Self portrait

Make website, will fail epically at keeping up with blogging.

Goldfishies!

For my personal sketchbooks, the little ones that I carry about the place, I like to find random materials and paper and fabric and make them myself. Mainly it stops me complaining if they fall apart, as it's my fault, but also I like owning unique things, and the making is quite good fun too.

This time I made a book all covered in kind of ugly goldfish, and the insides of the book are all different kinds of materials, with envelopes, and card, and paper and stitched pockets and things. I know it makes it weaker as the thinner paper makes points more likely to break, but it's so much fun to be able to randomly tear an envelope open and have a big patterned space to draw on. Also, as I have done with one page, you can flip oven one half of an envelope and glue it to cover the images you do that are genuinely bullcrap. In other words, remain unable to draw people in brush and ink, and yet I merrily go ahead and try without a practice go first. I know it's a sketchbook so it's all about mistakes, but I have secret fantasies about being a rich and famous illustrator (not that many exist really) and people in a hundred years wanting to own my old sketchbooks, all faded and battered. Mmm vanity.

Here's a really bad photo! I am terrible at photos, but also have a genuinely awful camera, which really doesn't help.

I fill these teeny books with odd things. This one lends itself to collecting stuff, but at the same time there's lots of drawing space for things like:

Sheepies! Slightly sarcastic looking sheepies.

and;

For some reason a hairy depressed... guy. It was late, I don't know where it came from. I think initially I was drawing a hairy border.

aaaaaaand;

My favourite! Mainly because I love bears, but I have developed an odd line-obsession in the past couple of days. I plan to do more like this, but not just fur, things like horns and hair and... hands and stuff.

Random doodles

I am a lazy holiday person. I am spending 99% of my time in bed. Granted I'm also slightly poorly, so at this particular moment in time I feel it's justified.

Blogger doesn't want me to upload stuff right now, so it's coming later.

Grr.

Cragside

Foxgloves and an elusive bee, that then flew off when my damn camera flashed. even though I told it not to.

My mother's feet, in entirely inappropriate footwear for rocky walking

The Big Tree, that I haven't ever seen before even though I used to go to Cragside all  the time as a young'un

It's really a very pretty place. I hadn't been since I was about seven, up until Sunday last. I took some pictures, hoorah!