IF - Remembrance

IF this week is Silent - So I thought as its Remembrance Sunday something along those lines would be fitting.  A minutes silence to remember.

Christmas Card Design

Ive been a busy busy bee! After much grumbling and throwing my pencils out the pram, I ended up coming back to PS to create this years Xmas card design -or should I say designs!!!
I had so many problems last year with printers and not being able to get the depth I wanted from the carefully hand drawn prints I think I ended up hand drawing a select few, and then buying a pack from a retailer of some sort. So this week, with 12 days off work, the aim was to crack on and get at least one design completed on paper! Yup, I think I'm a digi convert now. And, after 6 days, and 3 all nighters and I mean all nighters, here are this years Christmas Cards. They've just been sent to the printers, and I cant wait to get them back. I hope you like them and can see the humorous take on this? I have to say when I sat talking with my good buddy Miss V we discussed what I should base my design on. She purred 'Snowman' - So this is for you hun! A fully fledged Snowman photo shoot complete with front cover designs! Enjoy! x

IF - Stripes

IF entry, Stripes.

Had my first major PS hiccup today!Had spent some hours doing this little piece for IF, finished and the lost it!!!! Have no idea where it's gone, but after myself, the kids and my techno whizz looked it was decided I'd obviously pressed the 'eject' button somewhere along the line! Ooooh I could have cried :( - so after a mini break of sitting on my hands through shear frustration I salvaged what I could. This isn't exactly what the original piece looked like, but the gist is there.... note to self this week. Save and triple save

IF - SCARY!

I didn't want to miss IF this week, so quickly put this one together. Work this week and last means I've missed out on quality time to spend on IF. Avoiding all temptation to submit the already completed Halloween cupcake, sort of along the scary line, I came up with one of my biggest scares!!!! Spiders!
Enjoy. x

Peanut Butter Cupcake

This one has taken me a while now.Take a closer look as there is some delicate detail on the cake stand. I'm hoping this will form a series of cake inspired pictures. And this is the first one I shall be sending off to the new printers, so fingers crossed the quality is pleasing. If you look closely there's a full recipe in the background, although most of it is hidden by the stand and cake. Anyone who wants to try the full recipe just inbox me, and I'll gladly pass it on. x

Little Bird -Collage

Another little PS collage. This time trying to get to grips with selection tool and puppet warp. I'm sure at some point I'll look back at these and want to alter them in some way, but that seems a long way off right now.

Souffle - Collage

A quickie on PS to practice again. Still trying to keep a rustic, painterly feel, with a twist of collage. I keep asking myself what inspires me most, and funnily enough I always come back to cooking! I'm currently working on another cupcake, Another passion of mine :)

little Annabelle

Again, practising PS..... I just cant put it down!

Happy Halloween Folks!

You cant tell I've been fiddling around with PS again can you! lol. This was a quickie to practice some more buttons........ there's still so many more t go :)

IF - Scattered

So here it is!... My very first digital post!!! And for all you digiart-tech's out there, this is my first full PS painting after 3 weeks of self teaching. I am pleased with it, but I think I've scrambled my brain with all the tutorials. All I'll say is I've learnt a hell of a lot, and yes I could have sat for another 3 weeks tweaking and warping, but its time to move on with what I've learnt so far and create another one. Her face is hand drawn and part of a much larger project, but I need to fill the gap between working on a monstrous sized piece and getting a handle on PS. So there you go! I certainly know what I'll be asking Santa for :)

IF -Hibernate

I haven't done IF - Illustration Friday for yonks! Just one of those things. But I was researching the web and came across IF, and low n behold the piece I was working on fitted perfectly. Its good to be back!!!

This is my first post that features some digital tweeking... I'm trying to get to grips with PS5. I'm getting there, but you'll have to excuse the crude basics of my efforts. Whilst its great for adding layers that would take an age to do manually, I'm still an old fashioned girl at heart and love nothing more than a fresh piece of paper and a selection of pencils. Give it a few weeks and I'll look back at this effort and think OMG!!!!

Norpop!

I have mixed feelings on this one! Its taken a lot longer than I could have anticipated, but, its an area I haven't done before! I've contemplated animal drawings before but think I'd need some classes from a master in the field... At the end of the day this has been created for charity, a worthy charity, so I hope someone looks past the 'first time' effort in creating this and digs deep to help towards such a wonderful cause. I shall be sticking to animated animals for some time now! -


This piece will be going for auction towards Norpop! Final Piece measures 25cm x 22cm, Polychromo Pencils on White Archival 210gsm Paper, mounted and framed. Please support the fabulous efforts of my colleagues who are raising money:-
http://www.justgiving.com/norpop

Bangles!

Second part to the fab Four! Its been nearly 2 months now since the girls arrived, and it never ceases to amaze me how they each have such different personalities. Bangles is certainly the most inquisitive and crazy. She doesn't walk anywhere, she RUNS! The minute she see's someone she runs at you like she hasn't seen you in years, funny. Obviously they'll all need tidying once they're all complete, but for now....... a taster!

Here come the girls!!!!

It was inevitable with my new editions that a little sketch would arise. New editions I hear you say? Four Chooks - Lotty, Dotty, Bangles and Blousey! They are hilarious in their own right and definitely inspiration for sketches....... So here's the first, Lotty!

Hanging Around

Finished! And I'm pleased with this little one.... I think the expression on his face says it all really. Enjoy

From the Archives

If I remember rightly this one was done when I was recovering from first Op. I couldn't sleep and need a distraction, so sat up in the wee small hours of the morning splurging water colours and salt on paper.... it was quite therapeutic at the time, watching the colours run into one another. Although it sounds simple, it's all too easy to get slightly carried away and end up with a muddy pool of mess, so trying to get it to resemble a vase of flowers did take a small amount of skill, Honest!

Baby Grow

Its nearly complete, so here's another part to the jigsaw so to speak. This is the 4th item out of 5. No prizes, I'm afraid, for guessing what the final part will be.

Jingle Heart & Blue Bird

Another snippet from a larger drawing that's still being completed.... this is the second & third post from the drawing, so if you look back, you can start to get an idea of whats hanging on the line!

From the archives

Another gem from the archives - again in watercolour! I'm going away September, retreating for a week of nothing but art and silence. So I may take some watercolours away with me and see what transpires.

I'm still here!

I'd love to be able to say I've been travelling the world, to exotic places with sketch book in hand, but I haven't! No, Ive gradually been increasing my hours each week at work, bog standard run of the mill work!. Gradually increasing them post op, but I've found that this has completely wiped me - or as it feels erased me from planet earth for a while! Its getting better all the time, but its left the blog and everything art rather neglected. So here is a long awaited update on the Charity drawing. This picture was taken a few weeks ago so there's even more added to it -
So lets talk drawing! I'm being a total perfectionist on this, to my detriment. Ive actually lost count of the layers on this one, and every time I take a break, stand back to look at my board I find something else to alter! At this rate if I build any more layers in it will be a sculpture!!!!! So I'm giving myself a strict deadline! - :) lol - the most important thing is I'm back in the swing chaps - woo hoo!

The Old Old Sketch Book!

Another little trophy from the old sketch book.... I keep finding these little gems. Will have to give watercolours a whirl again one day.

Socks!

Well, for a start I feel as though its been an eternity since I last posted anything! But on logging into the blog its been 3 weeks - so whilst that's longer than the norm, its not as bad as I thought! At the moment I'm desperately flitting from pillar to post (not blog posts though lol!) I'm currently in the middle of 9 projects, and dividing time between these has been a juggling act. This means that I haven't actively done any of 'my own' sketches, Olive has been gravely neglected to the point I think she'll be sending a post card to me soon, and Eli is still floating somewhere off the Hawaiian coast mid surf!!!! The problem with projects for others is they 9/10 a gift for someone and therefore it would be totally inappropriate to post the finished before that 'intended' has received it - Mmmmm, Oh for more hours in the day!......... Partial posts are my apology to all for nothing substantial. It would love to be able to post some of the projects as there's some really great new stuff going on.......... So I apologise fully in advance, for yet another partial post.... and something from the old old sketch pad!!!

Walking - incomplete

One of my favourite photo's of Eli is when she was about 4-5. She lived and died all summer in her swimming costume and fairy wings! It must be the only photo that my mother has ever managed to take of someone and actually keep there head on, but it captured what will always be the essence of her to a tee. This spurred on my return to art, and a very cheap little watercolour pallete to start. It was all good practice.

Cow -Watercolour

Here's one from my box of gems! Its almost therapeutic looking at early produce.... I wish I'd have kept all of my school work, now that really would have been a giggle!. Loose watercolours was certainly not my forte, I much prefer detailed work.

IF - Soaked

Ive recently purchased a new bed! And in the process of completely gutting the bedroom I came across a box on top of the wardrobe with a few gems in! This is one of them.... I shall post the others. Please don't laugh out loud too much hehehehe. I'm submitting this gem for IF this week, as previously posted there's a lot going on at the moment, but don't want to loose track.

Summer Fun - Working progress

I haven't posted in ages! There's SO much going on at the moment.... Ive got several projects on the go that seem to be taking up all of my time,and still not feeling 100% post Op. Unfortunately I cant post the ongoing projects, not just yet anyway. So here's a snippet of a working progress so as not to neglect the blog.............. Im still also practising with the Polychromo pencils on the fine art side. Its all go!!!!!!

Detail of working progress

Charity Auction

So, I'm not quite sure if this post could be a make or break post!
I have been asked by my colleagues at work if I would kindly do a picture so that they can Auction it at one of their Charity Do's. I'm Honored that they've asked and 'of course' was my reply. Ive put a link on the side so please take a look and support, its a good cause, Guide Dogs for the Blind and there's lots going on with this charity that my colleagues are arranging and I'm really pleased to be a small part.
I started the piece and then got to thinking, it will take a while to complete because of the detail, SO why not do a working progress and promote the cause along the way..... and Yes! Each time I post the progress I shall be reminding you all WHY this piece is being done.

The end product measures 25cm x 22cm, Polychromo Pencils on White Archival 210gsm Paper and will be mounted and framed. I hope the work done so far is obvious as to what it will be!

As a foot note, this is the first working progress I have ever dared to post :) bare with me please!

www.justgiving.com/norpop

Lesson #1 - Pear

Ok, so this isn't the usual post on here. But there's a number of factors....... I'm still getting to grips with coloured pencils as a medium so I've invested in some books. One of which I have now read from cover to cover several times and this one in particular is now proving to be the favourite. It has several exercises in the back, and this is my adaptation of exercise #1. The kids started back to school today, all be it for 3 days so its been a busy weekend getting things ready, and of course this Friday is the big wedding. Yes, we're having a small gathering at the house to celebrate the wedding, so there's a few preparations ahead..... SO this week I shall be opting out of IF, and probably wont get a lot else done picture wise. But to keep my hand in things I thought I'd practice from the hymn sheet so to speak and get to know this medium further. With that, I also had delivery of yet more colours from the range. I now have stock of just over half of the 120 in the Faber-Castell Polychromo range. It was like Christmas on Saturday when they were delivered. I really am liking these as a medium, but there's still so much to learn. I keep saying I want to do a step by step of how I get to one of my finished pieces, more from a learning point for me so I can look back and think 'you plonker', but I get so carried away once I start a piece that I forget to take the all important photos. This effort is by no means perfect, but I've learnt an awful lot in the 3 days its taken, and that's the most important part. Enjoy!

IF - Journey

I honestly didn't think Id get this one finished in time..... I cant tell you how long this one has taken me, but its given me a really good chance to explore my new pencils. So this weeks theme was Journey, and here's my interpretation.

Owl

I was asked to do an owl for someone, and initial thoughts were OMG! I don't think I've ever looked at an owl in detail.... I have to say I really enjoyed doing it. And on researching the owl community they really are beautiful creatures.....

Cup Cake

I got some new coloured pencils from the kids for mothers day! A new medium to completely get to grips with now, but here's the first attempt..... a chocolate cup cake!

Bear Doodle

Its been ages since I've done a bear doodle. I'll have to get some more done. Commission piece, Celia Bear.

Lace Basque

Pretty Lace Basque, drawn for Fran.

Dexters Cup Cake

Created for my little nephew, Dexter Lee Duncan. Belated birthday present, but something he can keep for life.

Tree of Life - Caroline Brown

Right! - so last week was a bad week, and post op pain seemed to block out everything 'arty' in me! hence no posts for a while. Whilst recouping I researched the web for inspiration, and also thought back to childhood. It got me thinking of my younger years, and how every Christmas my Mum & Dad bought us a 'doodle art'. It was a poster size sketch of intricate detail, that came with basic colouring pens that I'd sit for hours colouring in. I loved all the detail in each one and it kept me quiet for hours, something I'm sure had been well thought of when purchasing by my mother.... with not being able to move much after the Op I needed something that I could just sit comfortably on the sofa and loose myself in. So here it is. A tree of Life, and this one belongs to my sister Caroline! Its worth zooming in on this one as there's so much in the tree... enjoy!

IF - IF ONLY!

I don't know if its post Op, Cabin fever or just plain old Artistic block, but I've had a moment. This weeks IF was sent through 'TOY' is the word.... and I've been staring at a blank sheet for days now! I think I'm just going to have to just walk away from it this time as having a bad week after my Op......

IF - Cultivate

This weeks IF is Cultivate.
I have been asked by number 2 son if he could be a subject as its always Belle Bee (Eli), so here it is little man! Introducing Lewligan!!!!!!!! I thought Lewis would be more inclined to cultivate something grose and slimey rather than anything pretty or floral......

Thank You from the Heart

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who's showing an interest in the blog! Especially the kids who are showing such enthusiasm..... Eli, I'm sure yours has nothing what so ever to do with the fact that your almost a bonafide cartoon character!!!! This all started as somewhere to vent my artistic stumblings, but has now become something much more... with that, I now have a stash of pictures and no where to put them. If anyone genuinely has an interest in one of these please contact me to discuss details. They are all originals, not prints, and highly unlikely to ever be reproduced as there's just so many more ideas swimming around my head! email me @ eckyellis@googlemail.com. Genuine interest only please :D x

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day mom. x X x

Bubble and Pop

Ive been working on a piece that I wasn't going to post, well not until next week! I then started feeling guilty for not doing something in between. So I came up with this little one...... However Ive now got this weeks IF to do, so have decided to post them both anyway! Enjoy. And have a sunny weekend. x

IF-Stir

Finally, this weeks posting for Illustration Friday. Stir.

Little Star

I have to say, when I first thought of this I didn't envisage exactly how long this would take!!!! you live and learn as they say. Getting the night sky but keeping the stars as bright as possible has been an eye opener! I could have totally cheated and PS'd some neon stars in afterwards, but then I'd be staring at a very dull and dark sky on the original that's on the wall in my little work area....... its all experience