Tickled Pink!

At last, here it is in all it's glory, the knitted animation Tickled Pink:

Hope you like it - careful, it's very cheeky!

What's Next?

Well, that's Halloween over for another year...what do I do now?  Little monsters are like Santa, they only get to work once a year!

Happy Halloween!

It's been a very busy week, but I was determined to find the time to carve a decent pumpkin!  Zombie theme again this year - I just love the way it looks like a real mess until you put the candle in and switch the lights out.

Have fun today - don't eat too many sweeties!

I'm barrelling through this portrait - it's great to have the time this week, plus I am really enjoying it.  I forgot just how much I love drawing, especially dogs.  I've also discovered a new product (new to me anyway) Derwent Blending pens, which are like felt tips but when you apply them to pencil drawing, the liquid softens and mixes the marks, fantastic for a picture like this one where scrubbing away with a blending pencil is tiring work.

Yesterday we went to the first screening of the Nudinits film at Canterbury Anifest.  Took us a while to get there from Hampshire as the good old M25 was terminally congested which added an hour to our journey.  It was worth it though, and I think the film went down well. You'll be able to judge for yourselves tomorrow when it will be available to see in it's entirety - I just cannot wait!

Pencils & Pumpkins

This week I am working on a portrait of a beautiful spaniel called Beau using Derwent Drawing Pencils and it is a real pleasure.  She's a lovely looking dog, the reference photos are fantastic and I have the time to draw, so it is all going well to date.  In fact, when a drawing goes this well, I start to worry that it is not good enough because it is not causing enough problems!  I have had one minor setback in that despite knowing for a couple of weeks now that I have to draw a black dog, I didn't think to check my pencils and discovered that I only have one very short black pencil left - oops!  Organisation has never been my strong point.  However, three new pencils are on their way and I think I can eke out what I have until they arrive.

It being half term, I am trying to cram as much into the time I have at home as I can.  Monday was cleaning & drawing, yesterday was baking (and drawing!)  With Halloween fast approaching, it's time to make pumpkin pie, spooky cupcakes, and hollow out the pumpkin ready for carving.  I even made soup with the insides of the pumpkin.  Since we went to Salem for Halloween a few times, my daughter has really taken to celebrating the day, so rather than the apathetic efforts of years gone by, I feel obliged to try and make it a bit more fun for her.  Today is the day to carve the pumpkin - I'm trying to find a design that is spectacular to look at but involving as little work as possible...

While we are talking about Halloween and the time of year, would someone like to inform my strawberry plants?  These were found in the garden yesterday and very tasty they were too!

Frills & Stuff!

I've wanted to try knitting with the yarn that makes things frilly for a long time and finally bought myself some last week.  It's very clever, it comes as a kind of tape that you have to stretch as you knit through the top edge of it.  It's very pretty too - I love the colours on this one.  However, knitting with it is so DULL!  After the first couple of days of wonderment at how it turns into a frothy delight, then it gets very tedious indeed as it is a slow process.  Luckily, this is now within a whisker of being finished.

Something that is not dull is sewing small felt brussels sprouts.  I was asked to come up with the design, and once that was approved, I now have to make a bunch of them.  Yesterday afternoon was spent very enjoyably with a cup of tea, Danish pastry, Jurassic Park on the telly and quietly cutting out all the pieces I will need.  Much better than trying to make each one individually as I go along, now I am sure that they will be identical.


I also had time at the weekend to back up my work photos (which hasn't been done for a shamefully long time) and revisited some of the work I've done over the years that was stored on the hard drive.

Am I the only person who has knitted poop on their resume?

It is half term  for British schools, which means a blessed break from the day job - it's been very tough lately, working with a little chap who I am positive has 666 tattooed somewhere on his body... So a peaceful week ahead and a chance to get on with the next dog portrait, some clearing up round the house, and at the end of the week, the first screening of Nudinits. I'm getting quite excited now, especially at the prospect of seeing all our work on a big screen and finding out what people think if it!

Improvisation, Perspiration, Desperation...

What do you do when someone wants a portrait painted of their dear departed dog but the best photo they have looks like this?  Not only is the photo dark, it is also really small...and you are also asked to make the labrador's eye the right colour and give the spaniel the curly ears he has now rather than his smooth puppy ears, as well as change the background to something plain.

Well, initially you take a deep breath, gulp slightly and smile, saying it will be fine, of course I can.  Then you have a couple of days of serious self-doubt and find anything else to do rather than tackle this knotty problem!

But thanks to the internet and a wealth of photographs of chocolate labradors, as well as a couple of mediocre extra photos of the spaniel pup, you bite the bullet and give it a go and find to your surprise that it all goes rather well.

Considering the problems I had to overcome, I'm quite happy with how this has turned out - hopefully the owners will be too.  Ted & Charlie, it's been a lot of hard work but worth it.

Next up, a portrait of a black spaniel with some superb reference photos to work from!

N.B. Yesterday the lady who commissioned this came to pick it up - as soon as she saw it she burst into tears!  She was still crying an hour later apparently - I think I got it right!

Tis The Season...

...for knitting pumpkins!