3BT 2/1/13 Tidying, Gobbling, Just one more

•Now we're in a new house, we've decided to have a good old sort out of *stuff* and first on the list of *stuff* to sort out are all the letters and bits of paper that seem to have spread themselves across the house. By the time I finished sorting the rubbish from the useful bits, I was quite pleased to find my rubbish pile was bigger.
•I feel like I really REALLY earned my enormous lunch, after such a tough hour in the gym.
•Staying up til long past our bed time to watch *just one more* episode of lost.

Three Beautiful Things

Ok, so it's been nearly a year since I wrote my last blog post, and that's not good, but I have been pretty busy! We FINALY moved house in September, so I now have my own little art studio to work in, which is very exciting. I have also been busy with lots of arty things, which I will post pictures of soon.
Part of the reason it has taken me so long to write this post is that I just didn't quite know what to write, but this year I really want to get better at it, so I am going to have a go at doing my own three beautiful things, as well as blogging about my art. My cousin Clare started the original three beautiful things blog about 9 years ago and I always enjoy reading about things that have brightened up her day. Her blog is here.

And here are my three beautiful things for the 1st January:

New year, adventuring and bubbles.
•Spending New Year's Eve surrounded by lovely people, I was especially pleased to see Abi, who has recently had brain surgery, and had been unsure if she would be feeling up to going out for a late night party.
•Finding the path we wanted to walk down in the woods had turned into quite a deep stream, but walking down it anyway, because we're adventurers!!
•Celebrating the new year (again) with some left over Christmas fizzy wine, all to ourselves.


P.s. having said I will try to keep this blog up to date, I am going on holiday in a couple of weeks and it is very unlikely I will have any internet access!

It's been a while!

Well I know I said I was going to try to keep on top of this blogging thing and post more regularly, but it turns out, I am just useless!! I would like to use the excuse that I have been very busy, which I really have, but I'm sure I still could have made time to write something if I'd really tried.  Anyway, from now on I will try to be better :) Here are some pictures of what I've been up to anyway.

It's a bit late, but here is my Christmas card, I am hoping to make my own from now on, I always mean to, but this Christmas was the first time I actually got around to doing it! Once the cards were printed, I added different coloured sparkly inks to the snow and leaves, but I don't think that shows up particularly well on a screen.

After I learnt how to needle felt last year, I haven't had much time to actually do very much, so before Christmas I used some time I had off from work to make these as presents.

Then I made this little bear for my cousin's one year old, Alec's birthday.

Then I made this little bear for my cousin's one year old, Alec's birthday.

Now, since Christmas, I have been working really hard on my portfolio, this year I WILL start sending off pictures to publishers. 

I have realised for a while, that the way I work always takes me forever to get anything finished, which is completely impractical if I ever want to earn a living from my art. So, I have been experienting with using collage as well as painting, so that I can still do lots of tiny details in some areas, but can cover some bits much more quickly. These are my two pieces I have done in the last month.

 

 Now I know two pictures doesn't seem like a huge amount for a whole month, but it is a massive improvement for me :) and I have to say, it did take a while for me to track down and sort through all the paper and things I used! 

 Now, I must get back to work so that I have something to write about again before next Christmas!

To see more of my art, have a look here.

Hello? Is there anyone still there?

Hello, to anyone who hasn't given up on my blog!! I am still here, I have just been INCREDIBLEY busy!! I have had a couple of commissions from various family members, and have finally finished them.
The first one was a painting for my Aunt, she wanted a portrait of my cousin with her cat as a graduation present.

 
The most recent painting I have done is this for my uncle. It is his house and family, magically transported to a snowy mountainous country, but still with all their local Kentish birds. It was quite a fun project to work on, but took a very long time, and drove me slightly mad paiting each flower individually, but I think it was worth it, and everyone seemed very impressed.

I always find it hard to finish a painting like this, there is always just something else that could be added, so I was quite pleased to hear that if new members of the family appear, I will be called on to add them in :)
Hopefully it won't be quite so long til my next post, I have lots of things planned, so keep watching!!

Ink

 No, I haven't got a tattoo... yet!! But I have discovered the magicalness that is pen and ink drawing!!! I started off having a go at a botanical illustration class, and had a bit of trouble getting it to flow nicely, but after a bit of perseverance and the discovery of bristol board, I LOVE it!!! This was my first attempt, of a really crinkley, scrunchy leaf, and I am really quite pleased with it!! (Apart from all the smudges and blotches that got themselves all over the edges!!!

Then I tried this, as a monthly challenge done on deviantart. The idea was to recreate Little Red Riding Hood, I decided to go for a sequel, in which the wolf decides he is so good at catching children and Grannies, he decides to make some money out of it!! There is a recession going on after all!! (Please click on it to see all the detail.)

I have also reopened my facebook page, so please 'like' me!!! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Thompson-Art/186050654748981

Finished!!!

 Does anyone else find it really difficult to finish a piece of art? I have been working on and off on this commission since about October, and when it actually came to the deadline, I found I just wanted to add more and more detail. Luckily I have had to stop to give it time to dry before I hand it over, otherwise it might have driven me mad... more mad anyway!!! I have spent quite a few nights recently dreaming about white fluffy clouds in a rather panicky way!! But now I can get back to drawing tiny little creatures!! Woohoo!!

I have also been doing some botanical illustration classes, which my parents got me for Christmas, so far we've just been doing pencil drawings, using lines and shading, but I'm going to do some experimenting with pen and ink soon. 

Starting Again

Oh dear, this blog writing thing hasn't quite gone as well as I had hoped, but I promise it's not entirely my fault. My computer died in October and I only managed to get it back a couple of days before Christmas. But I have been very busy while it has been away, and apart from going slightly insane not having my Harry Potter audiobooks to listen to, I think I have been pretty productive. I have been working on a commissioned painting of some mountains, which has been quite interesting. It's not the kind of thing I would normally do so it has been a bit of a challenge, but I think it's going alright, I will post a picture when it's completely finished. I have also been working on finishing some pages for my 'hopefully going to be a book'. I think I've got all the really complicated pages done now, so hopefully the rest will be finished pretty quickly. The pictures I've finished so far are of a village hidden away in the jungle, where the Mahwibs, a tribe of tiny people live, at night and during the day, and then one of them having a party, with lots of music and dancing. I love drawing tiny things, so you may have to get pretty close to your computer screen to see all the details properly, for Christmas I even got a magnifying glass light thing on an arm, so my pictures will be getting smaller!! enjoy!! and please do let me know what you think of them :)

I am also very excited to say that my cousin, who has her own very lovely blog finally had a baby boy yesterday afternoon.