Two fun, simple patterns to accompany the busier moth garden designs of 3 March. I picture a set of cushions on a sofa in my mind and imagine how they would all look together when I do this. I played with so many different colourways for the stars and clouds design above that I couldn't decide on a favourite, so I made a new pattern shown below just with clouds, but in all the inky speckle colours I made last October!
I got a nice surprise during the week when I stumbled across a forgotten stars chequerboard pattern I had made especially for my Glorious Marrow ditty. I had forgotten it was all in repeat and ready to go, and had some fun playing around with different colourways. I was especially delighted when I discovered something else to do with the stars - making them twinkly. My love for textiles makes me think they would make a beautiful embroidery, the radiating lines suggest stitches. Wouldn't the sparkle stand out if it was sewn in gold thread? Just imagine, little stars sparkling with radiating gold catching the light.
Work in progress. Based on the original sketch in the previous entry, this is as far as I have managed to get so far. I have reinterpreted the curly tree, but there has to be room in the illustration for the text, and I have to work out how to express the festoons in the night sky which frightened the elves ... watch this space to see where it goes.
Last week I wrote about flooding the kitchen. This week it was fire. A pork loin steak I was grilling at high temperature exploded and shot a large chunk of fat onto the grill element where it burst into flames, shooting fire upwards into the air where it got fiercer and bigger. The flames then ignited the whole grill tray, and it seemed it was never going to stop, but it burnt itself out once I removed the flaming tray and no harm was done except soot up the front of the oven and a scorched towel. The pork was delicious, by the way. So, water last week, fire this week - what next? Earth and wind - a hurricane of mud, perhaps.
Aside from kitchen incompetence, I did get some work done. I embellished the Happy Days lettering to make it more fun and give it a touch of boho. I am currently working on illustrations which I can’t share yet, but here is a scene depicting an expanse of sky with little puffy rain clouds, a mysterious apparition, and daisies. The main characters and clues as to location etc have been omitted, but I thought there was something special about the way the image stands just like this. I am also developing new hand lettering for the same project, something I love doing; and I began working on a pattern of wands, stars and moons. Until next week, be safe in your kitchens, folks! - and as always, Thanks for visiting, see you next week! I took an almost total break from unpacking boxes from the house move this week and immersed myself in creating nocturnal gardens; more Binky McKee work (I really must get around to updating Binky's website!) The bottom two images read like a cartoon: (1) Trees disturbed by noisy jiggling stars, and (2) Trees organising the stars. The Binky McKee website may not be up to date but I am posting images on Instagram, link here. Thanks for visiting! See you next week. |
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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.
Click the image if you would like to find out more and visit my other website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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