Toy collection

It's funny how a picture can look really wrong, until the final cropping is done. Bearing in mind that I will be making these artworks up into cards, I added a big extra wodge for the scans - which got cut off when the time came to frame up. When the magic circle mount was added and it made compositional sense.

'Sea Horse with Button Moon'

As I was getting near deadline, I revisited a favourite theme - 'We Three Kings' - rooster style. This is the first version from 2004 -

The second version from 2006 -





And the third version for the Green Gallery, 2008 -



Rounding off the batch of toy sculptures - Sherbettina -





- and the 'blob' who turned into Bonbon the rabbit -

Last Friday was D-Day; most of it spent scanning all artworks for my records and future usage, as well as taking a thousand photos of the animals. Before I packed the paintings up, I couldn't resist seeing how they all looked together...

Then I emptied my toy shelf -

(all except poor Minxie, who is on her own again)

- to see how it all worked as a package. And was rather pleased. After years of hard work, I finally feel as if I have created my own identity. I am a toy artist. Which is where I always wanted to be.

Yes, there are only five toys here - I was a little late with the final one, and poor Tommy was hastily needled over the weekend.

Hey! What about me???

With some relief I sent the toys off, on Monday last. And celebrated my new status of No Deadlines by getting the cottage straight - girl's got to relax somehow! And while I would love to put my feet up and do a bit of reading, I find myself back to full steam, planning new lines of needle felt bits and bobs and finally indulging in a little dream I had a loooooong time ago...

A pair of chaps

Funny how deadlines creep up on you...the next few days are going to be intense (er) . I am five toys down and on my last painting.




Mr Lavender was the first piece I made for the Green Gallery order. I think he is a retired actor, now living in genteel poverty, but who still has a way with the ladies.




Pippin was a bit of a tricky one, black is an absolute bugger to work with, if you'll pardon my language - it seems to pick up more stray (non-black) bits than white. I am not over fond of penguins myself, and Pippin has a calculating look in his beady glass eye...but I am going to make more, as I know that there are penguin lovers out there.




Although his flippers are quite cute and as they are jointed with strong waxed cotton, he can march all the way to whatever Pole penguins come from...I always forget.




I am now going to disappear for a few days and get my act together. Quick march!

Bunchy and the blob

Is it just me or does this look vaguely gynaecological in an upside down kind of way? Maybe it's just me...

Painting 'muscles' are now firmly back in action and performing at max warp. As I have a deadline for this set of work, I don't have the luxury of not being able to do it; I knew the first piece would be a struggle, but now I'm firmly on a progression of ideas, and as usual after a break, I've developed a few new themes and ideas. After the last post about Bunchy, I was able to complete her within two days - the colour laid down, and pencil work begun on the nearside ear.





Caroline mentioned Potters Pink, which I remember buying when it first came out a few years ago - in fact, I posted about it when this blog was only a few weeks old, back in 2005, when I was using it on a large painting (in my old, tiny studio, where I could barely move). I remember not being terribly impressed with it's wash abilities; it had a curious mix of chalkiness and stickiness from (presumably) too much gum arabic. Which is why I used my own pink mix for Bunchy; it had enough white in it for the dullness I was after, but a bigger proportion of normal watercolours for it to spread well.
A few hours of pencil work - (just normal H type ones; as a rule I only use coloured pencil on my commercial work, to bumpy the colour up, as is required). One more artwork down...






And another one on the way. As my washes take a while to dry naturally, I'm needle felting inbetween to save time - which seems to use different bits of the brain; sculpting and flat painting feel different inside my head when I do them and it takes about five minutes to settle back into whichever technique. But I've decided not to let my painting slip this time, so I'd better get used to it.





All four paintings are in exactly the same sized frame and circular mount - I've really pushed the limit on the composition here; when I was fitting the mount, I thought for a few horrid seconds that she was going to spill out of the aperture...but she just squeezes in nicely. Another fraction and it would have been like me trying to get into last year's trousers.

Satsuma

Scary, isn't it? A painting waiting to be filled with colour.

I am trying to remember how to paint - for paint I must. I need to produce four toy paintings for The Green Gallery Christmas show. I haven't painted like this for nearly two years. Although I spent most of the summer painting for the Book, it was a totally different kettle of fish - in fact, many of the techniques I use to get the old-fashioned, melancholic feel in my toy paintings have to be actively ditched when I am working for a publisher. It's a bit like being pulled two ways.



It takes a few days of umming and urring to finish a small piece such as this. I don't do preliminary work, just the basic sketch and then straight in. I do all the colour planning in my head, so I will put some light washes down and leave it for half a day or overnight, going through the options. Most of the time is spent thinking and mentally visualising it. And the rest is spent with hours of pencil work, smudging and layering. When I started 'Satsuma' I felt so rusty I honestly thought I was going to bodge it up. But it all came back, gradually. One down, three to go.




Thank you everyone for your comments and observations about our little 'to-do' last week. I've written to the fire station enclosing this blog address, so with any luck they will see your appreciation.