A Spring Sunshine walk...

It was warm in the spring sun today, and having only been able to look at it through windows all week I was so pleased it stayed bright for my day off! We wandered off for a walk down along the old Railway line that is now an excellent cycle track. There's miles and miles of it slowly being reclaimed by nature - so well in fact the council are talking about making it into a nature reserve or conservation area for wildlife.


There's a certain fascination looking at these tracks that were last used in the 1970's as far as I know, now thick with saplings winding into undergrowth... much like the Old Ironworks I posted about recently, how quickly industry can be undone by nature when we think of it as quite the other way around usually.


The old tracks are great fun for the kids... (yes, I include my husband in that statement!)


There's a few Trolls hiding in these woods though, watch out!
I had fun snapping away randomly with my camera, but these below are a couple I was quite chuffed with... pure luck rather than skill!


We stayed out in the garden for the rest of the day trying to tame our own little wilderness while the girls made mud soup in their little red wheel barrow, mmm lovely!
Even our silly small grey lion was enjoying the sun, and found a plantpot that fitted his shape perfectly!
Hope you enjoyed some nice Spring sunshine today where ever you all may be...

Sketchbook mission #2... who is this bone-cracking, crow-cackling Raven-Kin?

Well, the sketching everyday mission already failed yesterday having fallen asleep on the sofa instead! So tonight I tried to draw, but the old mind being a bit of a blank I decided to play around a bit more with the Raven-Kin... I wondered what might his nest be like? How would he move? What would his habits be between the dank marshland and the heavy skies? Would he nest in the sky-ravaged Mountains or the mist-choked Fens? What harsh unnerving songs would he croon to the dark in his ragged raven croak?


I could probebly fill pages exploring the nature of this creature and his habitats, but only if he gets insistant! I think this nest is too tidy, it needs more bones... and outlandish charms hanging from tendrils, and maybe some strange runic sigils scratched crudely by a claw into the rock... and cave paintings?


The drawings are ropey but at least I got a sketch or two out today, and hopefully the more I draw the more it might unseize my tired brain until it flows better!
But don't worry, I won't post sketchbooks everyday though, that would probebly get a bit repetetive no doubt! Just enough to get the ball rolling and keep me going...
I think this fellow needs a name now... perhaps once his name is spoken his story might begin to unfold itself ...

Sketchbook mission #1 The Raven-Kin...

Yet again I realised I've gone a week without once picking up a pencil, so I thought it was about time I did something about it... So I've decided I must draw something, anything every day in my sketchbook just to try and keep my hand in and to break the artistic paralysis I so often suffer!
So I took up my trusty 2B determined to draw the first thing that came to mind, and unbidden came the strange, otherworldly wizened creature I had once drawn over ten years ago. I tried thinking of something else but no, he was still there, cackling in his harsh raven-croak unsettling way insisting he be drawn...
So here he is, the Raven-kin, Dream Thief, Fisher of Souls...
I don't think he's evil, but not a creature you'd want to meet in the misty marshes all the same...


He first created himself ten years or so back as an illustration to a song called Dream Thief for an album cover of one of my husband's early bands... I don't know where he came from then or why he wanted to come back again but I kind of like him in his darksome, uneasy way... Though he certainly can't go under the children's illustration part of my work!
Perhaps I'll paint him again one day just to keep him appeased...

Album cover from around 2001

This week's life drawings...

Here's this weeks life drawings...
I was late so missed all the short poses unfortunately...
So having rushed, rushed, rushed straight from work to school, it was off to the dentist with big daughter, over to pick up littlest daughter, back to work to pick up husband, deliver some framed pictures, grab hasty supper on the run, dash into town... sneak late into the studio mid-pose, sit, sketchbook out, pencil, to paper, and draw... phew!

Not what you'd call a calm and focussed state of mind, but she was a lovely new model who just radiated serenity so I think that really helped!
She held great poses too, this first stretching, twisting one she held perfectly for 10 minutes! Not even a sway or a waiver, really impressive - shame I couldn't fit her on the page! Lacking hands and feet my drawing doesn't really illustrate just how stretched she was, the placing and weight balance of her feet would've been crucial really to show this... never mind, great pose.

10 minute pose

15 minutes

(getting to grips with my brand new charcoal pencil that's replaced the inch long remains of my favourite one...)

30 minute pose

And the final 30 minute pose (slightly levitating!)

Having arrived late I didn't get organised to try working in different mediums this week, but I am determined to break out of my comfort zone next time... I might have to leave my beloved charcoal at home to make me do it!

A young Dragon for World Book Day....

All week this week at my eldest imp's school they are doing lots of book and story related activities for World Book Day which is on the 3rd of March.
Today they all got to go to school dressed as a character from their favourite book, and Elora chose 'Tell Me a Dragon' by Jackie Morris, a book both my imps enjoy immensely... they love imagining their own wild dragonkind and pore endlessly over the endpapers which are completely filled with wonderfully coloured Dragon's eggs of all shapes and sizes, all in various stages of hatching out!


We've got lots of Jackie's books and I enjoy them as much as the children do... in fact it was discovering Jackie's books that first inspired me to find the Children's Illustration courses that have got me started in the direction I want to go.
It was also Jackie that inspired me to start this blog... I know lots of you already visit hers which is here at Drawing a Line in Time

Elora made her costume with a little help from Grandma after school yesterday, so I got a very Dragony surprise when I arrived to pick to the children up after work! As you can see she's a rather mischevious young hatchling! But luckily she hasn't got the hang of fire breathing just yet...


She's got a good roar though!!

She's requested melted gold for breakfast which is apparently what Dragons of her kind drink... Hmmm might be a bit expensive raising a young Dragon hatchling I fear!!

Tonight's Life Drawings...

30 minute pose

I made it to another evening life session at the Stony Street studios tonight, though it seems the evening sessions might not be continuing for too much longer unless more people start coming along. It would be a real shame from my point of view because the evenings are the only ones I can get to right now. So, out with the flyers and posters methinks...!
Here are some of the drawings from tonight...


I think its time to replace my two favourite life drawing pencils, they're only about an inch long now... a lovely soft black charcoal and a soft sepia charcoal/pastal pencil that I've done most of the last year's worth of life drawings with. Only trouble is I can't remember exactly what they were...


However I did enjoy using the big chunky graphite stick for the 2 minute poses - you just can't fuss with it and the weight really encourages strong bold sweeping lines, I think I like it!
I feel nice and safe with my charcoal pencils, but it's probebly about time I tried some other mediums... I might even take watercolours next week... A good excuse to go shopping for new art materials!

Fussels Old Ironworks... inexorable nature

It being half way through half term we decided to take a day off to catch up with the children today... unfortunately work doesn't stop for school holidays so we have to do our best to grab some time with them when we can.
Rain didn't entirely scupper our plans, we managed to get out between showers for an adventure in amongst the tangled green ruins of 'Fussels Old Ironworks' in the next village.
It is an extraordinary place, though potentially extrememly dangerous if you don't take special care!

This tree root below looked just like the muscular forearm of a Dragon or Griffin buried by rock or overgrown in a sleep of centuries...

Everytime I go there I am still caught with the urge to explore in wonder its tumbledown archways and tunnels, fascinated by the way industry has been almost completely reclaimed by nature.
Water rushes everywhere, through sluices and underground culvetts, roaring through the walls where the huge wheel once turned.
It drips, every tree limb and broken wall swathed in thick fringes of bearded moss, ivy trails and ferns claim every fissure of the ruins.
In many ways it reminds me of the Film Noir masterpiece 'Stalker' by Tarkovsky that I posted a short clip of some time back here...




It was a dull day for photographs today and these don't do it justice, but in the summer it glows green, so verdant, so wild, yet it was not all so long ago that this place rang and smoked and steamed industry.

I have taken many pictures here over the years and it was a particularly great place for band shots... twelve or thirteen years ago I photographed my husband's band here, though it seems like yesterday! Some moody, some silly!

My brother in law

And a very young looking husband!

These I took on my cranky old manual Minolta that I loved, and I am rather proud of these... do click on it for a better look... I wish I could work out how to recreate this with my digital, the old Minolta is long defunkt...This stairway looks more and more precarious every time I visit but I love it... My Mum did a fantastic etching of this a few years ago, and many a band photo has been taken here too!

'Old Ironworks' Etching by Heather O' Brien

This seems to have turned into a bit of an epic post! I get a bit carried away with pictures sometimes, but I just wanted to share this special and unusual place... I will go back in the summer and show you how magical it looks all dressed in that season's glowing emerald green...