It was time to clear away all the fallen leaves today in our neighbourhood annual 'leafathon', a sociable and fun tradition which dates back goodness knows how many years (we moved in as a young family in 1971). Even after 1984 when I lived outside of Scotland I would make it a date to come home and lend a hand before I moved back in 2006, and in fact B's daughter now does the same, travelling up from Englandshire to bag a few leaves when she can make the date. Eventually, B and I kept the house for our own following my parents' passing, so hardly a year has gone by when I have missed it - but this year I was unable to make it. I had some horrid bug (not covid, according to my nearly out-of-date home tests), felt ghastly, and judged it wise not to risk passing it on to some of the older residents. So I sadly stayed in the house and watched everyone having a great time from the window with a strong sense of FOMO. Ironically, the illustration above was made in 2019, just as Covid19 was sneaking into the country through the back door.
It's been a while since I drew any cute creatures, so in a brief break from pattern-making I drew this cute kitten sitting amongst flowers with a big jolly sunshine looking down on her. The kitten is a pareidolia image I saw in my bedroom curtains.
New drawing finished today: the politics of toys. All the things that go on behind the backs of humans ... ... and an illustration I have been working this week. I wrote about the development of ideas which led to this image on my Heather Eliza blog. It is a detail of an illustration in my latest book, which of course is a deadly secret for the time being, but I can say for now that these are burst tubular bells falling from heaven as a result of a biblical party. I wrote the ditty which accompanies it years ago, but it still makes me laugh out loud every time I read it! That can't be too bad, can it?
Amid the scorching heatwave we have here this week, it may seem a good idea for Kitty to take a cooling shower. It doesn't look like she is enjoying it very much. Below is how Kitty views the bathroom! ... a grim, scary place of horror, it looks like something out of a Slipknot video. And the tap isn't red for nice warm water, it's red for danger to poor Kitty.
These are spin-offs from my book of ditties I am currently illustrating, which are not in the slightest scary or heavy metal. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! These are double spread illustrations, both spin-offs adapted for my Instagram from my latest book of dreadful ditties and dodgy doggerel verses. Posted as two consecutive images which work individually, but fit together as one image when the grid falls that way. As one makes a whole image the other is broken into two; quite a nice dynamic to add extra interest.
More Voynich manuscript influenced flowers this week, experimenting with line and a softer texture in Procreate. These spiky leaves reminded me of peacock feathers, so I brought in the jewel colours. I am getting the urge to work with these new Procreate sketches in watercolour, splotchy inks and maybe collage - let's see what next week brings. And this was yesterday's Caturday post on Instagram, distracted by a butterfly and not looking where he's going in a cactus garden. I particularly enjoyed the expressive cacti with all the little dots.
Cat in a huff - I am looking after Minnie the cat this weekend, and she is often spectacularly huffy, so funny. I also worked on a composition of coloured dots which I later made into a pattern. I backdated this post because I took the day off for my birthday!
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! I had a refresh of colours, textures and subject matter this week. These flowering cactus collages (made inProcreate) had been hanging around in my workspace for a while but something wasn't gelling; however, a new approach to completely brought them to life. I wasted an awful lot of time trying unsuccessfully to get them to work (I liked the shapes and idea) until this refurbishment in new speckled textures and drawing captured exactly the right mood. When I'm not designing patterns, I don't have to worry about making everything as clear as a cartoon. Close tones and subtlety are open to me, and these two cactus pieces were my favourites of the week's work. I particularly like the Japanese woodcut look of the blue one here - it's cool, flat and graphic yet soft, with its little pattern details derived from the spikes of a cactus. These charming partying cats were created especially for Caturday on the May bank holiday weekend!
Thanks for visiting, see you soon! I liked the folksy Caturday collage so much I rejigged it, together with the Easter egg birds collage, into a square with a folksy border. I especially had throw pillows in mind, but both designs look super on the products I selected! I still get a big thrill from seeing my work on Redbubble's products.
I called this "A twist in the tail" (sorry!) - it is another Instagram post for Caturday which began as a square format but I reckoned it would make lovely art prints and cards, so here is a landscape version and how it looks as a framed print.
I was so pleased with this I went on to redesign the Easter eggs birds in a similar fashion to make a matching pair. This is currently work in progress in my spare time as I push on with the children's book, which is going extremely well and I am sure it will not be long until I can begin sharing some of the work. Feeling his inner tiger for Caturday, still inspired by those children's playground drawings; and working on colour schemes. I started with this hot spice palette because I thought it would be the hardest, and yes, it did present some problems but I thoroughly enjoyed the work. I always imagine mixing and matching duvet covers, pillows and cushions when I 'm doing this - I'd love to see it in real life. Thanks for visiting, see you soon!
Catfish for Caturday, I thought why not? In a week which has been rather slow and uneventful (spring cleaning has begun, and the Christmas decorations are still locked away in an upstairs room for repairs before heading loftwards) it was rather nice to think out of the box.
Still on the wall art theme, I made this composition of a naughty moggy on a table for the caturday hashtag on Instagram. I haven't posted a caturday for ages, it's so much fun!
A very Merry Christmas to all!
It's probably not what you had planned, being a bit of a strange one this year - Christmas in second lockdown for at least 3 weeks from midnight onwards. What will become of Hogmanay? Goodness knows what that will be like! Probably not that different for me, I always struggle to stay up until midnight, to be honest, and I haven't been into the revels of New Year since my early twenties. Perhaps this year I will manage to sneak off to bed with a hot water bottle before midnight, although knowing me I will most likely suddenly decide to stay up this year, just because I don't have to - bring on Jools Holland's Hootennany, hurrah! If you have had to change your plans and miss all the company normally associated with this time of year, I do hope you are making the best of it and finding something to rejoice in. Giant Toblerone, anyone? Here is a cheery festive animation of Cat annoying Dog having eaten too much chocolate! - yes, I did finally manage to work out how to post a GIF here. As usual I was overthinking it and it turned out to be very simple in the end. I wish everyone a very Happy 2021. Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Folktale Week 2020 has just finished, the most enjoyable week on Instagram. People are just so talented it blows me away! Different artists’ interpretations of the prompts were so unique, original and personal I felt quite daunted, if I’m honest - and proud to be involved. For the next few weeks I’ll share the illustrations I submitted here on The Weekly.
This year’s FW began, appropriately, with the prompt Birth; after much thought, I decided to make an illustration of a birth commemoration plate for a kitten. I chose a kitten because of the cat themes running through my work, and of course the name ‘Binky’ being that of all my great-grandmother’s cats. Based on by my own birthday plate (quite vintage now, ahem) I also sought inspiration from contemporary British and international ceramics, having studied ceramics in London for four years; plus, of course, I see so many beautiful examples on show whenever I visit the galleries in Edinburgh. |
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Welcome to my illustration and patterns blog.
I illustrate under the pen-name of Binky McKee, McKee being my mother's maiden name. Binky was the name of every single cat my great-grandmother kept - allegedly about 40 of them during her 94 years of life. I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the binkymckee. with weebly.com and it will work again. I hope you enjoy your visit! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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I keep lots of scrapbooks and sketchbooks where I develop ideas and design little creatures. Here's a peek inside one ...
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As you may know, I am also known as Heather Eliza Walker.
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April 2024
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This time, take a peek into my ceramic design sketchbook. I actually made some of the mugs, but I kind of prefer the drawings! The plate designs are painted on paper plates, a most liberating process.
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These watercolours are from my pattern sketchbook. I used coloured wax crayons to resist the washes of watercolour, also home-made rubber stamps dipped in bleach then printed on crêpe paper - the bleach takes out the paper dyes.
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A sketchbook I used for mark-making with unusual objects - corks, seed-heads, feathers, home-made rubber stamps, my fingers and lots of flicky things ...
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