A Moon-Singing Fish...

Images and words copyright of Carrie Osborne 2010

The Moon was very big and full tonight as I drove home, and made me think of the second of my dummy (or mock up) books still waiting to be finished. The writing of this story needs quite a lot of reworking still and has a long way to go with the artwork too, but this is the double page rough for the full-moon page of the story.
I have less confidence in this story than the other two I am working on, but I like the raw idea of it if I can just get it to flow better. I won't give too much away, you never know I might get a chance to submit it one day! (If someone hurrys up and invents a time stasis machine!)

A strong full moon does not agree with me very well, makes me unsettled and edgy and quite often physically under strain as well. I must be a good example of how myths of lycanthropy
might have come about! Even still there is a bewitching beauty to a full moon riding bright in a deepening sky, and I love the moon cast shadows of the trees in a quiet lane as bright almost as daylight.
Fellow blogger 'Mermaid in the Attic' has posted a hauntingly beautiful and powerful song she has written about the Moon called 'La Luna' earlier today, do pop over and have a listen. It is perfectly evocative of that elusive presence I associate with the moon... very good!
Bye for now...

Another Stony Street session...

5 minute pose

Well I managed to make it out to the life session again this week...
We had a fantastic model, really strong and great poses... but unfortunately it had been a very long day for me and I didn't have the focus or the concentration I needed to do her justice.
It's so frustrating sometimes when the model strikes a really great dynamic pose and the light and shadows are just right, but the pencil turns to a lumpy cumbersome stick and my brain and fingers are at odds! Oh well...
Here are the best of the worst from tonight...

5 minutes

15 minutes

30 minute pose (some odd proportions going on there!)

And the final 30 minute pose

I felt like I was wrestling with it tonight but its really great to get out and draw finally! Looking forward to doing some more next time...

Remembering Gary Moore...

Another great guitarist gone unexpectedly before his time, aged only 58 yrs. There's been tributes played all day on Planet Rock and some other radio stations as well. It can't be denied he had his part to play in our recent music history - notably with Thin Lizzy of course... and in this clip is playing his own tribute to the late Phil Lynnot...
And so, in my own way here I am paying my respects to Gary Moore, long live Rock n Roll...

At last, back in the Life Studio!

5 minute pose

My first life session in six months!
I admit I did feel very rusty indeed having hardly drawn at all for the last few weeks... When I don't draw everything feels stiff and difficult and ideas can't flow onto the page because I'm so conscious of my hand getting in the way of my mind if you know what I mean!

So I intend to have another decent run of life sessions to break me back in. Just seeing the other people's drawings was very inspiring in itself - especially one lady who's style I just love.
Last night she was using chinese inks with homemade bamboo quills, brush and water - wonderful, wonderful results, so flowing and intuitive - and certainly made my own drawing style feel very stiff and self conscious.
But that's what is so good about working within a group, so many other approaches to learn from and be inspired by...
Here's a few more of mine again from last night...

5 minute pose

10 minutes

30 minutes
(just couldn't nail down the foreshortening on that knee - ooh that sounds a bit brutal doesn't it, ouch!)

And 30 minutes again, though there's some very strange proportions going on here... ahem!

Looking forward to next time, though I think its time to replace my favourite charcoal pencil - it's only an inch and a half long now!

Julia Mannings - a favourite Printmaker of mine...

This is a short clip from Printmaker Julia Manning's website showing a bit about her techniques and inspirations. I have admired her woodcuts and etchings for a fair while now, especially her birds, so I thought I'd point her out to you - I certainly found it fascinating to see this snapshot into her studio!
Woodcut is something I've been itching to try myself for years since a brief foray at Foundation Art College many years ago...
Here's a few more of her woodcuts and etchings that I really like...

'In the Beginning'

'Chit chat'

'Wotan's Wut'

'A Rebel of Ravens'

'The Sparrow Hawk that ate the Collar Dove'

There are lots more fantastic prints to be seen on her website www.juliamannings.co.uk
Hop over and take a look!

A Unicorn for my portfolio...!

Click if you want to see it larger...

Hooray! I have had permission to add my Unicorn commission to my blog portfolio, so here it is along with a few close up details... It will also be under the Watercolour heading of my portfolio pages underneath my thumbnail bar soon...





I was for a change actually quite pleased with this one, I think it turned out well enough to become a part of my Children's Illustration portfolio as well, although that's coming along very, very slowly!
I promised my youngest daughter Elswyth a unicorn some time ago, and I enjoyed this one so much I really must get on with doing hers... Here's as possible idea from last year with both daughters that so far hasn't made it out of my sketch book... I definately owe her one!

The Holly King and the Oak King, not quite as you've seen them before!

Yes, I'm doing the proud mother bit...! Helping my elder daughter finish her christmas holiday homework - yes homework at 6 years old, she did such a fantastic picture of the Holly King handing over his crown to the Oak King, I thought I'd show it off! The Oak King is complete with green beard and squirrals after the acorns in his pockets...
I know traditionally in some versions at least each brother King slays the other to gain the crown, although in other versions the Oak King is newborn at Midwinter, his strength waxing as the Holly King's power wanes, but for now my children know a slightly less in depth version of the myth which I think is fine and they seem to enjoy.
I think my daughter's fine picture may have have inspired me to do a version of my own sooner or later, squirrals and all!