MissLeonie.com

I have been keeping my eyes open in Nottingham, hoping to spot an art shop somewhere. I haven’t had any luck, though. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to buy some watercolour pencils, as well as masking fluid. I found some cheap-o watercolour pencils at a stationery shop, but decided against it because I want to move away from buying cheap rubbish. I’d rather invest in some higher quality products and save up for them.

Finally I thought I’d have a quick look at the big WHSmith in town. Lo and freaking behold - they have a whole range of Windsor & Newton Cotman paints, paper and brushes! And masking fluid. I felt a little dizzy. I managed to restrain myself, only buying a bottle of masking fluid and a packet of brushes. I was so excited I bought the wrong ones first (oils and acrylics only). I found out on the bus, so I went round again and straight back into the shop. However, the watercolour ones were twice as expensive, so I thought I’d just save it for another time. In the end, temptation won, so I went back to the till, only to find that these more expensive ones scanned for half the price they were listed for. Yay!

I’m super excited now. It doesn’t hurt that my sister is coming over tomorrow. Posting might be a little light, because we have plans to visit London, the Peak District and Sherwood Forest. But I’ll try my best to catch up afterwards.

I finally finished that painting I started on back in June. It had been sitting on my desk and I had been thinking about it, but I couldn’t bring myself to continue lest I screw it up. Watercolours are unforgiving like that. And so is perfectionism.

Anyway, I finally decided to bite the bullet and just get on with it, and it’s finished! I didn’t even really screw up. The photo on the left doesn’t really do the whole thing justice, but it will give you some idea. I might decide to deepen the shadows a little bit later and glaze the whole thing, but for now, this is it.

This is the first time I’ve drawn something big-ish and painted it. I normally only do small bits and pieces because I tend not to have the patience to slave away until I get the drawing right. It was well worth it this time though, and I’m so happy I stuck with it. I’m all excited to do more now.

I might even try oils, because the wonderful Sandi gave me her paints and brushes yesterday. She’s moving out of Nottingham, to London for one more week of internship, and then back to the States, and she couldn’t bring them with her. I’m very tempted to give it a go, but I’ll do some research first. Once an academic, always an academic!

I’m back!

I’m hoping to write a few posts about my holiday to the Lake Garda region of Italy, but I’m a little tired and still trying to work out how I’m going to go about it. I had the best time, but the trip home was tiring and I’m still finding my feet and preparing to pour all my Italian Illy coffee energy into doing a good job on my dissertation.

I had the best time in Italy. The smells (sweet omnipresent oleander), the colours (terracotta and warm yellow houses, sage-green olive trees, turqoise-blue water), the views (lakes, mountains, sometimes both), the weather (sunny and at least 35°C), the food (pizzas, sweet sun-ripened tomatoes, limoncello)… I couldn’t have had a better time. Well, that’s a lie. I could have had a slightly better time if it hadn’t been so hot, so I could have visited Venice again. But really, dunking yourself in a swimming pool and a lake with a view of the Italian landscape is a damn good alternative.

I read three books from one of our two hammocks (tied between two olive trees), slept in it during siestas, watched the blackbird families scout for worms and a drink, let two curious kids have a go, looked up at the stars from it at night, then fell asleep in it until the daytime heat abated and I could transfer myself to my bed in our caravan. It was a fairly hammock-oriented holiday.

I took a gazillion photos, some of which I took with the intention of turning them into wallpapers and putting them up on the site. The rest of them will most likely appear on Flickr once I’ve had a good look at them.

Now, wallpapers. They’ll most likely be in widescreen format, although I haven’t completely made up my mind about that yet. I have a widescreen laptop myself, and I always struggle to find nice desktop images (though InterfaceLIFT has a good selection), so perhaps I’ll be able to help a few people out with the ones I make for myself. I may change my mind and put them up in a regular size and shape as well, but for the moment, here is the first one in widescreen format. It’s a picture I took at a botanical garden while on holiday. Click the small image for the full-sized (1280×800) wallpaper.

Now for the copyright-technical drivel (you can skip this if you just plan to use the wallpaper on your own computer, full stop): (more…)

But before I go, here’s a little project I’ve been working on:

It’s an exercise in a watercolour book based on original drawings from Edith Holden called Painting with Watercolours. I couldn’t find it on Amazon anywhere, but if you google “painting with watercolours the country diary”, there are plenty of hits and you might be able to find a cheaper price. It’s a cute little box that got me started when I first tried my hand at watercolour painting. It made it less overwhelming because the set contained the book, a sketchpad, pencils, a brush and paints. Everything you needed was right there, so you might as well start. I don’t use the paints or the sketchpad anymore, but the brush that came with it is quite good, and the book is good fun. I felt like painting again after picking up An Introduction to Watercolour for just £1.99 this afternoon. I suddenly remembered I had a half-finished sketch waiting for me, so I completed the sketch and started painting.

The above little drawing is a long way from finished, but I thought I’d post it up to show that I’m still at it, albeit it infrequently. The colours are more vibrant and fresh than in this photo, by the way.

I was planning to go for a walk and take some photos today, and make a pizza from scratch, but it was raining when I got up and has more or less done that all day. My housemate bought some new knives and I happened to try one of them out on my finger. Three times. So I figured rubbing raw egg into my hands while kneading pizza dough was probably a stupid thing to do. Instead, I bought a chunky Sunday paper and tried some painting.

The butterfly is after a brimstone-like butterfly on the May page of a Marjolein Bastin calendar. Drawing from 3-D sources is beyond my current skills, and while I’m borrowing from 2-D, I thought I might as well borrow from the best.

The flower is one of the exercises in a drawing book by Felix Lorenzi. I’m not sure the English version is still in print, but I picked up a copy of the Dutch one at a bookshop a few days ago. It’s very straightforward about the shapes of - in this volume of the series - things in nature.

It’s been really helpful and inspiring so far. I say helpful because I drew this flower and thought of how to paint it myself; and inspiring because I drew a flower based very loosely on one in the book on the envelope of a letter with an unforgiving fountain pen, something I wouldn’t have dared to do before. Progress!

PS. I really wish I had a scanner so I could show these little drawings in a way that does them more justice. The grey-ish paper background hurts my eyes too, but taking photos of what I do is my only option at the moment.

Yesterday, I bought some (East) India(n)/Chinese/whatever you want to call this black waterproof ink and started experimenting with it. I’d read about it being used in addition to watercolours, and thought of a few ways in which I could use it. In addition, I stumbled across an old wooden box filled with pencils and two nib pens. This could be the synchronicity Élena (from FrenchToastGirl.com) talks about here. I’ve been linking to her website a lot lately (and may have done a little happy dance when she left me comment. Oh OK, it was a big one!), mainly because I’m in awe of her dedication and commitment to being creative.

I’m only recently playing around in the field of creativity again. I’m not sure what kept me all these years, but the closest label I can think of is a mix between perfectionism and failure anxiety. Whatever we want to call it, it’s been a real road block. It cut off the road to creativity a long time ago when I was just a child, but lately, I’ve found it creeping up on me in every aspect of my life. Enough is enough. Creativity is where the fear started, creativity is where it will start to stop.

Élena writes that she came about the concept of synchronicity when she read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Yesterday I googled the book and came across so many other useful links. It’s strange, because I started off googling Marjolein Bastin, a Dutch watercolour artist who I greatly admire, and I ended up on a website about journal keeping. I used to write in my diary religiously, every day, pages and pages long. In the summer of 2006, before I went to Australia for the first time, I stopped. It was a conscious decision to put effort into experiencing before documenting. It worked a treat because I savoured every moment of time I had there. I started this website once I got to Australia, chronicling my Aussie adventures. It was mostly short, snappy and a combination of photography, graphic design and writing - I enjoyed the process tremendously. The format automatically limited the length of the entries so that the writing did not get in the way of, well, of life.

Anyway, through researching Marjolein Bastin, I ended up on a website about journalling. The journal keeping website spoke of The Artist’s Way as well, and linked to a website, which in turn linked to a few articles about the main ideas in that book. I checked the univerisity library catalogue, and it has a copy of Julia Cameron’s book. Once I get back, I’m going to borrow it and work through its 12 week programme of getting back to being creative, or at least free to be as creative as I want to be. I’m looking forward to losing the fear and enjoying the trip.

If you ask me, the universe is trying to show me something, now that the door to creativity has been opened an inch or two. From Marjolein Bastin to journal keeping, which in itself is a significant part of The Artist’s Way, to a mention of the Cameron’s book on the journal keeping website. Finding the nib pens. Going to an art shop and finding a bottle of ink just small enough as not to induce commitment-phobia. In addition, a few days ago I suddenly remembered what I used to want to be as a kid, my heartfelt answer to the “when I grow up” clause. I wanted to write my own children’s books and illustrate them all by myself. It seems I’ve got a bit lost on the path, but it’s never too late to start making my way back.

This afternoon, I drew a tulip based on the ones on the cover of my journal. I’m quite happy with the results and currently contemplating whether I’ll add some watercolour to it or not. I drew something! From scratch! With deep black, non-erasable ink! And you know what? I smudged it a bit here and there, and it doesn’t matter a thing. I drew something, and I’m happy with it. So there!

By the way, all of this creativity business was concocted with aide from the epic, energetic tune that is Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. It is about a gazillion times better than Violet Hill, with a soundtrack quality that conjures up images of galloping horses and brave battles, and nostalgic lyrics to suit my creating moods. I like it.

I spent today working on my little summer dress. You can tell I’m taking it really seriously by how hard I’m trying not to let my tongue escape my mouth because I know my mum is taking a photo in the first picture.

It’s almost done. In fact, it’s wearable now, it just needs some small cosmetic surgery in the vain of hemming and the like. I’ve really enjoyed this little project so far. It is a way for me to challenge my (mild and self-diagnosed) form of failure anxiety. What’s that, Leonie, you think you can’t sew? Myth busted!

Turns out I even have my own sewing machine. Evidently, there is no escape. It used to be my grandmother’s, and now it belongs to my sister and me. It needs a good hug and cuddle with some oil first, though. It was literally crying out for it when I gave it a test run. Now there’s a future project.

Pictures of the finished dress tomorrow. Ish.

On Tuesday, my mum and I went to a local market that has a large section of fabric stalls. I have been eying up this bag at jcarolinecreative.com for a few months now, itching to get started on it. I’m not particularly talented in the sewing department, but I have spent my life being poked with needles during fittings and going to fabric markets to find material for future wardrobe items. I’ve sewn two things in my entire life: a dress for a Barbie doll, and a summer dress for myself. It’s not that I don’t like sewing, or that I’m hopeless at it. I just happen to have rather a short attention span.

Anyway, on Tuesday, we strolled past all the market stalls, looking for fabric for a dress for my mum, and fabric for this bag. Mum’s sewing away on the first of two dresses now, and I have some beautiful fabric. The only thing is - I kind of forgot about the canvas-y quality I needed as soon as I laid eyes on this stripy fabric. I can’t exactly turn it into the bag I want without a lot of hassle.

Mum and I went to a local fabric shop on Wednesday. It turns out I’m ahead of fashion again (hee - I love how you’re always ahead of fashion if you just do your own thing because you can’t be bothered with it). There was some canvas-like fabric last winter, but hardly any for this season. The owner of the shop has just started ordering fabric for next winter, however, and it’s canvas galore, especially for bags.

I’m going to postpone the bag-making until autumn. There will be a wider range of fabric to choose from and I’ll be in less of a hurry. I’m flying back to England on the 29th, but I’ll be home for months in autumn. Plenty of time to sew up a bag with precision. I’ve got a week left for now, which should also be plenty of time to throw a dress together.

But I should go now, I have to buy some new shoes. You know it’s time to buy new flats when it’s no longer just your mother and sister, but also your Cro-Magnon boyfriend remarking those white ballerinas you want to wear till the day you die really, really need replacing. (Liam: “I didn’t say anything.” Me: “Yes you did. Ehm…Two years ago.”) Aww shucks.

I went to a nearby city with my mum today and invested in some proper watercolour paint. I’ve been making do with three different kinds of cheap paint, and I thought that since I’m still enjoying it a year and a half after I started, I might as well invest in it a little. I bought myself a little Cotman travel set and I could not have imagined the difference it makes. The paint is awesome!

It’s also much quicker to start painting with 12 half pans of paint in a tin than with a gazillion tubes of paint, not to mention much more compact. That’s another reason I decided to go paint shopping: I keep all my paint tubes in a wooden briefcase that is rather large and bulky to carry around. With all the travelling back and forth between home and England, it just wasn’t practical.

Plus, the Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher’s Pocket Box is kind of cute. It’s only got twelve different colours, but every watercolouring book I’ve ever read says you’re best off starting with a small selection of colours to get the hang of mixing. I have just been playing around with them and sketching with paint. The difference between this paint and what I used to use is incredible. The colours layer and mix much better and dissolve again on paper - they also dry much more quickly, which is good because I’m impatient and ruin many a watercolour experiment by not waiting for washes to dry and accidentally blending different colours. But no more!

Since I have been feeling a little crafty, I decided to finally start on the scarf I bought wool for last time I was home. Weather people on all channels had predicted a snowy Easter, so I might even get some use out of it before next winter.

I started off very optimistically, knitting a very wide scarf with thick wool. I finished the first ball, and realised it was going to be a very wide but awfully short scarf, so I’m starting all over again. I’m getting so much practice I might actually improve on my knitting skills. Hey, I’m just trying to be positive here. :P