Jessie Lilac Blog

It's April and today has been such a warm sunny day  so we went to visit a lovely National Trust garden. The bulbs are in bloom and although the trees are only just beginning to show their buds, they're already looking so beautiful in the sunshine. Tulips! And what a beautiful shade of purple they are too. :)  These strange looking yews look as though they might move around the garden at night don't you think? Or is it just me?! On the way home we saw this lovely little wooden hut in the middle of the countryside. I'd love a bell like that outside my house, although on a windy night it might not be such a great idea! This week has been a busy one, repainting things that need attention, getting our holiday lets in Devon ready for the summer season. The gardens always needs tidying so we had our work cut out but the views from here make up for it as you can see. The harbour's very pretty and I love those roof t...

As you might already know from reading my recent posts, I love using pens to draw with. I've got quite a good selection now thanks to christmas and my birthday ;) but the ones I love the most are the ones that will sit on top of a darker colour. This 2 page sketchbook spread above was done with a layer of acrylic paint before I added the detail with my Posca pens. These pages above have a layer of collage paper and acrylic inks as a background. I used my Sakura Souffle pens for the lighter lines but then I remembered my trusty old Sharpies. I'd almost forgotten all about them in my new found love! They don't stay as bright as I'd like when you draw over a dark background but on the white areas of the paper the colour sings. The background of these were done with my FW inks. I wanted something quite bright and fluid and when you spray them with water, you can get lovely effects and blending. Another background you can use is Neocolor crayo...

We've had a couple of lovely sunny days and my first daisy is tentatively peeping from her winter slumber. The light's lovely in the morning, perfect for drawing and painting. After admiring the results other people have made with gouache paint, I bought some for myself. I had a little play but I still find them very difficult to use, the brushes I was using made the marks clumsy and when I tried a finer one, the paint was too thick. They say don't blame your tools so maybe I'm just not suited to them! Anyway I'll try again another day, I don't want to give up on them just yet.  This one was done with acrylic paint and the details were drawn with my Sakura pens. Again, the one below is mainly acrylic with the line detail drawn with Sakura pens. Have you ever tried using ordinary fineliner pens on paper and adding water?  Because they're not waterproof, when they get wet they bleed and make a lovely watercoloury effec...

  Here are some pages from my sketchbook that I've done over the past few days. This one's done with watercolour and I've added details with my Sakura pens. I love how you can draw with them on top of another colour.  This drawing I did with a black pen and watercolour. I've made a little video of the process if you'd like to see.... Once again I didn't keep the bottom part of the drawing within the screen! It seems to be a different size screen on Youtube from my camera, so next time I'll have to remember that! I hope you all have a lovely week and the sun pops its head out for you  now and again. At least the seagulls are happy! Bye for now. xx