious decision, just that a cold snap turned my thoughts to winter woollies and hats and scarves and then on to parties and pantomime. Above are the resulting adventures of Dick Whittington’s cat (46), a surprise party (48), butter wouldn’t melt (45) and (47) naughty Pussycat from the nursery rhyme:
Pussycat, pussycat where have you been? I’ve been to London to visit the queen. Pussycat, pussycat what did you there? I frightened a small mouse under her chair. An unexpected and interesting thing has come out of the 100 days project on Instagram: new followers are seeing the account as being about the antics of a cat named Binky McKee, as opposed to illustrations of cats by an artist named Binky McKee. I’m fine with that! I was determined to keep an open mind when I began the project, and I am happy to go along with it. I like the idea of creating a character who can tell stories on my behalf which I can post while working on other projects which can’t be shared until complete. I will most likely do Folktale Week with Binky. I had intended the 100 days project to be finished in early November, then move straight into Folktale Week, but events since the beginning of September forced a go-slow which means I will definitely still be on it during Folktale Week. Folktale Week will be running on Instagram November 4 - 10. Fancy joining in? Search #folktaleweek to find the talented developers who initiated it last year, and look out for the prompts! Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Booklet No.3 is underway in the 100 Days Project! The cover shows cat no. 41. I am nearly half way through my 100 cats now. I am delighted with how much I have learnt already, and how I have managed to come a long way towards developing my cat drawings. This is was exactly what I had hoped to achieve, but didn't know what to expect. Jerry Saltz, in his wonderful article How To Be An Artist, extols the virtue of doing something a minimum of 100 times. Step Two, Experience: "10. Find your own voice, then exaggerate it. If someone says your work looks like someone else's and you should stop doing it, I say don't stop doing it. Do it Again. Do it 100 times or 1,000 times ... if it still looks like the other person's, try a different path." And again: "13. Scavenge. Life is your syllabus: gather from everywhere ... you can do this by looking for overlooked periods of art history, disliked and discredited styles, and forgotten ideas, images and objects. Then work them into your own art 100 or 1,000 times." It's true, doing something 100 times really does have an amazing effect. There are 33 rules and a number of exercises in this article. I copied them all into a notebook and I find useful wisdom in every single one of them. <<<Newsflash!>>> Apparently, Jerry Saltz's article is going to become a book! I just found this on Vulture, the culture and entertainment site from New York magazine. Apparently there are now 70 rules! Now, there is a date for the calendar! It's very exciting.
Speaking of dates, there will be no Weekly next Sunday as I will be out for the whole weekend, so - Thanks for visiting, see you in a fortnight! - when I will probably have a few more cats to show you. And just a quick PS: I used to do other pupils' punishment exercises of 100 lines for them at school. I loved writing the same sentence over and over again, trying to imitate their handwriting. It paid well and worked wonders for my forgery techniques! The three little kittens, they lost their mittens, And they began to cry, "Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear, That we have lost our mittens." "What! - lost your mittens, you naughty kittens! Then you shall have no pie." "Meow, meow, meow." "Then you shall have no pie." The three little kittens, they found their mittens, And they began to cry, "Oh, mother dear, see here, see here, For we have found our mittens." "Put on your mittens, you silly kittens, And you shall have some pie." "Purr, purr, purr, Oh, let us have some pie." The three little kittens put on their mittens, And soon ate up the pie, "Oh, mother dear, we greatly fear, That we have soiled our mittens." "What, soiled your mittens, you naughty kittens!" Then they began to sigh, "Meow, meow, meow," Then they began to sigh. The three little kittens, they washed their mittens, And hung them out to dry, "Oh, mother dear, do you not hear, That we have washed our mittens?" "What, washed your mittens, then you're good kittens, But I smell a rat close by." "Meow, meow, meow, We smell a rat close by." The Three Little Kittens from the Mother Goose Collection (poem usually attributed to early 19th century American poet Eliza Lee Cabot Follen).
I so much enjoyed working on these as part of my 100 days of cats project. I wouldn't have thought of it, but it was suggested by a fellow Instagrammer, Karen Edward. Please visit her website here, and if you are ever in the beautiful East Neuk of Scotland you must visit Funky Scottish, her café and gallery! Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Funky Scottish 41 High Street, Anstruther, Fife Cakes, coffee, tasty lunches and beautifully made arts and crafts Cats, cats and more cats! I am over a quarter of the way through my 100 Days Project. These scans of booklet No.2 show the (very) hand-made nature of the paper, my stitching, and the way I am working. I discovered this week that if I am using watercolours on this paper, which is very absorbent, I need to double up the pages to prevent bleeding through to drawings on the flip sides. I glued extra pages into the booklet to compensate, and now I am enjoying using watercolour freely. Some very sneaky cats and a cat burglar came out of this week! So far the pages in this booklet have been in order, but they are now out of sequence. I number each drawing as it is finished (rather than by page number) and sometimes I get stuck and move on to a new drawing while I am thinking about how to resolve a problem with an earlier one; these drawings do not appear consecutively in the booklet, but go 24, 25, 29, 30, 26, 27 because drawing no.29 (which was going to be no.26) gave me a few problems which took a couple of days to work out, and in the mean time I finished the other two. 29 was worth the extra time and thought, and it turned out to be a big favourite! I am loving that followers on Instagram are suggesting cats they would like to see, also my beloved B is now constantly thinking up new ideas! It's all much appreciated and very exciting.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Booklet 2 begins, bursting with potential for the next 20 cats in my 100 Days Project. I love starting a new sketchbook, who knows what journeys will be explored on those blank pages ... this one is beginning by taking up themes which interested me the most from the first booklet: two-tone patterns, you could say these are ska cats! I hope to fill them with musical joy. I am also looking forward to intertwining more plants and vines around the cats I am looking forward to meeting as the journey unfolds.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! A selection of 6 cats, in no particular order, from my 100 days project which is going well. I will complete the first booklet’s posts on Instagram next week - I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone! I am getting so much joy and inspiration from it, it is amazing how doing 100 of something benefits work all round, and I am only a fifth through. I hope it continues as creatively. The patterned mosaics and mats I have been drawing with the cats became a source of great interest to me. After a drive through the old fishing villages along the Fife coast one day, I began drawing them combined with buildings inspired by East Neuk architecture on a large sheet of paper. Experiments with scanning and placing elements from the drawing together proved so exciting I am now giving my online shop a complete overhaul full of new ideas. There isn’t much to see yet, but I will post a link when there is enough to toot my horn about!
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! It’s all about the #100daysproject on Instagram this week. I am loving other people's projects, producing exciting work during the 100 days and resulting in fascinating collections. Inspired by this, I decided to join and do my project with cats. The open notebook pictured above shows the first two cats, and illustrates my intention to make 5 booklets of 20 pages each and work through the booklets until they are all complete and I have 100 cats. Below are the cats which followed on each day of the week. I don’t know what will happen during the project, I can’t even imagine at the moment what it will be like when I have made 50 cats, or 75! The only time I have made 100 of anything is when I have made a run with rubber stamps or linocuts, or multiples for Christmas cards; those are very much the same but different each time. I am hoping that by the time I have created 100 cats, my cat style will have developed into something unique, and I always love a few surprises on the way!
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! I am having a mini-sketchbook binge! Here are some I made previously. I love making pocket-sized booklets. At the moment I am making five consisting of 5 sheets, folded and simply stitched together in the centre with carpet thread (I’m not going to impress anybody with my bookbinding skills here) using Thai Mulberry paper. I have already started with some cat cutouts I made last week, enjoying pasting them onto pages and working them with watercolour and pen. It's a relaxed and free way to develop ideas, and I enjoy the mix of line and textures. This photo shows work in progress: this gives some idea of scale. It's Minnie, my neighbour's cat, rolling around in the garden - as she does!
I am beginning to turn over the idea of doing the 100 Days Project on Instagram with cat drawings. It's a great way to develop work, and I have been most inspired by other artists' 100 days - hence the 5 booklets consisting of 20 pages. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! PS: If you were here earlier in the week, you may have noticed I replaced an image of works in progress with a photo of all my lovely handmade sketchbooks. I have been wanting to show these sketchbooks for ages - and I don't want to give too much away before I start on the #100daysproject! Watch this space! Playing about with cut-out cats, paper and pressed flowers and leaves, I couldn't resist giving my cats silly names! It seems to add to their characters, and stories start to form around them. May I present today, from the top row reading left to right:
1. Daphne Dorkington 2. Patricia Spoon 3. Gloria Grumps-Bypass 4. Mimelsa Mimsyboot 5. Mademoiselle Fou Fou 6. Suzi Spoon (Patricia’s twin) I have more lined up to do, including two cat portraits - Minnie and Mimi (actual names, but I may give them a silly surname!) 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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