Binky McKee Illustration
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The Weekly

11 October

10/11/2020

 
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It hasn’t been the easiest week. Indecision and insecurity about my work took hold when work with the monotype vases I was cutting out last week didn’t go quite as planned, and I panicked when my Instagram went quiet. I worried in case I was taking a wrong turn and getting distracted by the monotype process. I worried that the new work just wasn’t interesting enough. I worried I was being inconsistent.
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4 October

10/4/2020

 
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I have been working purely digitally for a while, which I love - but I always end up with a hankering for the human presence of the hand, and the alchemy of materials. Above is a watercolour from one of my sketchbooks, with wax resist and simple, free pen lines, which I made a while ago. I am very interested in designing patterns which could contain this freedom, I haven't figured it out yet, but it's something which has been going on in the background of my mind for over a year. Also, I haven't a clue which pen I used to worked on wax! It has bonded perfectly with the resist - experiments required (and possibly a lot of spoilt pens).
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Above is a set of six little monotypes from the same sketchbook. I have always loved making monotype drawings. Using a glass plate rolled with printing ink or oil paint, paper is placed over the plate and I draw on the paper. It means when the paper is peeled away from the plate it reveals a mirror image of the drawing plus accidental smudges and textures. These surprises are exciting, and I use the technique both for illustration and in my Heather Eliza drawings.

This week I began to isolate sketches from my book (I did write about getting my jugs out and working with them, but NO, that's SO wrong!! Raised a few laughs on Instagram, though) . Here is a rudimentary something I put together as an experiment. The original monotype drawing was made on hand-made bark paper which supplies the lovely colour and texture for the fuzzy ink lines, cut out and placed over a digitally created linen-weave background. It may take a while, but I'll see where I go with this.

PS: I decided not to do Inktober on Instagram this year, I just have too many pots on the boil at the moment. I was tempted, but focus is required.
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​Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

6 SEPTEMBER

9/6/2020

 
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These two patterns were spin-offs from the second (blue) drawing in my last entry. Working in Procreate allows for a lot of freedom and experimentation with sets of shapes and colours, and it’s very satisfying to be able to produce new works relatively quickly. I say relatively quickly, but a lot of time this week went into designing the little birds - but I’m sure I will use them again in different works!
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23 AUGUST

8/23/2020

 
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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. 
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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! 

12 JANUARY

1/12/2020

 
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A collage of drawings based on patterns on Japanese Washi tapes. This was so much fun to do, finding ways to apply patterns to household objects and develop related themes to go with them, and it makes me think of mood boards.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

6 November

11/6/2019

 
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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

18 AUGUST

8/18/2019

 
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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.
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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. 
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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!

28 APRIL

4/28/2019

 
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I spent two days cleaning up my Easter weekend sketchbook work. It was much faster and more interesting to work with than pen and watercolour work, and when I began to play with assembling various elements I was delighted with the bold shapes and clarity. These collaged experiments are rough, but they show me what I need to do next - and I am loving the colours.

​Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

7 APRIL

4/7/2019

 
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This week I made a pattern from townhouses inspired by Edinburgh terraces. I enjoyed the drawing work, I found plenty of scope for imagination.

Architecture is finding its way back into my work since the house move from rural Perthshire back to Dunfermline town, Fife, where I was born and grew up. I now have familiar views from my work room over lovely houses and an abundance of trees and gardens. My Dad was an architect, and I used to work in his studio during school holidays; I still have many of his architectural plans and drawings.

It is interesting that fewer midges, other insects, and plant life are appearing in my work now - it is great fun to introduce them to buildings in drawings (not literally!)

​Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

31 MARCH

3/31/2019

 
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Monday: I finished the linear flower drawing I was working on during  the previous week.
Tuesday: a mock-up for some colour ideas for a pattern.
Wednesday: I began work on a coloured version of the linear flowers, painting with gouache.
Thursday: I completed the gouache work when it filled the entire sheet of paper.
​Friday: i played around with different coloured stems and backfill fronds.
Then, over the weekend I took scans of some the sprigs in the drawing and cleaned them up. They look pretty and full of character which I like, I am sure they will come in useful.

​Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

17 MARCH

3/17/2019

 
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I made a return to working with my hands this week, as opposed to digitally!

Procreate on iPad was a miracle during the house move, requiring no space or materials other than a stylus and a charger which enabled me to continue to work and generate new ideas (when there was time). I created some digital work which I find truly wonderful - see last week's post.

At the beginning of this week, however, I was struggling with it. In the end I became aware that I was trying to replicate my freehand drawing methods and it wasn't working for me. I tried every brush and everything the digital brushes could do, but I was going silently mad in the process. I know there are artists out there who effortlessly produce work in Procreate and create their own brushes to suit, and I can't tell the difference between their digital and hand-made works, but I was spending hours - days and hours - and getting frustrated and wasting time producing hellish, ugly, stiff, overwrought works.

In the end I thought that was nuts. My studio is well enough organised now to be able to work by hand and get it into Photoshop. I set up my room so I have a drawing table and a Mac table with a large enough monitor to finish hand drawn and painted work for Redbubble merchandise, so here is what I came up with: a floral watercolour which became a very lovely pattern, a home-made rubber stamps design (ditto), and a cyan line drawing of a spaced-out cat in a garden which I don't know yet what will become.

I will continue to work in Procreate, it is an amazingly powerful tool for iPad and I enjoy using it. I have created many works over the past year, discovering fascinating ideas which I wouldn't have happened without it (see previous posts!). But I have to say it was lovely to get out the pens, pencils and watercolours again, too.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

PS I will be linking to my Redbubble shop, it just doesn't have very much content yet!
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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 ...
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